People around the world are expected to take an estimated 1 trillion digital photos this year. That’s three times as many as we took five years ago. If you printed them all out in regular 4x6 photo size and lay them in a line, they would wrap around the world two and a half times ...Read More

People around the world are expected to take an estimated 1 trillion digital photos this year. That’s three times as many as we took five years ago. If you printed them all out in regular 4x6 photo size and lay them in a line, they would wrap around the world two and a half times!

There’s no doubt that smartphones have changed the way we see the world and capture memories of our daily lives. Our phones are filled with moments that we never had the opportunity to snap before. We take slow-mo videos, panos, 3D photos, selfies, GIFs, and beautifully framed photos of our breakfast bircher muesli.

We wanted to learn more, so we asked 1000 Aussies how they are taking photos and how they use them. We found some interesting trends, like the fact that one in seven Aussies take more than 2000 photos every year—and that’s just on their smartphones!

Here are a few more findings:

• For two-thirds of us, our smartphone is our favourite device to take photos 
• Despite the ever-present selfie, Aussies aren’t self-obsessed — we say that we mostly take photos of our friends and family (44%), followed closely by scenery and landscapes (38%), and our pets (23%) 
• Nine in ten of us look back at our old photos, with one in five looking at them at least once a week 

But no matter how much we love our photos, many Aussies find it difficult to know what to do with them!

We mostly store our images on our smartphones or an external hard drive, but this isn’t always foolproof. Almost half of Aussies said they had lost precious snaps because their computer or hard drive died (18%), they accidentally deleted them (15%), they got a new phone and didn’t copy them across (15%), or they lost the USB/hard drive (8%).

About a third of us have had to delete photos off our phones in order to clear memory and make more room.

Thankfully, it doesn’t have to be that way. There are now more than 100 million people around the world using Google Photos. With Google Photos you can store unlimited photos and videos in the cloud, so you never have to worry about where those photos are.

That’s not the only cool feature. Search on Google Photos allows you to find a particular photo just by typing in what you’re looking for — find all your beach photos for instance, just by searching “ocean” or “sand”.

We also recently made it easier to share photos with close family and friends, through Shared Albums. Now you can share entire albums of your recent trip down the coast or the best photos from the Christmas party with friends and loved ones by SMS, email, messaging apps and more. Better yet, the albums are collaborative, so everyone with access to the album can add their own photos too. 

Google Photos is available across Android, iOS and the web so it’s easy to get started and make sure you never lose a precious memory again.

Posted by Shane Treeves, Communications Manager, Google Australia

Every year, we reflect on the moments that made us laugh, made us cry, and made us search, via our annual Year in Search. This was a year in which we cheered for our Australian sporting teams, bid farewell to our global heroes, and wondered where ...Read More

Every year, we reflect on the moments that made us laugh, made us cry, and made us search, via our annual Year in Search. This was a year in which we cheered for our Australian sporting teams, bid farewell to our global heroes, and wondered where Home and Away is filmed.

Watch our video to rediscover the events, people and topics that defined 2015 around the world:

Two cups and a silver medal
While Australia took the Asian Cup and Cricket World Cup, our loss to New Zealand in the Rugby World Cup final ranked higher on this year’s top trending searches list (it’s okay, we still beat them in the cricket). More than half of this year’s top trending searches were sports related, with Aussies also following the personal stories of Ronda Rousey and Jarryd Hayne.

Sad news and new arrivals
The tragic events in Paris, the Nepal earthquake, and Cyclone Marcia were global news moments that captured our attention this year. A berries recall drove a global spike in searches for Hepatitis A, while Mick Fanning’s encounter with a Great White saw searches for “shark attack” reach an all time high. In lighter news, photos from the Pluto flyby and the arrival of another Royal baby made the Trending News Items list (though Charlotte couldn’t top George’s 2013 spike).

How did they do that?
‘How to’ searches are always particularly representative of the trends sweeping a country, but this year Aussies were concerned with the quotidian - how to write a cover letter, how to lose weight, how to make a paper plane, how to draw, and how to tie a tie.

Closer to home
We remembered the lives of Phil Walsh and Richie Benaud, and The Boy Next Door telemovie prompted many Australians to revisit Peter Allen’s legacy. Jarryd Hayne’s debut in NFL’s 49ers helper make him the top trending Aussie this year, with Malcolm Turnbull taking out the second spot.

Dubsmash, Lucy the Australopithecus and Chuck Norris
To better understand our world and ourselves, we asked questions like what is the meaning of life, who is Lucy The Australopithecus, and where is Chuck Norris. We also quickly searched for new digital lingo like Dubsmash, Periscope, OK Google and FUTBIN (just in case our friends asked us about these new crazes or wanted us to play Agario with them)...

Here’s the full list of our top 10 trending searches in Australia this year:

Trending Searches

1. Netflix
2. Rugby World Cup
3. Lamar Odom
4. Ronda Rousey
5. Asian Cup
6. Jarryd Hayne
7. Jurassic World
8. Paris
9. Cricket World Cup
10. Agario

You can find more on these top searches and others at google.com.au/2015 

Trending Searches 1. Netflix 2. Rugby World Cup 3. Lamar Odom 4. Ronda Rousey 5. Asian Cup 6. Jarryd Hayne 7. Jurassic World 8. Paris 9. Cricket World Cup 10. Agario	News items of 2015 (Trending) 1. Paris 2. Bali 9 3. Hepatitis A 4. Cyclone Marcia 5. Charlie Hebdo 6. Greece 7. Pluto 8. Nepal Earthquake 9. Royal Baby 10. Mick Fanning Shark Attack
How to… (Most Searched) 1. Tie A Tie 2. Make Pancakes 3. Screenshot On Mac 4. Make A Paper Plane 5. Write A Cover Letter 6. Draw 7. Get Rid Of Pimples 8. Poach An Egg 9. Lose Weight Fast 10. Make Money	What is… ? (Most Searched) 1. Netflix 2. Love 3. The Meaning Of Life 4. The Time 5. The Weather Today 6. A Noun 7. A Prime Number 8. Gluten 9. A Verb 10. All Purpose Flour
Aussies (Trending) 1. Jarryd Hayne 2. Malcolm Turnbull 3. Ivan Milat 4. Phil Walsh 5. Peter Allen 6. Ruby Rose 7. Gina Rinehart 8. Sia 9. Richie Benaud 10. Mick Fanning	Global People (Trending) 1. Lamar Odom 2. Caitlyn Jenner 3. Paul Walker 4. Charlie Sheen 5. Jeremy Clarkson 6. Natalia Kills 7. Jonah Lomu 8. Chris Kyle 9. Lenny Kravitz 10. Christopher Lee
Recipes (Most Searched) 1. Pancake Recipe 2. Slow Cooker Recipe 3. Chicken Recipes 4. Thermomix Recipes 5. Lasagna Recipe 6. Chocolate Cake Recipe 7. Quiche Recipe 8. Paleo Recipes 9. Pizza Dough Recipes 10. Banana Bread Recipe	Who is… ? (Most Searched) 1. A 2. Lucy The Australopithecus 3. Gossip Girl 4. The Stig 5. The Richest Person In The World 6. The Arkham Knight 7. The Prime Minister Of Australia 8. Bruce Jenner 9. Banksy 10. Charles DiLaurentis
Where is… ? (Most Searched) 1. Xur 2. Tunisia 3. Mali 4. Gallipoli 5. Nepal 6. 800 Words Filmed 7. Home And Away Filmed 8. Perth 9. Chuck Norris 10. Bora Bora	Digital / Internet Lingo (Trending) 1. Agario 2. How Old Net 3. FUTBIN 4. OK Google 5. Snapchat Emoji 6. Netflix And Chill 7. Dubsmash 8. 2048 9. Selfie Stick 10. Periscope

Trending Searches: What was hot in 2015? The "trending" queries are the searches that had the highest spike in traffic over a sustained period in 2015 as compared to 2014.
Most Searched: What topped Google’s charts? The "most searched" queries are the most popular terms for 2015—ranked in order by volume of searches. 

Hundreds of stories in depth
The 2015 Year in Search goes deeper than we've ever gone before. This year, we’re covering hundreds of news stories, sharing interactive guides and charts, and diving into the numbers by sharing things like how many times people searched for Adele (439 million, if you want to know!). See how all of the biggest stories of the year compared: Go to Google.com/2015 to explore the rest of the 2015 Year in Search stories and top trending charts from around the world.

Posted by Shane Treeves, Communications Manager, Google Australia

From Optus’ reluctant Ricky Gervais to Nutri-Grain’s unstoppable Nathan Charles, this year’s Australian YouTube Ads Leaderboard showcased the rise of made-for-YouTube content in 2015.

The most watched YouTube ad in Australia in 2015 was for mobile game ...Read More

From Optus’ reluctant Ricky Gervais to Nutri-Grain’s unstoppable Nathan Charles, this year’s Australian YouTube Ads Leaderboard showcased the rise of made-for-YouTube content in 2015.

The most watched YouTube ad in Australia in 2015 was for mobile game Clash of Clans, capping off a huge year for the brand which now has over 3.7m subscribers.

Alongside Clash of Clans, Coca Cola’s Remove Labels and Pandora’s Unique Connection delivered longer-form videos that pulled at the heartstrings of their respective audiences.

However it was local creative from Australia and New Zealand that took out more than half of the top 10 places. Dolmio’s “Pepper Hacker” brought families together, Honda shook up the automotive scene with their take on lucid dreaming, and Leaderboard regulars Air New Zealand continued to reap dividends for their entertaining take on safety videos.
The top 10 ads featured on the Leaderboard are calculated using an algorithm that factors in organic and paid views, watch time and also audience retention.

1. Clash of Clans: Ride of the Hog Riders 
2. Did Ricky Gervais just do that to Optus? 
3. Technology has hijacked family dinnertime. Watch the Pepper Hacker reclaim it.
4. شوف الناس بقلبك في رمضان | Remove labels this Ramadan 
5. The unique connection
6. All-new Honda HR-V 
7. Rugby player with life-threatening disease – Nathan Charles | UNSTOPPABLE NUTRI-GRAIN 
8. The Lexus Hoverboard: It's here 
9. Men In Black Safety Defenders #AirNZSafetyVideo 
10. Air New Zealand’s Safety Safari #AirNZSafetyVideo

Now in its third year, the 2015 Ads Leaderboard showcases how brands are continuing to find new ways to capture people’s imaginations on YouTube. YouTube watch time is up 60% since last year, and with Australians spending more and more time on YouTube, we look forward to seeing the work that brands create, broadcast and share in 2016.

Posted by Chris Dodson, Head of YouTube and Ads Marketing, Google Australia

Android users across Australia are already enjoying many great features of Android from Voice Search to Now on Tap to Photos. From next year, your Android smartphone will be even more useful as it becomes a way to buy things while out and about, with Android Pay.Read More

Android users across Australia are already enjoying many great features of Android from Voice Search to Now on Tap to Photos. From next year, your Android smartphone will be even more useful as it becomes a way to buy things while out and about, with Android Pay.

In the first half of 2016, we’ll be bringing Android Pay to Australia — the simple and secure way to pay using your Android phone. Android Pay also stores your gift cards, loyalty cards and special offers right on your phone.

Simple to use
With Android Pay, you simply unlock your phone, hold it to the terminal, and voila — your payment is done. We’re working closely with many of Australia’s major financial institutions — including ANZ, Westpac, Bank of Melbourne, Bank of South Australia, Bendigo Bank, Cuscal, ING DIRECT, Macquarie Bank, and St. George — with the aim of bringing Android Pay to their card holders in 2016, and will continue to work with more banks throughout the year.

When Android Pay arrives in Australia next year, it will support MasterCard and Visa credit and debit cards. We’re also working with eftpos to support their cards in Android Pay.

Shop at your favourites
Aussies will be able to use Android Pay everywhere contactless payments are accepted. Many leading retailers are working with us to support the launch of Android Pay — including 7-Eleven, Brumby's Bakery, Coles Express, Coles Supermarkets, Crust Gourmet Pizza, Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Limited, Donut King, Gloria Jean’s Coffees, McDonald’s, Michel’s Patisserie, Pizza Capers, and Telstra.

You will also be able to use Android Pay for fast checkout within apps - no more entering your payment or address details every time you want to shop. At launch, we expect this feature will be available in many Aussie apps — including Catch of the Day, EatNow, GoCatch, Kogan.com, Menulog, OzSale, Rewardle, and The Iconic.



Merchants, want to accept Android Pay?
You can visit the Android Pay API developer site to learn how to accept Android Pay for the purchase of physical goods and services in your app. We’re partnering with developers like LOKE and Marketplacer to bring Android Pay to apps from favourite brands like Burger Edge, House of Home, and Messina.

We’re also working with leading payment providers such as Braintree, eWAY, First Data, and Stripe to make accepting Android Pay across stores and apps a breeze.


Security is at the centre of Android Pay 
We know how important it is to keep your personal and financial information secure, so Android Pay is supported by industry standard tokenisation. This means your real credit or debit card number isn't ever shared with the merchant. As soon as you make a purchase, you’ll see a payment confirmation that shows where a given transaction happened, so it’s easy to catch any suspicious activity. And if your phone is ever lost or stolen, you can simply use Android Device Manager to instantly lock your device from anywhere, secure it with a new password, or even wipe it clean of your personal information.

Partnering with the ecosystem
We’re approaching Android Pay the same way we approach every other part of the Android family — partnering with the ecosystem. We’re bringing together payment networks, banks and retailers to deliver you choice and flexibility, and offering developers an open platform to collectively push mobile payments forward.

Stay tuned in 2016 for more information on the launch.

Posted by Pali Bhat, Director, Product Management

In a family of music lovers, there’s a soundtrack playing throughout our daily lives. My husband likes to listen to  The Smiths radio while he works; I like  Entering Beast Mode ...Read More

In a family of music lovers, there’s a soundtrack playing throughout our daily lives. My husband likes to listen to The Smiths radio while he works; I like Entering Beast Mode radio when I hit the gym; and we listen to Michael Bublé as a family while we are cooking dinner. What can I say, we’re a pretty fun bunch! But it means my family ends up paying for multiple subscription music accounts which can add up over time. For families like mine, we’re happy to start offering the Google Play Music family plan today.

With the family plan, you and up to five family members can subscribe to Google Play Music - together - for just AU$17.99 per month. You’ll unlock all of the same features you’d get from having individual subscriptions, including ad free, unlimited access to more than 35 million songs and the ability for each family member to stream simultaneously on any device, all for one low price. Now, you can keep your listening experiences separate from your partner and get music recommendations tailored to the music you like. So, my husband’s Depeche Mode singles will never show up in my account - only my true favorites will be front and centre.

You and your family will be able to sign up for a Google Play Music family plan in the coming days on Android devices in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, France and Germany, with more countries coming soon. You and your family members can listen on Android, iOS and the web.

Posted by Eunice Kim, Google Play, Product Manager Team

In 2015, you introduced the world to the latest dance crazes, opened up discussions about diversity and inclusion, and lip-synced in cars and onstage in front of millions. The trends you participated in and the creativity you shared defined the year on YouTube in a bigger way than ever before.Read More

In 2015, you introduced the world to the latest dance crazes, opened up discussions about diversity and inclusion, and lip-synced in cars and onstage in front of millions. The trends you participated in and the creativity you shared defined the year on YouTube in a bigger way than ever before.

It's time to celebrate. More than 150 YouTube creators from all over the world got together to relive not just the best moments of 2015, but also some of the most memorable viral clips from YouTube history (hey, it’s still our 10th birthday year for a few more days yet …). The result: the 2015 installment of our annual Rewind video, featuring everything from YouTube dance prodigies, some of your favourite TV personalities, an epic plastic ball fight, and even a remix from Avicii.

Here are the top trending videos for 2015 in Australia, based on the amount of time people spent watching, sharing, commenting, liking, and more. This year, the list represents the amazing variety of creativity brought to YouTube each day, including social commentary, pranks, movie trailers, and hilarious moments from traditional media and big names on YouTube.

Given the interest in the recent launch of the YouTube Kids app in Australia, it’s no surprise to see that a video from Peppa Pig took out the top spot this year. Four global television moments also made the top Trending Videos list in Australia, paying homage to widely popular YouTube trends including lip sync battles, in-car singalongs, and the reading of mean tweets.

1. Peppa Pig - 9 Episode Compilation 2! by theofficialpeppa
2. Lip Sync Battle with Will Ferrell, Kevin Hart and Jimmy Fallon by latenight
3. Star Wars: The Force Awakens Official Teaser #2 by starwars
4. Justin Bieber Carpool Karaoke by TheLateLateShow
5. Mean Tweets - Music Edition #2 by JimmyKimmelLive
6. Star Wars: The Force Awakens Trailer (Official) by starwars
7. The Dangers Of Social Media (Child Predator Social Experiment) Girl Edition! by zipkid99
8. Wheel of Musical Impressions with Christina Aguilera by latenight
9. Fast & Furious Nerd Shocks Instructors by mxmantv
10. Crazy Plastic Ball PRANK!! by RomanAtwood

When it comes to music, 2015 saw some of our fastest-rising videos of all time. Wiz Khalifa's "See You Again" reached over 1 billion views in just 6 months and Adele reached the year's top 10 in just a few weeks. The top 10 music videos collectively have more than 68 million subscribers, and these videos have collectively amassed more than 6 billion views in 2015.

1. Wiz Khalifa - See You Again ft. Charlie Puth [Official Video] Furious 7 Soundtrack 
2. Taylor Swift - Bad Blood ft. Kendrick Lamar 
3. Maroon 5 - Sugar 
4. Ellie Goulding - Love Me Like You Do (Official Video) 
5. Adele - Hello 
6. Sia - Elastic Heart feat. Shia LaBeouf & Maddie Ziegler (Official Video) 
7. Taylor Swift - Style 
8. Major Lazer & DJ Snake - Lean On (feat. MØ) (Official Music Video) 
9. Silentó - Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae) (Official) 
10. Justin Bieber - What Do You Mean? 

And if you love staying on top of the most-anticipated new trailers, hottest music videos, and viral clips from YouTube creators, today we unveil the new YouTube Trending tab. This new tab in your YouTube app delivers the top trending videos directly to your Android, iOS, and desktop device. It's the best way to catch the videos, creators, and trends that people watch, share, and talk about each and every day. See 'em as they take off and before they appear in YouTube Rewind 2016. And for more Rewind fun, check out the YouTube Rewind channel!

Posted by Kevin Allocca, Head of Culture & Trends, and the YouTube Rewind team, who recently watched “YouTube Rewind: Now Watch Me 2015 | #YouTubeRewind”

Introducing students to computer science has never been more critical to prepare them for the jobs of the future. While none of us know exactly what those jobs will look like, we do know they will require a greater ability to understand and engage in computational thinking and coding - across every sector. From medicine to mining, from fashion to food production, every industry is being transformed by computer science, and graduates are in high demand.Read More

Introducing students to computer science has never been more critical to prepare them for the jobs of the future. While none of us know exactly what those jobs will look like, we do know they will require a greater ability to understand and engage in computational thinking and coding - across every sector. From medicine to mining, from fashion to food production, every industry is being transformed by computer science, and graduates are in high demand.

With many states commencing implementation of the Digital Technologies Curriculum it is critical that we have development opportunities for teachers to equip and inspire them with the skills they need to encourage the next generation of innovators. Google’s CS4HS program has been equipping teachers in Australia since 2011 by providing grants for hands on workshops for K-12 teachers. Through our free online courses through Adelaide University and our CS4HS workshops we’ve seen thousands of teachers inspired and equipped to implement this new curriculum.

Applications are now open for our 2016 CS4HS program in Australia and New Zealand and are open until 26 February 2016.

If you want to know where computer science can take today’s students, check out Careers with Code. In the future, young Australians will use computer science to do great things, and it will all start with a great teacher with a passion for the topic.

Posted by Sally-Ann Williams, Engineering Community & Outreach Manager, Google Australia & New Zealand