Google Data

By Magnus Hyttsten, Google Developer Relations

Google Play services 4.2 has now been rolled out to the world, and it’s packed with much-anticipated features such as the brand new Cast API and the updated Drive API.

In addition to these blockbuster announcements, we are also launching a slightly less visible but equally important new API — a new way to connect client APIs and manage API requests. As with the initial Drive API, these changes were available as a developer preview in earlier releases of Google Play services. We’re now happy to graduate those APIs to fully supported and official.

In this post we’ll take a look at the new Google Play services client APIs and what they mean for your apps — for details be sure to read Accessing Google Play services and the API reference documentation.

Connecting Client APIs

The client connection model has now been unified for all the APIs. As you may recall, you were previously required to use separate client classes for each API you wanted to use, for example: PlusClient, GamesClient, etc. Instead, you should now use GoogleApiClient, which allows you to connect to multiple APIs using a single call. This has great advantages such as:

• Simplicity—The onConnected() method will be called once, and only when connectivity to all the client APIs you are using have been established. This means you do not have to intercept multiple callbacks, one for each API connected, which simplifies the code and state management.
• Improved user experience—With this design, Google Play services knows about everything your app needs up front. All APIs, all scopes, the works. This means that we can take care of the user consents at once, creating a single consolidated user experience for all the APIs. No more sign-in mid-process terminations, partial state management, etc.

Below is an example of establishing a connection the Google+ and Drive APIs. To see the reference information for this new client connection model, you should check out the com.google.android.gms.common.api package.

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle b) {
    super.onCreate(b);

    // Builds single client object that connects to Drive and Google+
    mClient = new GoogleApiClient.Builder(this)
            .addApi(Drive.API)
            .addScope(Drive.SCOPE_FILE)
            .addApi(Plus.API, plusOptions)
            .addScope(Plus.SCOPE_PLUS_LOGIN)
            .addConnectionCallbacks(this)
            .addOnConnectionFailedListener(this)
            .build();      
}

@Override
protected void onStart() {
    super.onStart();

    // Connect to Drive and Google+
    mClient.connect();
}

@Override
protected void onConnected(Bundle connectionHint) {
    // All clients are connected
    startRockAndRoll();
}

@Override
protected void onConnectionFailed(ConnectionResult result) {
    // At least one of the API client connect attempts failed
    // No client is connected
    ...
}

Enqueuing API Calls

Another new feature is enqueuing of API calls, which allows you to call read methods before the API clients are connected. This means you can issue these calls up front, for example in onStart/onResume, rather than having to wait and issue them in different callback methods. This is something which will greatly simplify code if your app requires data to be read when it is started. Here is an example of where a call like this can be placed:

@Override
protected void onStart() {
    super.onStart();
    mClient.connect();
}

@Override
protected void onResume() {
    super.onResume();

    // Enqueue operation.
    // This operation will be enqueued and issued once the API clients are connected.
    // Only API retrieval operations are allowed.
    // Asynchronous callback required to not lock the UI thread.
    Plus.PeopleApi.load(mClient, “me”, “you”, “that”).setResultCallback(this);
}

Supporting both Asynchronous and Synchronous Execution

With this release of Google Play services, you now have the option to specify if an API call should execute asynchronously (you will receive a callback once it is finished), or synchronously (the thread will block until the operation has completed). This is achieved by using the classes PendingResult, Result, and Status in the com.google.android.gms.common.api package.

In practice, this means that API operations will return an instance of PendingResult, and you can choose if you want the method to execute asynchronously using setResultCallback or synchronously using await. The following example demonstrates how to synchronously retrieve the metadata for a file and then clear any starred flag setting:

// Must be run in a background task and not on UI thread
new AsyncTask  {
    protected void doInBackground(DriveFile driveFile) {

        // Get the metadata synchronously
        MetaDataResult mdGetResult = driveFile.getMetadata(mClient).await();
        if (!mdGetResult.isSuccess()) {
            // Handle error
        }

        MetaData md = mdGetResult.getMetadata()
        // Perform operations based on metadata

        // Update the meta data, unconditionally clear the starred flag        
        MetaDataChangeSet mdCS = new MetadataChangeSet.Builder()
            .setStarred(false)
            .build();

        MetaDataResult mdUpdateResult =driveFile.updateMetaData(mClient,mdCS).await();
        if (!mdUpdateResult.isSuccess()) {
            // Handle error
        }

        … // continue doing other things synchronously
}).execute(fileName);

It should be stressed though that the old best practice rule — do not block the UI thread — is still in effect. This means that the execution of this sequence of API calls described above must be performed from a background thread, potentially by using AsyncTask as in the example above.

Moving your apps to the new client API

We believe these changes will make it easier for you to build with Google Play services in your apps. For those of you using the older clients, we recommend refactoring your code as soon as possible to take advantage of these features. Apps deployed using the old client APIs will continue to work since these changes do not break binary compatibility, but the old APIs are now deprecated and we’ll be removing them over time.

That’s it for this time. Google Play services allows Google to provide you with new APIs and features faster than ever, and with the capabilities described in this post, you now have a generic way of using multiple client APIs and executing API calls. Make sure to check out the video below for a closer look at the new client APIs.

To learn more about Google Play services and the APIs available to you through it, visit the Google Services area of the Android Developers site. Details on the APIs are available in the API reference.

For information about getting started with Google Play services APIs, see Set Up Google Play Services SDK

Join the discussion on

+Android Developers

Ever wondered what it is like to work as an SMB Account Strategist in Google EMEA?

Adam Devlin is an SMB Account Strategist for the UK and Ireland market in Google Dublin. Adam will be taking part in our ‘Day in the Life of an SMB Account Strategist’ Hangout on Air on March 13th. You can find out more information about the Hangout and how you can get involved at the end of this post.

1. Introduce Yourself!
Hello! Adam here from the SMB Sales Team, for the UK and Ireland market. I’ve been working in Google Dublin for just over 2 years now, enjoying the challenges of meeting targets and also regularly getting involved with the University Programmes Team.

2. What’s the coolest thing about your job?
Learning how to use all the features AdWords has to offer; it brings you back to your school days where you learned your maths times tables – you either liked it or you didn’t! That’s where I come in – getting in touch with clients and assisting them with their advertising goals, and demonstrating the various ways they can use their campaigns to target potential customers; at the right place & time, every time.

Outside of my core role, I also get involved in a variety of projects that are fun and beneficial to our Dublin Googler community e.g. team interview panels, SilverSurferTowns, university mentoring & culture clubs. This is one of the best aspects of a career at Google – there is scope for disruption, creativity and a view to looking forward. In Dublin, we are asking ourselves “agus anois?” – which is Irish Gaelic for “what next?”, i.e. “what can we do to improve & change this year?” Time will tell…

3. How did you get here?
I graduated from University with different areas of work experience under my belt. I always felt that this mix was important for me. University gave me a thirst for discipline & broadening my perspectives, and working helped develop my social & tacit knowledge in dealing quickly with certain situations e.g. dealing with difficult customers, contributing at team meetings etc.

So, I was working in an office during Summer 2011 when I saw a job posting online for a HR Operations role. I did the interviews & was told I got the job. As it was a contract position, I only found out it was for Google a few weeks before I started!

Being target-driven & restless, I wanted to explore other opportunities here at Google. Fast-forward 14 months and I had applied & secured a permanent position within the new and growing SMB Sales Team.

4. What makes you Googley?
I think it’s my creative side. I study Acting and Voice training part-time, and am also involved in different community projects e.g. Leaving Cert workshops, university mentoring & talks, organising team events. This gives me the high-energy I need to perform well, and keeps me connected with people outside the Google World.

As well as this, I love what I do – and from what I’ve learned so far, that is a fundamental part of succeeding in your goals & ambitions.

The University Programmes Team EMEA proudly presents ‘Day in the Life of an SMB Account Strategist’ Hangout on Air on 13th March 2014 from 14:30 – 15:30 GMT. You can find out more information here; don’t forget to click attending!

Posted by Corrina Kavanagh, University Programs Team

A new version of the Google Maps Android API Utility Library is now available, which includes some cool new data visualisation features – marker clustering and heatmaps.

Marker ClusteringWhen you have a lot of data to show, it can be hard to keep your…

Are you in a last minute scramble to plan a lovely evening for your Valentine? Hop to it! Reservations are going quick because according to Zagat’s 2014 Valentine’s survey, 42% of respondents will be hitting the town to celebrate the day of love. Whether you’re searching for a restaurant to take your date to, scouting for the perfect gift in a store nearby or looking up directions to a movie with friends, Google Maps has the ingredients to cook up a successful night.

Step one: we all gotta eat. If you’re still reading this post, chances are you’ve left dinner reservations — how shall we say it? Up in the air. Here’s a hint: book Italian. Whether it’s pizza or pasta, Italian cuisine is the top pick for 2014 Valentine’s day meals, topping the survey chart at 28%. And to be sure the ambiance is just right, with Google Maps’ 360-degree virtual tours of venue interiors, you can scope out the perfect place to woo your date.

Delfina Restaurant in San Francisco

Next up: a token of your love and affection. Whether you’re a guy or a gal, survey respondents agree that giving a gift is a must. No idea where to start? You can never go wrong with candy and flowers, whether it’s a lollipop bouquet or a dozen roses. Just fire up Google Maps on your phone and find the nearest one to your date destination, by tapping the search box to “explore nearby”.

Finally: don’t be late. Navigating to your destination has never been easier on the new Google Maps. Quickly get directions from your saved home location to the restaurant, including a stop at your date’s place displayed right on the map — whether you’re taking public transit, a car or riding a tandem bike.

A parting tip: if you’re thinking of popping the question, consider waiting until after dessert. Apparently, 73% of Zagat survey respondents feel marriage proposals at restaurants are “cheesy”.

Posted by Pegman

What if you could turn one of your passions into something that could change the world? That’s just what thousands of teens have done since the first Google Science Fair in 2011. These students have tackled some of today’s greatest challenges, like an anti-flu medicine, more effective ways to beat cancer, an exoskeletal glove, a battery-free flashlight, banana bioplastics and more efficient ways of farming.

Now it’s time to do it again: we’re calling for students ages 13-18 to submit their brilliant ideas for the fourth annual Google Science Fair, in partnership with Virgin Galactic, Scientific American, LEGO Education and National Geographic. All you need to participate is curiosity and an Internet connection. Project submissions are due May 12, and the winners will be announced at the finalist event at Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., on September 22.

In addition to satisfying your curious mind, your project can also win you some pretty cool prizes. This year’s grand prize winner will have the chance to join the Virgin Galactic team at Spaceport America in New Mexico as they prepare for space flight and will be among the first to welcome the astronauts back to Earth, a 10-day trip to the Galapagos Islands aboard the National Geographic Endeavour and a full year’s digital access to Scientific American magazine for their school. Age category winners will have a choice between going behind the scenes at the LEGO factory in Billund, Denmark or an amazing experience at either a Google office or National Geographic.

For the 2014 competition, we’ll also give two new awards to celebrate even more talented young scientists:

• The Computer Science Award will be given to a project that champions innovation and excellence in the field of computer science.
• Local Award Winners—students whose projects have attempted to address an issue relevant to their community—will be honored in select locations globally.

And the Scientific American Science In Action award will once again honor a project that addresses a health, resource or environmental challenge. The winner will receive a year’s mentoring from Scientific American and a $50,000 grant toward their project.

Stay updated throughout the competition on our Google+ page, get inspired by participating in virtual field trips and ask esteemed scientists questions in our Hangout on Air series. If you need help jump-starting your project, try out the Idea Springboard for inspiration.

What do you love? What are you good at? What problem have you always dreamed of solving? Get started with your project today—it’s your turn to change the world.

Posted by Clare Conway, Google Science Fair team

We had 337 students from 46 countries complete an astounding 2,113 tasks in the seven week contest. Students worked with 10 open source organizations on coding, documentation, training, user interface, research, outreach tasks, and quality assurance tasks. 60.2% of students completed at least three tasks in the contest.

Countries
The countries with the most students completing tasks are shown in the pie chart below:

Pre-university/high schools
The five schools with the most students completing tasks in Google Code-in 2013 are:

• Dunman High School in Singapore took the top spot this year with 20 students participating in this year’s contest, up from 13 in 2012.
• Technical School Electronic Systems (associated with Technical University- Sofia) in Bulgaria was in the top five for the 4th year in a row with 18 students.
• Sacred Heart Convent Sr. Sec. School, Jagadhri – India – 7
• Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology – Virginia, USA – 5
• Freehold High School – New Jersey, USA  – 4

Age of Students
The graph below depicts the ages of the students participating in this year’s contest.

Mentors
There were 194 dedicated mentors from 40 countries guiding students throughout the contest. This year we had mentors from a few new countries including Egypt, Jamaica and Liberia.

More interesting stats

• 67 students participated in at least one previous Google Code-in contest
• 9.5% of the students are female
• We had 11 grand prize winners this year range that were 15 or younger at the start of the contest
• Wikimedia and Apertium both had a whopping 273 tasks completed by students

A huge thank you to all of the students, mentors and organization administrators who made Google Code-in 2013 a success! And thank you to all the parents and teachers who encouraged students to learn more about open source software development.

Last week, Solve for X gathered 60 entrepreneurs and scientists from around the world to discuss 18 moonshot proposals—world-changing projects that work to address a huge problem, suggest a radical solution and use some form of breakthrough technology to make it work.

Ira Glass opened the summit with a talk on climate change entitled “Ira Glass tries to boss you into a moonshot.” Ira mixed data, devastating personal experiences, potential technical solutions and insightful ways to think about the issue and made an excellent case that generalists should consider shifting focus to climate change.

Following Ira’s talk, we heard proposals on a wide variety of topics, including: Leslie Dewan’s proposal for generating power from nuclear waste building on technology ideas abandoned in the 1950s; Lonnie Johnson’s JTEC invention, which would allow us to convert heat directly into electricity; Howard Shapiro’s global collaboration that uses some of the newest and oldest technologies in agriculture to end stunting for rural poor; Julia Greer’s exploration of the relationship between a material’s strength and its weight through 3D architected nanomaterials; Yael Hanein’s artificial solar retina, which has the potential to cure blindness; Erez Livneh’s virus decoys, which could slow and eliminate disease; and Asel Sartbeava’s proposal for thermally stable vaccines that remove the need for refrigeration cold chain during transport.

During a “show and tell” session, participants from previous Solve for X events shared updates on their moonshots. Omri Amirav-Drory showed us plants that glow when activated; Dr. Keith Black brought delicious Dr. Black’s Brain Bars; Karen Gleason brought solar cells printed on paper; Andras Forgacs brought the first “steak chips” that Modern Meadow is beta-“tasting.”

In an effort to include more people in the Solve for X experience, this year we ran 10 experiments to bring our exploration session format into other organizations’ events, including TEDx Beacon Street, SXSW and Tribeca Film Festival; we even held an event on Capitol Hill. FabLab, ReWork and AAAS recently became collaborators, joining Singularity University, XPrize, TED and others. We hope we’ll run into you at an event in your area.

To learn more, watch our video “On Taking Moonshots” in which several moonshot pioneers talk about the mindset needed to do this kind of breakthrough work. You can find all 18 of the proposals from the 2014 Summit, as well as 200+ moonshots posted by other pioneers, at SolveforX.com. You can also submit moonshots—your own or others that fit the tech moonshot proposal format. Join our #TechMoonshots conversations on Google+ and Twitter.

Posted by Megan Smith and Astro Teller, co-hosts/creators of Solve for X

The world’s major brands are now building their marketing campaigns for the digital world, from Dove’s Real Beauty Sketches, to Toyota’s Car Collaborator, to Kate Spade’s holiday ads.

Brands and their agencies want to better measure their digital campaigns, but they don’t want one-off science experiments or fuzzy numbers; they want metrics that are as meaningful and actionable as the click has become for performance advertising:

Did someone actually see my ad? And was it the right audience?
What did people think about the ad? How did the ad change their mindset?
What did people do as a result of seeing the ad?

As we invest to improve brand measurement for the entire industry in all these areas, we are keeping a few things in mind. First, measurement should be actionable – real time insights to improve campaigns as they run, not after-the-fact reports that can only improve future ad buys. Second, we know our clients want measurement that is open and transparent so we’re partnering with the industry to create metrics that serve as a true currency between buyers and sellers, and offer flexibility and choice to marketers.

Today at the IAB Leadership Summit, I gave an update on a few of our brand measurement products:

Active View 
Last year, comScore estimated that 54% of ads running on the web aren’t seen by the user. Maybe the reader scrolled past your ad; maybe she never got to it.

We’re supporting industry initiatives, like the IAB’s Making Measurement Make Sense (3MS) to establish new standards. And late last year, we made it possible to buy based on viewability on the Google Display Network. This capability is based on our MRC-accredited Active View technology, a transparent and actionable viewability metric that we’re gradually rolling out to both marketers and publishers. It’s early days, but we’ve already seen more than 1,500 brands buying impressions based on viewability, across more than 100,000 sites on our network.

comScore vCE 
In TV, marketers use the concept of a Gross Rating Point (GRP), by which they measure the reach and frequency of their campaigns among different demographics. For digital campaigns, there are a number of options for marketers wanting a digital GRP across screens. For example, last year, we started testing comScore vCE (validated Campaign Essentials) and Nielsen OCR (Online Campaign Ratings) for campaigns on YouTube and across our network.

While we’re excited by the efforts in the industry to introduce GRPs to the digital market, we believe we haven’t yet reached the full potential of this metric. And so today, we’re excited to announce that we’re taking another step forward by partnering with comScore to turn vCE into a digitally actionable metric.

By working closely with comScore and the industry, we believe we can make a GRP metric that will be completely actionable: both advertisers and publishers will be able to see if a campaign is reaching the right audience in real time and make adjustments if it isn’t. No more waiting days or weeks for reports, no more wasted media, no more missed opportunities. This objective, third-party vCE metric is being built directly into our DoubleClick ad serving products, where it can serve as a transparent currency for both marketers and publishers to buy, sell and measure ad space across sites, formats and screens.

Brand Lift 
At the top of the pyramid, brands want to measure the impact of advertising on core brand metrics like awareness, favorability, purchase consideration and, ultimately, sales. We’re developing a suite of Brand Lift products to help here. Last year, we began a small test of surveys to measure the impact of a brand’s campaign.

Measuring ad effectiveness by conducting surveys is not new. But generally they’re slow to provide results, and get very low response rates.

In our early tests, we’re seeing 20-30% user response rates (significantly higher than traditional surveys), coming through in near real time. This enables brands to turn the results into immediate action: brands that are using Survey Lift have seen an 82% lift in ad recall, along with a 64% lift in brand awareness. For example MasterCard was able to double brand recall for one of their holiday campaigns based on insights gleaned from surveys. Based on this early promising feedback, we’ll be rolling these surveys out more broadly, for more types of campaigns, in coming months.

Going forward 
There’s lots more to come, and we’re working on ways to help brands at all stages of the measurement pyramid. More actionable, open and transparent measurement will help bring more great campaigns and brands online, which in turn helps to fund web services and content. We’re looking forward to working with the industry and partners to help make this a reality.

 — posted by Neal Mohan, VP, Display Advertising