Official Google Canada Blog

Google Canada's #YearInSearch: 2018

Wednesday, December 12, 2018

We searched to cheer. We searched to celebrate. We searched to give back.

In 2018, Canadians searched for updates from half a world away as Tessa and Scott skated into Canadian hearts and the Olympic record books in Pyeongchang. We asked Google "How to make a fascinator?" as we watched Prince Harry and Meghan Markle tie the knot. We wanted to know "How to donate?" when the Humboldt Broncos bus tragedy shook the nation. Through the highs and the lows, people came to Search in 2018 to learn more, and to understand.

You can check out the complete lists from Canada and around the globe at google.ca/2018. And here are the top 10 Google Searches in Canada for 2018: 1. World Cup
2. Winter Olympic Games
3. Humboldt Broncos
4. Anthony Bourdain 5. Kate Spade
6. Mac Miller
7. Winnipeg Jets
8. Black Panther
9. Avicii
10. Demi Lovato

Sports dominated Canada’s Year in Search in 2018. Global competitions brought the world - and Canada together - as we turned to Google for updates on the World Cup and the Winter Olympics. Canada’s enduring love of all things hockey was reflected as searches for the Winnipeg Jets spiked across the country during their playoff run. And the will he? / won’t he? contract saga of William Nylander helped land the young Toronto Maple Leafs among the top trending athletes of the year.

In entertainment, Black Panther pounced on the box office and Google search activity, while the release of Bohemian Rhapsody sent Canadians searching for footage of 1985’s Live Aid concert and Queen frontman Freddie Mercury. Meanwhile, the top trending Canadian in this year’s list of musicians was Quebecois singer Hubert Lenoir who was shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize.

From the heartbreak of losing Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade to the heroes of the cave rescue in Thailand, the 2018 Year in Search reflects back to Canadians another eventful twelve months through the lens of Google Search. So, before we jump into another year, take a moment to look back at the searches that captured our attention and our hearts in 2018.

Posted by Tatiana Gianini, Google Trends Expert

Surprise, baby - it’s YouTube Rewind 2018!

Thursday, December 6, 2018

danced our hearts out to DrakeTo Our Daughterjumped out of a helicoptermakeup tutorial seriessolved the internet’s latest mysterytook a DIY approachserious Fortnite dance moveshared the news of their breakupMeghan and Harryblasted into spaceCanada’s Top Trending Videos

To Our Daughter

we broke up

Do You Hear "Yanny" or "Laurel"? (SOLVED with SCIENCE)

Paul McCartney Carpool Karaoke

Walmart yodeling kid

Deadpool, meet Cable

The Royal Wedding 2018: Prince Harry and Miss Meghan Markle

Falcon Heavy Test Flight

FORTNIGHT DANCE CHALLENGE! - (In Real Life)

2018 US Open Highlights: Serena Williams’ dispute overshadows Naomi Osaka’s final win | ESPN

Canada’s Top Music Videos

Maroon 5 - Girls Like You ft. Cardi B

Drake - God's Plan

Childish Gambino - This Is America (Official Video)

Bruno Mars - Finesse (Remix) [Feat. Cardi B] [Official Video]

Ariana Grande - no tears left to cry

Post Malone - Psycho ft. Ty Dolla $ign

Cardi B, Bad Bunny & J Balvin - I Like It [Official Music Video]

Drake - Nice For What

Lil Dicky - Freaky Friday feat. Chris Brown (Official Music Video)

Dua Lipa - IDGAF (Official Music Video)

Rewind siteposted by Nicole Bell, YouTube Canada

Live from the North Pole: what's new at Santa's Village

Tuesday, December 4, 2018

Santa’s VillageEntertain yours-elf with a new game🧝
With our Elf Maker, you can customize an elf from head to toe to make sure they’re stylin’ for all of the holiday shindigs happening on the North Pole this year. Choose an outfit, accessories, hairstyle, and even facial hair to add some flair to your little friend.

Giving you a better way to follow Santa 📍
One of the hardest parts about being married to Santa is that he always forgets to let me know where he is. This year, I’ve enlisted our elite team of cartographelves to let everyone know where he is as soon as he takes off from the North Pole. In the days leading up to Christmas, Santa will share his location with you on Google Maps so you can see his travels as he moves across the map. Follow along with him there or on our Santa Tracker dashboard on December 24—so you don’t miss his visit.

Going global for the holiday season 🌎
From beaches to blizzards, you can get a better glimpse into how people all over the world are spending the holidays. You’ll see holiday photos from Local Guides and you can test your knowledge of holiday traditions with a festive quiz powered by Google Earth and Street View. Curious about how to say “Season’s Greetings” or “Happy New Year” in other languages? Check out our Translations game to take your snowmenclature to new heights.

Santa’s Village tell you a holiday storyiOSAndroidSanta Tracker Android App

From the Claus family to yours, have a very happy holiday. And remember: you’re sleighing it. 👊

Posted by Mrs. Claus, VP of Product, Santa's Village and Santa Tracker

Introducing new Google Assistant experiences for families

Wednesday, November 28, 2018

The Wiggles - Choose your own adventure with Emma Available in English only. CBC Kids News Available in English only. Boukili Audio TFOAvailable in French only. Call Santa Available in English only. Hatchimals Character Alarms - coming in 2019! Coming soon, from Spin Master, families can ask the Assistant on their Google Home to set a Hatchimals alarm and bring a dose of EGGcitement to their daily routine! The alarms feature Hatchimals music along with fun facts, jokes, challenges, and words of inspiration from Penguala, Draggle, Cheetree, and Puppit,- the heroes of “Adventures in Hatchtopia,” a new short-form animated series available on YouTube Kids! Just say “Hey Google, set a Hatchimals alarm.” Available in English only.
Below are additional experiences for families—just start with “Hey Google.” Play 👯

"Play Lucky Trivia for Families”

“Play Musical Chairs”

“Play Freeze Dance”

“Let’s play a game”

Learn 📖

“Tell me a story”

“Help me with my homework”

“Tell me a fun fact”

“How do you say “Let’s have crêpes for breakfast” in French?”

“What does a whale sound like?” (try other animals!)

“What does a guitar sound like?” (try other instruments!)

Entertain 🌟

“Give me a random challenge”

“Sing a song for me”

“Give me a tongue twister”

“Tell me a joke”

Perfect for the Holidays 🎄

“Tell me a Santa joke”

“What's your favourite Christmas cookie?”

“Tell me a holiday fact”

Family Link
Posted by Lilian Rincon, Product Management Director, Google Assistant

See the light with Night Sight

Wednesday, November 14, 2018

professional photos

iPhone XS with SmartHDR (left), and Pixel 3 with Night Sight (right).
Why photography is difficult at night How Night Sight works

Night Sight can capture more light when Pixel and the scene are still. Photo by Narayan Hegde (Pixel 3, Night Sight).

Night Sight is robust to moderate levels of hand shake and scene motion. It merges many dark but sharp photos into one bright photo

Night Sight uses a neural network to balance colours.
How and when to use Night Sight

Hold the camera steady. If you can, try propping it against a stable surface.

If you’re taking a photo of someone, ask them to hold still for a few seconds before and after you press the shutter button.

Try tapping on a bright edge to help your camera focus when taking photos in very dark conditions.

Make sure the camera lens is clean. It can accumulate oil from fingerprints, creating blurry and soft photos.

Avoid pointing your camera at bright light sources, which may cause unwanted reflections in your photo.

shared albumPosted by Alexander Schiffhauer, Product Manager, Computational Photography

Making it easier to control your data, directly in Google products

Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Today, we’re making it easier for you to make decisions about your data directly within the Google products you use every day, starting with Search. Without ever leaving Search, you can now review and delete your recent Search activity, get quick access to the most relevant privacy controls in your Google Account, and learn more about how Search works with your data.

Control your data, directly in the Google products you use every day When you use Google products, you generate data about your activity. For Search, this data includes the terms you search for, links you interact with and other information like your current location when you search.
Before today, if you were searching on Google and wanted to review or manage this data, the best way for you to do that would have been to visit your Google Account. Now, we’re bringing these controls to you – from directly within Search, you can review or delete your Search activity and quickly get back to finding what you were searching for.

We’re also providing quick access to the privacy controls in your Google Account that are most relevant as you use Search. For example, to control the ads you see when you search, we give you access to your Ad Settings. Additionally, you can access your Activity Controls to decide what information Google saves to your account and uses to make Search and other Google services faster, smarter and more useful.

If you want to learn more about what data is being generated as you use Google services and how we use data to improve your experience, you can now find a short video that helps explain this information.

We’re launching this improvement in Google Search on desktop and mobile web today, and in the Google app for iOS and Android in the coming weeks. Next year, we’ll expand this to Maps, followed by many other Google products. Having access to relevant and actionable privacy controls directly from the Google products you use every day is just one way that we are continuously working to build privacy that works for everyone.

Google Pixel 3. Make every day more extraordinary.

Tuesday, October 9, 2018

Pixel 3 and Pixel 3XL

Brilliant photos every time and super-charged selfies

Capture smiles, not blinks: A feature we call Top Shot uses AI to help you capture the perfect photo every time. When you take a motion photo, it captures alternate shots in HDR+, then recommends the best one—even if it’s not exactly when you hit the shutter, looking for those where everyone is smiling, with eyes open, and facing the camera. Top Shot automatically captures alternate shots in HDR+. If your timing wasn’t perfect, the camera will suggest a better one and give you the option to save it.

Get better zoom: When you zoom in on a phone camera, the image looks grainy. Super Res Zoom is a computational photography technique, traditionally used for astronomy and scientific imaging, that produces sharp details when you zoom.

No light; no problem: Pixel 3 lets you take natural-looking photos in dark surroundings, all without a flash. With Night Sight, coming soon to Pixel 3, you can take bright, detailed, colorful shots around the campfire, in a moonlit forest, or a selfie after you close out the bar.

No selfie stick required: Get everyone in the picture with Group Selfie, which gives you 184% more room in your photo for friends and scenery.

Look … no hands! Photobooth mode uses AI to recognize that when you’re smiling or making a funny expression, you’re ready for a selfie. It snaps the photo on its own so that you don’t need to reach for the shutter button—a good option for candids.

Even more stunning portraits, front and back: When you take photos in Portrait Mode, you can change the blurriness of the background, or change the part of the picture in focus, after the fact. Google Photos can also make the subject of your photo pop by leaving them in color, while changing the background to black and white.

Create and play: In Playground, you can make photos, selfies and videos come to life by adding your favorite superheroes, animated stickers and fun captions. In celebration of Marvel Studios’ 10 Year Anniversary, you’ll enjoy seeing the characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (exclusively on Pixel) react to each other and to you.

Super smooth video: When you want to capture something that won’t stop moving—think an adorable toddler or your new puppy—Motion Auto Focus will make sure your Pixel 3 camera stays in sharp focus automatically, as you record. And if you happen to be taking a selfie video while walking or moving around, Pixel 3 brings you front-facing video stabilization.

Unlimited storage for all of your photos and videos With Pixel 3, you can save all your favourite moments with free, unlimited photo and video storage in original resolution.1 It’s hassle-free, you don’t have to think about back-ups. Come back to Google Photos later and search for the beach photos you took on your Pixel 3, and they’ll pop right up.

Your AI-powered sidekick The AI in Pixel 3 enables new features that make your day-to-day actions simpler and easier.

If you want to know more about something you’re looking at, use Google Lens, built right into the Pixel 3 camera.2 To scan and translate text, find similar styles of clothing, or identify popular plants and animals, you can now long press in the Pixel 3 camera to easily open Lens. When you point your camera at information you want to remember or don’t feel like typing in—like a URL or QR code on a flyer or an email address on a business card—Google Lens suggests what to do next, like creating a new contact.

You can count on even more help across other apps too, including Gmail’s Smart Compose, now available for mobile on Pixel 3. Smart Compose suggests phrases in your emails so that you can draft them faster, on the go. Gboard, the keyboard built into your Pixel 3, will recommend GIFs, stickers, and more, to make your conversations fun and engaging. Both are available first in English.

Digital Wellbeing Our phones, while probably the most important tech in our lives, shouldn’t control our lives. So Digital Wellbeing, a suite of tools to help you find your own balance with technology, is built into Pixel 3. It includes a dashboard to help you understand how you spend time on your phone, the ability to set time limits on specific apps, and a new Wind Down mode to help you get to sleep at night by gently transitioning your display to a grayscale screen. When you don’t want to be bothered by rings or notifications, just flip to Shhh— an easy gesture that turns on Do Not Disturb and minimizes distractions.

Fast and wireless charging Pixel 3 comes with an 18 Watt fast charger in the box, which can give you up to 7 hours of use in 15 minutes of charging.3 With our AI-powered Adaptive Battery technique, Pixel 3 prioritizes battery power for your most important apps to make your phone last all day.

Alongside Pixel 3, we’re also introducing Pixel Stand, our new, Qi compliant wireless charger (sold separately). While charging in the Pixel Stand, your phone turns into a smart visual and audio experience powered by the Google Assistant. It answers your questions, plays music, helps you control smart home devices, transitions into a photo frame when idle, and much more. If you set an alarm, your screen will gently brighten over 15 minutes before your alarm goes off, mimicking the sunrise and helping you wake up naturally.

Pixel 3 is IP68 water and dust resistant and has a security chip custom-designed by Google called Titan M, making it the most secure phone we've built yet. Titan M enhances mobile security by protecting your unlock credentials, disk encryption, app data, and the integrity of the operating system code itself. Powered by Android 9 Pie, Pixel 3 comes with the latest Android operating system.

You can choose from two sizes - the 5.5” Pixel 3 and the 6.3” Pixel 3 XL - and three colours - Just Black, Clearly White, and Not Pink. Both have the exact same feature set and include high quality Pixel USB-C earbuds and a USB-C Digital to 3.5 mm headphone adapter in the box. Pixel 3 comes with dual front-firing speakers tuned by a GRAMMY-winning music producer to turn your phone into a powerful speaker. Customers who activate a Pixel 3 or Pixel 3 XL by December 31, 2018 can get 6-months of free YouTube Music Premium.

Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL will be available for pre-order on the Google Store starting today and for sale at Best Buy, Bell, Costco, Fido, Freedom, Koodo, Rogers, Telus, T-Booth, Videotron, Virgin Mobile, WirelessWave, Walmart, WoW Mobile in the coming weeks. The Pixel 5.5” 64GB will start at $999 (plus tax) and the Pixel 6.3” 64GB will start at $1129 (plus tax). The Pixel Stand will be available in November via the Google Store and select retail and carrier partners for $109 (plus tax).
1. Free, unlimited online original-quality storage for photos / videos uploaded from Pixel 3 to Google Photos through 1/31/2022, and those photos / videos will remain free at original quality. g.co/help/photostorage 2. For available Google Lens languages go to g.co/help/lens. Some Lens features require an internet connection. 3. Approximate battery life based on a mix of talk, data, standby, and use of other features, with always on display off and mobile hotspot off, according to a user profile as defined by Google. An active display or data usage will decrease battery life. Charging rates are based on use of the included charger. Charging time performance statistics are approximate. Actual results may vary.
Posted by Mario Queiroz, GM & VP, Pixel

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