Samsung has partnered with Google to merge their file-sharing programmes into a single platform.

The move, which was announced at CES 2024 in Las Vegas, allows users to exchange pictures and files across the Android ecosystem.

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In a blog post, Google revealed the deployment of the Quick Share feature, which was launched in 2020, on devices currently using its Nearby Share function would commence next month.

According to the technology company, the partnership creates “the best default, built-in option for peer-to-peer content sharing across all types of devices in the Android and Chromebook ecosystems”.

Google explained: “You remain in control of your privacy, and can choose in your phone’s settings who can discover your device and send files, whether it’s everyone, only your contacts or just your own devices.”

Google added that it is working with PC manufacturers to expand Quick Share to Windows PCs as a pre-installed app.

The news comes as Google and Apple have recently been asked by The European Commission to clarify their risk management regarding their online platforms for purchasing apps.

Under the new regulation, Digital Services Act (DSA), tech firms across the globe are facing legal scrutiny amid the introduction of DSA, which came into force this year.

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Technology giants Apple and Google have been asked by The European Commission to clarify their risk management regarding their online platforms for purchasing apps.

Under the new regulation, Digital Services Act (DSA), tech firms across the globe are facing legal scrutiny amid the introduction of DSA, which came into force this year.

As a result, Apple and Google have been given a 15 January 2024 deadline to reply.

This includes new responsibilities aimed at addressing illegal content, online security risks, and transparency concerns related to online advertisements and recommender systems.

In a statement, the EU executive said: “The Commission is requesting the providers of these services to provide more information on how they have diligently identified any systemic risks concerning the App Store and Google Play.”

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The ‘Best Things for Everything Guide’ enables users to browse and discover products, or choose from one of eight product categories including babies & toddlers; electronics; games, arts & crafts; health & beauty; home & office; outdoors & on the road; pets; and sports & fitness.

Once the consumer has found a product they like, they can tap it to find more information on a product description page, which features prices, reviews, and places to buy.

The microsite, which is active for the ‘next several weeks’, has been launched in response to searches for products such as ‘best exercise bikes, ‘best ring lights’, and ‘best air fryers’ increasing by 100 per cent or more in the past year.

“When you shop for products — whether for your home, your family or yourself — you should feel confident knowing you’re making a good decision and buying the best product for your needs,” said Marvin Chow, VP of Marketing at Google. “With the Best Things for Everything guide and Google, you can discover top products and the best places to buy them.”

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Google’s plans to remove third-party cookies, its associated ‘Privacy Sandbox’ initiative, and now its announcement that it will not be introducing new ways to track users have, as you’d expect, received a mixed response and an element of uncertainty from within the industry.

‘’Google is aiming to draw a clear line in the sand with their announcement, providing some key points of clarification to their stance on the extent to which authenticated identity solutions can be used as an alternative to third party cookies,” says Freddie Turner, Director of Strategy, UK at MiQ. “However, it may take some time to determine the full implications of the news for the industry. While their stance is clear on how this relates to user-level identity for audience profiling & targeting across Google Advertising products, further detail is needed to understand the implications this could have, particularly if Google could be taking a fully anonymous approach to measurement and frequency capping as well.”

There is a belief among sections of the industry that Google’s decisions over the past few years can only be seen as a positive, providing the industry with the opportunity to reinvent itself and take a an even tougher stance on consumer privacy.

Matt Barash, SVP of Global Publishing & Platform Partnerships at Zeotap, feels that the latest from Google reinforces the importance of first-party data and privacy, following the damage that has been done to consumer trust “by the legacy of third-party cookies”.

“The sustainability of the open web is in our collective best interest and the future state ecosystem will be dependent on interoperable solutions, rather than proprietary approaches,” explains Barash. “This bodes well for the independent ad tech platforms who have committed to support a variety of addressability initiatives once the third-party cookie has been deprecated.

“Recent announcements such todays have served as a welcome catalyst for industry reinvention. Balancing consumer privacy and trust with a sustainable ecosystem will be defined by how effectively publishers and marketers can partner to leverage first party data. To do that, they need to move quickly on integrating tech solutions that support this objective.”

With the increasing value of first-party data and consumer privacy, it also means the industry can put contextual targeting at the heart of its strategy moving forward. And, as such, Brand Advance’s CEO, Christopher Kenna, thinks that “Google’s announcement is exactly what we need”.

“I hope this means that the industry will realise that context is king. Since Brand Advance was created we’ve not used a single cookie. Re-targeting is a huge invasion of privacy, especially when it may reveal where audiences have been reading that they may want to remain discreet, such as LGBTQ specific titles,” says Kenna. “Context is the solution and it always has been. The industry has lost sight of the fact that people gravitate towards the content they want to read and therefore the things they are interested in. I’m excited to see that we’re moving away from third-party cookies as it will force the industry to think differently and wake up to reaching audiences authentically.”

And that sentiment is shared by Nick Morley, Managing Director EMEA at Integral Ad Science.

“Google’s latest announcement reinforces the revolution in digital advertising from audience-based targeting and towards contextual targeting once again,” he says. “Context has evolved and sophisticated technology can help brands reach the right audiences within contextually relevant environments. As a result, were seeing more marketers adopt contextual targeting as the linchpin of their digital advertising campaigns. Its ability to utilise first-party data is more cost-efficient and scalable than personal identifier strategies. It is also future proof in a world without third-party audience tracking data such as cookies, while meeting consumer privacy concerns.”

Others see Google’s decisions as providing the catalyst for greater collaboration around data and privacy, as all businesses within the industry should share common goals around the protection of data and privacy, and the improvement of user experience.

“This is not the death of alternative industry identifiers. While Google’s support would certainly have been a huge advantage, the industry needs to learn to implement and execute on such important projects without industry heavyweights such as Google or Facebook,” says Jürgen Galler, CEO and Co-founder of 1plusX. “There are many publishers, advertisers, and ad tech companies out there that still command substantial reach. Working together and supporting a privacy-respectful ID setup will continue to remain important for the industry.”

Bill Tucker, Executive Director of the Partnership for Responsible Addressable Media (PRAM) and Group EVP of Data Tech Measurement at the Association of National Advertisers, adds, “On issues this complex and important, we need to work together as an industry to evaluate, adapt, integrate (where appropriate), and implement those different approaches, so we can ensure we reach those goals together. We can also ensure the approaches are as aligned and consistent as possible, as users benefit from consistency in their privacy experiences. PRAM was created for that purpose, and that role is more critical now than ever.”

Away from that general positivity, there is also strong group of opposition to Google’s recent decisions. One notable entity is the Marketers for an Open Web (MOW), a UK-based alliance of leading technology and publishing businesses, which has been very outspoken about Google in the past few months.

In November, the MOW wrote to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to ask it to use its power to halt Google’s plans, based on the belief that the introduction of the ‘Privacy Sandbox’ is a ploy to move advertising away from the open web and out of the reach of regulators.

Now, the alliance has joined forces with the US-based Save Journalism Project to accuse Google of stopping the use of third-party cookies to enhance its own commercial interests, pointing to the vast amount of personal data the tech giant is already in possession of.

“We all agree that privacy is important. Google’s proposed changes and its work arounds are not addressing privacy – and they don’t work,” says James Rosewell, Marketers for an Open Web CEO and CEO & Co-founder of 51Degrees.mobi. “A real focus on privacy would involve splitting individual identifiers used for advertising from end users’ actual identity. This was suggested as a remedy by the CMA last year – but Google isn’t looking at that as it makes all users ‘sign in’ or ‘sign up’ and accept its privacy mining terms. For example, as it requires all users of Android to sign into a Google property and pass personal data to it as the price of use.”

Rosewell’s sentiment is echoed by Ollie Vaughan, Chief Media Officer at Tug, stating that “the more cynical among us” may view Google’s movements as a bid to strengthen the power it already holds over the industry and “positioning itself and Google Sandbox directly against alternative solutions, like finger printing and Unified ID”.

And Romain Job, Chief Strategy Officer at Smart AdServer, goes a step further by suggesting “Google is taking its ball and going home”.

“What’s missing from this announcement is Googles approach to first-party data accountability. Unified ID was intended to be the market standard initiative to tie advertiser and publisher first-party data together,” says Job. “If Google doesn’t participate, how will it deliver this use case if not via its own private user ID within Google’s own Data Garden? First-party data management still requires users’ informed consent. If not via UID2, we would expect the Privacy Sandbox and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to fully address this topic and help define standards for first-party data management accountability. This is an area on which the industry needs to move forward.”

Nonetheless, whatever your feelings about Google and third-party cookies, this presents an opportunity for the industry to really reflect on its use of data and truly work to put the consumer first.

“In reality, we’ve never had perfect data – and it’s likely that we never will. Rather than pushing for more and more data, without a real plan of how to use it, we need to shift our mindset and appreciate the data we do have to play with, and use it to build accurate consumer trends and make balanced marketing decisions. In truth, the value of real-time data has been overblown in recent years; if we can guarantee 80 per cent accuracy in our data set and have it available in good time, then that’s enough to make these decisions,” says James Parker, Chief Solutions Officer at Jellyfish.

“If we’ve learned anything over the last 12 months it’s that it’s ok to let go of some things we didn’t need. Does this mean the value of analytics is diminished? Not at all – in fact it’s quite the opposite.”

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The News Corp publications joining Google’s hub are The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, MarketWatch, and the New York Post; in the UK: The Times and The Sunday Times, and The Sun; and, in Australia, a range of news platforms including The Australian, News.com.au, Sky News, and multiple metropolitan and local titles.

Under multi-year partnership, there will also be a subscription platform developed, the sharing of ad revenue via Google’s ad technology services, the development of audio journalism, and investments into video journalism by YouTube.

Robert Thomson, Chief Executive of News Corp, said that the deal would have “a positive impact on journalism around the globe as we have firmly established that there should be a premium for premium journalism.

“I would like to thank Sundar Pichai and his team at Google who have shown a thoughtful commitment to journalism that will resonate in every country. This has been a passionate cause for our company for well over a decade and I am gratified that the terms of trade are changing, not just for News Corp, but for every publisher.

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The TV app – which has launched for people in the UK, France, and Germany – lets users view content from TikTok’s ‘For You’ and ‘Following’ feeds, as well as the most liked and viewed content on the platform, which is organised into categories such as gaming, comedy, food, and animals.

“Were excited to bring the creativity and joy of TikTok to Google TV and other Android TV OS devices across Europe,” said Rich Waterworth, General Manager at TikTok UK. “The TikTok on TV experience will be a new way for people to come together and enjoy videos from some of our most popular content categories on the big screen. Whether its learning a new skill or just having some fun together watching what you love, now more than ever, I feel this is a brilliant way for people to be able to enjoy their favourite TikTok content together at home.”

The rollout on Google TV and other Android TV OS devices builds on TikTok’s launch on Samsung TVs in the UK at the end of last year.

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The tech giant’s investment includes an additional $100m in ad grants for the CDC Foundation, the World Health Organization, and other non-profits. $50m will be invested into partnerships with public health agencies to reach underserved communities with vaccine-related information, while Google.org has promised $5m in grants to organisations addressing racial and geographic disparities in COVID-19 vaccinations.

Google has also taken steps to expand its information panels on Search to help provide more accurate and timely information on vaccines. So, far, it has expanded the panels to more than 40 countries and will roll out to more nations over the next week. And people will soon be able to see state and regional distribution information on Search, alongside the launch of a ‘Get The Facts’ initiative across Google and YouTube.

In the US initially, Google will add vaccination locations to Search and Maps, with the feature rolling out in Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas in the coming weeks before being introduced to more states and countries.

Finally, starting in the US, Google will make select facilities available for use as vaccination centres. Currently, its partnering with One Medical and public health authorities to open sites in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area in California; Kirkland, Washington; and New York City.

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The tech giant has invested in Glance, which serves news, movies, travel, sports, food, and games content on the lock screens of people’s smartphones, and VerSe Innovation, the parent company of content and news aggregator app Dailyhunt.

Glance secured $145m in investment from Google and existing investor Mithril Capital. The platform, which is part of the InMobi Group and owner of video-sharing platform Roposo, delivers AI-driven personalised content in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Bahasa on Android lock screens, boasting 115m daily active users.

It says it will use the Google-led investment to deepen its artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, expand its technology team, launch new services, strengthen its brand, and drive expansion into more markets.

“Glance is a great example of innovation solving for mobile-first and mobile-only consumption, serving content across many of India’s local languages,” said Caesar Sengupta, VP, Google. “Still too many Indians have trouble finding content to read or services they can use confidently, in their own language. And this significantly limits the value of the internet for them, particularly at a time like this when the internet is the lifeline of so many people. This investment underlines our strong belief in working with India’s innovative startups towards the shared goal of building a truly inclusive digital economy that will benefit everyone.”

Google’s investment in VerSe is part of a round of over $100m, which valued the company at over $1bn. The round also included investment from Microsoft and AlphaWave, among others. The company’s Dailyhunt platform provides local language content in 14 Indian languages and it recently launched a short-video app called ‘Josh’.

The company will seek to use the capital injection to scale up its new app, expand its content offerings, and leverage AI.

The money invested in the startups by Google comes from the tech giant’s India Digitization Fund. The fund, launched earlier this year, includes a $10bn commitment by Google to India’s digital economy. This investment will take place over the next five to seven years and be done through a mixture of equity investments, partnerships, and operational, infrastructure, and ecosystem investments.  

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The update to the Street View app on Android enables users to use Google’s connected photos tool to record a series of ARCore-captured connected images as they move along the street. Once the user has recorded and published their images to the app, Google then automatically rotates, positions, and creates a series of connected photos, which are then placed in the correct location on Google Maps.

“Before this feature, you would typically need special 360-degree cameras to capture and publish Street View imagery. Some equipment you could even attach to the roof of your car, but at the cost of thousands of dollars; that’s out of the realm for many,” said Stafford Marquardt, Product Manager at Google Maps Street View.

“Now that anyone can create their own connected Street View photos, we can bring better maps to more people around the world, capturing places that aren’t on Google Maps or that have seen rapid change. All you need is a smartphone—no fancy equipment required.”

The connected photos feature is currently available in beta to those using the Street View app with an ARCore-compatible Android device in Toronto, New York, and Austin in the US, as well as users in Nigeria, Indonesia, and Costa Rica.

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The Marketers for an Open Web (MOW) have written to the CMA to ask it to use its powers to put a stop to Google’s plans. The Privacy Sandbox – due to launch in early 2021 – would remove login, advertising, and other features from the open web on Google’s Chrome browser and place them under the control of the tech giant.

Google’s Chrome browser and Chromium developer tools run on around 72 per cent of UK computers.

The MOW group has warned that the introduction of the technology has nothing to do with privacy, despite its name, and is simply a ploy to move digital advertising away from the open web and beyond the reach of regulators. The coalition also points to its concerns that news publisher revenues will be cut by around two-thirds, with smaller regional publications hit hardest, as a result of them not being able to access the cookies they use to sell advertising.

As a result, the MOW wants the CMA to take action before Google is able to use the Privacy Sandbox to protect itself from any competitive remedies that regulators may propose to mitigate Google’s dominant position on the web.

“The world’s regulators have realised that Google is attempting to take over the web through its dominance of areas such as search, online advertising and browser technologies. However, their efforts to mitigate this monopoly power will be in vain if Google manages to consolidate its dominance through the introduction of Privacy Sandbox prior to the regulators’ recommended changes to the law being implemented.  If Google releases this technology, they will effectively own the means by which media companies, advertisers and technology businesses reach their consumers and that change will be irreversible,” James Rosewell, Director of MOW.

“The concept of the open web is based on a decentralised, standards-based environment that is not under the control of any single commercial organisation.  This model is vital to the health of a free and independent media, to a competitive digital business environment and to the freedom and choice of all web users.  Privacy Sandbox creates new, Google-owned standards and is an irreversible step towards a Google-owned ‘walled garden’ web where they control how businesses and users interact online.”

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