Official Google Australia Blog: June 2015

Launceston looks forward (again)

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

2013 eTowns AwardAustralian Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Chilly conditions relieved by a warming coffee at our Launceston roadshow this morning Sebachi

Sebachi owner Lisa Tedeschi at the Launceston roadshow today Google My Business
Posted by Richard Flanagan, Head of Small Business Marketing, Google Australia

Android Developer Story: Shifty Jelly drives double-digit growth with material design and expansion to the car and wearables

Friday, June 26, 2015

[Cross posted from the Android Developers' blog]

Pocket Casts

Material Design: Learn more about material design and how it helps you create beautiful, engaging apps.

Android Wear: Extend your app to Android Wear devices with enhanced notifications or a standalone wearable app.

Android Auto: Extend your app to an interface that’s optimized for driving with Android Auto.

Google Cast: let your users cast your app’s content to Google Cast devices like Chromecast, Android TV, and speakers with Google Cast built-in.

Pocket Casts app on Google Play

Building a proud community with Google My Business

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

(Editor's note: This is a cross post from the Google and Your Business blog. It's Pride Month in the US and this is a post they put together to mark the occasion. We liked it too much not to share). Google My Business

Posted by Arjan Dijk

Dive in to explore Mantis Reef, Wishbone Reef, and many other reefs across Asia Pacific

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Editors note: This post is the first in a series of guest entries by members of the XL Catlin Seaview Survey team, a group dedicated to recording and revealing the world’s coral reefs in high-resolution, 360-degree panoramic imagery. These posts will take you behind the scenes of the project and introduce you to the people taking these images.

Australia and Asia Pacific is home to some of the world’s top marine biodiversity hotspots. To celebrate World Oceans Day on June 8, we’ve worked with Google to launch our largest ever collection of underwater imagery on Google Maps, featuring 360-degree virtual dives from 20 reefs across the region, including the Philippines, Indonesia, the Solomon Islands, the Cook Islands, Australia and American Samoa.

Here’s a look at the virtual dive locations captured by the XL Catlin Seaview Survey team

Come take a closer look at how we carry out these underwater surveys by going behind-the-scenes on our dive at Indonesia’s Bunaken National Park, the heart of the Coral Triangle. Often called the “underwater Amazon,” the Coral Triangle is a 5.7 million square kilometer area that spans from the Philippines in the north, down to Indonesia and as far as the Solomon Islands in the east. This giant triangle is also home to 76% of known coral species and over 3,000 species of fish.

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The SVII camera system surveys the remarkable reefscapes of the Coral Triangle (c) Catlin Seaview Survey

Every dive begins with getting our divers rigged up and the 60kg camera off our research boat Makarena and into the water. The SVII is a revolutionary camera system that creates high-resolution 360-degree images of the underwater environment using technology similar to Google Street View. By attaching SVII to an underwater scooter, we can cover distances of up to two kilometers in a single dive, taking about 3,000 images each time. We’ve also added instruments to this camera set-up, including a depth transponder (altimeter) so that we can read the altitude of the camera from the sea floor, which allows us to gather standardized scientific information at a volume and scale which was previously unattainable to the marine science community. Untitled:Users:ben:Desktop:Screen Shot 2014-10-31 at 8.48.26 AM.png

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Deploying the SVII camera in the waters off Manado (c) Catlin Seaview Survey

We’ve seen large schools with hundreds of reef fish such as butterfly fish (Chaedotontidae spp) or red toothed triggerfish (Odonus niger) cascade down the healthy reef slope. On this particular day, we were lucky enough to be greeted by a dolphin and a free swimming banded sea snake cruising along of one Bunaken Islands’ epic undersea walls.

XL Catlin Seaview divers explore underwater marine life at Bunaken Islands

You can now also explore new locations on the Great Barrier Reef including Mantis Reef and Wishbone Reef. This new imagery joins other Australian imagery including underwater Sydney Harbour and more Great Barrier Reef imagery.

While we could easily spend all day amongst the depths and colors of the Coral Triangle’s reefs, we try to complete our expeditions as early as possible to get started on downloading and processing the images. We’ll tell you more about the data we gather from these 360-degree photos in upcoming posts, but for now, we hope this new underwater imagery available on the XL Catlin Global Reef Record will give anyone with an Internet connection the ability to immerse themselves in stunning coral reefs like never before.

Posted by Dominic Bryant, XL Catlin Oceans Scholar and PhD Candidate at the Global Change Institute at The University of Queensland

Doodle 4 Google is back for 2015! Calling all time-travellers

Thursday, June 4, 2015

played with the corporate logoholidaysanniversarieswritersscientistsexplorersARTEXPRESSLeeanne CarrBronwyn Bancroftregister your schoolDoodle 4 Google website
Posted by Leticia Lentini, Brand Marketing Manager, Google Australia and New Zealand, whose favourite doodle is the Snugglepot and Cuddlepie Doodle from 2013

Keeping your personal information private and safe—and putting you in control

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

[Editor's note: this is a cross-post from the Official Google Blog].
We've all been there at some point or another… You just lost your phone and want to wipe your personal information. You attend an event, and you want to share your photos with some people (but not everyone). You hesitate as you download another app that's asking for a lot of information.
Everyday, we make choices that affect our privacy and security online. Most people, however, don’t feel they have the right level of control to make these important decisions. According to a recent Pew study, 93 percent of people think it’s important to control access to their personal information, and 90 percent care about the type of information that’s collected about them. But only 9 percent feel they have “a lot” of control over it. We want to change that.
Google builds simple, powerful privacy and security tools that keep your information safe and put you in control of it. At Google I/O, we announced that people will have more control over the information they provide to mobile apps in the M release, the next version of Android. Today, we’re rolling out two significant improvements to our privacy and security tools: a new hub for managing your Google settings called My Account, and a new site that answers important questions about privacy and security on Google.
Privacy and security controls, all in one place Privacy and security are two sides of the same coin: if your information isn’t secure, it certainly can’t be private. My Account gives you quick access to the settings and tools that help you safeguard your data, protect your privacy, and decide what information is used to make Google services work better for you. It also provides more context to help you understand your options and make the right choices for you.
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Here are some of the things you can do with My Account:

Take the Privacy Checkup and Security Checkup, our simple, step-by-step guides through your most important privacy and security settings.

Manage the information that can be used from Search, Maps, YouTube and other products to enhance your experience on Google. For example, you can turn on and off settings such as Web and App Activity, which gets you more relevant, faster search results, or Location History, which enables Google Maps and Now to give you tips for a faster commute back home.

Use the Ads Settings tool to control ads based on your interests and the searches you’ve done.

Control which apps and sites are connected to your account.

We built My Account to be a resource for everyone, even if you don't have a Google Account. Check out your controls at myaccount.google.com.
Answering your questions about privacy and security
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We listen to feedback from people around the world to better understand their concerns about privacy and security. In addition to My Account, we want to help people find answers to common questions on these topics, such as: "What data does Google collect? What does Google do with the data it collects? What tools do I have to control my Google experience?"
Our new site, privacy.google.com, candidly answers these questions, and more. We also explain how we show relevant ads without selling your personal information, how encryption and spam filtering help keep your data safe, and how your information helps customize your experience on Google. Visit this site often to learn about new tools, features, and information that can help you make the choices that are right for you. When you trust your personal information with us, you should expect powerful controls that keep it safe and private as well as useful answers to your questions. Today’s launches are just the latest in our ongoing efforts to protect you and your information on Google. There’s much more to come, and we look forward to your feedback.
Posted by Guemmy Kim, Product Manager, Account Controls and Settings.

Australia Blog

Launceston looks forward (again)

Android Developer Story: Shifty Jelly drives double-digit growth with material design and expansion to the car and wearables

Building a proud community with Google My Business

Dive in to explore Mantis Reef, Wishbone Reef, and many other reefs across Asia Pacific

Doodle 4 Google is back for 2015! Calling all time-travellers

Keeping your personal information private and safe—and putting you in control

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