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The High Five: drive-thru and carry on

Lyft meets late night tacos, pop stars meet politicians and travelers will meet a new TSA rule. Meet five of this week's top searched trends, with data compiled by the Google News Lab.

Five stars for tacos

This is how it’s done in Orange County. Testing out Lyft’s new Taco Mode, people can make a late night pitstop at a Taco Bell drive-thru between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m. Based on search data, they’re most likely to pick up a Chalupa, quesadilla, Crunchwrap, nachos or burrito. And despite the launch and Taco Bell’s (in)famous “Fourth Meal,” this week most people are searching for tacos at 3 p.m.

The tablet’s out of the bag

TSA announced Wednesday that carry-on electronics larger than a cellphone will be screened separately at U.S. airports. Perhaps hoping to avoid the extra security measure, people are searching more for TSA precheck, and searches for TSA electronics increased by 1,800 percent this week. Top searched questions about “TSA screening” include “Who approves TSA screening equipment?” “What is TSA pre-screening?” and “When do the new TSA computer electronics screening rules go into effect?”

Gamechanger

A recent study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association found chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in 99 percent of former NFL players’ brains that had been donated for medical research. Search interest in “CTE” spiked 2,500 percent this week, with queries like “How to test for CTE,” “How common is CTE?” and “What are the symptoms of CTE?” Search interest in CTE Symptoms even surpassed cold symptoms.

The People’s Princess

Search interest in Princess Diana went up 300 percent after a new HBO documentary, in which Princes Harry and William open up about their mother, was released this week. “Diana, Our Mother” was searched 230 percent more than Netflix’s “The Crown,” and top searched questions in Princess Diana’s home country, the U.K., were: “Where did Princess Diana’s car crash?” “Who did Diana leave her jewelry to in her will?” and “How old was Diana when she had William?”

Work, work, work, work, work

This week pop star Rihanna met with French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss global education. People were curious about the substance of the meeting, among other things—searching “What happened when Rihanna met Emmanuel Macron?” and “What is Rihanna wearing to meet Emmanuel Macron?” And you too, Bono? Earlier in the week, Bono met with Macron to discuss poverty, but search interest in Rihanna’s meeting was 900 percent higher than Bono’s.

Source: Search

Making the internet work better for everyone in Africa

By 2034 Africa is expected to have the world’s largest working-age population of 1.1 billion—yet only 3 to 4 million jobs are created annually. That means there’s an urgent need to create opportunities for the millions of people on the continent who are creative, smart and driven to succeed. The internet, and technology as a whole, offer great opportunities for creating jobs, growing businesses and boosting economies. But people need the right skills, tools and products to navigate the digital world and to make it work for them, their businesses and their communities.

Google for Nigeria - Sundar — Sundar Pichai, Google CEO, is interviewed by Nigerian journalist Adesuwa Onyenokwe at our Google for Nigeria event in Lagos.

Today, at our Google for Nigeria event in Lagos, we announced progress we’ve made in our products and features for users in Nigeria, including YouTube, Search and Maps. We also announced initiatives focused on digital skills training, education and economic opportunity, and support for African startups and developers.

Digital Skills for Africa

Last year we set out to help bridge the digital skills gap in Africa when we pledged to train one million young people in the region—and we’ve exceeded this target. Through either in-person or online trainings, we help people learn to build a web presence, use Search to find jobs, get tips to enhance their CV, use social media, and so on. Now we’re expanding this program, and committing to prepare another 10 million people for jobs of the future in the next five years. We’ll also be providing mobile developer training to 100,000 Africans to develop world-class apps, with an initial focus on Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa.

Google.org grants

Our charitable arm, Google.org, is committing $20 million over the next five years to nonprofits that are working to improve lives across Africa. We’re giving $2.5 million in initial grants to the nonprofit arms of African startups Gidi Mobile and Siyavula to provide free access to learning for 400,000 low-income students in South Africa and Nigeria. The grantees will also develop new digital learning materials that will be free for anyone to use.

We also want to invite nonprofits from across the continent to share their ideas for how they could impact their community and beyond. So we’re launching a Google.org Impact Challenge in Africa in 2018 to award $5 million in grants. Any eligible nonprofit in Africa can apply, and anyone will be able to help select the best ideas by voting online.

Launchpad Accelerator Africa

We want to do more to support African entrepreneurs in building successful technology companies and products. Based on our global Launchpad Accelerator program, this initiative will provide more than $3 million in equity-free funding, mentorship, working space and access to expert advisers to more than 60 African startups over three years. Intensive three-month programs, held twice per year, will run out of a new Google Launchpad Space in Lagos—the program’s first location outside of the United States.

Making our products work better in Africa

For people to take advantage of digital opportunities, acquiring the right skills and tools is only part of the equation. Online products and services—including ours—also need to work better in Africa. Today, we’re sharing news about how we’re making YouTube, Search and Maps more useful and relevant for Nigerian users.

YouTube Go

Designed from the ground up, YouTube Go lets you discover, save and share videos you love in a way that’s transparent about the size of downloads. Designed to be “offline” first, the app improves the experience of watching videos on a slower network and gives control over the amount of data used streaming or saving videos. It’s a full YouTube experience, with fresh and relevant video recommendations tailored to your preferences and the ability to share videos quickly and easily with friends nearby. In June, Nigeria became the second country where we started actively testing YouTube Go. Later this year, we’ll be expanding this to a beta launch of the app, available to all Nigerian users.

Lagos now on Street View in Google Maps

In the last few months, we’ve improved our address search experience in Lagos, by adding thousands of new addresses and streets, outlines of more than a million buildings in commercial and residential areas, and more than 100,000 additional Nigerian small businesses on Google Maps. Today we’re launching Lagos on Street View, with 10,000 kilometers of imagery, including the most important historic roads in the city. You can virtually drive along the Carter Bridge to the National Stadium or across the Eko Bridge, down to the Marina—all on your smartphone.

Faster web results

When you’re on a 2G-like connection or using a low storage device, pages can take a long time to load. We previously launched a feature that streamlines search results so they load with less data and at high speed. Today we’re extending that feature to streamline websites you reach from search results, so that they load with 90 percent less data and five times faster, even on low storage devices.

More local information in Search

We’ve also made several updates to Search to bring more useful, relevant answers and information to people in Nigeria:

Knowledge Panels: We’re connecting people with easy access to the answers to things they care about, displaying knowledge cards for everything from local football teams to Nigerian musicians and actors.
Health Cards: Later this year we’ll launch more than 800 knowledge cards detailing common symptoms and treatments for the most prevalent health conditions in Nigeria. We’ve partnered with the University of Ibadan to ensure that answers have been reviewed by Nigerian doctors for local relevance and accuracy. Nigeria is one of the first countries where we’re providing locally tailored health answers on Search.
Posts on Google: Posts makes it possible for musicians, entertainers and other public figures to share updates, images and videos directly on Google, for people to see while they explore on the web. Nigeria is the third country where we’ve made this feature available and some of the country’s popular musicians are already using it.

The things we’re announcing today are what drive us—building platforms and products that are relevant and useful for billions, not just the few, and helping people to succeed in the digital economy. That’s why we hope to equip more people, in Africa and elsewhere, with digital skills and tools. We’re excited to be part of Africa’s evolving digital story.

Source: Search

Celebrate El Clasico on Google Search

With more than 400 million viewers worldwide, El Clasico is one of fútbol’s (or soccer here in the U.S.!) storied matches. The head-to-head challenges between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona are often remembered for the glittering performances of their protagonists on the pitch—of Cruyff, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo and Zidane. This week, Real and Barça meet again in Miami at the Hard Rock Stadium for a pre-season friendly, as the world watches. To honor the moment these two teams will meet outside Spanish borders for the first time in more than thirty years, we’ve added some special features to Google Search.

Now globally on the Google app for Android and iOS and the mobile web, when you search for “El Clasico” or “Real Madrid vs FC Barcelona” (or a similar query), you’ll see detailed information about the game, real-time content posted by the clubs, special videos created by the teams—and you’ll even get to vote for your all-time favorite goal from El Clasico past.

This feature will be available today through the game on Sunday, so be sure to check back for updates. And of course, be sure to tune in for kick-off on Sunday!

Source: Search

Helping people in a crisis

In times of crisis, access to timely, actionable information is crucial. Working alongside trained responders and volunteers on the ground, technology plays a vital role in providing information to help keep you and loved ones safe and informed. SOS alerts is a new set of features in Google Search and Maps to help you quickly understand what’s going on and decide what to do during a crisis.

How SOS Alerts Work

During a crisis, you may see an SOS Alert at the top of search results when searching for the incident or location. You’ll see maps, top stories and—when available—authoritative local information such as emergency phone numbers, websites, and translations of useful phrases. Depending on how close you are to the affected area, you may also get a notification on your mobile device that directs you to this information.

If you’re outside of the affected area, you may still want information about the crisis. Searches for relevant terms (like the name of the event or the location) will also show an SOS Alert that provides a timely overview of the situation, in addition to features such as donation opportunities.

Google Maps on mobile can also show SOS Alerts. In Maps, you’ll see a specific icon on the map and a tappable card with more information about the crisis, such as helpful phone numbers and websites. The map will also include real-time updates, like road closures and traffic and transit updates.

As we’ve developed our crisis response products, we’ve worked closely with organizations and government agencies that are on the front lines of relief efforts, including the Red Cross, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration and many others. "Radio and television were once the only channels to quickly provide information in an emergency, but the internet and mobile phones have become increasingly important,” said Robert Glenn, Director at FEMA.

In addition to SOS Alerts and other crisis response features—including Google Person Finder, Google Crisis Map and Google Public Alerts—our philanthropic arm Google.org provides grants and volunteers for communities impacted by crises. We hope you never need to use crisis response features, but if you do, they’re designed to help keep you, and those you love, safe and informed.

Source: Search

The High Five: The Seven Kingdoms at war and Floridians band together

This week, we’re eagerly awaiting the return of “Game of Thrones,” where some alliances come together like Floridians at the beach and others break off like the Larsen C ice shelf. Here are five of this week’s top searches, with data from Google News Lab.

My search has just begun

The Great War is here, and ahead of the “Game of Thrones” season seven premiere, fans are getting ready for the episodes to come (some context: for the weeks leading up to their final seasons, “Game of Thrones” was searched 300% more than “Breaking Bad,” and 1000% more than “Mad Men”). GoT’s most searched creatures are “dragons,” “direwolves” and “three-eyed raven,” and Jon Snow was the most searched character, followed by Daenerys Targaryen, Mother of Dragons. And of last night, the internet is fired up about another queen, Mother of Twins.

In queso you hadn’t heard…

Chipotle introduced a new cheese dip this week, making “queso” a more popular search term than other dips, like hummus and guacamole. Cheese lovers turned to Google to scoop up answers to their questions, including “Is Chipotle queso gluten free?” and “Is Chipotle queso good?” For those who prefer homemade queso, the top searched queso recipes this week were white queso, queso fundido, queso fresco and chili con queso.

Humanity at its finest

In Panama City, 80 Florida beachgoers banded together to save a drowning family in a rip current, leading people to search for “human chain Panama city beach.” Search interest in rip currents currents swells every July with related questions like, “what to do in a riptide” and “how to spot a riptide.”

Chilling news

This week a trillion ton iceberg separated from the Larsen C Ice shelf in Antarctica, forming one of the largest icebergs ever recorded. Top searched questions include, “Where will Larsen C go?” and “What will happen when Larsen C raises sea levels?” This great frozen schism caused search interest in “climate change” to spike by 195 percent, reaching its highest point this month.

Let’s take a selfie

… said a monkey. And now a federal appeals court in California is expected to rule whether that monkey can sue over the rights to its selfie. It’s bananas! Even with all the hype about the selfie-taking monkey this week, “dog selfie” was still a more popular search term than “monkey selfie.”

Source: Search

Keep up with the Tour—or create your own—with Search and Maps

The 104th edition of cycling’s most famous Grand Tour is well underway, with nearly 200 riders from around the world racing through 3,540 kilometers of the French countryside for the coveted yellow jersey. We’ve made a few tune-ups to Google Search to help you keep up with every stage of the Tour. And if the grueling mountain climbs inspire rather than intimidate you, hit the road on your own two wheels with Google Maps biking directions as your guide.

Now globally on the Google app for Android and iOS and the mobile web, when you search for Tour de France (or a similar query) on Google, you’ll see detailed information about the race and athletes as well as see the latest news stories. Most notably, you’ll also see the current standings of the race, which show jersey holders along with stage-by-stage results. As an added bonus, you’ll also have access to real-time update posts from the Tour de France directly in the search results.

Not everyone has the chance to make that triumphant roll down the Champs Elysées to the Arc de Triomphe. Lucky for us mere mortals, Google Maps makes it easy to find the best bike routes to let our inner cyclist shine—or just get from point A to point B.

To get bike directions on Google Maps, just enter your destination and tap on the bike icon. We give route suggestions based on the availability of dedicated bike trails in the area, and when possible we prioritize those routes. In case you’re not aiming to be “King of the Mountain,” we factor in variables like hills as well as size of the road, availability of bike lanes, and number of turns.

If you’re feeling adventurous and want to map out your own path, the bike layer will show color-coded routes according to their suitability for biking: dark green indicates a dedicated bike-only or multi-use trail; lighter green indicates a dedicated bike lane along a road; and a dotted green line indicates roads that don’t have bike lanes but tend to be more suitable for biking. To turn on the bike layer, tap the button above the compass icon and then tap the bike icon (on iOS) or open the main menu and then tap the bike icon (on Android).

Now grab your helmet, pump up your tires, and hit those hills!

Source: Search

The High Five: an old photo and a new world record

Search trends this week—with data from Google News Lab—made us re-think history, re-evaluate what it means to be “full” and reconsider what to eat for dessert today.

Could it be?

Eighty years after her mysterious disappearance, legendary aviator Amelia Earhart is back in the news. A recently discovered photograph suggests that she may have survived the crash in which she was thought to have died. Searches for the History Channel spiked 200 percent after the network’s documentary revealed the photograph, and the most common search queries included, “When did Amelia Earhart die?” “What happened to Amelia Earhart?” and “When did Amelia Earhart disappear?”

Frank-ly impressive

Search interest for hot dogs heats up every July, but this year it peaked after Nathan’s annual Hot Dog Eating contest. Joey Chestnut relished in his record-setting victory of 72 hot dogs and buns consumed in 10 minutes. Will competitors ever ketchup? Top search queries about this hot-dog eating feat include “How much money did Joey Chestnut win?” ($10,000) “How many calories did Joey Chestnut eat?” (approximately 11,520) and “How does Joey Chestnut eat so many hot dogs?” (We’re stumped on that one.)

Getting the (arti)facts

Turns out “tile samples” that traveled from Israel and the United Arab Emirates to Hobby Lobby-owned stores in the U.S. are not actually tile samples. They’re ancient clay cuneiform tablets that had been smuggled into the United States from Iraq, and now Hobby Lobby has agreed to forfeit the artifacts. After the incident, queries for Hobby Lobby artifacts spiked 19x higher than Hobby Lobby coupons, and people also searched for “Hobby Lobby smuggling,” “Hobby Lobby cuneiform” and “Hobby Lobby fined.”

Swinging rackets and swatting ants

People were buggin’ out at Wimbledon this week when hundreds of amorous flying ants swarmed the courts. Love was in the air for the male ants, who swarmed and followed the queen ant as she set off to create a new nest. People in the U.K. were searching the most about the flying ants, but worldwide, search interest spiked 400 percent higher than search interest in termites. People are curious about, “How to get rid of flying ants?” “How to treat flying ant bites?” and “When do flying ants mate?”

Would you like some coffee with dessert?

We’ve been dunking our Oreos in milk for years, and now Dunkin’ Donuts and Oreo have come together to create a new snack—classic chocolate Oreo cookies on the outside, with mocha-flavored creme on the inside. Sweet tooths and caffeine-fiends are searching for “Dunkin Donuts Oreo review” and “Dunkin Donuts Oreo near me,” and they may be more interested in sweet snacks than sweet drinks. Search interest in Oreo Mocha was over 300 percent higher than Mocha Frap.

Source: Search

The High Five: wave your wand and your flag

Accio, trends! Translation for non-Harry Potter fans: we’ve summoned five of the top search trends this week, with data compiled by the Google News Lab team.

20 years of magic

June 26th marked the 20th anniversary of the Harry Potter series—shall we celebrate with some butterbeers? At Hogwarts, Harry and friends got their answers from the Sorting Hat, but fans are turning to Google to learn more about the four Hogwarts houses. This week search interest in Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Slytherin and Ravenclaw was at its highest in the past five months, with interest in Hufflepuff slightly above the others. Did someone say Wingardium Leviosa? Because search interest in Kings Cross Station (where Platform 9 and ¾ was filmed) reached new heights this week.

McEnroe gets served

Serena Williams was in the news this week after John McEnroe claimed that Williams is the best female tennis player, but she’d be ranked 700th on a list of men. His comment prompted people to search, “How fast does Serena Williams serve?” and “What would Serena Williams be ranked in men’s tennis?” Despite McEnroe’s contentious comments, search interest in Williams was still 258 percent higher than him this week.

Oh, say can you search?

It’s America’s 241st birthday, and the country is throwing a big party. And it’s not a party without cupcakes, cookies, jello shots, cheesecake and deviled eggs (top-searched Fourth of July recipes). During this time of year, Myrtle Beach, Niagara Falls, Ocean Beach, Washington D.C. and Catalina Island are the most searched destinations, and according to YouTube, the most popular Fourth of July songs are Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA, Bruce Springsteen’s Born and Toby Keith’s Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue.

Pooches with paunches

Exercise isn’t just for the two-legged among us. A study from the Banfield Pet Hospital revealed that one in three cats and dogs in the U.S. are overweight due to poor diet and lack of exercise, and pet-lovers unleashed their searches, like “Banfield state of of pet health obesity by state” and “Banfield vet and obese pets.” Though all of our furry friends need to watch their figures, search interest in “dog weight” was 149 percent higher than “cat weight.”

Literally surreal

This week a judge ordered Salvador Dali’s body to be exhumed for a paternity test, to investigate the claim of a 61-year-old woman who says that Dali is her father. After the judge’s order, search interest in Dali reached its reached its highest peak in five years, with queries like “How old was Salvador Dali when he died?” “Did Salvador Dali have children?” and “How much is Salvador Dali’s estate worth?”

Source: Search

Brush up on Gboard’s latest tips and tricks

Today Gboard for Android is getting an upgrade. In addition to our continued efforts to improve typing quality with machine intelligence, this update brings new ways to get creative and cut down text time.

In the emoji search box, you can now tap the emoji handwriting icon to draw emoji directly onto the screen. Your drawing will automatically be recognized and show results for your favorite emoji.?

To help you up your texts per minute, Gboard now includes phrase suggestions to predict what you plan to type next. For example, try typing “looking forward” and Gboard suggests “to seeing” or “to it” as you type. This is supported in English today and will be rolling out to more languages soon.

When you’re searching in the keyboard, we’ll now offer multiple results for you to browse through, making it easier to search and share in any app. In addition, on a card, you can click through to go to Maps, call a business, or watch a YouTube video. Just press the G or arrow->magnifying glass in the suggestion strip to start searching.

Finally, Gboard now supports more than 200 language varieties, and we’re also adding suggestions and gesture typing for Azerbaijani (Iran), Dhivehi, French (Belgium), Hawaiian, Maori and Samoan, and simple keyboards so you can type and text in Dzongkha, Ewe, Navajo, Tsonga, and K'iche'.

To test drive these updates to Gboard for Android, head to the Google Play Store and make sure you’re running the latest version of the app (version 6.3).

Source: Search

Searching for art just got better. Where will you start?

While some are drawn to the strong brushstrokes of Van Gogh’s The Starry Night, others prefer gazing at the gilded glory of Klimt’s The Kiss, but one thing is certain: people love art. In fact, each month, there are more than 500 million art-related searches on Google. Now whether you’re a casual fan or a true culture vulture, Google can help you become an art expert. Starting today, when you search for art-related things, you’ll have access to more relevant results and the ability to dive deeper into topics of interest. We’ve also added a new feature in Street View (think digital museum guide!) that gives you key insights about the artworks on your virtual museum visits.

Explore more art right from Google Search

To help make your search for art a masterpiece, the Google Arts & Culture team joined forces with Google Search engineers to improve how our systems understand and recognize artworks, the places you can see them in person, the artists who made them, the materials they used, the art period they belong to and the connections among all these.

Now when you search an artist like Gustav Klimt, you’ll see an interactive Knowledge Panel that will highlight ways you can explore on a deeper level, like seeing a collection of the artist’s works or even scrolling through the museums where you can view the paintings on the wall. And for some pieces, you can click through to see picture-perfect high-resolution imagery right from Google Arts & Culture.

Google Arts & Culture, your virtual museum guide

You can visit hundreds of museums around the world right from your laptop with Google Maps and Google Arts & Culture. And starting today your virtual Street View tour is more informative on desktop and in the Chrome browser on mobile. Now as you walk through the rooms of the museums on Google Maps you’ll see clear and useful annotations on the wall next to each piece. Clicking on these annotations will bring you to a new page with more information provided by hundreds of the world’s renowned museums. You’ll also be able to zoom into high-resolution imagery—getting you closer to these iconic works than you ever thought possible.

To create this feature, we put our visual recognition software to work. Similar to how machine learning technology in Google Photos allows you to search for things in your gallery, this software scanned the walls of participating museums all over the world, identifying and categorizing more than 15,000 works.

Searching for art just got better. Where will you start?

Discovering the art world has never been easier on Google, and we hope this inspires you to brush up on your art knowledge. So take a moment. Dive in. Who knows—with a stroke of luck, you may find yourself drawn...to art!