As Google I/O 2025 gets underway, CEO Sundar Pichai has made three significant announcements that are focused on the needs of consumers.
These efforts, which are driven by Google’s Gemini AI models, include Project Mariner, which updates agentic AI capabilities that can assist users in automating tasks.
It also includes Google Beam (formerly Project Starline) updates and real-time speech translation in Google Meet; and the ‘better’ Project Astra, which will be rebranded as Gemini Live camera conversation. Pichai revealed that HP will be bringing Google Beam, formerly known as Project Starline, to computers.
In essence, it is a technological project created to improve remote communication by making it more organic and engaging. This technology simulates in-person interactions during video chats by combining artificial intelligence, 3D imagery, and other cutting-edge technologies.
Key Features of Google Beam
Pichai emphasised that Google Beam’s primary advantages include lifelike depiction through realistic 3D imaging and the ability to make authentic eye contact, which is frequently lacking in traditional video chats.
The project’s second component is real-time speech translation in Google Meet, which enables communication between persons who do not speak the same language.
Additionally, Google said that the AI-generated translation will maintain user voices, tones, and facial expressions. Subscribers can presently access the functionality in both Spanish and English. Later this year, Google plans to test this capability with Workspace users in Portuguese, German, and Italian, among other languages.
Gemini Live for iPhones and Android
Project Astra, a fascinating research initiative that was initially presented at I/O, examines the potential of a universal AI assistant that can comprehend your surroundings.
The camera and screen-sharing features of Project Astra are now integrated into Gemini Live. From preparing for interviews to training for marathons, people are utilising technology in intriguing ways.
All Android users currently have access to this feature, and iOS users will begin to receive it from now on.
Project Mariner
Updates to Project Mariner, a Chrome plugin created by Google DeepMind that enables users to automate web browsing tasks using an AI agent, are the third major announcement.
An AI agent that can comprehend and interact with websites to do tasks like research, booking, and purchasing is created using the Gemini AI paradigm. According to Pichai, the AI tool can now handle up to ten jobs concurrently.
For instance, the Gemini app’s new Agent Mode will enable users to accomplish even more. If they are looking for a flat, it will be helpful to locate properties on websites such as Zillow that fit their requirements, modify filters, and use MCP to view the listings and even arrange a tour.
Subscribers will soon be able to access an experimental version of Agent Mode via the Gemini app. Additionally, it helps businesses like Zillow by increasing conversion rates and attracting new clients.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) said in a statement that Google has become the first company to use the recently implemented settlement framework in India. The company has been ordered to pay INR 20 crore to settle an antitrust investigation into claims of its anti-competitive behaviour in the smart TV market.
The ruling forces the tech giant to unbundle its Play Store and Play Services on Android TVs in the nation, marking a significant change in the regulatory environment. Google would be required to pay INR 20 crore as part of the settlement agreement after a 15% scheme-related reduction.
What are the Outcomes of CCI’s Investigation?
In a statement on April 21, CCI said that its investigation had concluded that Google’s agreements with the Television App Distribution Agreement (TADA) and the Android Compatibility Commitments (ACC), when executed together, allegedly imposed unfair terms.
Hence, it further prevents television makers from using or developing Android forks, preventing the development of new apps, and requiring the pre-installation of its entire app bundle, Google TV Services.
According to the agency, 45 parties submitted comments and concerns over Google’s settlement application. CCI added that after reviewing the settlement plan, the Commission noted that Google will grant an independent licence for the Play Store and Play Services for Android smart TVs in India. Hence, it will be done as part of the “New India Agreement”. The move will eliminate the need to set default placement criteria or bundle these services.
EU Planning a Stringent Action Against the Tech Giant
While CCI is settling the matter with Google, its European counterpart is allegedly considering taking action against Big Tech, if trade discussions between the EU and the US, following President Trump’s massive tariffs, fail.
The main thrust of the accusation against Google LLC, Google India Private Limited, and two other parties was that Google abused its power by imposing restrictive agreements on original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
These agreements included mandatory Play Store bundling with the Android TV operating system and anti-fragmentation agreements that prohibited the use or development of competing forked Android versions.
About CCI?
The Indian government created the Competition Commission of India (CCI) as a statutory agency to guard against actions that hurt competition, encourage fair competition, and safeguard the interests of consumers. It was created in accordance with the 2002 Competition Act and went into full operation in 2009.
The CCI wants India to have a strong competitive environment. In addition, the Commission also advocates for competition, raises public awareness, and provides training on competition-related matters. It also provides an opinion on competition-related matters upon referral from a governmental entity created under any law.
Many of us are regularly using Google apps such as Drive, Docs, Sheets, Maps, Meet, and many more in our day-to-day lives. Who can forget apps like GPay and PlayStore? Google has literally trapped us in its ecosystem.
At the same time, these apps have also made our lives so much easier. But, do you know there are many other apps made by Google that very few people know about. Today, I am going to tell you about the lesser-known Google Apps. Shhhh! Don’t tell anyone about these apps, okay?
Number of available apps on Google Play Store in numbers from June 2017 to June 2022 as per the source Statista
1. Grasshopper: Learn to Code
Grasshopper Website
If you like watching sci-fi movies then you might think that coding is a very fun job. In reality, many people find it very tough to code.
To help people learn to code in a fun way Google developed Grasshopper. Using this app you can learn to write real JavaScript on your mobile by playing interesting games and puzzles.
This app will help you build a strong foundation of coding concepts.
Features of Grasshopper:
Move through progressively challenging levels as you upgrade your coding skills.
Visual puzzles will simplify your coding journey.
Apply your learning to projects.
Get real-time feedback.
Collect achievements when you learn new skills.
2. Toontastic 3D
Toontastic 3D Website
Does watching cartoons make you happy? Do you want to make your own cartoons?
Well, if you have nodded then quickly install Toontastic 3D. Using this app you can draw, animate, and narrate your own cartoons.
The drag-and-drop editor makes the creating and editing process very easy.
Features of Toontastic 3D:
Design your cartoons with 3D drawing tools.
Record your voice and animations and store them on your phone as a 3D video.
Choose from three story arcs: Short story, classic, and science report.
Add your photos to the cartoons.
Get inspiration from the existing stories and characters.
3. Google Arts and Culture
Google Arts and Culture
Are you fascinated by majestic arts and the thrilling history of the world? If yes, then Google Arts and Culture app is for you. Using this app you can get knowledge of over 2,000 cultural institutions from 80 countries at your fingertips.
If you visit museums regularly then this app is a must-have because you can point your mobile camera at artworks and get interesting information about them even when you don’t have internet access. You can even find museums and exhibitions near you.
Features of Google Arts and Culture:
Take a tour of world-class museums from the comfort of your home.
Immerse yourself in 360-degree panoramic tours.
See the real size of the artwork.
Zoom in and find the intricate details of the masterpiece.
Discover portraits that look like you.
Search by time and even color.
Using the street view functionality you can tour famous sites and landmarks.
Save and share your favorite artwork.
4. Google Earth
Google Earth Website
Do you want to have a satellite view of your house? Or do you want to see the satellite view of your grandparent’s house?
No, you don’t have to visit ISRO.
Using Google Earth, you can get a satellite view of any location in the world.
Features of Google Earth:
Get the 3D terrain of the entire globe.
Zoom into your house and anywhere else.
Discover 360-degree perspective with a street view.
Roll the dice and the app will automatically transfer you to a different part of the world.
Voyager functionality allows you to get a collection of guided tours from BBC Earth, NASA, National Geographic, and more.
5. Sound Amplifier
Sound Amplifier
Many times when we are in a noisy environment we are not able to properly hear what the other person is saying. Or when we are watching TV at home we are not able to hear sound coming from the TV.
In such a scenario we cannot increase the volume of the TV because we might disturb our family members.
In such situations, the Sound Amplifier app comes in very handy. Using this app, you can filter, augment and amplify the sound around you and on your device. Just plug in your headphones and hear everyday conversations and surrounding sounds more clearly.
Features of Sound Amplifier:
Remove the background noise and hear what the other person is saying more clearly.
Personalize your listening experience according to your needs and surroundings.
You can boost low frequency and high frequency.
6. Socratic by Google
Socratic by Google
Whenever you see a difficult question in your textbook you type the whole question on Google, right?
This is a very tedious task and it might take a lot of time for you to find the answer.
To automate this process, you can use Socratic by Google. The app is powered by Google AI. Using Socratic you can scan any question and the app will find the best online solutions for you.
Features of Socratic:
Socratic has partnered with teachers to provide students with visual explanations of each subject.
Apart from written resources, the app will also find relevant videos with step-by-step tutorials.
The app supports most high-school subjects like Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, History, and Literature.
Using the Voice Assist feature you can directly ask questions to the app by speaking to it.
7. PhotoScan
Photoscan by Google
Do you have old printed photos of your childhood lying in your drawer that you want to save on your phone?
If yes, then PhotoScan is an excellent app by Google that lets you scan and save your printed photos using your phone’s camera. The app creates enhanced digital scans which make your photos more good-looking.
Features of PhotoScan:
Glare-free scans.
Automatic cropping based on edge detection.
Straight and rectangular scans with perspective correction.
Smart rotation means that your photos will stay right-side-up no matter which way you scan them.
Most importantly, all the images are saved in Google Photos.
8. Google Tasks
Google Tasks
In today’s fast-paced world we have a lot of tasks to do on a daily basis. Although we tend to forget what task we have to do at what day and time.
Due to this our pending tasks pile up and our productivity decreases.
To get a birds-eye view of all the projects you can use Google Tasks. It is a to-do list app that helps you to add, edit and view all your tasks on the go.
Features of the Google Tasks:
Add your tasks based on the date or prioritize using drag-and-drop.
Sync your tasks in Gmail and Calendar.
Set a due date for every task and get reminders for it.
Create subtasks for every major task.
9. Google Family Link
Google Family Link
Google Family Link helps parents limit the excessive use of mobile phones by children under 13 years of age.
The prime purpose of this app is to create a healthy digital environment.
With it, you can easily implement digital ground rules for the teen or a kid.
Features of Google Family Link:
Get a report of your child’s app activity and understand how much time they are spending on those apps.
Approve or deny the installation of apps that your child wants to download from the Google PlayStore.
Set limits on screen time.
Remotely lock the device.
10. Find My Device
Google Find my Device
The feeling that you get when your phone gets lost or stolen is terrible and fearful.
Although you can eradicate this feeling by installing the Find My Device app on your phone.
Using this app you can locate your lost android phone and lock it until you get it back.
Features of Find My Device:
Permanently delete all data on your phone or any lost android device.
Using indoor maps you can find your device in airports, shopping centers, or other large buildings.
Reach your device’s location using Google Maps.
Lock your phone with a custom message and contact number on the lock screen.
Ring your phone at full volume. This would work even when your device is on silent
11. Chrome Remote Desktop
Chrome Remote Desktop
Using the Chrome Remote Desktop app you can remotely connect your desktop screen to your android or iOS device. You can even share your desktop screen with the other person.
Just download the app on your mobile phone and install the chrome extension on your desktop.
That’s it! Now, you can start using the remote access feature.
Features of Chrome Remote Desktop:
Provides access to multiple keyboard shortcuts.
Is accessible on all operating devices.
Enables full-screen view, and resize to fit display options while using the app on mobile.
Most of you might be surprised to know about these awesome apps that very few people know about. But, now that you know about these apps, download the ones which cater to your needs and start using them.
Since all these apps are made by Google they are very safe to use. Google has made many other apps as well. But, most of them were discontinued or integrated into another app.
FAQs
Are Google apps free?
Yes, most of the Google apps are free and safe to use.
How many Google apps are there?
There are about 160 Google apps in total.
What are apps called on an android device?
Apps on android devices are called APK files.
Why is Google free?
Google is free for visitors and not for customers. Moreover, Google earns revenue from many sources including advertising, selling its products, etc. Google gets the upper hand over its competitors by providing free services to the user. And also it gets the chance to sell its products to the users interested.
If you are someone who loves gaming, Google’s Stadia is perfect for your games and entertainment purposes. Launched in November 2019, Stadia make your favourite games instantly accessible no matter where you are.
It’s apparent that Stadia’s technology has been proven and works at scale, as evidenced by the recent successful launch of Cyberpunk 2077 on Stadia, gameplay on all types of platforms, including iOS, extending our slate of YouTube integrations, and our global expansions.
It was an attempt by Google to join the video games and entertainment industry by creating this platform. Unlike Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft, Google’s focus was on cloud-based streaming, which means that instead of purchasing real gear like the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X, consumers only need a compatible device, such as a phone or tablet, and they can play from anywhere.
Stadia is a cloud gaming service introduced by Google. It was a new type of gaming platform that does not involve any console requirement to gain gaming experience. Instead, Google Stadia allows the users to play their games on any available screen over the internet.
Google Stadia
Google Stadia was introduced on 19th November 2019 and discontinued on 1st February 2021. Even after being a Google product with a great concept, Stadia failed to create its place in the market.
There can be many reasons for the failure of the Stadia such as:
Unsuccessful Launch
Unfortunately for Google, the program received backlash when it first launched about a year and a half ago. The reviews suggested that the management could have devoted more effort to working out Stadia’s faults. From there, things only seemed to become worse, culminating in the latest studio shutdown and discoveries that made social media news.
Google Stadia Reviews
Whenever one adds in claims of odd money management and an apparent misunderstanding of how the games industry works whenever it comes to AAA ports, the streaming service has had a hard go of it recently. Stadia’s potential employers dropped 68% lower according to the business reports, a year after its unsuccessful launch.
Critics instantly warned users against using the service because of its limited game catalogue and several technical concerns. It has also failed to acquire traction, even though COVID-19 was witnessing one of the most significant increases in gaming popularity in the medium’s history. So, when other gaming platforms gained popularity Stadia was losing its day by day. Which was strange because Google had Stadia’s back.
Google Stadia Active User Count Of The Year 2019-2020.
Poor Advertising Plan
Now, in circumstances like these, at least the advertisements and brand awareness go up. Since this was a gaming platform the creators did try and reach out to its audience (Gen Z) but, Stadia had received its fair share of setbacks on social media. On February 26, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier published an article explaining, Google’s Stadia strategy and also tweeted about it.
Jason Schreier on Google Stadia
The article gave details outlining the platform’s growth from inception to debut in November 2019, “although Schreier claimed that the corporation was spending tens of millions of dollars on each Stadia port that went viral on social media.
Essentially, instead of investing those resources toward independent developers or Stadia’s studios to create unique content for the service, Google was paying Ubisoft and other AAA video game developers ridiculous sums to bring their latest titles to Stadia.”
Paying millions of dollars for games that had already been launched was even more distressing news, given that Google had only announced the closing of its in-house studios a few weeks previously. Instead of being developed by Google, all original content created solely for Stadia will have to come through partnerships with other studios.
Overall, Google STADIA has failed to live up to its creator’s expectations of being a game-changing platform. It doesn’t appear to be getting any better, either, given its bumpy history.
During the launch event of Stadia, There were many promises done by the speaker.
Google Stadia Launch
Stadia is not constrained by the limitation of traditional console systems. Instead, we have built a truly flexible, scalable, and modern platform that allows us to push performance beyond what was previously considered possible. This architecture gives us even more flexibility to scale. And thanks to fast transfer speeds between the Stadia instances in our data center, our platform can connect instances to dynamically expand the capabilities, along with the need of your games. As a developer, you’re used to being forced to tone down your creative ambition, [which is] limited by the hardware. But our vision with Stadia is that the processing resources available will scale up to match your imagination. In this new generation, the data center is your platform. Revealed by Stadia Head of Engineering Majd Bakar during the launch event.
However, when the product was made in use, the reality found was quite different from the explanation. Stadia failed to survive users test and create a place in the market. Many users report claiming Stadia slow servers with poor resolution. Hence, this also added to the list of “drawbacks of Stadia”.
Google is a big name in the market. However, this name is majorly applied in cloud services only. It was the first time creation of a gaming product by Google. Hence, it can be assumed that Google was not aware of the trends going on in the market and might have a misconception about it.
The gaming market no longer lacks any technology-related limits. Instead, it is the place where much new technology takes part as the first trial. Google might have taken the gaming market still as a newbie and didn’t minded to work more on the project.
Stadia’s Game and Entertainment was the first in-house gaming studio developed by Stadia. It was pulled off after one year of discontinuing Stadia. The gaming studio was given the charge of creating exclusive games. However, the decision of pulling it off caused others a hazy impression of Google.
Creating games takes time and the decision of closing the Studio within one year of stadia affected the employees working in the studio with multi-year reassurance. All these indicate the misconception that Google has related to the gaming industry and indirectly caused the failure of the platform as a whole.
Stadia Was Like a Stranded Product on Google’s Platform
The sentence stranded in a place might seem like an exaggeration to use for Stadia. However, in reality, the only connection between Stadia and other Google platforms was from 4K live on YouTube.
These factors can indirectly affect the popularity of newly introduced products. Stadia was too late to realize this. It took the whole year for Stadia to be included in the 2020’s Chromecast with Google TV.
For the initial months, Stadia was known to work with Pixel phones only. However, with the launch of Pixel 6, Stadia was nowhere to be seen in its bundle. Whereas, Stadia was marketed as a major point in the selling of Pixel phone.
Stadia was forgotten by Google at such limits that Xbox provides YouTube premium as its perk. However, Google didn’t consider using the same tactic for its brand. With all these points, it can be assumed that Stadia was long forgotten even before its discontinuation causing a few percent of damage to its popularity which led to its failure.
Conclusion
Google Stadia was created with much hope and as a Google-backed product. Yet, at many points, Google failed to impress the gamers with Stadia causing an ultimate decision of discontinuing the service. Stadia was created as a gaming platform that can be used on any normal screen rather than using the console. However, due to many issues, it was pulled off in 2021 by Google. Some of the estimated reasons behind the failure of Stadia are shared above.
FAQs
What is Google Stadia?
Google Stadia is a gaming platform developed by Google that allows its users to play games on a single platform using the same screen. It is a cloud video gaming platform that does not require any additional hardware to play games in it.
Why did Google Stadia fail?
Google Stadia failed due to many reasons. Some of them are poor advertising plans, improper implementation of strategies, bugs in the service, etc.
Are games on Stadia Free?
The games available on Stadia fall into different categories. One is free and the other requires a subscription. Few games are free on the Stadia to play.
What happened to Google Stadia?
Google Stadia stagnated on 1st February 2021 after its unfortunate failure in creating a name and meeting the user target.
Google is among the top American multinational companies that specialises in Internet-related services and products such as a search engine, online advertising technologies, cloud computing etc. Over the years Google has become an irreplaceable part of millions of people, students, companies, businesses across the globe. The fact that Google has gained such wide popularity is evident from the fact that the word ‘Google’ had been officially listed by the Oxford English Dictionary as a verb in the English language.
Google is so much more than a search engine. It provides various services as it is an email client, Gmail, a social video sharing site, YouTube, a mobile operating system, Android, an official suite, Google Drive, hardware and software sponsorships and much more. Founded in 1988, Google is recognised as one of the world’s largest technology companies along with Apple, Amazon and Facebook.
Google earns over $110 Billion a year on advertising
The company sell advertising space on search results pages to companies to provide its customers. Google also collects information about our search history and then delivers Personalised advertisement experience for websites.
Company’s market value is estimated at $858 Billion
Google has now become the fourth tech company after Apple, Amazon and Microsoft to be valued over $1 trillion this year. In 2015, Google was valued less than $400 billion.
Google’s Parent Company, Alphabet is the fourth largest company in the world
Google is the subsidiary of conglomerate Alphabet which profits about $30 billion a year. Alphabet is one of the largest companies in the world in terms of market value, revenue and profit as it has the combination of both Google and YouTube. Alphabet was formed to serve as a holding company for other endeavors. Alphabet now owns over 200 companies.
Search Statistics
Google is the most visited website across the world. Five billion searches are made everyday through Google search engine. 7.2 percent of the traffic comes from people who Google the term ‘Google’.
Google dominates the search engine market. In fact, as of July 2019, Google holds 92.18 percent of the market share. Other few search engines are Bing, Yahoo, Baidu and DuckDuckGo. Since the introduction of Google search in 1997, all the other search engines have faced quite a hard time trying to reach the same level as Google.
An average person performs more than 4-5 Google searches per day as the Google has become the go-to place for information on the internet. The most common searches being weather update and location. Though, 15 percent of all searches are unique. 63% of Google’s US searches are referred through mobile phones.
Google was processing over 10,000 search queries per day in 1998. In comparison, by the end of 2006, the same amount of searches would be processed by Google in a single second. So, in less than a decade, Google became a quite reliable source of getting access to information and searches around the world.
Google images account to more than 20% of all searches.
Gmail Statistics
· Gmail currently owns 43% of the email service market share in 2020.
· An average Gmail account is worth around $3,588.85.
· 75% of all Gmail users access their email on mobile devices.
· 306.4 billion emails are sent and received daily in 2020.
· There are more than 1.5 billion active Gmail users.
· Gmail G Suite has 2 billion monthly active users worldwide.
· Google shut down the “Inbox by Gmail” app on April 2, 2019.
· Gmail users found that 68.4% of all incoming messages are classified as Promotions.
· Gmail AI blocks more than 100 million spam emails every day.
· Google Chrome reached 5 billion downloads in 2019.
· Chrome has 64.92% of the global browser market across all platforms.
· Chrome has 68.91% of the desktop browser market share.
· Google Chrome dominates Europe with a 61.36% share of the local browser market.
· Chrome protects about 200 million from malicious websites.
· From 2008 to 2019, Google Chrome went from 0% to almost 70% market share, while Internet Explorer went from over 60% to below 3%.
· Google received 63,000 searches per second, amounting to more than 2 trillion searches throughout the year in 2016.
Google has a great history with the internet as it changed its name from ‘Backrub’ to Google, it has become one of the most valued and recognisable companies in the world. Thus, with such impressive statistics, Google continues to be the dominant player in search, maps, email, browsing, mobile operating systems and much more.
Google is among the top American multinational companies that specialise in Internet-related services and products such as a search engine, online advertising technologies, cloud computing etc.
What was Google’s first product?
The first version of Google was released in August 1996 on the Stanford website. It used nearly half of Stanford’s entire network bandwidth.
Who is the founder of google?
Larry Page and Sergey Brin are the founders of Google.
What are some fun facts about Google?
Some facts about google:-
An average Gmail account is worth around $3,588.85
75% of all Gmail users access their email on mobile devices
306.4 billion emails are sent and received daily in 2020
There are more than 1.5 billion active Gmail users
Google has been fined by the watchdog of Italy in regards to abusing its dominant position in the market. Google already has a dominant position in the market through the Android smartphone platform. The tech company has been facing a lot of antitrust decisions in the recent years from the European Union. Let’s look at why the tech company has been fined by Italy’s watchdog.
Google has been fined by the watchdog of Italy which is estimated to be around USD 123 million for abusing its dominant position in the market. The case is related to the modified version of Google’s OS which is used in cars known as Android Auto.
The case is specifically concentrated on restrictions made by Google on their platform towards an electric car charging app called juice pass which is made by an energy company called Enel X Italia.
Reason for the Fine
Android Auto is a feature offered by Google for the drivers and motorists to access the maps and music streaming device while the vehicle is on the run through a dash mounted device. But Enel X Italia is a third-party app that was denied access to provide its features on Android Auto.
Enel X Italia’s mobile app is available through the smartphone version of the android platform but the users can’t use it or are supposed to use their phone while driving. So, the restriction of access of the app on the Android Auto is equal to cutting down their competition.
The authorities have conveyed that the Google Maps app which provides basic services for the Electric vehicles such as finding and getting directions to charging points is available through Android Auto.
According to the findings of certain authorities, Google did not allow Enel X Italia to develop a version of the JuicePass app which would be compatible with the Android Auto OS.
The JuicePass app had features that would be compatible with the motorists with safety. The app would let the motorists to find an electric vehicle station, providing directions and even reserving a place at the station.
By restricting the availability of the app on the Android Auto the authorities claim that the company has favored its Google Maps which currently provides the features of finding and locating charging stations and in the future can provide the features such as reserving a place and payment.
The ACGM
The AGCM has conveyed that Google had violated the Article 102 of the treaty on the functioning of the European Union and has given an order to make the mobile application of JuicePass available on the Android Auto platform.
They also added that Google will have to provide the same access towards the Android Auto to other third-party app developers. AGCM has conveyed that it has concerns about whether Google’s restrictions on apps would have an impact on the electric mobility market.
They added that if this was going to continue then it would permanently impact the future of JuicePass and reduce their user base when the electric mobility market is developing in the country. This would reduce the choice for the consumers and also act as a barrier to innovation.
Google has denied the accusation and has conveyed that they haven’t done anything wrong. At the same time, the company hasn’t confirmed whether they were planning to appeal. The tech giant has confirmed that the restrictions that they place on the applications are necessary to maintain the safety of the drivers.
They conveyed that they have been opening up the platform to more apps over time with thousands of them being more compatible. They have conveyed that they intend to expand its availability.
Google has said in a statement that they have strict guidelines on the types of apps which are currently supported and these apps are based on certain industry standards and driver distraction tests. They said that they disagree with the decision of the authority and are planning to review their options.
FAQ
What is meant by antitrust?
Antitrust laws are regulations that encourage competition by limiting the market power of any particular firm.
What are the 3 antitrust laws?
The three major antitrust laws in the U.S. are: the Sherman Act, the Clayton Act, and the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTCA).
What is ACGM in Italy?
The Italian Competition Authority or AGCM is the Competition regulator in Italy.
Conclusion
The AGCM has said that it would monitor the compliance of Google so that it ensures to order it effectively and implements the obligations correctly to provide access to third party apps through Android Auto.
Nearly every day, Google proposes changes to the ranking algorithm.
Almost every day, Google changes its ranking algorithm. Some of them leave fewer impacts and others shake up the SERPs. This article will help you in knowing the important algorithm changes. And penalties that are rolled out in recent years with the brief.
But before starting anything, let’s see something. What if you could know which update impacted your organic traffic and how? You can now use a rank tracker. All you need to launch a rank tracker and create a project for your site.
Google’s Panda update is a search filter launched on 23 February 2011. This was to stop sites with bad quality content from working into its top search results. Panda gets updated from time to time. After this, sites that are previously hit may escape, if you made the right changes.
Know everything about this update
Panda can also catch the sites that were escaped. A refresh means false positives can be released. The purpose was to reward good quality websites. This was also initially named as a farmer.
Triggers for panda
Thin content
Duplicate content
Low-quality content
Lack of authority and trustworthiness
Content farming
Low-quality user-generated content (UGC)
A high ad to content ratio
Low-quality content surrounding affiliate links
Website blocked by users
Content mismatching search query
How can you know that you’ve been hit by Panda?
One of the signs of Panda penalization is a sudden drop in website traffic or search engine rankings. However, this is also important to keep in mind that other things can also result in losing rankings and traffic. That can be the rise of your competitor in the market, manual penalties. Or can be a different google update other than this.
When a known name update occurs. This is important to study the industry documentation involved in the update. If the loss of rankings or traffic corresponds to a known date. Please go through the industry lists of bad practices. After that, you believe you got the relation between bad practices and updates. Try to solve the situation.
Panda has frequently been marked as an update difficult to be recovered. However, Panda updates are mostly on website quality. Steps for recovering generally leads to improving that quality. Some of the actions include:
Abandoning content farming practices.
A website is full of quality content, usefulness, relevance, trustworthiness, and authority.
Revising the ad or content ratio. So that pages don’t get dominated by ads or links.
Ensure the content of the given page is relevant to match the user’s query.
Remove duplicate content.
Careful editing of content. Ensure it is unique, error-free, and useful to readers.
Use the robots no-index, no-follow command to block indexing of duplicate or other elements.
2. Penguin
Google has introduced a penguin update on 24 April 2012. This was to catch sites considered to be spamming the search results. Those who buy links or obtain them through link networks by the purpose of boosting Google rankings.
why this penguin update
Whenever a new penguin update is introduced. The sites taken into action remove bad links. New sites that are not previously caught possibly get trapped by Penguin. Sites that were caught by mistake, may be released.
Consequences of this algorithm
Websites that don’t stick to the webmaster guidelines of Google. They get affected by the penguin update. In the earlier versions of penguin decreased the entire domain value. If the webspam gets identified, the site penalty leads to exclusion from the index.
Today the penguin filter works on a URL basis. If the filter comes beyond webspam. Then it can lead to the ranking loss. There are further attempts are being made to use high-quality content. This increases voluntary linking to their website. Also, some channels such as social media are used to increase the range of websites. Also to receive backlinks and traffic.
Those who got to know that their website is affected by penguin. You should start analyzing the link structure. Links from link farms as bad neighborhoods can lead you to underestimation.
An important indicator is that the penguin filter is activated warning of unnatural links. Google sends this through google search console to webmasters. In this case, you should study and analyze the previous link building efforts. So that the consequences get minimized.
After this, Google has introduced an alternative i.e disavow tool. Using these backlinks can be announced as invalid.
3. HummingBird
Hummingbird was introduced very quietly on 22 august 2013. Various site owners didn’t get to know the difference. This tool helps google to get a better understanding of search queries. And produce results that match searcher intent.
how it works?
While the keywords remain essential. Hummingbird helps a page to rank for a query even. If it hasn’t exact words the searcher entered. This can be achieved using natural language processing. That relies on semantic indexing, co-occurring terms, and synonyms.
What hummingbird is all about?
This was the new algorithm, which was formed by more than 200 factors. These factors can affect ranking and search. The biggest changes are made with a sharp eye on mobile. There’s nothing to surprise about the explosion of the mobile market in recent years.
This produced the addition of a conversational search to the hummingbird algorithm. This was designed to focus on the meaning of expression rather than one keyword.
This was because many people use voice while searching on mobile. So instead of looking for individual words. It looks for the entire phrase to explain that meaning.
How can you adjust?
Try to expand your keyword research and focus more on concepts. Research carefully relevant searches, synonyms, and co-occurring terms. You can find great ideas about google related searches into the rank tracker research module.
Google pigeon tries to recognize. And degrade the rank of sites having unnatural links. These are considered to be spamming the search results. Since 24 July 2014 pigeon has been a part of google’s ranking algorithm. The penalties are applied faster now and recovery in less time.
pigeon update in Google’s Algorithm
Pigeon affects searches where a person’s location plays an important role. This update created ties between the local and core algorithm.
Consequences of this algorithm for local businesses?
You may notice a change in website referrals, leads, and business.
You might see a change in your rankings. Whether that can be positive or negative. While some of you benefit with increased importance on local search. Others might be driven out of heavy traffic searches due to prioritizing directories.
Large directories will benefit more compared to small locations.
What should you do now?
Make sure your business appears in the industry directories and review sites. You should register your business with directories and try to gain positive reviews.
Keep checking on local search terms related to your business that they haven’t changed. If the update is according to your strategy.
If your company’s keywords are appearing in local search results. You need to get optimized for local search.
In the case of rank dropping as a result of the update. Then try to focus more on on-page SEO optimization along with local optimization.
Check broken links, contact numbers, and spelling in Google’s local listing.
This update was introduced on 10 august 2012 for copyright violations. Privacy is a huge deal today. It has been since the appearance of the internet. Google makes sure that sites having stolen content don’t get the benefit.
pirate update
Using the pirate update, sites are down-ranked and removed from the search results. Some of the sites are still not caught. And Google is still working for the right owners don’t suffer.
How does it work?
Google can’t check every page on the internet to ensure no pirated material is left out. Pirate targets the sites that violate the copyright guidelines set. Google never removes any page unless a valid copyright removal notice gets filed by the owner of the rights.
If someone enters a query searching for a specific movie, google avoids piracy sites of top slots in SERPs. However, you can still find these pirated sites, if you’ll search them directly. But they won’t show up in organic search results for a generic query.
How can you fix your website if it is affected by Pirate?
If you got notice abrupt drop in your rankings and page visit. Firstly ask yourself if you have any illegal content on your site. If you’re looking to recover from a hit by Pirate. Things you can do:
Remove Content That Violates DMCA
If you have media that is pirated then remove it. Remove illegal content. The pirate update will get no reason to target your site.
Try to keep your main domain separate
Many sites offer users to add content to pages. If this is in your case, keep your domain separate from the user’s content. You can’t keep control over what people publish. So this will keep you safe instead of their mistakes.
The Fred update was an improvement for Google’s search ranking algorithm. This was introduced on 7 March 2017. However, the important factor behind Fred was quality.
know sites hit hardest by Fred update
That is how aggressive monetization tactics used by some of the sites. Also google’s view, negatively impacting the experience of users.
Which sites get hit hardest by Fred?
However, Google has yet to confirm any thoughts regarding its latest algorithm change. There is some compelling evidence to support the theory. That Fred was designed to punish sites that are prioritizing monetization over user experience.
How should you react to Fred And Future Google Updates?
Whether as the result of poor quality links, excessive ad placement, or thin content. Fred hugely disrupted too many websites. This thing could be good for users which is a good business for Google.
Living in never-ending fear of Google impulse has long been the norm for SEOs. There are several steps to minimize the risk that your site can be hit in the future by algorithmic changes. If you are also worried about the impact of Google’s updates.
RankBrain was introduced on 26 October 2015 and part of the Hummingbird algorithm. RankBrain update is reviewed as the third most important signal for a search query. An update that provides the best matching result due to the searcher’s intent.
query-specific ranking update
This is an AI system that helps Google understand the meaning behind queries. RankBrain identifies the applicable query-specific ranking factors for web pages.
How can overcome RankBrain Update?
You need to upload Proper competitor analysis content. This could be penetrated to users of any age. RankBrain connects long and original doubt to the shorter one. Hence it lets provide Google answer all types of searches.
How RankBrain Update Impacts Search Results?
Today we can see how RankBrain will help in the long tail doubts for voice search. The benefits of this algorithm are that it uses stop words which are earlier completely neglected by Google search. This also tries to prepare for one search ahead as per the user.
All the learnings are done using RankBrain offline. It checks the searches and predicts them. If the required prediction is good then the latest version goes online. And the prediction goes offline.
Google’s mobile-friendly update was introduced on 21 April 2015. This update was made to ensure that pages that are optimized for mobile get to rank at the top. All the desktop searches were not affected by the update.
update for mobile specific sites
Mobile-friendliness means one page of your site can get considered mobile-friendly. And get ranked up while the rest fail the test.
How does it work?
Google’s mobile update helps that mobile-friendly pages rank at the top. While pages that are not optimized for mobile gets filtered out or ranked down.
How can you be safe from it?
You should take the mobile-friendly test. You must pass its mobile-friendliness criteria to get high rankings on mobile.
Go to mobile and focus on speed and usability. It will help you see which of the aspects of the pages the mobile version needs to improve.
I hope this article would help you understand the major Google updates. These changes in the algorithm have revolutionized SEO. From Panda to Fred and beyond, everything works to help searchers while battling for low-quality content.
So let’s see key takeaway from this. You must have tired of the need to produce high-quality content. When you will stay in Google’s good terms. Then you don’t have to worry about it. All you need to build links organically. Focus more on providing the best quality content. This will help you to grow your blog’s traffic.
Have you noticed any of the effects mentioned above?
