AS.com takes readers to the game with Web Stories

As digital partner to the daily sports newspaper Diario AS, AS.com is a popular destination for sports fans looking for the latest news, statistics and commentary. Based in Madrid, AS.com publishes local editions in Spanish and English for readers around the world.

The AS.com homepage with a carousel of Web Story preview images at the top, featuring faces of athletes.

The AS.com homepage during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics featured a Web Stories carousel, articles and videos of sporting events and star athletes.

AS.com has always set its sights on new and innovative content formats. “Our main goal is to make an impact with the reader. Our journalists at AS are experts at finding the right format for each piece of content to maximize the impact on our audience,” says Diario AS Deputy Editor Tomás de Cos. But with so many online destinations for sports fans, the pressure was on for the team to not only retain but grow their audience. They found their solution with Web Stories. 

Introducing Web Stories to the mix

The AS.com team first learned about Web Stories at the AMP Conference 2018 in Amsterdam. Later that year, they published their first Web Story, “Las Claves del Clásico contadas por AS” (“The Keys to the Clásico, explained by AS”), for the Barcelona vs. Real Madrid match — a face-off between the two biggest rivals in Spanish football. “It was a super fun and enriching experiment,” says Manuel Barrios, Deputy Director of Strategy, Digital Distribution and International Expansion at Diario AS. The team spent the next year researching how other media sites use Web Stories, while testing out different publishing tools for their own website. 

“Next, we went for a much more ambitious project — a guide to the NBA, launched at the start of the 2020 playoffs,” Manuel shares. The guide included a series of Web Stories about each of the league’s 30 teams, which were featured in a carousel on the homepage. 

A web page on AS.com with square tiles displaying various NBA logos.

During the 2020 playoffs, AS.com featured Web Stories profiling all NBA teams in a carousel format on its homepage.

Spotlighting major sporting events

Since its success with the NBA series, AS.com has used Web Stories to spotlight other major sporting events, including the 2020 UEFA European Football Championship (Euro 2020). AS.com placed the Euro 2020 Web Stories carousel at the top of the AS.com homepage to make sure visitors would see it.

“We are all too aware that the percentage of users who scroll down on news sites is very low, so our Web Stories had to be seen as soon as our homepage loaded,” Manuel explains. “The coverage from Euro 2020 was crying out for the Web Stories format, because we knew our journalists would be able to make the most of the format and create unique content.” For example, one Web Story shares a behind-the-scenes look at an AS.com journalist’s experience inside the EuroCup stadium. 

Title card from a Web Story that shows a large soccer stadium with red seats and an empty green field.

A Web Story from a journalist’s perspective as they enter the EuroCup stadium.

Engaging sports fans with Web Stories

With the help of their partner StatMuse, a Web Stories editor from BeSocy, and the Google Web Creators YouTube channel, AS.com editors have continued incorporating Web Stories into their special news features and events coverage. 

“The global audience of our Stories hit 4.4 million pageviews for the European Championships, 3.4 million for the Tokyo Olympic Games, and more than one million for our LaLiga Guide (men’s pro soccer league),” Manuel notes. “Since we launched Web Stories for the European Championships, we’ve had a marked increase in our audience consumption — with the carousel published in a number of international editions of AS.com, such as AS México and AS USA,” Manuel shares. “On average, 15 pages per story were reached, indicating significant reading depth.”

The site hopes to use Web Stories to further boost their daily sports content. “One of our ‘obsessions’ is to have Web Stories integrated organically as a standard format on our site,” Manuel says.

A page from a Web Story shows football players in red and white jerseys huddling together with arms around each other in celebration.

Spanish football sensation #14 Marcos Llorente featured in an AS.com Euro 2020 Web Story.

They’re also using Web Stories for more long-form features, like the 2021 Formula 1 racing competition kickoff. This particular feature has a separate Web Story for each team, including snippets of video interviews in the pages of the story.

A web page with a background of a Formula 1 race car and smaller square preview tiles with Formula 1 cars and team logos.

AS.com used Web Stories to cover the teams and race cars in the 2021 Formula 1 competition.

The team now hopes to take their success with Web Stories to the AS mobile app. “We loved Web Stories from the very first moment for their editorial potential, and their capacity for storytelling,” Deputy Editor Tomás says. “Web Stories let us create the dynamic content our audience is hungry for.”

Teaching with Google Arts & Culture

Since its creation in 2011, Google Arts & Culture has made a wide range of cultural stories and experiences available to everyone, thanks to our collaboration with cultural organisations around the world. From experiencing dinosaurs and iconic fashion garments in 360 to getting immersed into masterpieces guided by your favourite actor or musician, and even  projecting Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit into your home in AR, the platform offers curious minds many opportunities to learn.

Whether it's taking art selfies, playing puzzle parties with friends, or diving into richly documented resources about US Black History or Inventions and Discoveries in history, Google Arts & Culture has been a valuable learning companion to people of all ages and backgrounds.

And today, we are releasing a new Teacher Guide – a dedicated resource for educators to make learning with Arts & Culture and using the platform in class easier than ever. The guide, developed in partnership with education and instructional design experts at Google, was created to help teachers better understand how to use the platform to engage their students. It includes ready-to-use handouts and customizable activity templates, and compliments other popular experiences on Google Arts & Culture that were designed with educators in mind.


Virtual Field trips for the classroom

Illustration created by Julia Allum, 2021

Take a Virtual Field Trip, Julia Allum, 2021, Google Arts & Culture

Teachers can take their students on a virtual field trip, with hundreds of expeditions now available on Google Arts & Culture. Fly to the Moon, dive to the Great Barrier Reef, zoom Inside a Cell, visit museums, uncover scientific theories and explore distant lands. You can still explore the world from the comfort of your desk or classroom, no headset needed.

Lesson Plans for your classroom

Cover of Uncovering Egypt’s Layered History lesson plan

Created by education experts, the lesson plans can also be used as worksheets.


Ten new downloadable lesson plans have been published, such as Uncovering Egypt’s Layered History, Milestones in the Pride Movement, and The History of Computing. All Google Arts & Culture lesson plans have been written by education experts. In addition, Get Smart with Art is a new resource created by the de Young Museum and designed to enable educators, with no prior knowledge of art, to get younger students to look at art works.

Learning resources by subject area

Learn with Google Arts & Culture, London Stories by Julia Allum, 2018, London Transport Museum

Learn with Google Arts & Culture, London Stories by Julia Allum, 2018, London Transport Museum

For those looking for information on a particular topic, the Learn about Arts & Culture page gathers materials and experiences from across the platform, based on subjects including natural history, physics, geography, art and music.

Experimenting with students

Google Experiments, Art Coloring Book, Dish of Apples by Paul Cezanne, c. 1876-77, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Google Experiments, Art Coloring Book, Dish of Apples by Paul Cezanne, c. 1876-77, Metropolitan Museum of Art

If a teacher wants to excite students about a subject, one of the Google Arts & Culture Experiments might get them hooked. Get them composing like Beethoven, Bach and Mozart by creating melodieswith AI. You want them to think about their global footprint? Then the CO2 footprint of food we eat might do the trick. There are also simple, fun ways to engage with art such as the art coloring book or the collaborative puzzle party.

The Google Arts & Culture home page

The Google Arts & Culture home page changes daily

The Google Arts & Culture home page changes daily

The homepage is usually where you start your journey on Google Arts & Culture. It is refreshed daily, so if you find something useful, make it a favorite by clicking on the heart shaped icon. That way you can locate it quickly next time you visit the site and you can share it on Google Classroom, using the share link. You can also do a quick search (magnifying glass, top right hand corner); from apples to zebras, you’re bound to find something of interest.

Whatever the future of teaching holds, educators can be sure that they will find something on Google Arts & Culture to keep their (online) class occupied, no matter what, or where, they are studying.

We hope that these resources will help everyone learn for life, and encourage you to also check out some other resources Google provides – now brought together on our new Learning site– to help everyone in the world learn anything in the world.

You’re invited to the Google Smart Home Developer Summit

Posted by Toni Klopfenstein, Developer Relations Engineer

Google Smart Home Developer Summit

Today there are over 276 million smart home households globally, and the industry continues to see rapid growth every year. Users have never been more comfortable bringing home new smart home devices — but they also continue to expect more from their devices, and their smart homes. To meet and exceed these expectations, we want to make sure developers have the tools and support to build their best experience across the Google Home app, Nest, Android, and Assistant.

That’s why we’re excited to announce the return of the Google Smart Home Developer Summit on October 21, 2021! This year’s event is free to join, fully virtual and will be hosted on our website with broadcast times available for our developer communities in the AMER, EMEA, and APAC regions.

To kick things off, Michele Turner, Senior Director of Product for Google’s Smart Home Ecosystem, will share our vision for the home and preview upcoming tools and features to build your next devices and apps using Matter and Thread — technologies transforming the industry. This will be followed by a developer keynote to dig deeper into announcements, and a round of technical sessions, workshops, and more, hosted by Google's smart home leaders.

Building the best smart home platform means using trusted technology and intelligence to develop your integrations faster, provide tools to drive your innovation, and allow you new paths to growth. We can’t wait to engage with you and share more about how we can lead and grow the smart home together.

You can register for the Google Smart Home Developer Summit 2021 here, and follow along with the event using the tag #GoogleHomeSummit on social media. We hope to see you there!

How my recovery community helps keep me sober

When I joined Google as a site reliability engineer in 2018, I wasn’t a typical Noogler. I was 40 years old, seven years sober and starting my first-ever engineering job. At the time, I chose to be transparent to coworkers about my recovery from drugs and alcohol which was critical for my recovery. ThisNational Recovery Month I’m sharing my storyto convey how important finding a supportive community is to sobriety — both at work and outside of it.

I’m thankful to work for a company that supports people like me with compassion and respect. Google shares its commitment to helping all people lead better lives with itsRecover Together website, which includes a searchable map to find nearby recovery groups and support resources for people in recovery and their families. 

Image of a phone searching for recovery resources.

The Google Recover Together website includes a searchable map to find nearby recovery groups and support resources.

My journey to sobriety 

Before coming to Google, I worked as a lawyer. But my life wasn't what you’d imagine for a young attorney building his career. I had a serious alcohol and drug problem that started in high school and continued into my early 30s. 

My addiction made me unreliable to my family, friends and employers. This situation played out countless times. At work, my manager would ask me, “What’s wrong? What can I do to help?” I once caused a scene on a business trip and had to go to the hospital for stitches which left me feeling shame and despair. My employer gave me an ultimatum: get help or be let go. 

Still, I cycled in and out of rehab and resumed alcohol use multiple times. Eventually, my family had an intervention, and I entered rehab once again. I felt like such a loser being back in the same place as before, feeling like I had learned nothing. In retrospect, I know that setbacks are often a part of recovery. It’s not a moral failing to have to work at sobriety before it sticks. I went back to drinking alcohol once more before I achieved continuous sobriety.

I’ve now been sober since I was 33 years old — a little over 10 years ago.  For me, finding a community to support my recovery — from my recovery community and its regular meetings to family and friends and my coworkers at Google — made all the difference.  


Recovering together: Getting sober for good

There’s a safety and an openness at Google that makes it easy for me to get help without feeling bad about it. When I’m around coworkers who are drinking, I’ll let them know why I don’t. After I assuage my coworkers’ concerns about whether their drinking in front of me might upset me (it doesn’t), they’re always quick to offer a non-alcoholic beverage. I remember when my team at Google had an offsite where drinks were served, a teammate quickly pointed my wife and me to the plentiful selection of non-alcoholic drinks.

Image of a man in a grey hoodie standing in front of a building lit up with a purple light.

Nick Arduini in front of Charlies cafe on Google's Mountain View campus, lit purple in support of international recovery day.

That’s not to say things were always easy. Early on, I suffered from imposter syndrome. Unlike other jobs where I felt I couldn’t tell my manager what was going on, at Google I was able to get the support I needed to function effectively at my job and, more importantly, to be happy as a person. A coworker recommended our Employee Assistance Program (EAP) that gave me access to therapy to help manage imposter syndrome. Recently, I was feeling burned out from working from home during the pandemic, and went through another round of therapy through EAP to better manage work-life balance. Through it all, my colleagues have been nothing but supportive. I feel like I landed on the best team in the best company. 

I’m not alone in my need for a community to maintain my sobriety. The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted those struggling with addiction. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported a 12-month record high of more than 93,000 drug overdose deaths. People with substance use disorders feel more isolated and desperate, and mental health services are strained to meet the demand. In fact in 2020, when Covid-19 restrictions impacted in-person support groups, searches for virtual connections were trending with queries like Alcoholics anonymous (AA) virtual meetings and Narcotics Anonymous (NA) meetings on zoom. 

Knowing you’re not alone can help make recovery feel possible. For the more than 23 million Americans living in recovery, I hope they can all find the communities they need to feel supported.


In support of National Recovery Month, Google and YouTube are providing financial and technical  support for Recover Out Loud, a livestream event taking place in Las Vegas on September 30. The event features artists and performers who are  in recovery, and it’s part of a nationwide recovery initiative supported by iHeart Media and Variety and produced by Mobilize Recovery. 


Inviting students to participate in Code to Learn 2021

This past year-and-a-half, the pandemic has revamped the face of the education system in our country. Teacher-student interaction, pedagogy, examinations, assessments and extra curricular activities have seen many changes since March 2020. While opportunities have been lost, many new ones have also been created.


Today we are launching the eighth edition of the Code to Learn competition as an opportunity to immerse students in creative and computational thinking, along with building their skills in programming.


Students from Class 5 to 12 from any school in India are invited to register through their parents or teachers to show their coding genius using exciting tools like Scratch, App Inventor and Google AutoML. They can build games, animations, Android apps and their own machine learning applications; without writing even a single line of code!


The National Education Policy 2020 has also recommended introducing coding and computational thinking at a young age to allow early exposure to technology and create new pathways for our students. The Code to Learn competition provides an interactive platform for students to learn the basics of coding and build a stronger foundation in Computer Science. In a fun and engaging way,  we aim to inspire students to use technology to solve problems around them.




The competition registrations are now open and parents, teachers or legal guardians can register on behalf of the student on the competition website (g.co/codetolearn). Students from across India can submit their projects until 25 October 2021. We also have online resources available on our website to learn Scratch, AppInventor and Google Cloud AutoML to get started.


The contest calls for projects on Scratch or App Inventor from students of classes 5-10, and projects on Google Cloud AutoML from students of classes 9-12. We have a special AI track for class 9-12 students where they can use Google’s existing Machine Learning models to create projects with a problem statement and a data set of their choice. Students define a problem and select any open dataset or create their own (images or text) and train a pre-trained machine learning model to create their own Machine Learning application using Google Cloud AutoML.


The Code to Learn competition in 2020 witnessed an overwhelming participation of students from across the country with innovative and exciting projects. We saw interesting entries of numerous games to fight against the coronavirus, social evils, zombies and applications to promote mental health and track fitness. In the Artificial Intelligence theme, we received excellent projects where students sought to detect the right way of wearing a mask, promote tiger conservation and decode sign languages, among various other such projects.


Code to Learn is co-organized by Google Cloud, ACM India, CS Pathshala and Indian Institute of Science (IISc). ACM is the worldwide society for scientific and educational computing with an aim to advance Computer Science both as a science (through CS Pathshala) and as a profession. IISc is a renowned research-oriented university based in Bangalore, pioneering fundamental and applied research in science and engineering.


We are very excited about this year's competition, and are looking forward to seeing the innovation and creativity that students will present to us via their projects! For more details, visit our website: g.co/codetolearn.


Posted by Divy Thakkar, Research and Education Program Manager, and Ashwani Sharma, Senior Program Manager

Inviting students to participate in Code to Learn 2021

This past year-and-a-half, the pandemic has revamped the face of the education system in our country. Teacher-student interaction, pedagogy, examinations, assessments and extra curricular activities have seen many changes since March 2020. While opportunities have been lost, many new ones have also been created.


Today we are launching the eighth edition of the Code to Learn competition as an opportunity to immerse students in creative and computational thinking, along with building their skills in programming.


Students from Class 5 to 12 from any school in India are invited to register through their parents or teachers to show their coding genius using exciting tools like Scratch, App Inventor and Google AutoML. They can build games, animations, Android apps and their own machine learning applications; without writing even a single line of code!


The National Education Policy 2020 has also recommended introducing coding and computational thinking at a young age to allow early exposure to technology and create new pathways for our students. The Code to Learn competition provides an interactive platform for students to learn the basics of coding and build a stronger foundation in Computer Science. In a fun and engaging way,  we aim to inspire students to use technology to solve problems around them.




The competition registrations are now open and parents, teachers or legal guardians can register on behalf of the student on the competition website (g.co/codetolearn). Students from across India can submit their projects until 25 October 2021. We also have online resources available on our website to learn Scratch, AppInventor and Google Cloud AutoML to get started.


The contest calls for projects on Scratch or App Inventor from students of classes 5-10, and projects on Google Cloud AutoML from students of classes 9-12. We have a special AI track for class 9-12 students where they can use Google’s existing Machine Learning models to create projects with a problem statement and a data set of their choice. Students define a problem and select any open dataset or create their own (images or text) and train a pre-trained machine learning model to create their own Machine Learning application using Google Cloud AutoML.


The Code to Learn competition in 2020 witnessed an overwhelming participation of students from across the country with innovative and exciting projects. We saw interesting entries of numerous games to fight against the coronavirus, social evils, zombies and applications to promote mental health and track fitness. In the Artificial Intelligence theme, we received excellent projects where students sought to detect the right way of wearing a mask, promote tiger conservation and decode sign languages, among various other such projects.


Code to Learn is co-organized by Google Cloud, ACM India, CS Pathshala and Indian Institute of Science (IISc). ACM is the worldwide society for scientific and educational computing with an aim to advance Computer Science both as a science (through CS Pathshala) and as a profession. IISc is a renowned research-oriented university based in Bangalore, pioneering fundamental and applied research in science and engineering.


We are very excited about this year's competition, and are looking forward to seeing the innovation and creativity that students will present to us via their projects! For more details, visit our website: g.co/codetolearn.


Posted by Divy Thakkar, Research and Education Program Manager, and Ashwani Sharma, Senior Program Manager

Honouring Indigenous Survivors, Families and Communities for the First Annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Editor's Note: This blog was guest written by Stephanie Scott, Executive Director of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR), and Monika Ille, Chief Executive Officer of APTN. 

On the first-ever National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (NDT&R), we invite all Canadians to honour residential school survivors and reflect on the lasting impact of the residential school system on Indigenous Peoples. Since 2013, September 30 has been known as Orange Shirt Day, in recognition of the harm and tragedies of the residential school system. In June 2021, the federal government passed legislation to mark September 30 as NDT&R. Read on to learn about NDT&R’s origins, how you can observe the day, and what special programming APTN and the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) will be sharing during the inaugural holiday. 

What is Orange Shirt Day? 
Since 2013, September 30 has been recognized as Orange Shirt Day. This annual movement opens the door to a global conversation about residential schools in Canada. 

Phyllis Webstad recounted her first day attending St. Joseph Mission Residential School at six years old. Webstad described how all of her clothes were taken from her upon arrival, including the orange shirt her grandmother had recently gifted her. Today, the orange shirt represents the Indigenous identities stolen from the children forced into residential schools. In light of the recovery of more than 1,300 unmarked graves on the grounds of former residential schools just this year, it is a day to reflect on the tragic legacy these schools have left behind. 

What is NDT&R? 
September 30 marks the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. As part of the Canadian government’s commitment to reconciliation, legislation was passed to make NDT&R a federal holiday. This is not just any holiday, but a day for doing the work of reconciliation and honouring Indigenous Peoples. NDT&R responds to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) Call to Action 80. The TRC’s Calls to Action are not political. Rather, they were developed so that all Canadians can walk together on a shared path towards reconciliation. 

As a federal holiday, NDT&R applies to federal public sector employees, federally-regulated private sector workplaces and most federal crown corporations. British Columbia, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon and the Northwest Territories have also recognized September 30 as a statutory holiday. 

NDT&R is also part of Truth and Reconciliation Week, a week of educational programming hosted by the NCTR. The NCTR derives its mandate from the TRC's Calls to Action and is a place for dialogue and learning, where the truths of residential school survivors are kept for future generations. The NCTR’s mandate is to build a foundation for reconciliation through public education about the residential school system and Canada’s long legacy of colonialism and violence. 

How Can I Observe NDT&R? 
There are many ways to participate in this day of remembrance and reconciliation. Allies are encouraged to wear an orange shirt in solidarity with Indigenous communities, but that alone is not enough. 

Here are some other meaningful actions you can take today and going forward: 
NDT&R is a day for action, remembrance, reflection and learning about the colonial history of the lands we live on. We all have a role to play in reconciliation.

Please take a moment to honour the survivors and communities who have so courageously shared their stories. Observe a minute of silence, put out a small pair of shoes or light a candle for the children who never made it home. What matters is that you do it with intention.

Honouring Indigenous Survivors, Families and Communities for the First Annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Editor's Note: This blog was guest written by Stephanie Scott, Executive Director of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR), and Monika Ille, Chief Executive Officer of APTN. 

On the first-ever National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (NDT&R), we invite all Canadians to honour residential school survivors and reflect on the lasting impact of the residential school system on Indigenous Peoples. Since 2013, September 30 has been known as Orange Shirt Day, in recognition of the harm and tragedies of the residential school system. In June 2021, the federal government passed legislation to mark September 30 as NDT&R. Read on to learn about NDT&R’s origins, how you can observe the day, and what special programming APTN and the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) will be sharing during the inaugural holiday. 

What is Orange Shirt Day? 
Since 2013, September 30 has been recognized as Orange Shirt Day. This annual movement opens the door to a global conversation about residential schools in Canada. 

Phyllis Webstad recounted her first day attending St. Joseph Mission Residential School at six years old. Webstad described how all of her clothes were taken from her upon arrival, including the orange shirt her grandmother had recently gifted her. Today, the orange shirt represents the Indigenous identities stolen from the children forced into residential schools. In light of the recovery of more than 1,300 unmarked graves on the grounds of former residential schools just this year, it is a day to reflect on the tragic legacy these schools have left behind. 

What is NDT&R? 
September 30 marks the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. As part of the Canadian government’s commitment to reconciliation, legislation was passed to make NDT&R a federal holiday. This is not just any holiday, but a day for doing the work of reconciliation and honouring Indigenous Peoples. NDT&R responds to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) Call to Action 80. The TRC’s Calls to Action are not political. Rather, they were developed so that all Canadians can walk together on a shared path towards reconciliation. 

As a federal holiday, NDT&R applies to federal public sector employees, federally-regulated private sector workplaces and most federal crown corporations. British Columbia, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon and the Northwest Territories have also recognized September 30 as a statutory holiday. 

NDT&R is also part of Truth and Reconciliation Week, a week of educational programming hosted by the NCTR. The NCTR derives its mandate from the TRC's Calls to Action and is a place for dialogue and learning, where the truths of residential school survivors are kept for future generations. The NCTR’s mandate is to build a foundation for reconciliation through public education about the residential school system and Canada’s long legacy of colonialism and violence. 

How Can I Observe NDT&R? 
There are many ways to participate in this day of remembrance and reconciliation. Allies are encouraged to wear an orange shirt in solidarity with Indigenous communities, but that alone is not enough. 

Here are some other meaningful actions you can take today and going forward: 
NDT&R is a day for action, remembrance, reflection and learning about the colonial history of the lands we live on. We all have a role to play in reconciliation.

Please take a moment to honour the survivors and communities who have so courageously shared their stories. Observe a minute of silence, put out a small pair of shoes or light a candle for the children who never made it home. What matters is that you do it with intention.

A Sales Googler’s passion for building communities

Welcome to the latest edition of “My Path to Google,” where we talk to Googlers, interns and alumni about how they got to Google, what their roles are like and even some tips on how to prepare for interviews.

Today’s story is all about Saad Hamid, who’s based in Singapore. Saad shares his journey of starting the first Google Developer Group in his hometown of Islamabad, joining Google’s Developer Relations team, and landing his current role on our App Developer Sales team.

What’s your role at Google?

I’m a Growth Manager for the AppDev Sales team. I help app developers and startups grow their businesses by uncovering potential opportunities in local and international markets. I get to watch them open new offices, hire diverse teams and build global partnerships. It’s also rewarding to know that my work supports entrepreneurs in my home country of Pakistan. 

What’s your typical workday like?

Right now, like many Googlers in Singapore, I’m working from home. My typical workday is filled with internal and external meetings. My external meetings range from helping clients adopt developer tools like Firebase, to sharing growth opportunities in new markets. I get a lot of energy from talking to people, so I love meeting with my teammates and clients. 

And like many other parents working from home, sometimes my two-year-old daughter makes an appearance!

Selfie of Saad in front of a building with a Google logo on it.

Saad visiting Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California.

Tell us about yourself?

I grew up in Islamabad, Pakistan and originally studied electrical engineering. I was obsessed with the internet in its early days, which inspired me to experiment with online businesses and led me to my role at Google. My hobbies include making a lot of bad dad jokes and coming up with unconventional  dishes, like biryani with strawberries — I call it the Strawbiryani!

Are there any key themes in your path to your current job at Google?

My passion for community building has helped me meet a lot of great people, and led me to where I am today. Before joining Google, I ran a startup. And before that, I was part of a local startup accelerator that supported the Pakistan tech ecosystem. 

Back in 2012, I started a Google Developer Group (GDG) chapter in my city — one of Google’s volunteer community programs to train developers in the latest technologies. As a GDG manager, I ran community events, workshops and hackathons for developers in Islamabad. Eventually, I became Pakistan's first Google Developer Expert (GDE), sharing insights and expertise about Google products with the local developer community. 

Google’s size, scale and impact always attracted me, and ultimately inspired me to apply. I first joined as a Community Manager on the Developer Relations team, where I was responsible for managing several Google Developers Programs — including Google Developer Groups, Google Developers Experts, Developer Student Clubs, and Women Techmakers.

Saad wearing a black shirt with a multicolored globe image on it. Behind him is a white building, trees, and people walking around.

Saad attending Google I/O in 2019.

Tell us about the resources you used to prepare for the interviews?

The best place to start is a blank Google Doc. Imagine all of the challenges you faced in your past roles, and document everything you did to get past them. Reflecting on your work is a great way to prepare for Google interviews. It was also helpful to watch YouTube videos of candidates speaking about the Google interview process. 

What advice would you go back and give yourself?

I would definitely tell myself to relax more. I was so nervous during the process that I could literally feel it in my gut. But by the end, thanks to the support from my interviewers, I felt very calm and relaxed.

Do you have any tips for aspiring Googlers?

Don't be your own roadblock. There is nothing in the world that you can't do or achieve. As long as you don't stop yourself from taking a leap and striving for your goals, you will do just fine.

Chrome Beta for Android Update

Hi everyone! We've just released Chrome Beta 95 (95.0.4638.32) for Android: it's now available on Google Play.

You can see a partial list of the changes in the Git log. For details on new features, check out the Chromium blog, and for details on web platform updates, check here.

If you find a new issue, please let us know by filing a bug.

Ben Mason
Google Chrome