Articles about Google

It has been an extraordinarily long time coming, but Google has finally decided to flip the switch on dark mode for Drive on the web.

Much like AI is at the moment, the spread of a dark mode option for apps and websites was something of a cultural and technological phenomenon a few years ago. Quite why it has taken Google such a long time to jump back on this particular bandwagon is anybody's guess, but dark mode will be welcomed by Google Drive users none the less. Here's what you need to know.

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Anyone using a third-party app to block ads on YouTube is likely to find that their viewing is interrupted. Google has announced that it is further clamping down on ad-blocking tools which are seen by many people as a handy way to avoid paying for YouTube Premium.

The company says that by blocking ads with apps that violate its terms of service, users are starving creators of an income stream and, of course, failing to line Google's pockets.

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As anticipated just last week, Google had started to properly roll out the updated version of Find My Device to Android users in the US and Canada.

Described as a "new, crowdsourced network of over a billion Android devices", Find My Device is comparable to the Find My device-locating system from Apple. Initially, there is support for locating phones and tablets -- including, in some instances, when they have no power or are offline -- but starting next month, third-party Bluetooth tracker tags will be made available as well.

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Aa a company synonymous with search and a love of AI, it is little surprise that Google is combining the two. But people familiar with the company’s plans suggest that AI-powered search features could have a price tag attached to them.

The move would be a first for Google as the company has never charged for any search product, and it could be a sign that ads are simply not bringing in enough money. It is something that has been described as a big change to its business model, but it is not clear if this is a sign of further search-related charges to come.

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Almost a year after it was first announced, Google is finally rolling out its offline Find My Device service for Android devices.

All but identical to Apple's Find My network, Google's offering not only makes it possible to track the location of Android handsets, but also includes support for third-party AirTag-style trackers. While the rollout appears to have started, for now it is only a beta; a full launch is imminent, however.

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It has been known for some time that Chrome's Incognito Mode is nowhere near as private as many people still believe it to be. Despite assumptions made -- largely due to strong suggestions -- Google was able to collect private browsing data and has faced lawsuits as a result.

As part of a class action settlement, the company has agreed to delete "billions of data points" despite having previously said that this was not possible. The change of heart means that Google should be able to avoid a damages payout in the billions of dollars.

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Despite them being widely publicized, Google and Yahoo's new email rules still risk catching out many businesses.

New research from EasyDMARC finds that, despite the email providers warning customers that failure to implement the DMARC security standard could lead to diminishing email deliverability, only 37 percent of IT decision-makers have rolled out the security measure.

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The European Commission announced today that it has opened non-compliance investigations against Apple, Alphabet, and Meta. The three companies make up one half of six gatekeeper companies under the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

So-called gatekeepers have a strong position in a market, which may give them an unfair advantage over competing platforms and services. Platforms such as Windows, Google Android, and iOS are gatekeepers, but so are YouTube, Google Search, Google Ads, Chrome, or Safari. The full list of gatekeepers is available here.

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Microsoft -- yes, Microsoft -- is set to address an issue that has plagued the look of text in Chrome running on Windows 10 and Windows 11. While this is not a problem that affects everyone, there are large numbers of people who have long-complained about strange-looking fonts in Google's web browser.

The font troubles stem from a font rending incompatibility which Microsoft is finally getting around to fixing. The ClearType Tuner of Windows is ignored by Chrome, but Microsoft's tweaks mean that the browser rendering will be noticeably improved.

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Google Chrome users may once again enforce dark mode support for web content in the web browser. The feature has been in the making for a long time. Sofia talked about it more than five years ago here on BetaNews.

While Google did add support for a dark Chrome interface in the past, it never rolled out the option to display darker versions of webpages.

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This time last year, Google announced a series of new features for Google Maps which it said would be rolling out in the months that followed. While most saw the light of day, others started to feel like vaporware -- notably, the intriguing "glanceable directions".

A full 12 months on, the glanceable directions feature is finally being made available to iOS and Android users. It shows directions on the lock screen of a handset, so there's no need to constantly unlock the device for updates.

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Google and Reddit have "expanded and deepened" their existing partnership in a deal that will give the search giant near-unfettered access to content posted on the site. As well as helping users to find Reddit content via the search engine, the move also means that Redditor's posts will be used to train Google's AI models.

Reddit says that in giving Google access to it Data API, it will be "easier to discover and access the communities and conversations people are looking for". It is being pushed by both companies as a way of promoting the "open internet", but it is something that is proving conversial.

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If you use any of Google’s multitude of services, you will almost certainly have noticed notifications in recent weeks about a new look that is "coming soon". This may well have piqued your interested, and now Google has revealed what all the fuss is about.

A new sign in page (and sign up page) is now rolling out to not only Google Workspace, but also personal Google accounts -- so you will see it when signing into your Gmail account, for instance. What you can expect is, as per usual, a cleaner, "more modern" look.

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Last year, the Chromium Project -- a Google-backed open source browser project -- released its roadmap for building a safer, faster, and more stable Internet, containing recommendations to reduce the lifespan of Transport Layer Security (TLS) certificates from 398 days to 90. This was a starting gun to the industry. As the operator of Chrome, Google has the power to enforce shorter validity periods by making them a requirement -- which will likely become the de facto standard across all browsers soon after.  

When these changes come into force, every business that uses TLS certificates -- i.e. every business that connects services with the internet -- will be impacted. TLS certificates are machine identities, they enable systems to talk to each other securely over the internet. If they are not reissued or replaced before they expire, the service they are connecting stops working. This results in hugely costly outages, disruption, and increased security risks -- and it’s something that everyone has experienced with their browser through a 'can’t connect to untrusted site- error.  

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Microsoft has fixed a puzzling issue in the latest version of its Edge web browser. Some users reported that Microsoft Edge was importing open tabs from Google Chrome automatically on their devices about two weeks ago.

While Microsoft Edge does have a preference to do so, the users claimed that the preference was set to off on their devices.

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