Google Newsstand closed, the service permanently merged with Google News

A few days ago, the search engine giant Google shut down Google Play Newsstand permanently and migrated it to another news serive. The site was first launched in 2013, but last year on May 8, Google announced at Google I/O that its news aggregator will be migrated to Google News.

Since its shutdown announcement, the site was live till July, however, a few days before when one of our editors tried to access the news library at newsstand.google.com, the site redirected to news.google.com.

This is not the only product that Google closed, the internet giant has previously discontinued a lot of apps and websites in its history, making it the top tech giant with a good track record of closing the services. Google+, Google Map Maker, Blog Compass, Pixate, and other many other services are the example of the digital Graveyard.

Launched in 2002, Google News is a comprehensive news aggregator that organizes a variety of magazines more efficiently. According to Google, the new service is more reliable and advanced compared to its old Newsstand.

Despite its proven track record in closing services, Google has also made new improvements across its products. The dynamic tech giant is constantly working on new software and products that meet consumers demand.

Google to drop support for Android and iOS AdSense mobile apps

Google said that its Android and iOS AdSense mobile apps will be discontinued at the end of this year. The search giant confirmed in a blog post on Monday, July 15 that its new decision will allow AdSense audiences to get the most out of the mobile web interface instead of accessing AdSense statistics via Android and iOS mobile apps.

For those who not aware of AdSense, it is a program launched in 2003 by Google that allows publishers to monetize their contents by offering Google ads to the site visitors. However, as part of responsive web design, the US multinational technology company is terminating the Adsense mobile apps, allowing publishers to check account statistics via the mobile web interface, the Inside AdSense report reads.

As stated in the report, Google has confirmed that 70% of AdSense audiences experience the web on mobile devices. To make the interface much better and mobile compatible, the company has decided to focus on "mobile web interface" rather than keeping its apps there for the Adsense associated audiences.

AdSense currently operates a desktop version of the site for audiences to perform daily activities such as creating ad units and viewing reports. But by implementing a new interface, Adsense users will be redirected to the mobile version URL of the AdSense site, PhoneSpeck has learned.

Future web interfaces will have new features than apps. Both Android and iOS apps will become unavailable for download by the end of 2019, says AdSense product manager Andrew Gildfind.

Source | Via

Google rolling out redesigned News tab for quality search results

Google, the search giant not only powers the web, but silently introducing new features to its products. The search giant has also closed its some products due to business failure. One of its discontinued services is Google+ that was closed in April 2019. This time, the multinational technology company Google is redesigning News tab on desktop search.

Tech giants are constantly working on their platform to create new designs for several reasons. Recently, we saw Google silently introducing related search under the image tab. But this time the things are been redesigned for the reader's convenience. Yes, you heard it right. Google is refreshing News tab for the desktop search that will transform the old News tab into a carousel design for rich results.

According to an announcement made by the Google News Initiative on July 11, the refreshed News tab on the desktop search is intended to highlight the recent stories more prominently. The feature is aimed at to show the news articles inside a carousel that allows Google to organize articles more clearly, the tweet reads.

When you search for a specific news article on Google, the articles appear as "Top stories", but clicking the News tab displays the same articles as regular search results. Once the redesigned news tab is rolled out, regular search results will be displayed along with the image, video (if available) and the publishers' name.

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Google resumes Android Q Beta 5 rollout after fixing the installation-related issues

Yesterday, Google rolled out Android Q Beta 5 for Pixel device via OTA, but due to some technical issues found in Android Q beta 5, the rollout was paused to investigate the bug which was putting a very small percentage of devices back on Beta 4 after multiple reboots, reports Google.

The OTA-based Android Q Beta 5 has been resumed for testing purposes on all Pixel devices, including Pixel XL, Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL, Pixel 3, Pixel 3 XL, Pixel 3a, and Pixel 3a XL. The beta 5 only reaches to enrolled devices via OTA and may start a broader or stable rollout in a few days once testing is complete.

Android Q Beta 5 rollout includes a wide range of new features such as corner-in swipe gesture to activate Google Assistant and a new 'peek' behavior specifically for the back gesture. More importantly, the rollout is aimed at to bring the final Android Q developer APIs (API level 29).

It also includes never-seen-before features like dynamic depth format for photos, WPA3 Wi-Fi security protocol, integrated screen recorder and more. Since the update is for testing purpose, it is not confirmed whether the rollout will accompany these features.

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Android Q beta 5 OTA update temporarily paused, the OS experienced installation issues

In the past, we have seen that when Google rolled out its Android Q Beta 4 operating system, it had been paused because of installations issues, however, later, the tech giant successfully managed to fix the noted issues.

Today, once again, after a few hours of rolling out, Google paused the Android Q beta 5 ATA update because this 17th version of the Android operating system encountered installations related issues. Google has not confirmed the restart date of the update, but it expected once the bugs are fixed, the Android Q beta will be rolled out via over-the-air (OTA) update.

Android Q beta 5 OTA includes many advanced features, therefore it could take a little longer resolving the issues with the OS. It is said the update was paused when Google noted that Pixel devices are getting frozen or prompts for a factory reset while installing the said update.

Source | Via

Case study: Over 2,000 dangerous apps discovered on Google Play Store

A recent study by the WSJ revealed that there are millions of fake business listings on Google Maps, and another two-year-long study has discovered one more security weakness indicating thousands of malware-ridden counterfeit apps on Google Play Store.

Google Play Store contains millions of apps, but not all apps are the same by their nature and unusual behavior. Only 2,040 apps were found possibly infected apps, while some apps were caught stealing users data by requiring users to grant permissions, according to the University of Sydney and Data61 study.

It's not confirmed whether suspicious apps managed to steal any data linked to the app users.

Google is continuously making efforts to keep the platform virus-free and threat-free. It has removed many security weaknesses in the Chrome browser by providing the latest updates for the desktop version and mobile-based web browser. In the past, the search giant flagged thousands of fake apps on its app store — but we need to take more drastic action against the offenders.

The University of Sydney worked with Australian federal government agency CSIRO's data science research team and spent two years revealing the facts through a tool designed to identify similar app icons and text descriptions. The AI-based tools used in research detected 49,608 threats. However, none of the studied apps are available on the app store, as Google has removed suspicious apps in an effort to protect its platform from being used for offensive purposes.

The study further reveals that fraudsters have used similar titles and app icons of the most popular games to spread fake apps across the play store. Temple Run, Free Flow, and Hill Climb Racing were among the impersonated apps, reports Computer World.

Don't look at download counts — It's important to double-check app rating, developer reputation, and if possible, read app review on the web as well as on app store, but be sure to identify if the app developer hasn't self-reviewed an app.

Source | Via

More than 11 million fake business listings discovered on Google Maps

Sebastian Hietsch / Unsplash

A recent study by the Wall Street Journal found that a wide range of counterfeit businesses has been discovered on Google Maps. During the study, the Journal investigators found only 2 businesses with legitimate addresses out of 20 listings, the report reveals.

Google is not the only technology giant with fake accounts. In the past, Facebook, Twitter, and other social giants have removed millions of fake profiles from their platforms. Scammers use many deceptive techniques to bypass the authentication process on the Internet. However, undermine does not last long.

With thousands of new accounts being added every month to Google's database, Google Maps is bombarded with over 11 million fake listings. Most of the fake business listings found in the study are contractors, repairmen, and car towing services, which are either never-existed or closed ones.

Google has already addressed the fake listings by internally calling it 'duress verticals'. In terms of Google's study, duress verticals are the companies people turn to in emergencies and typically without much time to verify the business'.

We have also closed one of the businesses. Does that still sound a fake listing?

In 2017, Google conducted autodidactic study claiming that only 0.5 percent of local searches are false listings and the rest ones are valid. However, the WSJ reveals more than 11 million false listings during the study.

Knowing that people trust what Google shows from its Database, scammers use the most reliable and search-friendly Web mapping service Google Maps to deceive the searchers. To tackle these challenges, Google offers "Suggest an edit" option to the searcher. If the information found to be true then a researcher can suggest an edit either by updating the current information to reflect the recent changes or can suggest "remove this place".

Source  Via

Google silently introduces 'Related Searches' for Images

Google has quietly added new features called "related searches", making it easy to find related images on Google. Like a related blog post, Google has now added related keyword terms to Google Images searches. This feature will enable users to find relevant images for which they are looking for.

This feature is already available for Google searches that you can find at the bottom of search results pages, however, now it has been added to "images searches" which looks a little different than the "google keyword suggestions". The company had already added related keyword search, which you can find at the top of the image search page to find related photos on the platform.

As you might have noticed, this feature enables us to find related images by clicking on single keywords available  horizontally at the top of the page. The new feature is more reliable and easier than regular searches as it helps the users find related photos associated to the search queries done by the a searcher.

The new photo search functionality is available among the images you search on Google. 2 to 7 or more keywords (keyword phrases) are available on Google Photos Search. It can only have 2-3 keywords depending on the search query.

It is not yet confirmed whether this feature is also available on mobile devices.