Google, Facebook extend work-from-home plans

Google and Facebook have told most employees to keep working from home for the rest of the year as part of a response by the tech giants to the deadly coronavirus pandemic.

Chief executive Sundar Pichai told Google staff at an all-hands meeting that its remote work policy will be extended until 2021, the Silicon Valley giant confirmed Friday.

Any return to offices was expected to be incremental and staggered, according to the company.

The news came along with US media reports that Facebook is also letting workers tend to their jobs remotely for the rest of this year.

Google employees who need to return to offices will be able to do that in the next month or two, with added safety measures in place due to coronavirus concerns, but most of the staff will continue working from home.

Facebook’s updated plan is to re-open offices in early July, but let people work from home if they prefer until 2021, according to reports.

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Youtube Tweaks ‘Video Watch’ Page On Mobile, Gets New Features

YouTube’s video watch page on mobile has received a facelift.

The new design comes after Google announced that both Android and iOS apps will receive theates soon.

One of the latest updates that man users will notice is the positioning of the comment box.

Mobile users of the app can now view and post comments by tapping on the comment box just underneath the channel bar with subscribe button – unlike before where users had to scroll down to the very end of the video page to post or view comments.

With the update, the comment bar on any video page is now prominently visible to both Android and iOS users of the YouTube app.

Google, in a blog post last month said that the tech company found that more people were “writing comments with the new design.” Even more, Google has introduced larger thumbnails in the “Up next” feed, noting that users will “see more info about each video at a glance.”

“You’ll also notice channel icons below each video to help you recognise your favourite creators while you scroll through the feed,” the company said while explaining the YouTube update.

Lastly, Google in April had said that the YouTube Android and iOS app will display “new types” of content alongside the videos in Up Next feed of a video page.

These include “Community Posts, “YouTube Mixes”, and more. This feature has also been added to the video-sharing platform.

Meanwhile, there’s also a new ‘Explore tab’ in the YouTube Music app waiting to help users discover more songs. It also allows users get song lyrics such that they can sing along to their favourite songs.

According to Google, the update is “now available” for both Android and iOS users of the app.

Check out some new features on #YouTubeMusic. Introducing the Explore Tab, where you can find new releases and browse playlists by mood, and Song Lyrics to sing along to your favorites. Now available for Android and iOS users 

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Gmail users warned of cyber threat

Gmail users have been alerted about a new Google Mail feature, which could be leveraged by online crooks to carry out a wave of scams.

The company, in April, unveiled its brand new design which introduced a clean new user interface and a swathe of new features including the ability to snooze a message, auto-generate smart replies and self-destruct emails in the brand new “Confidential Mode”.

“It’s the Confidential Mode which is at the centre of security fears,” Express.co.uk reported on Saturday.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reportedly issued an alert on the “potential emerging threat… for nefarious activity” with the Gmail redesign, the report said.

“We have reached out to Google to inform them of intelligence relevant to their services and to partner to improve our mutual interests in cyber security,” Lesley Fulop, DHS spokesperson said.

Central to these fears was the new “Confidential Email” feature that can require users to click a link in order to access these messages.

If you’re a Gmail user using the official Google Mail website then the “Confidential Email” appears when you click to open it.

It shows a date for when the content will expire and informs the users that the email can’t be forwarded or downloaded.

However, it’s different if you’re a Gmail user viewing the message as a third-party client or a non-Gmail user who receives a confidential email.

In those cases, instead of the message appearing in their browser, users have to click a button to view the email. And this is where the security fears lie.

With the Gmail redesign, scammers could send out fake versions of confidential email alerts and trick a user into entering sensitive details.

“The tech giant is committed to protecting the security of users’ personal information and hence, had created “machine learning” algorithms to detect potential phishing scams that cyber criminals carry out,” said Google spokesman Brooks Hocog.

Phishing scams are where cyber criminals try to trick victims into clicking on seemingly trustworthy links in order to steal sensitive personal information.

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