Google Drive users on Android, iOS, and desktop-based web browsers have been given a boost in functionality this week as Google kicks search in the bum. Users will be able to search not only terms, not only titles of files, but file types as well. Users on all platforms will be able to search for file types, and all platforms will now have quick-access to Advanced Search straight from the standard search box in-app.
What you might know as the Alphabet in English is known as the Aurebesh - also correct as just "Aurebesh" in Star Wars. This set of letters works much like a standard 1:1 code, where each letter of our Alphabet has its own unique character in the Aurebesh. There are also characters for basic punctuation and the numbers 1 through 9 and zero, too. Today, Google provides all of you Star Wars scene code-crackers with a helpful tool - Google Translate. Actually an update of that tool, as it were.
This morning the first big Google-made Star Wars easter egg was revealed, creating an "opening scrawl" of their search results. This is just the first of a collection of easter eggs that'll be revealed over the next few weeks, each of them likely deep within Google apps. To activate this particular hidden secret, you have only to type "a long time ago in a galaxy far far away." When you do, you'll find your search results turned to the classic Star Wars opening storyline in space.
So you're all about your Google app on your iPhone or iPad, yes? You're lucky, because right now you're able to get an update that'll make it look a whole lot nicer than it did yesterday. Today you'll get a "fresh look and feel", according to Google, directed directly at voice search. You can say "OK Google" with the best of them and ask your iPhone or iPad's Google app whatever you want - go on, ask it when Star Wars is going to be released! It knows!
This morning the Halloween Google Doodle was launched, bringing on the company's Global Candy Cup 2015. This is a contest of champions, to be sure. Not at all like Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Except basically the same thing. Pick your house, then get to brooming. You'll be able to play this game on your desktop machine - your laptop, that is - or on your mobile device in the Google Search app. You'll be flying a broom through spooky ghosts and creepy bats on your way to victory - capturing candy along the way.
Today Facebook updated their Facebook Search feature to include ALL public posts. Before today, this feature only searched through your friends posts and those posts you and your friends were tagged in - now it's everyone, everywhere. This might freak a few people out. But don't worry! There's a (relatively) simple way of pulling your content from the public eye, and part of it can be done from your smartphone or tablet.
The entirety of Facebook just became search-friendly from within. Facebook's indexing of their own posts - private and public - began back around this year with Facebook's first big search update. Now the advice we gave you back then becomes doubly important - if you have anything embarrassing in your extensive history of Facebooking, that is to say. Now is the time to delete everything terrible you've ever said, attached to the keywords you hope no one will ever associate you with, if you haven't already.
Perhaps in preparation for full smart home utilization, Google has begun allowing offline voice commands on Android devices. This feature is only available for Android smartphones and tablets using the official Google (search) app, and commands are relatively limited. This feature will appear when a user has the Google app open without internet connectivity, showing a number of commands available offline. Lucky you, one intrepid Android user happened to be speaking to his device while it wasn't connected to the web.
Google updates their voice search software, making speaking with the search engine far faster and more accurate than before. The Google Speech Team have announced that they're improving their neural network acoustic models using two new sets of features. One part of this equation is Connectionist Temporal Classification (CTC), while the rest consists of sequence discriminative training techniques. Go on a try a Google voice search with "OK Google" now - you'll notice the quickness. And the accuracy. And the ability to be heard in slightly more noisy environments.
French privacy watchdog CNIL has denied Google's appeal against applying "right to be forgotten" removals to all of its global sites. Google was protesting a June decision from CNIL (Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés), which saw the regulator threaten the search giant with sanctions. Google has been following recent European court decisions that gives individuals the right to file removal requests for certain information. However, Google was only removing search results from its European domains, such as Google.fr or Google.de.
Google has rejected France's calls for the "right to be forgotten" program to be applied worldwide, risking the wrath of the European Union in the process. The French data protection regulator, CNIL, had issued Google with a formal notice in June demanding that any links ousted from Google's European search sites under the program should also be delisted from indexes globally. That, Google argues, is a path with potentially dangerous implications.
The latest update to Google's search system on Android and iOS devices is a meter that says when they're busiest. It's a "Popular times" meter, and it'll show you when you'd be best to head in - and when the best time is to avoid. Popular times are listed for each individual day of the week, with a meter that'll likely show you how you'll want to avoid a coffee house near the start and the middle of the day - just get your coffee at supper time, that's all.
