Giugno, 2021

Our computers, smartphones and apps are regularly updated to help make them better. The same thing happens with Google Search. In fact, Google Search is updated thousands of times a year to improve the experience and the quality of results. Here’s more on how that process works.

Why updates are important

Google Search receives billions of queries every day from countries around the world in 150 languages. Our automated systems identify the most relevant and reliable information from hundreds of billions of pages in our index to help people find what they’re looking for. Delivering great results at this type of scale and complexity requires many different systems, and we’re always looking for ways to improve these systems so we can display the most useful results possible.

Thanks to ongoing improvements, our evaluation processes show we’ve decreased the number of irrelevant results appearing on a search results page by over 40% over the past five years. Google sends billions of visits to websites each day, and by providing highly relevant results, we’ve been able to continue growing the traffic we send to sites every year since our founding.

We also send visitors to a wide range of sites — more than 100 million every day — so we’re helping sites from across the web and around the world get discovered. As new sites emerge and the web changes, continued updates are key to ensuring we’re supporting a wide range of publishers, creators and businesses, while providing searchers with the best information available.

How updates make Search better

Here are a few examples of what these updates look like:

Last month we launched an improvement we made to help people find better product reviews through Search. We have an automated system that tries to determine if a review  seems to go beyond just sharing basic information about a product and instead demonstrates in-depth research or expertise. This helps people find high quality information from the content producers who are making it.

Another example is an update we made several years ago that tries to determine if content is mobile-friendly. In situations where there are many possible matches with relatively equal relevancy, giving a preference to those that render better on mobile devices is more useful for users searching on those devices.

In any given week, we might implement dozens of updates that are meant to improve Search in incremental ways. These are improvements that have been fully tested and evaluated through our rating process. People using Search generally don’t notice these updates, but Google gets a little better with each one. Collectively, they add up to help Search continue providing great results.

Because there are so many incremental updates, it’s not useful for us to share details about all of them. However, we try to do so when we feel there is actionable information that site owners, content producers or others might consider applying, as was the case with both of the updates mentioned above.

Core updates involve broad improvements to Search

Periodically, we make more substantial improvements to our overall ranking processes. We refer to these as core updates, and they can produce some noticeable changes — though typically these are more often noticed by people actively running websites or performing search engine optimization (SEO) than ordinary users.

This is why we give notice when these kinds of updates are coming. We want site owners to understand these changes aren’t because of something they’ve done but rather because of how our systems have been improved to better assess content overall and better address user expectations. We also want to remind them that nothing in a core update (or any update) is specific to a particular site, but is rather about improving Search overall. As we’ve said previously in our guidance about this:

There’s nothing wrong with pages that may perform less well in a core update. They haven’t violated our webmaster guidelines nor been subjected to manual or algorithmic action, as can happen to pages that do violate those guidelines. In fact, there’s nothing in a core update that targets specific pages or sites. Instead, the changes are about improving how our systems assess content overall. These changes may cause some pages that were previously under-rewarded to do better.

One way to think of how a core update operates is to imagine that in 2015 you made a list of the top 100 movies. A few years later in 2019, you refresh the list. It’s going to naturally change. Some new and wonderful movies that never existed before will now be candidates for inclusion. You might also reassess some films and realize they deserved a higher place on the list than they had before.

The list will change, and films previously higher on the list that move down aren’t bad. There are simply more deserving films that are coming before them.

Core updates are designed to increase the overall relevancy of our search results. In terms of traffic we send, it’s largely a net exchange. Some content might do less well, but other content gains. In the long term, improving our systems in this way is how we’ve continued to improve Search and send more traffic to sites across the web every year.

How we help businesses and creators with guidance and tools 

While there’s nothing specific sites need to implement for core updates, we provide guidance and actionable advice that may help them be successful with Search overall. Following this guidance isn’t a guarantee a site will rank well for every query it wants to. That’s not something Google or any other search engine could guarantee.

Any particular query can have thousands of pages or other content that’s all relevant in some way. It’s impossible to show all this content at the top of our results. And that wouldn’t be useful for searchers, who come to Search precisely because they expect us to show the most helpful information first.

By following our core update guidance, businesses, site owners and content creators can help us better understand when they really have the most relevant and useful content to display. We also recommend sites follow our quality guidelines, implement our optimization tips and make use of the free Search Console tool that anyone can use.

These kinds of updates, along with the tools and advice we offer, are how we make sure we keep connecting searchers to content creators, businesses and others who have the helpful information they’re looking for.

Today we’re opening applications for the 2021 editions of the Indie Games Accelerator and the Indie Games Festival from Google Play. These programs are designed to support the growth of small games studios that bring unique games to players around the world. 

^{Photo credit: Hanna Benavides}

In June of 1994, I stood on a packed sidewalk in Boston, looking all around to take in everything I could at my first-ever Pride parade. As a young student from Argentina, I knew I was gay, but I hadn’t experienced an environment where I could be my authentic self. In the presence of so much joy and celebration, I experienced a new sense of freedom, and a realization that there was a community that would embrace the person I knew myself to be.

This past year, the need for belonging has become more important than ever. The pandemic has separated us from loved ones and communities, and caused significant loss for many. It is abundantly clear that we need an inclusive and equitable recovery.

That’s why, for Pride this year, we’re providing $4 million to support LGBTQ+ communities around the world, including a first-of-its-kind economic relief fund. At the same time, we’re continuing our work to make our products more inclusive and helpful.

Supporting our LGBTQ+ community in the recovery

To aid in the recovery, we’re supporting a relief fund that will help the global LGBTQ+ community. We’re providing $2 million to OutRight Action International’s “Covid-19 Global LGBTIQ Emergency Fund.” This will help 100 organizations across more than 60 countries over the next year and bring the fund to North America, supporting frontline LGBTQ+ workers. To start, OutRight has awarded grants to three grantees: Transgender Law Center in the U.S., Lesbian Organization against Violence and Inequality in the Philippines, and Casa das Pretas-Coisa de Mulherin Brazil. These grants will help provide resources like food, shelter and job training for those in need. To further support OutRight’s advocacy for LGBTQ+ human rights globally, we’re providing $1 million in Ad Grants. 

In addition to supporting trans organizations through OutRight’s fund, we’re also giving $1 million in Ad Grants to support the Transgender Law Center and the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund. These grants will help them share critical community resources and continue the fight for trans rights.

Fostering belonging through our products

We continue our work to make our products more inclusive and useful. In Google Photos, we heard from the trans community that resurfacing certain memories can be painful, so we worked with our partners at GLAAD and listened to feedback, and as a result we’re launching more granular controls, which makes reminiscing more inclusive. In Google Maps and Search, you can now see if a local business has gender-neutral restrooms, adding to our existing features that show whether businesses identify as LGBTQ+ friendly and/or a transgender safe space. This information is critical to helping the community find safe and welcoming places.

^{Photo credit: Hanna Benavides}

En junio de 1994, presencié desde una calle de Boston mi primera Marcha del Orgullo. Como el joven estudiante proveniente de Argentina que era entonces, miré a mi alrededor y traté de asimilar todo lo que pude. Yo ya sabía que era gay, pero nunca había tenido, hasta ese momento, la oportunidad de estar en un entorno donde pudiese ser yo mismo. Sin embargo, al ver tanta alegría y tanto espíritu celebratorio, sentí una sensación de libertad nueva, y me di cuenta, por fin, de que existía una comunidad donde podría ser bien recibido.

En este último año, la necesidad de pertenecer se ha vuelto más importante que nunca. La pandemia nos ha separado de nuestros seres queridos y de nuestras comunidades, y muchos hemos sufrido pérdidas importantes. Es evidente que necesitamos que la recuperación sea inclusiva y equitativa.

Por eso, ante una nueva Marcha del Orgullo, vamos a aportar US$4 millones para apoyar a las comunidades LGBTQ+ del mundo, incluyendo el primer fondo de ayuda económica de este tipo. Todo esto mientras seguimos trabajando para que nuestros productos sean cada vez más inclusivos y más útiles.

Apoyando a nuestra comunidad LGBTQ+ en la recuperación

Para ayudar en la recuperación, estamos aportando a un fondo de ayuda que asistirá a la comunidad global LGBTQ+, y vamos a proveer US$2 millones al “Fondo de Emergencia Global LGBTIQ de Covid-19” de OutRight Action International. Esto ayudará a 100 organizaciones en más de 60 países durante el próximo año, además de traer fondos a los Estados Unidos para apoyar a los trabajadores esenciales de la comunidad LGBTQ+. En un comienzo, OutRight ya ha identificado a tres beneficiarios iniciales, a los que ha asignado fondos: Transgender Law Center, en los EE.UU.; Lesbian Organization against Violence and Inequality, en las Filipinas, y Casa das Pretas-Coisa de Mulher, en Brasil. Estos fondos aportarán recursos como alimentos, albergue y capacitación laboral a quienes los necesiten. Además, aportaremos US$1 millón en Ad Grants con el fin de apoyar aún más el trabajo que hace OutRight en relación con los derechos humanos LGBTQ+ a nivel global.

Además de apoyar a las organizaciones trans a través del fondo de OutRight, también estamos donando US$1 millón en Ad Grants para apoyar al Transgender Law Center y al Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund. Estos fondos les ayudarán a compartir recursos comunitarios críticos y a continuar la lucha por los derechos de las personas trans.

Fomentando la pertenencia a través de nuestros productos

Tal como anunciamos en Google I/O el mes pasado, seguimos esforzándonos por hacer que nuestros productos sean cada vez más inclusivos y ayuden cada vez a más personas. Con respecto a Google Fotos, por ejemplo, la comunidad trans nos dijo que volver a ver ciertos recuerdos podía resultar doloroso, de modo que trabajamos con nuestros socios en GLAAD y creamos controles más detallados y granulares, para ayudar a que el acto de recordar sea también más inclusivo. En Google Mapas y en Búsqueda, por su parte, hemos agregado funciones que permiten ver si una tienda cercana tiene baños públicos neutrales en cuanto a género. Esto se suma a las funciones pre existentes, que muestran si las tiendas se identifican como “LGBTQ+-friendly” y/o como un espacio seguro para personas transgénero. Esta información es crucial para ayudar a que la comunidad encuentre lugares seguros y acogedores.

Something struck solutions architect Neill Randall in the first week he joined the iconic British fashion brand Mulberry. The company had access to an impressive amount of data, but it wasn’t being fully exploited.

Renowned for its leather craftsmanship, Mulberry’s made-to-last accessories are sold across 25 countries via 120 stores and its digital network. The brand’s diverse physical and online touch points meant it was producing data through many different channels. And yet it didn’t have a central solution to bring all this information together. It was against this backdrop that the company turned to Google for a solution.

“All the data at Mulberry was coming in at different times, from different silos, in different formats, into different systems, making it impossible to gain end-to-end visibility,” Neill explains. “To create a global view of our stock, products and customers, we needed to bring all that information together. Google Cloud made that possible.”

With a centralised data solution on Google Cloud, Mulberry was able to connect the dots between data that was previously scattered across different systems. This extra capability would be useful at the best of times, but it proved to be even more lucrative when the brand had to shut its doors during the UK’s lockdown in March 2020. 

Transforming its closed bricks-and-mortar stores into warehouses for online sales, Mulberry was able to add all products still out on the shop floors to the company’s digital channels.

The benefits quickly made their way to customers, who now had an even larger selection of products to choose from when shopping online. Better still, with an improved view of each order status, issues were easier to resolve and customers received their favourite Mulberry items faster than expected.

Full stock visibility coupled with fewer order issues and faster shipping led to a 25% boost in sales. Some of Mulberry’s stores even got back to their normal sales levels, despite COVID-19.

That wasn’t the only benefit the brand enjoyed thanks to our partnership. With more than 2.7 million customers and 5,000 products, Mulberry gains valuable insights from each purchase. Now, having established a centralised data view, Mulberry could take the customer relationship to the next level by using this data to tailor marketing campaigns and offer hyper-personalised product recommendations. 

As a result, the company saw an increased click-through rate by 37%, which led to an 110% increase in return on ad spend in general.

For Niell and the team, simplicity was high on the shopping list. “We managed to get up and running within days, and began to see the benefits quickly,” he recalls. “We are basically self-taught, which is a testament to how easy to use Google Cloud is.”

With the tools to make its products even more fashionable to customers, we’re excited to see what Mulberry does next. 

When it comes to navigating the internet, many of us still think of keyboards and touchscreens as the norm. Or at least we did until recently. 

Advances in technology — and the changing preferences of internet users around the world — mean that more and more people are now using their voice to access online information and tools. According to Statista, 42% of the global population — and 50% of people in Asia-Pacific — have conducted a voice search on a device recently. And the trend is growing especially quickly in places with large numbers of new internet users, where many people have no history of using a computer or even typing into a smartphone.

Today, we’re releasing a Voice Playbook to help the technology industry better understand why people are using their voice, the challenges that remain to realizing its potential and how we can build more relevant and inclusive technology in response. 

New internet users are finding their voice

It’s easy to think of the ability to talk to your phone as just a matter of convenience — a way of getting information while you’re driving or cooking. But for many new internet users, voice isn’t just helpful — it’s critical. It provides a means for people coming online with low literacy levels to become self-sufficient, without help from others. It simplifies the way they interact with their device, given the complexity of typing in scripted languages. And it makes the output they’re seeking — the result of a search query, for example — much easier to understand. 

Right now, people are using their voice to record and share themselves speaking, issue commands like search queries, use virtual assistants and dictate phrases to be transcribed. 

People are using voice because it makes the internet less complex and confusing. At the same time, there are still significant, often frustrating challenges that remain. One is misinterpretation. Voice recognition and speech interpretation technology isn’t perfect yet, so people everywhere experience misinterpretations. But when new users have a bad experience with voice, they tend to blame themselves. A comment we hear a lot is that “it couldn’t understand my accent.” After a few bad experiences, people often just give up. 

A second major challenge is self-perception. New internet users can feel like using their voice makes others think they’re uneducated, or they worry that their friends will make fun of them. 

On top of this, there are privacy concerns. When people are often surrounded by big groups of people, they’re reluctant to speak to their device because they’re afraid of being overheard. 

A playbook for voice technology

Technology can pose challenges for voice users, but if it’s designed and built right, it can also help overcome them.  

Drawing on the lessons we’ve learned with our own voice technology, we’ve created a set of principles to guide the industry forward and help technology-makers everywhere think about how to build for voice. When we understand people’s experience of voice, and build around that experience, we can dramatically improve the helpfulness and accessibility of the technology they use.

• We can make voice more discoverable with simple icons (not ‘50s-style microphones) that meet common industry standards, take up greater space on the screen and require no more than one tap to access. 
• We can prevent people from becoming frustrated and giving up by making the output they get simpler and easier to digest. (For example, we can break up long passages into simple, shorter sentences when text is being read out.)  
• We can reflect new voice users’ daily realities by better supporting the way they speak naturally — whether it’s factoring in pauses for breathing and thinking, or providing greater support for the many multilingual people who switch from one language to another when they’re talking.