Tag: google India

Google Rolls Out New Features to Strengthen Online Security

In wake of the privacy scare haunting all netizens, specifically so in recent times, Google has announced the roll-out of new features to strengthen online security of users.

The new features include easing the filtering of messages from trusted sources. This would be achieved by the company by simplifying security settings and making them more user-friendly. Google also plans to run various initiatives to make Indian users more aware of ways of ensuring their security online.

“We are adding five million new users a month taking the user base of a connected’ Indians to 500 millions online by 2018-2019. It’s more important now than ever before to ensure the data and profiles of these users is safe online,” says Sunita Mohanty, director, Trust and Safety, Google India.

Along with this announcement, Google India also revealed trends in security related searches from last year. According to the collated data, there has been a 20% increase in searches for “change password”. The trend also shows another 97% increase in searches for “two-step verification”, which is basically a process of signing in to your Google account by using more than one password. An example of this is a 6-digit code sent on your cellphone, along with the usual password.

Privacy settings are becoming an immediate concern for all inhabitants of the virtual space with every passing day. Consequently, the added security that Google promises its users comes as welcomed news making us feel ever so slightly safer on the Internet.

February 11, 2016
Google India Launches Public Transport App for New Delhi Residents

Commuting in Delhi is about to get a whole lot easier. Google India announced a new app today called Delhi Public Transport. It is an experimental app from the Google Maps team designed for New Delhi residents to get around on public transport.

The idea is to make life easier for those who use buses and metros to commute. The app works in offline mode so you won’t have to worry about choppy connectivity when looking for transit directions. It also provides directions and timetable of Metros and buses. You will now get directions from any bus or metro stops, and find out if they are running late.

“In addition to having lots of useful information available offline, Delhi Public Transport also provides you with public transport news and delay information when you do have a connection, all packed into a small app of about 1 MB download size.”

Initial reviews of the app have been very favorable. Users have requested the company to launch the app in other parts of the country as well. The app is still in its early days and Google India is looking to improve on it through customer feedback. So go ahead and download the app, now available on Google Play Store, and let the team know what you think about it.

October 8, 2015
Report : Google India Takes a Stand Against Net Neutrality

According to various news reports, Google could be lobbying against net neutrality in India, as it has been asking the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) to support zero rating plans.

The zero rating plans allow people to use certain web services for free, this basically also allows telecom operators to selectively offer its users access to certain applications/websites without incurring any data charges. Therefore, any telecom company that signs up for this plan would have to pay the telecom provider a large sum of money in order to make their apps and services free for users.

Early this year, Airtel had decided to offer its own Airtel Zero plan in India. This plan was said to be in violation of net neutrality. Very recently though, MediaNama reported an email exchange between Google and the IAMAI, which suggested that Google was trying to push for the removal of zero rating plans from the IAMAI’s submission to the Department of Telecom. Google has further argued that there was no unanimity among internet companies on this issue and therefore, should be removed.

In the recent past, Google has been a part of the zero rated plan, but has put it on hold to provide free data to end users in India. Some companies have still not responded to the net neutrality debate in India, however, Facebook is reported to have taken a stand supporting zero rating.

Let us know your comments on the zero rating plans and net neutrality.

Source

August 21, 2015
Google Launches Street View For Monuments in India: Will Start With 100 Monuments

The Archaeological Survey of India(ASI) has partnered with Google to create a 360 degree imagery of India’s important heritage sites, which will include Taj Mahal, Khajuraho and Ajanta and Ellora caves.

The company claims that the mission is to make information more accessible, as Google hopes to help make more of India’s heritage accessible to people around the world and also to preserve the history for the coming generation. Starting today Google will work with the ASI to bring the street view trekker, a wearable bag like designed device with a camera system on top, check it out in the image below.

Street View Trekker

This trekker is designed to capture images in remote sites or places that are only accessible by foot. Once published, this imagery of the Indian heritage will be available on Google Maps and on World Wonders Site. Part of Google Culture Institute, the Google Worlds Wonders Project is a platform which brings online the major world heritage sites of the modern and ancient worlds. At the launch vice president and managing director of Google India said:

In a country like India, where we have the world’s second largest population and 5,000 years of history, rich and cultural diversity, technology can help us share the Indian experience with the rest of the world – and each other- more effectively than ever before. We’re honored to be working with the ASI to help make these important Indian heritage sites available for the world to experience online.”

The Union Minister of Culture Smt. Chandresh Kumari Katoch said during the launch:

India’s historical and archaeological sites are an important part of the world’s knowledge, and through this partnership with Google we hope to engage more people, both around the world and here in India, in discovering and learning about our country’s rich history.”

October 3, 2013
Google India Pays A Tribute To ‘The Delhi Braveheart’

On the Internet, it can be difficult to show feelings of grief regarding senstitive topics, much less offer support to those grieving. Despite this, simple things stand out amidst the darkness.

Google has joined India in honoring the 23-year-old Delhi gang-rape victim whom most now call the Delhi braveheart after her death on December 29. The Indian version of the Google homepage now has a candle below the search bar, a silent offering of virtual light to remember her by.

The body of the gang-rape victim, who became the focus of countrywide protests and prayers, was cremated early Sunday soon after it was flown in from Singapore at 3.30 a.m. Since Saturday evening, a large number of people have assembled at various places in Delhi to offer their condolences.

The 23-year-old woman was brutally assaulted and gang-raped Dec 16 by six men in a moving bus in south Delhi before being thrown out of the vehicle. She battled for life — first in Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi and then in a Singapore hospital — before dying of her injuries Dec 29.

Thousands of people poured out onto the streets Saturday to light candles; some lay on the roads with black bands across their mouths and others just marched. But all of them grieved, vowing that the girl would never be forgotten.

December 31, 2012
Motorola Mobility Indian Website Shut Down

Motorola Mobility has shut down its India-specific product website as part of its global streamlining process.

[quote]“We are streamlining our business and support systems, and unfortunately, we’ll no longer have a dedicated website for India,” a message on Motorola Mobility India’s website said.[/quote]

“Your local support site will remain open well into the future, and we’ll continue to provide support for our existing products,” it added.

This move seems to be a part of the company’s global downsizing process. In August, it had confirmed its decision to cut off 20 percent of work force and shut down operations in many countries.

Motorola Mobility, which is totally independent from Motorola Solutions, had incurred heavy loss last year. Google took over the company for $12.5 billion in May this year. Google had earlier said in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company is likely to continue its sales in India till the stocks lessen. It is rumored that India may not see any new products from Motorola. It was reported that the existing customers would continue to get the service centre support.

This move seems to be a part of Motorola’s global downsizing process. In August, Motorola had confirmed its decision to cut off 20 percent of work force and shut down operations in many countries.

Motorola Mobility, which is totally independent from Motorola Solutions, had incurred heavy loss last year. Google took over the company for $12.5 billion in May this year. Google had earlier said in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, “These changes are designed to return Motorola’s mobile devices unit to profitability, after it lost money in fourteen of the last sixteen quarters,” as reported by IBN Live.
The company is likely to continue its sales in India till the stocks lessen. It is rumored that India may not see any new products from Motorola. It was reported that the existing customers would continue to get the service centre support.

November 26, 2012
Google Introduces Voice Navigation To India

Commuters in India are all set to get turn-by-turn, voice-guided directions, using the Google Maps Navigation. In addition, if you’re living in Bangalore, Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Pune and Hyderabad, you’ll find that live traffic updates feature just got activated on your maps menu.

You can even speak your destination into your phone and have your route set for you. A country-specific option lets you set the voice to an Indian accent for easier comprehension.

[quote]“Whether you’re heading to the Bengaluru airport for a business trip or visiting Agra’s world-famous Taj Mahal for a weekend of sightseeing with friends, Google Maps Navigation has you covered,” say Darren Baker, product manager and Suren Ruhela, senior program manager, Google Maps, in a statement posted on the Google India blog.[/quote]

While Navigation app was always a feature of Android phones in India, the service was not supported officially. It used to show just the route and lacked support for voice instructions. Currently, the Navigation feature is in beta and Google tells users to exercise caution while using it.

September 8, 2012
Google Snaps Up VirusTotal

Google has bought startup VirusTotal, picking up a fledgling but widely used cybersecurity player for an unknown amount in a move that could beef up protection for its internet services.

VirusTotal is a free online service for scanning files and URLs to spot viruses, worms, trojans and other malicious content detected by antivirus engines and website scanners.

[quote]Elaborating on the recent turn of events, VirusTotal wrote in its blog post, “Our goal is simple: to help keep you safe on the web. And we’ve worked hard to ensure that the services we offer continually improve. But as a small, resource-constrained company, that can sometimes be challenging.”[/quote]

VirusTotal already offered browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer to integrate malware scanning into users’ browsers. Although the company said that it will continue to operate as an independent service, it’s safe to assume its tools will be integrated into the scanning data that Google already provides to Chrome, Firefox and Safari to show users 8 million warnings a day when they visit malware-infected websites.

September 8, 2012
Google, Facebook Working on India Request to Remove Content

According to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook and Google are working on requests from India to remove from their web sites “inflammatory and hateful content” that New Delhi blames for sparking a mass exodus of people from several cities.

Tens of thousands of panic-stricken students and workers from northeast left for home last week, spurred by rumors they would be attacked in retaliation for communal violence in Assam that left at least 78 people dead.

India on Monday blocked as many as 245 Web pages for hosting video clips and other content that the authorities said were distorted and were used for spreading the rumors.

The government is wary of social networks being misused for inciting violence and has asked companies including Google, Facebook, Twiter Inc. and Microsoft Corp. to remove such content from their websites.

Facebook, which has about 50 million users in India, acknowledged receiving the requests and said it is working through those requests and responding to the agencies.

[quote]”Facebook will remove content which breaches our terms,” as defined in its agreement with its users, it said in a statement.[/quote]

The U.S.-based company said it is encouraging its users to flag such content through its website “so that we can investigate and take action fast.”

[quote]Search-engine giant Google, which provides services such as YouTube and Orkut said: “We understand the gravity of the situation… and continue to work closely with relevant authorities.”[/quote]

Content intended to incite violence is prohibited on all Google products, the company said in a statement.

August 21, 2012
India ranks No.2 in Google search queries for education

India ranked second in the number of education queries on Google, the search engine major said today.

India was ranked 8th in 2008, and is now behind only to the US, reveals a study titled ‘Students on the web’ compiled by Google India. The study was compiled by combining Google search query patterns and an offline research conducted by TNS Australia on behalf of Google India

[quote]“With over 60 million Internet user population in India being in age group of 18-35, educational related search queries are exploding on Google. Our core objective behind compiling this study was to understand the impact Internet is having on this young population with regard to education related decision making by the students,” Google India Vice President and Managing Director Rajan Anandan said.[/quote]

Education related queries on Google in India are growing at over 46 per cent year on year that highlights strong demand for information on institutes and courses that are available in the country.

Out of all education related search queries on Google, over 40 per cent of queries were for higher education courses and institutes.

Search queries from mobile phones have considerably grown showing a growth of over 135 per cent and amounting to over 22 per cent of all education related search queries.

August 8, 2012
Galaxy Nexus Launch in India Delayed to Feb 20th : Update delayed further ?

Exclusive news coming in for iGyaan, As per various sources including some top level executives at Samsung, we have been able to confirm that the much awaited Galaxy Nexus will not be coming to India in January. Although confirmed reports of the handsets being available in warehouses of the company. For some reason Samsung is not selling the devices just as yet.

The Galaxy Nexus is expected to be launched on Feb 20th 2012, availability should follow soon after. The Galaxy Nexus is the first phone to officially get ICS out of the box, but is the last phone to arrive to India in the recent times.

The phone features a impressive spec list, plus excellent features including Android Beam, Face unlock, Siri type voice dictation. The Nexus has a 720 x 1280 pixels, 4.65 inch curved Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen.

The device has been more than well awaited, so much so, that it may actually be too late for the device to hit India. With the rumors of a Galaxy S3 abound MWC 2012, we can only hope the Indian consumer still wants a 6 month old phone. The pricing on this phone rumored to hit Rs. 30,000 during launch, although we have personally seen packaged boxes with a price of Rs. 27,000/- . It is said that these phones were brought in the initial lot, before pricing was revised.

The booking form for registration, has been up on google.co.in/nexus for some time, hopefully not for much longer.

Stay tuned for updates.

Update :

The news of the Galaxy Nexus launch has been bothersome to a lot of people, especially those looking forward to buying one. There are several claims for the Nexus and we are unable to get a official quote from the company as to why its taking so long.

According to our sources, the company has got the stocks of the Nexus, but is speculating even placing the product in the market due to forex fluctuations. It could be possible that Samsung never launches the Galaxy Nexus in India (oh the disappointment), on the flip side : first week of March also seems like a probability.

We will get an update by the end of the week.

February 21, 2012
Facebook, Google and other social media companies hearing today

A district court in Delhi will hear a civil suit on Monday against 20 social networking sites including Facebook, Google for posting objectionable content on the web. The websites were asked to remove all objectionable content and file a reply stating the measures taken to screen uploaded content. A criminal suit is also being heard in the Patiala house court on Monday, which had summoned representatives of websites including that of Google and Facebook.

Google and Facebook had appealed against the lower court’s proceedings in the Delhi High Court. Internet companies including Google and Facebook argued that they cannot develop a method to monitor defamatory or obscene material that’s been posted on their sites.

The issue relates to a constitutional issue of freedom of speech and expression and suppressing it was not possible as the right to freedom of speech in democratic India separates us from a totalitarian regime like China,”

-Google advocate NK Kaul

Facebook too had noted that it already has rules of blocking and removing content, whenever specific matters are brought to its notice. Both websites are challenging a trial court’s order to prosecute them. Google and Facebook had on January 16 told the Delhi HC that blocking them was not an option as a democratic India does not have a “totalitarian” regime like China.

We will keep you updated on the outcome of todays hearing.

February 6, 2012