Its scary when you realize How much google knows about you!!!

Google is the company that provides a ton of free services which help us in our day-to-day life. And in return, Google asks for basic information about us so that it can use it for advertising. But do you have any idea of how much Google really knows about you. When you realize it, it may scare you.

                                                  
First and foremost, the amount of information Google keeps about your location is shocking. “Google stores your location (if you have it turned on) every time you turn on your phone, and you can see a timeline from the first day you started using Google on your phone.”.

Google also stores your search history across all your devices on a separate database. Even if a user deletes their search history and phone history, Google will still store everything until a user goes and deletes everything, and this has to be done on all devices.

 In terms of advertisements, Google creates a profile based on a user’s information, including their location, gender, age, hobbies, career, interests, relationship status, possible weight and income as well.

For every Google app or extension you see, the company stores information on how often you use them, where you use them, and who you use them to interact with. It also keeps a track with who you talk to on Facebook, what countries are you speaking with and what time you go to sleep at. One of Google’s most popular app YouTube, stores every possible search history of a user. Google can tell you “whether you're going to be a parent soon, if you're a conservative, if you're a progressive, if you're Jewish, Christian, or Muslim, if you're feeling depressed or suicidal, if you're anorexic.”

With the Calendar app, Google stores a user’s hangout sessions, location history, the music you listen to, the Google books you've purchased, the Google groups you're in, the websites you've created, the phones you've owned, the pages you've shared and how many steps you walk in a day.

With Google offers you an option to download all of the data it stores about you. Curran requested to download it too. He says, “The file is 5.5GB big, which is roughly 3 million word documents.” This will include bookmarks, emails, contacts, Google Drive files, all of the above information, your YouTube videos, the photos you've taken on your phone, the businesses you've bought from and the products you've bought through Google as well.

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Google launches "Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL" here's everything you need to know.

Google unveiled second generation of its Pixel smartphone - Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL – priced at 649$ & 849$ respectively.

 

First the vital stats. The Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL both run Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835 processors, 4 GB of RAM and either 64 or 128 GB of storage, and unlike last year's phone, are water and dust resistant. The Pixel 2's 5-inch screen measures 1920x1080 pixels, and the 6-incher on the XL gives you a whopping 2880x1440. Both are OLED screens, which offer deeper blacks and a more dynamic picture. They charge via USB-C, but don't have wireless charging—Google felt the tech doesn't charge fast enough yet. In general, they're top-notch, high-end, bleeding-edge, super-good smartphones. They'd better be, for the price: the Pixel 2 starts at $649 and you'll spend at least $849 for the XL.

The Pixels each come in a couple of colors: Clearly White, Just Black, and Kinda Blue for the smaller model, and Just Black and Black & White for the larger. The Black & White might be the best-looking model of all, with a black glass stripe at the top, an all-white aluminum body, and a loud orange power button. Both are cleaner and slimmer than last year's devices, with a small camera hump on the back and a slightly concave fingerprint reader.

Both phones are identical in theory, but the XL looks much more impressive. The smaller Pixel 2 has big black spaces above and below the screen, to accommodate Google's design ethos and the two stereo speakers on the front. Next to the Note 8, iPhone X, or Galaxy S8, the huge bezels just look old. The XL's bezels are smaller, rounded, and better integrated with the rest of the device. It's a much better look. The larger phone feels better, too, with a slimmer edge and a rounded P-OLED screen that bends toward the side of the phone.

 

 The devices, which will compete in the premium segment with devices like Apple's iPhone 8 and X as well as Samsung's Note 8, will be available in five other markets including the US, the UK and Australia. Google said that with Pixel, it has "created the world's best smartphone camera".

 "Pixel 2 is loaded with a better camera that not only lets you take great pictures but helps you understand the world around you; a battery that lasts all day; and an Assistant that helps you get more done," it said in a statement.

During the launch event, Google also demonstrated Google Lens a new set of visual features that builds on Google's advancements in computer vision and machine learning.

 Google has applied its search know-how in intriguing ways. Snap a picture of an album cover, and it will offer various useful links, including to YouTube in case you want to hear a track. Taking a picture of a book cover can link you to reviews. That's arguably more useful than the shopping links or place identifications at which Bixby Vision excels.

 

Google has also made “Motion Photos,” which seem like an answer to Apple's moving “Live Photos.” In fact, they seem almost identical, but it's a nice feature to have for Android.

Google has added “Active Edge” to the Pixel 2, which lets you squeeze your phone to activate Google's voice assistant. It's not a horrible idea, it works, at least in demos but I am curious as to how often Assistant triggers while sliding into tight pockets on skinny jeans or other tight spots. There is a setting on the phone that lets you set how firm a grip you want to use to trigger Assistant, so that may help prevent AI mishaps. Squeezing is also supposed to work through cases, which is another point that will require further testing.

Also, just a year after making fun of Apple for ditching the headphone jack, Google has ditched the headphone jack for the Pixel 2. I overheard a Google demonstrator actually apologize to a member of the media for that the explanation for getting rid of it is that it gives you more space in the phone for other components.

Both phones have all-metal bodies with the exception of a glass “visor” at the back. The back of the phone also houses the fingerprint reader.

To sum it up, both are an impressive set of phones, even in the absence of anything completely spectacular. The features Google has added aren't groundbreaking, but they are thoughtful and at least in the demos work as intended. It may not rock your world, but it seems it will make it easier to get through the day.

Pixel 2 has set a new standard for Android phones. You can preorder it in the link.

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Google Adds Emergency Location Feature to its Phone App for Android Users

Google Adds Emergency Location Feature to its Phone App for Android Users

Google has added a new safety feature that will help people in case of emergency. Google has added “Emergency Location Feature” to Phone App of Android Users. This is a very useful feature when you call an emergency number like 911, a location card will now appear on your screen containing necessary information. This information will include your current address along with a small map as well as your exact coordinates which will help in getting the location for the emergency service provider.

 This feature will helpful in a case when you get injured and need help, but don’t know exactly where you are. Thus when you make emergency call all essential location info will pop up which you can provide it to the emergency service provider on your exact location.

 

The new update has a very nifty feature for when you are in a jam — if you happen to be calling 911 (or whatever the emergency number for your current country is), your phone will give you a very useful card, showing you your current location by address, coordinates, and also a Google Maps pin.

After all, if you happen to witness a horrible road accident, your first reaction would be to call 911(or other emergency nos according to your location), not check Google Maps for your exact location. Good on Google for adding such a useful and potentially life-saving feature to improve coordination between emergency callers and staff. The irony is not lost on us that this update happens to come on the heels of OnePlus 5 users discovering that dialing 911 causes their own phones to crash.

 Along with this feature, the latest Phone update brings call waiting improvements and other bug fixes that should improve performance and stability. Currently, this update is available on Pixel, Nexus, Android One, or Google Play Edition smartphone.

Currently, this feature is available only for Android users. You can download the app from Google Play Store. Phone

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.dialer&hl=en

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Google has officially started killing “Google Now”

Today Google has officially started killing “Google Now”  however it’s not getting rid of the functionality. Last December Google introduced a new “feed experience” as part of Google Now, which featured topics in one tab and a second tab for personal information and updates, such as travel plans and meetings. In the rollout today, (Google app for Android and iOS) that two-tab structure is preserved, but the feed is becoming richer and more controllable. Google, the world's largest search engine and a unit of Alphabet Inc, said the changes would begin rolling out in the United States on Wednesday and other countries in the coming weeks.

 

The new offering is called "Google Feed," a name that may conjure comparisons to Facebook's "News Feed," a feature on Facebook used to browse updates from friends, family and other sources. It is rolling out its take on news feed which is a personalized stream of articles, videos, and various other content. The feed items are drawn from your search history and topics you choose to follow, is designed to turn Google’s app into a destination for browsing as well as search. Google is hoping you’ll or check it throughout the day for quick hits of news and information.

 

Google previewed its new feed in December, when it introduced the feature to its Android app.

With the introduction of the feed, the Google Now brand is going away, and the updates it used to contain are moving to a secondary tab called updates to your interests. In a demo at Google’s offices in San Francisco on Tuesday, a product manager’s feed included articles about the Oakland Athletics, a trending article about the Tour de France, and a 10-month old blog post about a classical musician who she had previously seen in concert.

 

In most feeds, a 10-month-old blog post would appear stale and unwelcome. Google says it’s a sign of the company’s strengths — it can reach into the long tail of articles on the web, and surface them to audiences that missed them the first time around whereas Facebook and Twitter give priority to latest updates;

You can customize the feed by tapping the three dots on top of each card. From there you can follow a subject or share the item on other social networks. You can also tell Google you’re “done with this story” and avoid seeing future updates, or tell it you don’t want to see any more articles from a particular publisher. You can’t follow individual publishers today, but publishers will surely clamor for it, and Google told me it will consider adding that feature eventually.

For now, Google says there won’t be ads in the feed, although I imagine it would love to put them there eventually. Google is an ad business and it’s running out of places to put new ads on m

But with each passing year, we have had fewer reasons to open the Google app. Native apps from Facebook, Amazon, Apple, and others command more of our attention, making us less likely to begin our queries at the search bar. More recently, Siri, Alexa, and Cortana have been built into our device hardware, allowing us to bypass Google and search with our voice.

Viewed in that light, a Google feed was all but inevitable. Google has very successfully transitioned to mobile, which wasn’t a foregone conclusion. Now it wants to give users more reasons to check-in daily and new pathways into search. It’s not clear how widely Now was being used by the bulk of Google’s mobile audience.

While it may not seem like a huge update — depending on how much you use the Google app, you may not even notice the new feed at first (it will also be available on Pixel phones via the Pixel launcher) — Google clearly has big plans for the feature.

Beyond the mobile app experience, Google said that it would be bringing the feed to the desktop version of the Chrome in the near future, though it didn’t show that off. I’m imagining it as the reincarnation of iGoogle, a personalized start page that was shuttered in 2012 — the same year Now was introduced. The question is how quickly Google can improve it — and whether its users, whose lives are already dominated by feeds, will make room for another one.

 

 

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Relive places you visited with google maps

Relive places you visited with google maps

Here we go, google maps is an awesome app for not only navigation but it has various other features. On contrary some privacy advocates may say that enabling location settings on phones may enable google to track your location, but believe me it has various good stuffs to offer to outweigh the concerns. You can use Google Maps to view your exact travel paths of any day on map, which is kind of pretty cool.

 

Lets start with how to turn location on/off, both android and ios are slightly different so I am posting both for your information.

 

Android

On Android devices, you have to go to the Settings app. Tap on the all apps icon at the center and then tap on Settings.

 

 

Scroll down and you will have to go to Personal section, first item will be Location. You will see  ON / High accuracy if it is enabled.



Tap on this and you’ll now be able to turn off location history for this particular device. If you notice, there is another option called Google Location History.



If you tap on this option, you’ll see a list of all your enabled devices and you can disable location history for entire account.

iPhone

In case of an iPhone, there are a couple of ways to go about changing this setting. The easiest way is to simply open Google Maps and then tap on the hamburger icon at the very top left. Then tap on Settings towards the bottom of the menu. Scroll down to Location History and tap on that

 
You can now change the setting here for the whole account. If you have Google search app installed on your phone, you can go there, tap on your email at the top left, then tap on Privacy, and then on Location



Here you can manage Location History and Location Reporting, which are two different features.

View Google Maps Timeline

OK, so now for the reliving places you have been to or actual fun part! To view your timeline, simply visit the maps timeline link. You should have logged in using the same account which will take you to the screen as shown below.

The first thing you’ll notice is the large map in the center with a bunch of red dots. Each one of these drops corresponds to a trip you have made. If you double-click on the red dot, you’ll be brought to that specific time period and you’ll see the route traveled.

I would like to thank Kishore for his inputs in publishing this article.

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