Dec 24, 2019 12:23:00

12 innovations Google has made in 2019

Google looks back on the year and summarizes the businesses that started in 2019 and notable events on the

official blog.

2019 in review: Stories from Google this year
https://blog.google/inside-google/working-google/2019-review-stories-google-year/

◆ 1: Investment in the region
Google's career support project, Grow with Google , has opened libraries in all 50 states of the United States, starting with the opening of the Google Learning Center in New York in April 2019. In the suburbs of San Francisco on the west coast of the United States, Google has supplied 20,000 homes to the area as one of the largest companies in the Bay Area in response to the housing crisis caused by soaring housing costs. , Provided to low- and middle-income earners.

Google is developing efforts aimed at improving Internet access and IT literacy not only in the United States but also in Chile , India , Mexico , Nigeria and other parts of the world.

◆ 2: Nurturing the next generation
Google is also focusing on supporting young people who will lead the future, and a typical measure is 'Code with Google ', which is a coding class for students. In addition, by supporting the education subsidy system of the non-profit organization 4H club aiming at agricultural promotion by young people and implementing STEM education programs for students , young people can acquire coding and skills in various fields. We are providing the opportunity to receive.

◆ 3: Efforts to protect the global environment
In September 2019, Google invested 2 billion dollars (about 218.8 billion yen) to newly introduce wind power generation and solar power generation in Europe, the United States and South America. This is the largest renewable energy business in history by a company.

In addition, we are making efforts to reduce the burden on the global environment from both hardware and software by

making efforts to make all Google products recyclable materials by 2022 and Project Air View that tracks air pollution and summarizes it in geographic information. I am.

◆ 4: Support for small businesses
Google is a long-established Hawaiian pharmacy that has been run for five generations since 1875, a greeting card shop opened by a lesbian couple in Colorado, and a Japanese-American detention camp that was imprisoned during World War II. Toguchi Seiichi, a Japanese-American who served as a cook at the restaurant, is also helping local businesses, such as supporting restaurants that serve Hawaiian cuisine.

◆ 5: Promoting the development of AI and quantum computers
With TensorFlow, a machine learning library released by Google as an open source, a trash can that automatically separates garbage and promotes recycling, a planet discovery project , an AI that estimates the amount of snow and tells the driver of the car the appropriate speed , AI that turns monochrome photos into color photos has spun out. In addition, Google developed 'a quantum computer that can solve a computational problem that takes 10,000 years in 3 minutes and 20 seconds' in October 2019, and it is expected that quantum computing will further develop.

You can find out more about Google's quantum computers by reading the following articles.

Google completes a quantum computer that can solve a 10,000-year-old computational problem in 3 minutes and 20 seconds --GIGAZINE

◆ 6: Launch of cloud gaming service 'Stadia'
The cloud gaming service 'Stadia ' launched by Google in November 2019 is said to be a service that makes you feel the future while rough cutting.

The review of 'Google Stadia' that finally launched has appeared, and although it makes us feel the future, it is still evaluated as rough cutting --GIGAZINE

◆ 7: Well-being
Google is mindfulness self-development program focuses on Search Inside Yourself hosted the, we are working to spread of mindfulness. Also, by using Google's Android application 'Digital Wellbeing ' that records the frequency of use of the application, it is possible to naturally reduce the usage time of the smartphone.

◆ 8: Support for persons with disabilities
Google's ' Project Euphonia ' is a project that utilizes AI to enable people with vocal disabilities to communicate smoothly. In addition, with the release of Google Nest Mini , which realizes a smart home function that allows people with disabilities to live comfortably, and voice guidance that allows visually impaired people to walk around the city using Google Maps navigation, technology-related people with disabilities Supporting the life of.

When you play the following movie, you can see how a visually impaired woman is walking in the city of Tokyo by actually using the voice guidance of Google Maps.

Detailed Voice Guidance Comes to Google Maps --YouTube


◆ 9: Margaret Hamilton Memorial Portrait
Margaret Hamilton is a female engineer at NASA and is known as the driving force behind the Apollo program. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11's landing on the moon, where Mr. Hamilton made a great contribution, Google created a portrait of Mr. Hamilton in the mirror of the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility in the Mojave Desert in the United States.

◆ 10: Promotion of cultural arts
Google has been focusing on the emergence of the arts field through the efforts of 'Google Arts & Culture ' for some time, but in 2019, especially in cooperation with the Palace of Versailles Cultural Institute , it will be possible to appreciate the cultural heritage of Puerto Rico online. , Released 'Palace of Versailles VR' where you can explore the Palace of Versailles with VR.

'Palace of Versailles VR' can be understood by reading the following article.

Google releases 'Palace of Versailles VR' for free, allowing you to stroll around the gorgeous World Heritage Sites while at home --GIGAZINE

◆ 11: Producing Academy Award winners from Google employees
Google employees Paul Debevec, Xueming Yu, and Wan-Chun Alex Ma won an Academy Award for face digitization technology in February 2019.

Google also has a wealth of other professional pianists such as

June Wu and Emma Haruka Iwao , a female engineer who broke the world record by calculating pi to 31,415,926,535,897 digits after the decimal point. We have a wide range of human resources.

◆ 12: Others
Google has also forgotten its playfulness by adding 65 new pictograms to Android 10 , picking out the most popular animated GIFs in 2019, and making sticky notes appear in Google's office. It doesn't seem to be.