The IT Nerd

12 startups from across Canada have been selected to participate in our 2022 Google for Startups Accelerator Canada program. 

• Fillip (Calgary, AB) is the first digital payments platform built for business fleets of all sizes. It gives driver’s purchasing power for vehicle-related expenses with a secure digital wallet, spend controls and real-time transaction notifications.
• Fyyne (Toronto, ON) is a social marketplace for beauty services and products.
• Haze Automotive (Oshawa, ON) democratizes carbon fiber to mass market EVs.
• Helcim (Calgary, AB) strives to be the world’s most loved payments company, by giving small businesses every possible edge, from lower rates, smarter tools and putting a human touch to its service.
• LatenceTech (Montreal, QC) offers a SaaS analytics and monetization solution for cellular networks with a special focus on ultra-low latency connectivity. It uses real-time active measurements and AI, to help mobile operators, telecom vendors and advanced industries track, predict and secure the new benefits of 5G cellular technology.
• MintList (Vancouver, BC) is an AI-powered online marketplace that enables buying and selling of cars between consumers and dealers, all within 24 hours.
• Miru (Vancouver, BC) develops dynamic electrochromic windows which help lower carbon footprint, reduce emissions, and connect people to the outside by removing reliance on blinds. Its next generation, smart window technology and innovative distribution model is disrupting the glass industry, by offering builders and automobile manufacturers an alternative to conventional glass.
• OraQ (Calgary, AB) is a state-of-the-art dental software solution that harnesses the analytical power of AI and ML to automate data collection. It provides advanced patient assessment support and detailed risk-profiling in a fraction of the time, improving patient outcomes while enhancing practice revenue. 
• STEM Minds (Aurora, ON) provides parents, schools and educators with cutting edge STEM content and learning experiences for children ages 4-18. Its advanced STEM curriculum includes a range of dynamic virtual classes and on-demand courses designed and delivered by certified teachers and STEM professionals. STEM Minds education helps break down barriers, empowering the next generation of future-ready students.
• Tali AI (Toronto, ON) is a voice-enabled virtual assistant for physicians to help them with administrative tasks at the point of care.
• Ukko Agro (Toronto, ON) is an agriculture technology company helping commercial farms and other stakeholders in the agriculture sector reduce uncertainty in growing successful crops while balancing environmental sustainability and bottom-line profitability.
• WeavAir (Toronto, ON) offers proactive end-to-end software and hardware solutions for air distribution systems that prevent the spread of air contamination and infection, while saving energy and reducing operational and maintenance costs.

Supporting the next generation of Canadian founders, the intensive 10-week Google for Startups Accelerator program brings the best of Google’s products, people and technology to startups that leverage machine learning and AI today, or plan to in the future. 

Now in its third year, the Google for Startups Accelerator builds on Google’s continued support for Canada’s startup ecosystem. The program is one of five accelerators developed specifically for Canadian companies, including the Cloud Accelerator, Women Founders Accelerator, Black Founders Accelerator, and the Climate Change Accelerator. 

Google has a blog post on this here.

In a move that I am sure that will draw some ire from the right, Google has announced that it will automatically delete visits to abortion clinics, domestic violence shelters, weight loss clinics, fertility centres, and other sensitive locations from its ‘Location History’ in the “coming weeks.” Fitbit users will also get an update that to allow people to delete multiple menstruation logs at once. I should also note that Google says in the blog post that it will push back on law enforcement requests to access this data, especially with “demands that are overly broad or otherwise legally objectionable.” Also, the company plans to notify users when it gives their data to the government unless it’s been ordered not to or there is another pressing security concern.

They don’t say that this is related to the U.S. Supreme Court removing reproductive rights in America, but I am sure that this was the impetus for this move. And I should point out that Google collects far more data than what is detailed in the blog post that I linked to. So I think that Google needs to do more because as I detailed here, it is a real possibility that this sort of data will be used to go after women who are seeking reproductive related services. Having said that, this is a good first step by Google. But it’s only a first step.

Today, Google Canada announces applications are open for the 2022 cohorts of both the Google for Startups Accelerator: Black Founders program and the Google for Startups Accelerator: Women Founders program, marking the third year for both programs across North America. 

Black and women entrepreneurs continue to be underrepresented in Canada’s tech startup ecosystem because many lack access to resources required to launch their business. 

• For Black founders, a recent study underscores how securing funding, financing, capital or sales is the most significant barrier to scaling their business. 
• Similarly for women founders, women are less likely to receive venture capital or angel funding and other forms of leverage such as trade credit or capital leasing, compared to their male counterparts.

To address the challenges underrepresented founders face, up to twelve technology startups from across North America will be selected to participate for each accelerator, providing unique programming that addresses the specific needs of Black and women-led startups and include deep dives and workshops focused on product design, customer acquisition and leadership development for founders.

You can read more info in their blog post. Applications for the program are now open to startups across all sectors until July 28. 

This makes no sense. ARS Technica is reporting that Google is killing location based reminders:

Google is sending out notifications telling users the feature is dead. A message on a Google support pagesays: “The option to create reminders for a certain location is going away soon. You can still create reminders at a certain time and set routines for a location.” Suggesting routines as a replacement is a ludicrous suggestion, since routines are, well, routine, and want to repeat after a set period of time. They also are meant to trigger smart-home automation or alarm clocks; they aren’t simple notifications.

How does this make sense? Why is Google doing this? I have no clue. I can’t explain it. The cynic in me says that they are trying to find a way to monetize it. But truly, it makes no sense. Especially seeing that I as a member of Team iPhone can ask Siri to remind me to do something when I get home.

And for bonus points, they’re also killing this:

Another reminder feature getting the ax is a fairly new one, probably dying due to a lack of usage. In 2019 Google announced the ability to send reminders to other people. Actually doing this was pretty difficult, though. You would have to either be in the Google “Family” ecosystem and have them set up in the family link or have that person be someone you share an Assistant device with, like a roommate.

That one make sense as to why Google might be killing that feature. But if anyone can explain to me why Google is killing off location based reminders, please let me know because I am at a loss to explain this.

Today, Google Canada is hosting their annual Google Marketing Live event. Here’s some quick highlights from the event:

• Ads on YouTube Shorts: Starting today, Video action campaigns and App campaigns will automatically scale to YouTube Shorts. Google has been experimenting with these ads in YouTube Shorts since last year, and they’re now gradually rolling that out to all advertisers around the world. This is an exciting milestone for advertisers, and a key step on our road to developing a long-term Shorts monetization solution for creators, which Google will share more about soon. Later this year, you’ll also be able to connect your product feed to your campaigns and make your video ads on YouTube Shorts more shoppable.
• Performance Max: Google is announcing six new upcoming additions to Performance Max, expanding experimentation capabilities, cross-product support and advertiser eligibility for the campaign type.
• Insights Page: Google is introducing three new reports that will roll out over the coming months, including attribution insights, budget insights and audience insights for first-party data.

You can find out more details on Google’s blog post on this year’s announcements here.

Today, Google Canada has announced that applications are open for the 2022 cohort of the Google for Startups Accelerator Canada. The intensive ten-week bootcamp is designed to bring the best of Google’s programs, products, people and technology to Canadian startups that leverage machine learning and AI in their company today or plan to in the future. Up to twelve Canadian technology startups will be selected to participate.

The pandemic has prompted a shift in the ways in which Canada’s talent collaborate, scale and grow – making mentorship opportunities integral. With startups greatly contributing to Canada’s growing tech ecosystem, the program seeks to foster Canada’s growing tech talent through detailed technical training and strategic counsel through one-to-on mentorship opportunities with Google experts.

Past graduates have included Neurescence, a leading optical imaging company for understanding short and long-range brain circuits, ArkAngel AI, a team focused on using AI to quickly detect diseases in order to improve the patient experience. And AccessNow, a mobile and web-based app that allows users to discover accessible locations based on a variety of types of access criteria. The program is open to startups across all sectors, and will kick off the week of July 25th.

Earlier this year, Google announced that they were going to shut down G Suite Legacy Free Edition and that prompted outrage and had lawyers sniffing around for a big payday. That led to Google flip flopping on that to a degree and announcing that Legacy G Suite Users would be able to migrate to free accounts. But that didn’t calm the waters. Here’s a comment that was left on that story:

The new change offered by Google doesn’t help many… Families that had a family domain still lose that and, importantly, non-profit / volunteer organisations, like Scout Groups etc., who may have been running their organisation’s email on this platform for 15 years will lose all of that functionality. The fact is that for those signing up prior to 2012 or whenever the change was, were all promised that they could have Google for your Domain free FOREVER… Google needs to keep its promises – if they were possibly every going to say years down the track that the situation has changed, then they should not have promised in the first place… once they’ve made the promise they need to stick to it.

Well, it took a few months, but it looks like Google has again reconsidered. You can keep your custom domain, and:

Besides the custom Gmail domain, you will “retain access to no-cost Google services” and “keep your purchases and data.”

• You will retain access to the no-cost version of Google Workspace services such as Google Drive and Google Meet, and additional Google services such as Google Search, Google Maps, and YouTube
• You will retain access to paid content such as movie purchases at Google Play and data stored on Google Workspace

However, you must confirm to Google that your usage is “for non-commercial personal use.”

I am once again interested in hearing from people who are affected by this to get their thoughts. This seems like Google is listening and doing what is right. But maybe I am reading this wrong. Please leave a comment below and share your thoughts.

Today, Google released the 2021 edition of their annual Ads Safety Report. With user safety a top priority, the report showcases the work Google is doing to improve user privacy in digital advertising across Google’s advertising ecosystem – in order to protect users and curb bad practices by malicious actors. In fact, Google tripled the number of advertising  account suspensions in 2021.

The 2021 edition of the annual Ads Safety report provides an overview of the scale of enforcement actions taken by Google on key areas such as fraudulent ads and advertising accounts, misinformation and brand safety for advertisers. 

Key insights from the 2021 Ads Safety Report:

• Ad takedown and account suspensions – In 2021, Google took down 3.4 billion bad ads and suspended nearly 5.6 million advertiser accounts
• COVID- 19 – Since the beginning of the pandemic, Google blocked over 106 million ads from running that violated our policies against harmful health claims related to COVID-19. 
• Responding to the war in Ukraine – Google blocked over 8 million ads in accordance to their Sensitive Events policy and removed ads from more than 60 state funded media sites across our platforms. 

To stay ahead of potential advertising threats, Google continues to evolve their policy development and enforcement strategies to offset the trend of online abuse and to help foster a sustainable ecosystem for businesses that rely on advertising to scale and reach new customers.

Here are links to the Ads Safety Report and blog post for your reading pleasure.