Google News

Wasted time is a drag. It’s anyone’s guess as to how much the average person wastes a year on all of our “wasted time” activities, like being on hold.

One estimate says Americans spend 26 days per year waiting on hold. And guess who thinks it can get that time back for us? Google.

The company has rolled out an experimental feature named "Talk to a Live Representative," which its imagineers have developed to streamline the process of contacting customer service by phone.

The feature takes its cue from the "Hold for Me" feature on Google Pixel phones but takes it a step further. Google will handle the process and then call the user once a live customer service representative is available to talk.

The "Talk to a Live Representative" feature is currently being tested within Google Search Labs and is available to users in the United States. And the company is playing fair, too. Instead of making the app work only on its own Android systems, it can do its work on Apple/iOS devices, as well as desktop Chrome browsers.

How it works

9to5Google’s test run of the app came off pretty impressively, but it’s not a total fix-all. To begin, the company is sticking with major retailers, airlines, and other brands that have call centers consumers might engage with. 

In instances where you’d call an airline, it would play out like this: 

“Request a call”: You first specify a reason for why you’re calling. In the case of airlines, it’s: Update existing booking, Luggage issue, Canceled flight, Other issue, Flight check-in, Missed my flight, and Delayed flight.

“You then provide your phone number, with Google sending SMS updates. The Request page will note the estimated wait time. After submitting, you can cancel the request at any time,” 9to5Google’s Abner Li said.

So far, the supported business partners include the following according to Li:

Airlines: Alaska Airlines, Delta Airlines, JetBlue, Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines, United

Telecommunications: Assurance Wireless, Boost Mobile, Charter Communications, Cricket Wireless, Samsung, Sprint (which probably means T-Mobile, too)

Retail: Best Buy, Costco, Gamestop, The Home Depot, Walmart, Services

Services: ADT, DHL, Fedex, Grubhub, Instacart, Securus Technologies, Stubhub, UPS, and Waste Management, Zelle

Insurance: Esurance, State Farm 

If someone asks you what internet browser you use, you’re likely to say Google Chrome. It is – by a large margin – the most used browser on the planet, with more than 60% of us using Chrome to surf the web.

But when artificial intelligence (AI) came along, Google was forced out of its comfort zone and had to adapt quickly. Now, the company says it’s full speed ahead and is introducing new generative AI features.

On top of things like the existing ability to add real-time captions to videos, detect malicious sites and annoying permission prompts, and generate the key points of a webpage, Chrome users will see rolling updates over the next few days that are packed with three new experimental generative AI features to make it even easier and more efficient to browse.

Tabs can be arranged in a smart way

Chrome’s “Tab groups” have been around for a while, but their organization is manual and dependent totally on the user. Now, with AI in the mix, Chrome will automatically suggest and create tab groups based on your open tabs. 

A Google spokesperson told ConsumerAffairs that this feature can be particularly helpful if you’re working on several tasks in Chrome at the same time – like if you’re planning a vacation or shopping.

To use this feature when it rolls out, just right-click on a tab and select “Organize Similar Tabs.” Chrome will even suggest names and emojis for these new groups so you can easily find them again when you need them next. 

Create your own themes with AI

After getting comfortable with introducing generative AI wallpapers to Android 14 and Pixel phones, Google is now giving Chrome users the freedom to personalize their browsers.

For example, if you’re a Baltimore Ravens fan, you should be able to quickly generate custom themes based on football, the team, the team’s colors and maybe even Lamar Jackson’s stealth-like moves, all courtesy of AI.

If this interests you, visit the “Customize Chrome” side panel, click “Change theme” and then “Create with AI.” You can go animated, you can head in a “serene mood” direction, whatever you like. For more inspiration, check out this collection of the Chrome team’s favorite theme creations.

As a bonus to AI-generated themes, you can also customize Chrome with photos you’ve uploaded or themes from Google’s collections in the Chrome Web Store. 

Anyone who writes anything may get the most from the new features

Web writing can be intimidating, especially when you want to express yourself publicly. As part of Chrome's next release, Google will add another AI-powered feature to help you write better reviews, RSVP to someone’s party, or ask about an apartment that’s for rent. 

To get started, right-click a text box or field on any site you visit in Chrome and select “Help me write.” Type in a few words and our AI will jumpstart the writing process for you. 

Technical notes you need to know

Google says that Chrome users will be able to try out these new features in Chrome on both Macs and Windows PCs over the next few days.

If this piques your interest, the best advice is to sign into Chrome every few days, select “Settings” from the three-dot menu, and navigate to the “Experimental AI” page. The company spokesperson said that because these features are early public experiments, they’ll be disabled for enterprise and educational accounts for the time being. 

When it comes to battles of the titans, nothing beats a good one-upmanship between Google and Apple.

Just weeks after Apple dropped the new iPhone 15, Google responded with the Pixel 8. But now, Google threw another “top this, will ‘ya” at Apple by releasing the new Android 14 system – an update that’s packed with many features Apple may have to lean on its engineers to match.

The updates include a new Pixel camera interface, more ways to extend battery life and better navigation for kids who use Android-driven tablets. Here’s a device-by-device breakdown of what’s what:

The camera and lock screen

Google claims the system’s new camera interface allows users to toggle easier between photo and video modes by planting an icon for each on the bottom of the phone app. Supposedly, users can make their favorite modes system camera defaults so they can access them quicker and, then, when they want to expand their horizons a bit, they can easily slide over to the new modes they might have missed.

Photographers with advanced skills will like what Google has done in regard to RAW images, too. It's now easier than ever to edit RAW images taken on Pixel 6 and newer phones as well as the Pixel Tablet. RAW images can be automatically opened in your favorite RAW editor directly from the Photos interface.

Power features

Got a drawer full of USB cables? Yep, everyone does. But while they should all, in theory, act the same they don’t. Some recharge a device in no time flat, others are slower than molasses.

On both Pixel 6 and newer phones and on Pixel Tablet, the user will be notified if their power adapter or USB cable is charging their device slowly or not at all.

Battery Saver gets an upgrade, too. Instead of waiting to notify you when your device is an hour or so away from losing power, the new Battery Saver can be brought up anytime to show you what is being restricted on your Pixel, allowing you to select essential apps that can continue to run when you toggle on Extreme Battery Saver.

You can also turn on Battery Saver or Extreme Battery Saver with automatic notifications at 10% and 20%.

Improved privacy

Health and wellness apps – especially ones for pregnancy and mental health – have been a minefield lately. App stores have done their best to let app users know what data is collected by each app, but some sneaky app makers decided they could say one thing and do another and limit a user’s visibility and control over their data.

To hopefully get that issue back in the consumer’s favor, Google is introducing Health Connect, a module built into the new Android 14 settings as a central way to store all your data in one place and stay in control of your privacy.

“And your data is securely encrypted on your phone, which ensures Google or anyone else can't see or use it for any other purpose,” Google’s Dave Burke, vice president of Engineering, Android, said. Just connect and sync your favorite health and fitness apps — like Oura, Peloton and Whoop — to get started.

Another pain point Google is trying to cure is location data. With the new Android 14 rollout, you should have more visibility into how your data is being used by apps that are requesting access to your data.

“Now, when you’re asked to grant apps permission to information like your location you’ll be notified when an app is sharing location data with third parties and can make a more informed decision on whether or not to grant access,” Burke added.

Giving the kids a break on navigation

If you have a little tyke who’s got an Android tablet, there’s now a kid-friendly mode called Google Kids Space, which is chock full of kid-friendly content and a new streamlined navigation bar that takes out the geekiness of navigating, switching apps, etc. 

Helping out the hard-of-hearing and vision-impaired, too

One of the most impressive features Android 14 has in store is for low-vision and hard-of-hearing users. For the hearing impaired, Google has more intuitive ways to connect and interact with hearing aids all from a shortcut on the phone’s screen. 

For low-vision users, Google has improved the magnifier, so now when you want to enlarge some text, it’s a simple pinch-and-zoom maneuver – one that’s easily customized in the new Magnifier Settings panel. You can also establish the baseline and maximum font size to better suit your vision range.

One other thing that’s good for the vision- and hearing-impaired, but could come in handy for anyone who wants a different setting for Notifications is “Flash notifications”. With this setting, you get visual light flashes when you have incoming notifications instead of audio pings.

Better Chromebook and phone/tablet integration

It’s always been a drag when you’re streaming something on your phone and when you sit down to your laptop, you have to reconnect the stream or log into the app again. Google says no more.

On the new system, you can begin using an app on your Pixel device and, then, switch seamlessly and start using it on your Chromebook. Everything you typically do on your phone, too – including messages, check on deliveries, etc.

It's a common annoyance. You search for a specific product or company and click on the first thing that pops up. Only it's a completely different company or product.

Google is kicking off September by hog-tying sneaky advertisers that run ads hoping to fool consumers into taking action that could lead them down the wrong road.

If how a brand that is mentioned in an ad is unclear, references another brand’s name or likeness in response to a user’s search for that brand, or any other brand masquerading, that's kind of fakery will get a company sent to the bench until it adheres to the new policy.

The company is also going all-out to protect users from being hounded by ads that chase them around after they've searched for a particular topic.

Imagine if you will, you’re trying to book a flight to New York City on Delta Air Lines. Before, ads might pop up that were trying to get you to believe that they were Delta.

Now, however, the “vast majority” of the ads you see in a search result like that are supposed to be related to things that naturally relate to that search: either Delta itself, or its competitors, hotels in the area, and other advertisers that a history of policy compliance and transparency. 

​If an advertiser tries to pull off that hustle or doesn't have a record of good behavior, it might find its ad impressions are limited until it builds a trustworthy track record on Google’s ad platform.

“While we want to allow users the opportunity to interact with relevant and helpful ads, this policy will reduce the chance that they'll see a misleading or confusing ad from an advertiser with an unproven track record,” Google’s Alejandro Borgia, Director, Product Management, Ads Safety, wrote.

Keeping sensitive topics and ads to a low roar

As you know, when you click on an ad, there are “trackers” that ride along and gather information about who you are, what your interests are, etc., so an advertiser can send you what they think you’d also like to see.

Now, with the updated Google Ad Center, you can customize your ad experience to see more ads about things you like and fewer ads about things you don't.

You can: 

• Tell Google which topics and brands you would like to see more or fewer ads.
• You can keep Google from showing you ads about certain sensitive topics, such as alcohol, dating, pregnancy and parenting, weight loss, or gambling.

Here’s how you can limit ads about sensitive topics:

1. Go to My Ad Center.

2. Select Customize Ads > Sensitive.

3. Select the toggle next to each topic you’d like to limit.

4. Confirm your selection.

To allow ads about the sensitive topics you’ve limited again, repeat the steps above. 

And, if you’re tired of an ad or brand chasing you around after you’ve searched for, say “weight loss,” you can ask to see fewer ads about that topic or from a brand trying to sell you on how it can take care of that situation. 

However, the company says that when you flip that switch, it’s not a death sentence for that particular topic or that advertiser, but its ad engine will try its best to push out more relevant ads about that topic and from that advertiser as well as different brands or topics.

Here’s how to accomplish that in "My Ad Center:

1. Go to My Ad Center

2. Select Customize > Ads Topics or Brands.

3. Select See more, or See fewer, on the topics or brands you want to see, or don't want to see.

But does it work?

ConsumerAffairs gave Google's My Ad Center a chance to show its stuff and we have to admit it handed us the keys to do everything it promises.

Block repetitive ads, block topics that we had no interest in, tell Google that we don't want anyone to see our birthday, not let what we watched on YouTube be used to personalize ads, etc.

One important note, though: If you have more than one Google account (and most people to), you'll need to change the My Ad Center settings for each account.