Google Product Helping Blog

From your watch to your phone to your TV, we want to help you stay connected, entertained and informed across all your screens. Today we�re introducing a few new things that do just that: two Nexus phones, a tablet for work and play, updates to Chromecast and features for some of your favorite apps�all working together to make your day a little bit easier and more fun. New Nexus phones We made Android to be an open platform that anyone can build on, and today there are 4,000+ Android devices in all shapes and sizes. Android�s diversity is why it�s become the most popular mobile platform in the world, and the latest version, Marshmallow , takes Android to a new level of performance. While we love all the Android devices out there, every year we build Nexus devices to show off the latest and greatest, directly from the people who built Android. Today we�re introducing the latest Nexus treats, both running Marshmallow, sweetened by amazing apps and sandwiched by some cutting-edge hardwar...

Converting a liquor store into a community-based learning and tutoring center. Providing millions of dollars of 0% interest loans to small businesses. Breaking the poverty- to-prison cycle by building a residential alternative to prison for young adults. This is just a sampling of the big ideas that local nonprofits submitted for our second annual Google Impact Challenge: Bay Area . Today, after reviewing hundreds of submissions, we�re unveiling 10 finalists chosen together with our panel of advisors �a group that includes the San Francisco Chronicle�s Editor-in-Chief Audrey Cooper, The Golden State Warriors� Harrison Barnes, The San Francisco Giants� Hunter Pence, and CEO of the San Francisco Foundation, Fred Blackwell. Representing San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Santa Clara, San Mateo and more, these organizations span the Bay Area. Learn more about these groups and their ideas for change: This year, finding and funding new ideas will be just one part of the Google Impact Challeng...

At the Bronx Latin School in New York City, teacher Katrina Roman says the topic of ancient history doesn�t usually set students abuzz. But this week, they took a field trip to ancient Mayan ruins using Google Expeditions, a virtual reality teaching tool built with Google Cardboard. Normally, their assignment would involve poring over photocopied photographs, but instead, they stood at the top of Chichen Itza, then examined detailed carvings at Tenochtitlan. Amid �oohs� and �aahhs,� the students shouted out details they noticed and shot hands up to answer Ms. Roman�s questions. Katrina Roman�s class at the Bronx Latin School fills out their assignment after visiting Aztec ruins with Expeditions. The class is part of a history and geography pilot with New Visions for Public Schools . Starting today, we�re bringing this experience to thousands of schools around the world with the new Expeditions Pioneer Program . During the 2015/2016 school year, we�ll be bringing �kits� containing ever...

When I was a student, I relished the day-long railway journey I would make from Chennai Central station (then known as Madras Central) to IIT Kharagpur . I vividly remember the frenetic energy at the various stations along the way and marveled at the incredible scale and scope of Indian Railways . Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Googleplex today I�m very proud to announce that it�s the train stations of India that are going to help get millions of people online. In the past year, 100 million people in India started using the Internet for the first time. This means there are now more Internet users in India than in every country in the world aside from China. But what's really astounding is the fact that there are still nearly one billion people in India who aren�t online. We�d like to help get these next billion Indians online�so they can access the entire web, and all of its information and opportunity. And not just with any old connection�with fast broadband so they can expe...

Even if you weren�t trying to keep up with all your fall shows returning, this week was a busy one. Here�s a look at what captured our attention the past seven days�from the Pope to a little rat with a big dream. Also, we�re changing up this series, so this will be our last regular Friday post for a while. We�ll be back soon in a different format. Until then, keep on searchin� on. Pizza rat is all of us Let�s start with the important stuff. This week the Internet was captivated by a YouTube video showing a rat carrying a slice of pizza down the stairs of a New York subway station. There were more than 50K+ searches for �Pizza Rat� on Monday, and the 14 second-video has more than 6 million views at last count. But while #PizzaRat memes multiplied across the web, New Yorkers had some more unsettling questions in mind, like: �How many rats are in New York?� and �What is the rat to people ratio in New York?� (Are you sure you want to know?) Whether Pizza Rat is a hero or a quitter , so...

Mariette DiChristina is the Editor in Chief and senior vice president of Scientific American �the first woman to hold the role in the magazine's 170-year history. She has been a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science since 2011 and served as president of the National Association of Science Writers in 2009 and 2010. She joins us here today to share her perspective on the Google Science Fair, which is in its fifth edition this year. -Ed. This marks my fifth year with the Google Science Fair . In October 2010, when I had my first conversations with my friends at Google about their idea to create a global online science fair that any kid 13�18 could participate in, I thought it sounded pretty cool. But I couldn�t then imagine just how inspiring and powerful such a competition would turn out to be in reality. At the time, I hadn�t even been editor in chief of Scientific American for a year, but I had real ambitions to try to do something to make a difference i...

Another week flown by�sometimes the pace is enough to make you need a dislike button . Here�s a look at the past seven days as seen through Google Search: Tick tock A 14-year-old teenager named Ahmed Mohamed found himself in the spotlight this week, with searches for his name soaring above 500K. Mohamed, who lives in Texas and is Muslim, was arrested on Monday after he brought a clock that he�d made himself to school and it was mistaken for a bomb. In the days that followed, thousands of people expressed their support for Mohamed online with the hashtag #IStandwithAhmed, and he received invitations to visit the White House, MIT, Facebook�and yes, even Google. As more and more people heard about the story, they turned to search with questions like �What did Ahmed�s clock look like?� and �What was Obama�s response to Ahmed�s clock?� Nature�s ways California has been battling brutal wildfires this year, as the drought has dried up fields and forests across the state. Last week�s Butte Fi...

My name is Rita Masoud and I am a refugee. I was born in war-torn Kabul, Afghanistan. When I was seven, my family and I fled to Europe with our belongings in a single suitcase, hoping for a safer and better future. Our journey involved many dark train and bus rides, as well as hunger, thirst, cold and fear. Fortunately, we received asylum in The Netherlands, where I grew up in a safe environment and was able to find my way in life. Today, I work for Google in California. I was lucky. But as the refugee and migrant crisis has grown, many people like my family are desperate for help. Last week, Google announced a �1 million (~$1.1 million) donation to organizations who are providing front-line humanitarian relief to refugees and migrants around the world. Today, we're inviting you to join us . To double the impact of your contribution, we�ll match the first �5 million (~$5.5 million) in donations globally, until together we raise �10 million (~$11 million) for relief efforts. Your do...

Today for the first time, we�re releasing Street View imagery of Kenya �including the Samburu National Reserve, Lewa Wildlife Conservancy and the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust�in partnership with Save the Elephants and with the support of the Samburu County Government . We'll let Save the Elephants' David Daballen take it from here . -Ed. It�s a wild life at the Save the Elephants research camp in Samburu, in the heart of northern Kenya�s wilderness. For the last 15 years at Save the Elephants, I�ve spent my days among the elephants, working alongside my fellow Samburu people to study and protect them. Research shows that 100,000 elephants across Africa were killed for their ivory between 2010-2012, but thanks to our work in the Samburu National Reserve their numbers are now slowly increasing. Today, a visit to Samburu is a chance not only to see these magnificent creatures in their natural habitat, but also discover a uniquely beautiful landscape where people�s lives are i...