Tag Archives: google news

Tech

Google’s Latest “Hum To Search” Feature

Leave a comment

Introduction:

Google has launched a new feature to its search tool named “Hum to Search” feature that will let you hum or sing a song that is stuck in your head and you can’t find its name. With this tool, you can easily identify the name and lyrics of that particular song which keeps irritating you. The machine learning techniques make this tool efficient in finding that song in Google’s database.

Also read: Best Budget True Wireless Earbuds


On 15th, October, Google announced their “hum to search” feature and it is now available in Google App of both, iOS and Android versions or even in Google assistant.
You can simply go to the Google search engine and click on its voice option, ask the Google “What is this song?” then hum the song which is stuck in your head while the rest of the work will be done by machine-algorithm itself. Voila, Google will find that song.


According to Google, this feature works by a machine-learning algorithm that transforms the audio into a binary sequence that eventually represents the melody of the song which then compares to the songs existing in its database.

You don’t have to be an amazing singer for using this feature. In addition to this, even if your singing skills are worse and your friends tell you that their ear bleeds every time you sing, it doesn’t matter!
As this tool is solely designed on the number-sequence of the melody, if you got the melody right, Google will find it for you.


Google also said that they have experimented on a variety of sources including humans singing, whistling while removing the background musical instruments but the results remain the same.


Even if you were off-pitch, this feature will surely find the song for you.
The latest “Hum to Search” feature is now available in more than 20 different languages on the Android version. However, for the iOS version, it is only available in the English Language.

Future Plans:


The Tech Company gave hints of their upcoming plans as they stated that more languages will be added for this feature in the near future.

Tech

Google’s “Search On” Event – Waiting For The Reveal Of A Mysterious Surprise

Leave a comment

Keeping aside the latest topic in the Tech world – Apple’s iPhone 12 launch, another hot news has been making rounds and rounds on social media, and that is released by Google itself- “Search On” event.
If you’re an active social media user then I’m certain that you would have heard of it. However, even if you have not then let me allow to brief you a bit about it. On Thursday, October 15th at 12 PM PT / 3 PM ET, Google will be holding a live-stream event in which they will be announcing the latest ways through which Google is harnessing the power of AI to help people all around the world.


Due to the Covid-19 situation, Google has previously canceled its I/O launch even after making several announcements. Instead of this, the legendary organization is now focusing on improving its search-related features and has handed out several invitations for a live event named “Search On” which will be hosted both on YouTube and on the official Search On website.

Until now, the company has kept everything a surprise and has only teased the audience by releasing a statement from which we know that the main focus of the event will be on the power and use of AI and search.
They only shared an explanatory quote attached to the Google Calendar event stating “Join us to hear how Google is helping people explore information like never before”
This news has spread like blazing fire causing havoc through the internet as everyone is guessing what new features will be added. Curiosity has spiked amongst the whole Tech World as people are now waiting for the main event eagerly.

In the past years, such events were held by Google in which they introduced important Google Search-related features like “Google Duplex” – now turned into “Google Assistant”. All these were an instant success as they become popular among the general public due to interesting and unique features.

They also announced the news of “Discover Feed”, different upgrades for Google Images and “subtopics” on the celebration of Google Search’s 20th Anniversary.

Previously, they have also showcased the concept of Next-Generation Google Assistant, Assistant driving mode, and Assistant support in Waze. The organization also stated back then that the new updated version of Google Assistant will not much depend on the data centers of Google for computing purposes. Rather than this, it will launch a speech recognition feature for user’s smartphones for a faster and much reliable experience.

They have also revealed the next phase of Google Duplex for its web-based client. Everybody is chanting now what’s next? (Yes, we are excited too!)
So for now go and relax, set a reminder for the event and get ready for an ultimate surprise tomorrow! We will be reporting you all the information regarding the event in our next article. Stay tuned.

Startups

Google digital news initiative lands first in Youngstown, Ohio

Leave a comment
Image courtesy of Sollok29 on Wikimedia Commons under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

Google announced on 18 July that Youngstown, Ohio, will be the first city in its Compass Experiment, a joint venture with newspaper publishing company McClatchy to revive local news. This is a timely announcement as the city’s only daily newspaper is due to close its doors on 31 August this year.

The Compass Experiment, part of the Google News Initiative, is a local digital news lab founded between the two organizations. The Youngstown site is one of three initial digital-only news operations – with the two sites yet to be named – that they intend to launch and operate “ in small to mid-sized US communities that have limited sources of local, independent journalism” over the next three years.

The project’s goal is to not only “support the dissemination of news in these communities, but also make the local operations financially self-sustaining, through experimentation with a variety of revenue models”, and share lessons learned with “with the broader news community” with the intention of replicating the same – or similar – model elsewhere in the country.

Each site will be independently built and “may launch with different platforms and revenue models”. They will also be entirely owned and operated with McClatchy, which the companies said has “sole editorial control over content”.

Compass consulted with Penelope Muse Abernathy, the Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics at the University of North Carolina and author of a 2018 study on the loss of local journalism in the United States, when analyzing potential communities for the project’s first local digital news sites. 

In a blog post, Mandy Jenkins, general manager of the Compass Experiment, noted the closure of Youngstown’s daily newspaper, The Vindicator, will leave the city “and a larger region of about 500,000 people, without a daily newspaper”.

“The timing of such a loss couldn’t be worse for Youngstown, which has suffered through a tremendous economic downturn over the last 40 years,” she added. “While the area may be struggling financially, Youngstown has a distinct identity and a strong sense of community, which is why we want to help build a path forward for local news.”

“We at McClatchy are looking forward to continuing our close collaboration with Google as we embark on this next important step. Over the course of the next three years, we will be sharing our successes, failures and what we’ve learned to the media industry at large,” she said.

According to the Pew Research Center, the estimated circulation of daily newspapers in the US fell to 28.6 million in 2018, down from 48.6 million a decade earlier –  and newsroom jobs have dropped by 25 percent since 2008. Facebook also recently admitted it’s struggling to find enough local news.