Covid-19: Google helps ‘saathis’ share credible health info in rural India

We are helping female internet “saathis” (or trainers) share authoritative health advice with their networks in rural villages in India, says the company

As Covid-19 pandemic affects all sections of the society, Google said that its focus in the on-going crisis in Asia Pacific has been on prioritising three things: contributing to the immediate health response, helping people learn and work from home and supporting the small businesses most affected. The company said in a statement late Tuesday that in India, it is helping female internet “saathis” (or trainers) share authoritative health advice with their networks in rural villages.

“Our team in India has helped local governments share the location of night and food shelters on Google Maps,” said Scott Beaumont President, Asia Pacific. Google started showing the locations of Covid-19 test centres on Google Maps, Search and Assistant in Indonesia, before extending the feature to other countries around the world, including India, Korea and the Philippines.

ALSO READ: Apple, Google ban GPS tracking in apps using contract tracing framework

In Korea, the Google News Initiative is offering weekly sessions training journalists on how to identify misinformation. The Covid-19 pandemic began spreading across Asia Pacific in January, affecting millions of people directly. Google said that learners from disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to have their schooling disrupted and their progress held back…Read Full Story

You can no longer book an Uber cab ride directly from Google Maps app

The ability to book an Uber through Maps allowed users to avoid the official Uber app

 

Google has reportedly killed the ability of direct Uber ride booking from inside Google Maps without giving any reason.

The feature allowing users to book Uber rides through Google Maps was added in January last year, with which users could enter a location, identify their route, check Uber prices and request a ride without leaving the Maps app.

On one Google Maps Help page, Google simply says “you can no longer book Uber rides directly in Google Maps”, Android Police reported late on Monday.

Uber integration was pulled from Google Maps on iOS earlier than on Android, according to the report.

The ability to book an Uber through Maps allowed users to avoid the official Uber app, which has previously been criticised for its aggressive location tracking.

Click Here : Technology

Going out for dinner? Google to soon show wait time at restaurants on maps

Google will now include a pop-up box that appears when you click on a time frame in the popular times' chart

Tired of long queues at restaurants? Relax as Google is soon rolling out wait times on Google Search -- followed by Google Maps -- that will show you the estimated wait-time at your favourite eating hangouts.

To see wait times for nearly a million sit-down restaurants around the world that allow walk-ins, just search for the restaurant on Google, open the business listing, and scroll down to the "Popular Times" section.

"There, you'll see the estimated wait time at that very moment. And by tapping on any of the hour bars, you'll see the estimated wait for that time period," Google said in a blog post on Wednesday.

You can even scroll left and right to see a summary of each day's wait times below the hour bars, so you can plan ahead to beat the crowds.(technology news)

Wait-time estimates are based on anonymised historical data, similar to how Google computes the previously launched 'Popular Times' and 'Visit Duration' features.

In the case of restaurants, Google will now include a pop-up box that appears when you click on a time frame in the popular times' chart.

The box shows the live or historical data labelled as "busy", "usually busy", "usually not busy", etc., along with the wait time, TechCrunch reported.