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Tag: Google Blog

  • Google Shares its “Hybrid” Approach to Research

    Research has been a part of Google since its beginnings, and many of its products could even have been considered experimental when they were launched. Today Alfred Spector, vice president of research and special initiatives at Google, took to the Official Google Blog to preview a research paper that will be published in the July issue of Communications of the ACM (Association of Computing Machinery). The paper, titled “Google’s Hybrid Approach to Research,” describes Google’s approach to integrating development into the research process. From the blog post:

    Our model allows us to work at unparalleled scale and conduct research in vivo on real systems with millions of users, rather than on artificial prototypes. This yields not only innovative research results and new technologies, but valuable new capabilities for the compan – think of MapReduce, Voice Search or open source projects such as Android and Chrome.

    The paper is authored by Spector, along with Google Director of Research Peter Norvig, and Google Senior Research Scientist Slav Petrov. It collects all of the ways in which Google integrates research into its other operations, instead of separating it out.

    For example, Spector writes that breaking up long-term projects into short-term goals is often part of their methods. He cites Google Translate as a large, multi-year, and multi-step project that has come together through short-term goals as small as adding one new language at a time.

    Spector believes Google’s successes in many areas are a product of their hybrid approach, though he does acknowledge the fears that researchers might have about partnering with the development side of things. From the blog post:

    While there are risks associated with the close integration of research and development activities—namely the concern that research will take a back seat in favor of shorter-term projects—we mitigate those by focusing on the user and empirical data, maintaining a flexible organizational structure, and engaging with the academic community.

    It’s clear that the authors of the paper are proud of the methods Google uses and want them to spread throughout their industry. Though corporate structures and traditions are often hard to break, the success of Google in such a short period of time should indicate that there is at least some benefit to their integrated approach. Listen below as Spector, Norvig, and Petrov discuss the goals of their paper over a Google+ Hangout:

  • Google Chimes in on Cat-Finding Computer Neural Network

    Google Chimes in on Cat-Finding Computer Neural Network

    This morning we brought you the story of Andrew Ng and the 16,000-core neural network that was able to decipher on its own what a cat is from thousands of pictures taken from YouTube videos. This afternoon, Google has chimed in and provided some background on why it is funding machine learning research.

    Over on the Google Official Blog, Google Fellow Jeff Dean and Andrew Ng, director of Stanford’s artificial intelligence lab, have outlined how they believe their research will benefit both Google and the world. From the blog post:

    You probably use machine learning technology dozens of times a day without knowing it—it’s a way of training computers on real-world data, and it enables high-quality speech recognition, practical computer vision, email spam blocking and even self-driving cars. But it’s far from perfect—you’ve probably chuckled at poorly transcribed text, a bad translation or a misidentified image. We believe machine learning could be far more accurate, and that smarter computers could make everyday tasks much easier. So our research team has been working on some new approaches to large-scale machine learning.

    It’s easy to see what applications better machine learning could have for Google. Better voice recognition, image search, or even regular search would certainly help the company’s core business. A more “intelligent” could also help move Google past the treadmill of its Algorithm updates. Perhaps even an “intelligent” info overlay using Google Glass is in the future.

    What Ng and the engineers at Google X are doing is creating neural networks that can teach itself to recognize objects using unlabeled data. Currently, machines are taught using content labeled “cat,” for example. The Google X experiment built a large neural network that simulates small-scale human brain architecture. The Google X team wanted to know what it would recognize after showing it YouTube videos for a week.

    Our hypothesis was that it would learn to recognize common objects in those videos. Indeed, to our amusement, one of our artificial neurons learned to respond strongly to pictures of… cats. Remember that this network had never been told what a cat was, nor was it given even a single image labeled as a cat. Instead, it “discovered” what a cat looked like by itself from only unlabeled YouTube stills. That’s what we mean by self-taught learning.

    The picture above represents what the computers consider a cat to be. Dean and Ng stated that the real goal of the project is to develop machine learning systems that are scalable so that “vast sets of unlabeled training data” (such as the internet, perhaps?) can be accurately classified. The results of the cat experiment will be presented this week at the International Conference on Machine Learning in Edinburgh, Scotland.

  • Google Touts Its Diversity Credentials

    Google Touts Its Diversity Credentials

    Google tries its best to not be evil, to exist as a gentle giant in a land of cutthroat corporations. Sometimes it fails, but never for lack of trying. The company claims, for example, that it has gone to great lengths to convert its data centers to green technology. And Google has today decided to highlight where it stands on issues of diversity.

    Yolanda Mangolini, Google’s director of global diversity and inclusion/talent and outreach programs, released Google’s 2011 Global Diversity & Talent Inclusion Report in a post on the Official Google Blog. The report catalogues all of Google’s efforts to hire a diverse workforce and help minorities throughout the world. From the blog post:

    In the U.S., fewer and fewer students are graduating with computer science degrees each year, and enrollment rates are even lower for women and underrepresented groups. It’s important to grow a diverse talent pool and help develop the technologists of tomorrow who will be integral to the success of the technology industry.

    According to the report, Google has helped 22 historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) make the switch to Google Apps for Education. It has provided 3,000 scholarships to students in 77 different countries. The company also piloted a Top Black Talent program in the U.K., and partnered with the African Caribbean Society to offer 100 student workshops.

    Women@Google hosts a Speakers Series in which successful women come to Google’s headquarters and share their stories. Last year, Google hosted several well-attended Women in Technology Workshops in the Middle East.

    Google supports LGBT employees through an employee network called “Gayglers.” The company also participated in the “It Gets Better” project with a video in which “Gayglers” and their allies lend advice and support to the LGBT youth.

    Another minority you might not think of is well-supported by Google. The company hosts internships for U.S. military veterans, and has provided the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs with a customized job search engine for veterans.

    Google has received a 100% score on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index every year since 2006. You can read the entire report, which Google has made available in PDF format, and see for yourself the lengths to which Google is going to make its workforce incredibly diverse, in every way possible.

  • Google’s Think Insights Expands to 21 Countries

    Think Insights, Google’s repository of studies, video, and infographics to help marketers get a handle on their audience, has now expanded to cover 21 countries all across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. The site was founded by Google to open up its marketing research to the public and help digital marketers keep track of their fast-changing industry.

    Eileen Munnelly, director of large customer marketing and insights for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa at Google, announced the expansion over on the Google Official Blog. There, she outlined how Think Insights can help marketing professionals understand their customer demographics, develop digital strategies, and spot consumer and industry trends.

    The main features of Think Insights are its research library and Insights tools. According to Munnelly, the research library is filled with studies and whitepapers from all 21 countries and can be searched by country, sector, marketing objective, and media type. Many of the studies in the research library are ones that were commissioned by Google itself to research consumers, media trends, online advertising, and new technologies. The site’s Insight tools allow users to explore, using customizable graphs and graphics, the internet usage and other media habits of consumers. Google supplements these features with videos on relevant topics from experts in their fields.

    Google UK has prepared a video explaining how Think Insights works to keep online advertisers up to speed on consumer trends:

  • Google Touts Its Green Tech in “Story of Send”

    If you’ve ever wondered how your email gets from your computer to another inbox, you’re in luck. Google has created a simplistic video showing the basics of how email sent from Gmail travels to its destination. The video is more about how Google has taken extreme measures to lower its impact on the environment, especially at its data centers. There is also an interactive website where you can follow an email’s path, bit by bit, and click on photos and video describing Google’s green tech. The whole project has been dubbed the “Story of Send.”

    Erin Reilly, a member of the Google Green team, posted the video over on the Official Google Blog, where she touts Google’s commitment to mitigating environmental impact and describes the “Story of Send” interactive website. From the blog post:

    We’ve included videos and photos throughout the journey so you can explore certain areas more deeply. For example, if you’re curious what data center servers look like, we’ve included some photos. Or you can watch a video to learn about how we purchase clean energy from wind farms near our data centers. And because technology doesn’t always have to be serious, you might find a vampire or two lurking around or uncover other surprises on the journey.

    Google has evidently gone to great lengths to make sure it limits its impact on the environment. In the “Story of Send” video, Google claims that its data centers use 50% less energy than a “typical” data center. The company also uses “natural” methods to cool servers and, when possible, it purchases electricity from wind farms near data centers. Google also makes the bold claim that, “we are the only internet company to have eliminated our impact on climate change since 2007.”