Google's New Search Tools Can Help You Find Eco-Friendly Flights, Train Tickets and Hotels

The new epoch brings about exceptional changes in the lives of people. Our very own Google search has come up with an outstanding expansion of its resources by providing people a medium to travel with ease in intra and inter-cities, along with a feature to buy tickets.

The company states that it will allow its users to choose more consciously concerning carbon emissions when booking travel—especially when you are riding the rails in Europe. Those who are aware of the app have noticed the pop-up on Google flights, which shows the estimated carbon emission for each trip that the passenger makes.

Furthermore, the google search engine also indicates the carbon emission scale for the record of its people. The Google chart will notify the other options of the flight compared to the least carbon emissions on average.

However, Google in its search options has provided a new tool that will allow you to narrow down flight and hotel options, and one of them is related to Emissions. In this option, you can choose either "any emission" or "low emissions only".

Google has consolidated such a module to avoid the excessive emission of carbon dioxide and protect the environment. When traveling smarter, you also tend to choose those hotels that have lower carbon emissions. "Eco-certified" filter for hotels has been granted a certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Those certification placards are also on the display of each hotel, along with the criteria from the Global Sustainable Tourism Council.

The result of these new inventions has turned out to be great. Although Google still hasn’t operated the optimization of train travel yet. But it is seen the exceptional result with working carriers in Germany, Italy, Japan, and Spain. Since it has finally caught up with the trend, it also provides the best route and schedule to the people.

For instance, if you put “Berlin to Amsterdam train” in the search engine, you will get a timetable, and on top of that reserving tickets option on Deutsche Bahn. Google.com also generates a model in which people can add their desired date, departure, and time of day, and then a whole list of the available seats will appear, along with options and prices.

The company is all set to expand its business, as it is also reaching out to other railroads for agreement. Meanwhile, other resources like Hopper, RailEurope, The Train Line, and Wanderu will not be impressed by this new intervention in their businesses. Although they haven’t made any remarks yet.

The new feature has made life much easier. People can now reach their desired destination in no time without getting late for their work. Google stated that they are testing more features regarding bus tickets soon to further the convenience of the people.

Read next: Google Simplifies Its Management By Shifting Assistant And Calendar Reminders To Google Tasks
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Young Children Are Losing One Full Night’s Sleep Each Week Due To Social Media, Claims New Study

Social media may be more harmful to kids than expected. The news comes thanks to a new study claiming how the trend adversely affects primary school children.

According to the shocking findings, they could well be losing up to an entire night’s sleep each week. And that’s due to staying up late and using social media.

Health experts recommend that kids sleep for at least 9 to 12 hours. But those who were more active online slept far less than the daily recommended number of hours that were delineated for kids aged 10 and below.

Less sleep can have drastic effects on their health and well-being. This includes poor performance academically and changes in their behavior patterns. Moreover, the study shed light on how on average, such kids are getting far less sleep than recommended each night, like 8 hours or less.

And when you add that up, researchers found that it’s equivalent to losing an entire night’s worth of good sleep.

The study is definitely one of the first of its kind. It has been linked to being the first to put pre-teens' sleeping habits on display, and it’s concerning to see how so many young children are giving more value to their online activities at this age than their sleep.

The study comes forward by a researcher named Dr. John Shaw, who hails from the University of De Montfort. He even presented his study at the recently held latest Science Festival in Leicester. And many parents were shocked to see how 69% of kids preferred social media to sleep.

And if you think of it, such statistics are awfully terrifying as this is the future generation and parents need to step in before it's too late.

This particular study in question enrolled around 60 students spread out across various schools, and they were just aged 10. The majority had full access to social media, and around 90% claimed to have their own smartphones.

Sites that claim they don’t allow visitors below the age of 13 aren’t getting their facts right because children can gain access easily. Most students surveyed spent their time on the popular video-sharing app TikTok. Other popular favorites included Instagram, Facebook, and Reddit as well.

Commonly asked questions by researchers toward the young audiences included their bedtime habits, sleeping schedule, and what time they’re able to get up in the morning. And as you can imagine, the greater their online activities, the less they slept and the poor sleep quality they had.

Many kids seem to suffer from the FOMO syndrome, that is, the fear of missing out whenever they choose not to log on to their favorite social media apps. They also added there was some sort of disconnection when they couldn’t see or interact with others on the apps.

This shows how negative the activity is for young children’s mental health and well-being. It’s really affecting their behavior, and that’s the purpose of the study- to raise more awareness and put an end.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Google Simplifies Its Management By Shifting Assistant And Calendar Reminders To Google Tasks

It’s the news that many users have been on the lookout for since June of this year. And finally, Google has announced plans to simplify its task management.

The search giant says it's shifting both assistant and calendar reminders to its Tasks. And we feel that’s great because the age-old assistant reminder was of little to no use for most users out there.

Yes, it’s good when you add in a voice command comprising ‘Hey Google’ but to see it interacting through touch with the Google app across Android really was an unpleasant experience.

But we’re lucky because Assistant Reminders could be located on Google Calendar and are now going to be shifted toward the Tasks tab while getting a major upgrade along the way.

The main feature is integration so you’ll be able to make tasks using the ‘Hey Google’ command through your smart device, speakers, and even your Smart Displays.

Everything created ends up showing in the Task List on your mobile phone and even on the workspace designed for Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Docs. You will be given a particular date and time for notification of your tasks to help keep you organized. Meanwhile, a number of other integrations to be included are your Google Chat and even your ‘Add to Task’ feature.

You’ll see this major upgrade launch in the next few months. And we feel that once it does end up going live, it can really benefit so many of us out there because it's like merging your reminders into Google Tasks for better efficiency.

Google mentioned the news via its blog post today where it highlighted how a new notification pops up on your screen or computer. It will motivate you to more frequently manage all of your to-do lists and stay organized better. And that too, from one place.

After this is launched, you could well be seeing the elimination of Google Reminder from your calendar as early as November.

In the future, Google is looking at plans to invest in things like Google Tasks and even expand its capabilities. They hope to get users back on track in terms of staying productive and organized at all times.

Google hopes to be your work companion and is excited to join you on this journey toward productivity, the blog post concluded in the end.

Read next: Google Is Letting Users Remove Their Personal Information With A New “Results About You’ Feature
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

New Study Proves YouTube’s ‘Dislike’ And ‘Not Interested’ Buttons Fail At Stopping Spam

A new study from Mozilla is shedding light on YouTube’s dislike and spam buttons and how they are largely failing at stopping or curbing the unlimited amounts of spam on the app.

The news was announced by a non-profit organization this week and it’s really showing us that the platform is struggling in terms of handling unwanted information. And in the end, it’s the users who are getting awfully frustrated and quite confused.

Mozilla launched its browser extension for crowd search around two years back and that’s when the issue linked to the app’s recommendation problems was put on display.

Around 20,000 people and 500 million video-based content later, we’re getting this report today about how YouTube is really having a hard time with its own controls, and by that we mean its buttons for dislike and not interested are doing nothing in terms of altering the recommendations seen on the app’s algorithm.

People who disliked gun videos were shown even more content related to violence while those who disliked crypto content were seen being provided with even more crypto videos and that just goes to show how things aren’t really working well in the app’s favor.

One study has even gone as far as suggesting how some controls belonging to users have little to no impact in terms of putting a stop to unwanted recommendations. So why are people being shown videos that they have zero interest in seeing?

Out of the four buttons, the study showed how the one titled, ‘don’t recommend channel’ had the most impact in terms of preventing unwanted recommendations, which figures standing at 43%. On the other hand, the button for ‘remove from my watch history’ was a decent filter and removed around 29% of the content. But the button for dislike and not interested performed the worst and stood at just 12 % and 11% respectively.

When people felt that they had no chance of having control over their watch content, they either logged out, used other privacy tools, or simply made new accounts to manage the various videos on offer.

A senior researcher at the company says they really learned a lot of insight in terms of how people are not impressed with YouTube taking care of what content they wish to see. They feel the app has a lot of shortcomings in this regard and really needs to up its game. And the findings of the study simply validate it.

Studies like these are proof that the app provides little to no control to its users in terms of a say in the way the algorithm functions. And remember, Mozilla has been carrying out plenty of research on YouTube and the way its algorithm works since 2019.

And according to these wonderful and latest suggestions, YouTube needs to do a lot more if it wishes to give users their driving seat position back again. It’s almost like launching several proactive measures and providing researchers with more access to the app’s API and different tools.

Image: Mozilla
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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Google Updates Its Consent Mode So Website Developers Can Manage Privacy Permissions Better

Google wishes to add ease for all of its developers in terms of better managing privacy permissions and the ordeals linked to data collection.

The company has moved ahead with a few new updates across the Consent Mode that’s visible on Google Ads.

The latter is designed to deal with data collected through automated means from every page that is aligned with permissions granted by visitors.

As you can tell, the Consent Mode is the name given to a management console for Google that helps with cookie tracking. It ensures all things are working in line with the consent given or not when a particular visitor heads to a site.

This new range of management tools instills more capacity to adjust consent mode so they’re working in line with the consent offered by every user.

Google mentioned in a recent blog post that in a few months, users will get the chance to witness troubleshooting alerts. These can be found in the diagnostics section and will provide detailed insights on rates of consent provided and tagging taking place.

It will also be able for developers to download a list featuring different URLs that get access to your Tag Assistants on the app where so many debugging tools can be found. Hence, fixing errors would be so much simpler than before.

Google also hopes to include some more recommendations on the tab for diagnostics. It’s also in the works to make it simpler to display Consent Mode.

Marketers are being given the chance to have the Consent Mode as a helpful tool that provides support to Google Ads. It hopes to bring the right form of guidance to users’ screens in this manner.

Users can see the conversion summary page on the Google Ads page and highlight a separate column to show if the feature is being used correctly. It also provides the right diagnostics via direct means from there or through the page for conversion action.

In this way, it gets so much simpler to see which types of data are being captured and how a website is responding to visitors arriving now. Above all, it keeps you in check in terms of user permissions.

Google has also shed light on the launch of a new program that entails Consent Manager Platform Partner. Here is where several third-party platforms combine with the app’s Tag Managers to track cookies.

Today, managing how data gets collected by developers is a huge ordeal in terms of handling a website. Therefore, with the right tools at hand, you can now be sure you’re operating with changing privacy laws.

Read next: Google Is Letting Users Remove Their Personal Information With A New “Results About You’ Feature
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Instagram Tests New Way To Protect Users From Being Exposed To Unwanted Content In DMs

Instagram recently launched a new filter that will prevent users from witnessing unwanted exposure to content on the app.

In case you didn’t know, the app has come a long way in blocking explicit content; therefore, if you still happen to be facing problems in that department, Instagram is working on it.

The development in question is called the nudity filter they're currently experimenting with. But the app says things are looking promising, and if they go as planned, this could be something major for the platform.

The idea is to block explicit content like nude pictures seen through the app’s DMs, and it’s an issue that we felt needed to be addressed earlier. But better late than never, and we hope blocking such texts will now be possible on the platform because, let’s face it, most people aren’t interested in seeing others’ private parts.

We’ve got the news thanks to avid app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi who says the app is all set to roll out the feature that detects nudity and blocks it from being transferred forward. Hence, all images will be scanned, and if they pass the criteria of safe viewing by the app’s system, they’ll be allowed, but if not, they will get blocked.

The app will blur the picture out whenever it's detected, and it will all be carried out on your device. For now, we’re hearing news about the test being conducted for iOS users, but if it works out well, Android should follow up soon.

The thought of private images being detected by the app is a little concerning for some because they’re worried the app might end up downloading them in the end. But don’t worry, Apple has reassured users that they’re keeping an eye out to see how the whole process of detecting and blurring occurs, and privacy is maintained.

Meta says it’s going to be conducted via machine-powered tools and data matching. Hence, it will not trace or track down any specifics related to user data of the interactions between various people.

So yes, it’s a little controversial, if we must say so ourselves because many feel the drawbacks might jeopardize the benefits.

The news comes after a Facebook leaked document showed how Meta is well aware of the fact that Instagram affects the mental health of young people. Yet, it chose to ignore it and continue its profit-making endeavors.

Read next: Instagram’s Boss Under Pressure as App Falls Behind Archrivals TikTok And YouTube In All Dimensions
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

The Popularity For Business Apps In The US Is On The Rise With Installs Rising By 70%

New research by Sensor Tower is putting the popularity of business apps across the US on display.

Without a doubt, remote forms of work have had a major impact in the US. And we’ve witnessed a constant peak in people adopting the trends of business apps. Therefore, this study highlighted just that and how stats rose by 70 million every quarter when compared to those seen in Q1 of 2020.

It currently stands at a staggering 76 million, which is more than a 70% rise since the second quarter of 2022. The research also looks at other subcategories for app trends that many have witnessed growth. We're talking about the remote office, jobs, and business.

The year 2022 saw positive growth in terms of communication apps. From Google Chat to Microsoft Teams, they all had a rise in terms of their downloads. And that grew by a massive 3% between 2020 to 2021. And then, in 2022, the share of downloads rose in the US by 15%.

In the same way, we saw many app downloads for video conference apps decline last year and even further cline by 18% this year. Remember, the pandemic is over, so the surge that was once seen is no longer seen now as more and more people prefer in-person chats. Still, it’s not performing too badly and continues to remain a leading subcategory for business applications globally.

Next up, we saw Instawork experience mega gains this year, thanks to the very flexible platform it comprises of its workers. The user base here has increased more than 15 times than it started. And the reason is related to how it differs from classic apps.

This form for staffing is great for those working hourly shifts or having part-time jobs. This shows people are keener on making money online through freelancing apps like Fiver and Upwork.

Next, let’s take a look at downloads for office tools. They’re peaking as usual again as people working remotely don’t need to add extra effort to get their things physically for the office. They can scan things online, and that’s why Adobe Scan leads the pack. Next in line comes the Office Suite and then Adobe Acrobat. They’re getting more and more popular, up by 6% YoY.

Most of these downloads linked to business applications have seen leading figures across both the App Store and the Play Store. And they’re retaining gains since the first quarter of 2020. And most of the credit goes to both hybrid environments and those still relying on working remotely.

Read next: Scams Related To Cryptocurrency Giveaways Have Tripled In 2022, Says New Report
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World