Official Google Canada Blog: November 2016

Meet Canada’s Next YouTube Stars!

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

The results are in and we are thrilled to introduce the first-ever class of YouTube NextUp Canada winners!
We received hundred of applications, proving that Canada is one creative country. The choices were tough, but in the end we narrowed it down to these 15 Creators who we think have the potential to become the next generation of stars on YouTube. They come from all across the country, and their creativity and storytelling abilities jumped out from the screen.
The selected NextUp Creators are a wildly talented and diverse bunch. We couldn’t have imagined a more interesting group of Creators for our first NextUp class in Canada:

Sophia Beatbox: Sophia Yeh from Mississauga will astound you with her beatboxing tutorials - you will definitely find yourself attempting to make amazing sounds while watching her videos.

Ben Willingdorf: Montrealer Ben Willingdorf isn’t afraid to take on big challenges - like building a snowman bigger than his house, or a home-made golf cart.

Samurai Guitarist: Steven Onotera from Winnipeg fuses his mastery of guitar with his love of video games and popular music, along with his tips for mastering a musical life.

Bright n’ Boldly: Beatrice Agyeman from Toronto has got the tips and tricks you need to have your best natural hair ever, along with holistic beauty and wellness.

Bizzy Boom. Toronto choreographer Brandon Owusu will have you moving your feet to the beat with his step-by-step tutorials and class dance performances.

Chris Ramsay: Chris Ramsay from Montreal is redefining street magic, one video at a time. Prepare to be amazed!

acapellascience: A spoonful of music helps the science go down on Montrealer Tim Blais’ channel.

Pankobunny: East meets West in Torontonian Cayla DeVille Gallagher’s channel, where “edible cuteness” is the ultimate goal.

The Hockey Movement: from training programs to product reviews to how to build a backyard rink, Jeremy Rupke of Huntsville, Ontario is your guide on the ice.

NsomniaksDream: Megan Walter’s astounding makeup tutorials are not for the faint of heart. This Burlington, Ontario artist will help you master your inner ghoul, zombie or killer clown.

BeatDrop: Based in Calgary and online, this music production and DJ school, founded by Mitch Lee, will have you producing tracks and DJing in no time.

Alexandra Villaroel Abrego: Montrealer Alexandra Villaroel Abrego’s inspiring and empowering videos are the life coach you’ve always wanted - in English, French AND Spanish.

Brittany Sarah: Red hair, don’t care! Brittany Adams from Toronto shares her favourite beauty and makeup looks, along with a few insider tips from her time in the film industry.

Fraser Cain: Vancouver-based Fraser Cain’s channel will explain the mysteries of the universe, its mix of videos on space, sci-fi and popular culture.

Shereen Ladha: If you’ve ever dreamed of dancing like a Bollywood star, Shereen Ladha from Richmond Hill, Ontario, has got the tutorials you’ve been waiting for!

These Creators will each receive a $3,200 voucher from YouTube to purchase new production equipment, and will participate in a five-day Creator Camp at YouTube Space Toronto, learning about video production and techniques to take their creative businesses to the next level. NextUp Creators will also be provided with a YouTube Partner Manager, to help guide their channel’s development, along with extensive networking opportunities with established Creators.
Canada is a hotbed of creativity, and YouTube is at its heart. We have a thriving community of YouTubers from coast to coast, and our first NextUp class is destined to continue the incredible growth of Canadian talent on the platform. We can’t wait to see what they create next! Posted by Mark Swierszcz, head of YouTube Space Toronto

Google invests $4.5 Million in Montreal AI Research

Monday, November 21, 2016

“How crazy is this start to the Habs’ season?!”
I think we all know the answer to that question (especially if you live in Montreal!), but in casual conversation there’s a good chance this phrasing and terminology would trip up a computer trying to make sense of what’s being said. Learning high-level abstractions is a major research challenge for deep learning.
A new grant from Google for the Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms (MILA) will fund seven faculty across a number of Montreal institutions and will help tackle some of the biggest challenges in machine learning and AI, including applications in the realm of systems that can understand and generate natural language. In other words, better understand a fan’s enthusiasm for Les Canadien.
Google is expanding its academic support of deep learning at MILA, renewing Yoshua Bengio’s Focused Research Award and offering Focused Research Awards to MILA faculty at University of Montreal and McGill University: Pascal Vincent, Aaron Courville, Christopher Pal, Doina Precup, Joelle Pineau, Simon Lacoste-Julien, and Laurent Charlin. These awards taken together, for a period of 3 years, bring Google's total donation to MILA (bridging University of Montreal and McGill) to a total of $4.5 million ($3.375M USD).
In addition to this grant, Google is opening a deep learning and AI research group here in our Montreal office, linked to the Google Brain team in Mountain View, California. It will be led by Hugo Larochelle, a leader within the deep learning community who is returning from Boston to Montreal.
This kind of corporate investment paired with a burgeoning AI start-up community and substantial government funding to the IVADO hub for data science, deep learning and operations research has turned Montreal into a global machine intelligence powerhouse. University of Montreal and McGill together now count more than 150 researchers (including students) in deep learning, the greatest academic concentration in the world. In collaboration with academic partners such as Google, incubators and start-ups, MILA and IVADO are making Montreal a hub for AI and technological innovation.
Posted by Shibl Mourad, Head of Engineering, Google Montreal

OK Google. Give me directions to Best Buy

Friday, November 18, 2016

At the beginning of October, we gave Canadians (and the world) a first glimpse into our new family of hardware, made by Google. And now we’re bringing a whole new way for shoppers to experience our products, courtesy of Google shops.

Today, Google Canada is thrilled to open four flagship Google shops in Calgary, Vancouver, Edmonton and Mississauga Best Buy locations.

At our new locations, guests will encounter everything they love about Google, all in one place -- from personalized tech help to hands-on workshops with YouTube stars and, most importantly, immersive and interactive experiences with the latest Google products like Pixel, Daydream View & Chromecast Ultra!

Earlier in October, we announced 10 smaller shops in Best Buy locations across the country - click here for locations. At the four new flagship shops opening today, we’ll offer:

One-on-one Help: Book 1:1 appointments with Google guides who can help you get the most out of your Google products & apps.

Product Workshops: Participate in ongoing workshops, from planning your holiday travel to getting personalized tech tips for the whole family.

Holidays Events (new!): Sign up for unique and fun holiday-themed events at our four larger shops, led by YouTube creators, popular tech experts, artists and more.

Comprised of nearly 700 square feet, our new shops focus on every detail. From the use of large open spaces with curved edges to the hand-picked colour palette, each design element evokes a warm playful feel.

When you visit our four new shops, make sure to try some of our one-of-a-kind experiences like Portal, a super-sized display that lets you ‘fly’ through Google Earth, explore what people around the world are searching for, and play with other fun Google apps. You’ll also get to go hands-on with our new hardware like Pixel, Daydream View and Chromecast Ultra in our ‘Experience Bays’, which are fully programmable spaces that will evolve and change as our products do.

With the holidays around the corner, timing couldn’t be more perfect to sign up for our first Holiday Event with The Sorry Girls, Canada’s DIY sweethearts. Hosted at our Google shops in Mississauga (December 3) and Vancouver (December 4), The Sorry Girls will teach you how to create fun holiday DIYs gifts for your loved ones, like customized ugly holiday sweaters, using Google tech. We’ll be announcing more workshops soon with other special guests -- see the full calendar of activities here.

So, stop by the Google shop and check out a few new things made by Google.

Now open in Mississauga (Heartland Town Centre, 6075 Mavis Rd), Calgary (Deerfoot Meadows, 8180 11 St. SE), Edmonton (South Edmonton Common, 9931 19 Ave NW), and Vancouver (2220 Cambie St.).

Follow the conversation with @GoogleCanada and #googleshop.

Happy holiday shopping!
Posted by Janell Fischer, Google Inc., Director of Retail Marketing

Google and YouTube can help keep you informed on U.S. Election Day

Monday, November 7, 2016

For our U.S. neighbours, it’s Election Day Eve -- the day before before millions of people across the U.S. will head to the polls and cast votes for their elected officials. Canadians watching this election closely can check Google to stay informed and get the latest information about election results.
Starting when the polls close on Election Day, you will be able to find U.S. election results integrated right into your Google searches in over 30 languages around the world. You’ll also be able to see detailed updates and results of the Presidential, Senatorial, Congressional, Gubernatorial races as well as state-level referenda and ballot propositions.

For the past several months, Google has helped people find information about the democratic process: our search results have helped voters register and explained the voting process with information on how to vote, who’s on their ballot, and how to find their local polling place in both English and Spanish. Since releasing these in-depth search results, we've seen millions of people engage with these tools on Google -- there's even been a startling 233% increase in traffic for "how to vote" compared with 2012. In addition to “how to vote,” Americans are actively searching for “where to vote” -- particularly in battleground states, as depicted in these county-by-county breakdowns:

Over the past few weeks viewers spent over 20 million hours watching - and rewatching - the presidential debate live streams on YouTube. Tomorrow, YouTube will be live streaming election results coverage from more news organizations than ever before. Starting at 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday, November 8, tune in to live coverage from NBC, PBS, MTV, Bloomberg, Telemundo and The Young Turks to keep up with all of the action as it happens. Complex News will also be delivering live coverage during a special election event from YouTube Space NY. And to close out YouTube’s #voteIRL campaign, creators and fans have been posting their #voteIRL selfie to mark that they’re going to vote. And tune in to some special voting reminder PSAs starring POTUS and some familiar-looking furry friends. Screen Shot 2016-11-04 at 3.56.34 PM.png

Screen Shot 2016-11-04 at 3.56.34 PM.png

Whether you plan to host an Election Night watch party, or live stream the victory speech from America’s new President-Elect, we’re here to help. We hope Google’s tools help guide you through Election Day in a simple, clear and informative way.

Daydream View coming to stores November 10th

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Last month, we announced Daydream View, a comfortable and easy-to-use virtual reality headset and controller powered by any Daydream-ready phone. It will be available November 10th on the Google Store and at Bell, Rogers, Telus and Best Buy locations in Canada for $99 (CAD).
With Daydream View and a Daydream-ready phone like Pixel, you’ll be able to kick back in your personal cinema, explore new worlds and get in the game like never before. Take a look at some of the experiences that’ll be coming to Daydream over the next few weeks:
Your Personal Cinema
YouTube VR: Watch the entire library of videos on a virtual big screen and experience immersive VR videos from top creators.

Google Play Movies: Enjoy thousands of popular movies and TV shows in your own virtual theatre.

INVASION!: An award-winning VR animation narrated by Ethan Hawke that invites you to become part of the story. A pair of bumbling aliens, Mac and Cheze, plan to invade our Earth, but instead, they are thwarted by the cuddliest animals on the planet.

Explore New Worlds
Star Chart VR: From the Sun to the smallest moons of Saturn and out to the coldest, darkest, farthest reaches of Pluto, explore the solar system in a beautiful and accurate real-time space simulation.

The Wall Street Journal VR: See breaking news and analysis in a whole new way with a real-time interactive market data visualization and interactive 360-degree videos.

Street View: Visit over 70 countries and experience 150 handcrafted tours of the world's most amazing places. You can also search to explore your hometown and everywhere else.

The Guardian VR: Step into the shoes of an urban explorer and discover the hidden labyrinth of London's Underworld - a subterranean web of Victorian sewers and lost waterways that lie active, deep beneath of one of the world's most famous cities.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: Wave a wand to explore the magic of Newt’s case, cast spells and solve puzzles to explore the world of the film in this VR experience.

NYT VR: The New York Times will premiere three exclusive films in the Daydream app in its first month, including The Creators: Rob Pruitt. It follows Pruitt on a typical day in his life, with a visit to IKEA in Brooklyn where he purchases 27 plush pandas that’s a signature in his artwork.

Get in the Game
Danger Goat: One runaway goat, hundreds of dastardly traps in his way. Guide, slide and catapult the goat to freedom in this all-new VR puzzle game.

Hunters Gate: Blast your way through the town of Hunters Gate as you defend it from demon invasion - then take the fight to the demons by invading their home world.

Wonderglade: Magically teleport to an ever growing theme park where you can enjoy carnival-themed classic games such as Tiny Tee Golf and Tip N Tilt Racing.

Gunjack 2: End of Shift: With a formidable arsenal at your disposal, live the life of a Gunjack, protecting the Kubera and its precious cargo from the bandits trying to blow the rig apart!

Mekorama: Help a tiny robot stumble home through 50 puzzling mechanical dioramas.

Need for Speed: No Limits VR: Race for dominance in the first Need for Speed title made for VR. Launch yourself between chaos and control as you hit the loud pedal and roll into underground car culture.

Home Run Derby: Hit monster home runs and get crowned as your favorite MLB Home Run Derby All-Star.

From hitting bat-breaking homeruns to journeying to the rings of Saturn, immerse yourself in high quality, mobile VR with Daydream View. Mark your calendar today for November 10th and follow us on Twitter and Google+ to get the latest on new apps and games coming to Daydream.
Posted By Mike Jazayeri, Director of Product Management, Google VR

Official Canada Blog

Meet Canada’s Next YouTube Stars!

Google invests $4.5 Million in Montreal AI Research

OK Google. Give me directions to Best Buy

Google and YouTube can help keep you informed on U.S. Election Day

Daydream View coming to stores November 10th

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