Google News Shifts Focus

By Digital Trends Staff September 2, 2007

Google News Shifts Focus Google News is changing its focus. For the last five years it’s offered links to news articles from all over the Web, but it will start hosting articlesfrom four news agencies, which will give it the chance to generate ad revenue from the news. Google News will run articles from The Associated Press, thePress Association of Great Britain, Canadian Press, and Agence France-Presse, whichwill be featured under their own brands under a licensing agreement. Agence France-Presse recently dropped a suit against Google for using its text and photos on Google News without permission. The new agreement will not affect the ranking of articles in search results. This licensing of articles is actually very similar to the way Yahoo orthe MSNBC portal on Microsoft have licensed news for over a decade.

Digital Trends Staff

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Smart Home

The best smart light switch for Alexa, Google Home, and HomeKit

The Kasa app being used to control the Kasa Smart Dimmer Switch.

One of the most satisfying smart home devices to see in action are smart lights. The thrill of dimming bulbs and changing colors with an app or voice commands has yet to wear off, and it’s one of the easiest products to set up, schedule, and troubleshoot. But what if you want to add smart capabilities to an existing light fixture? If you’re dealing with a ceiling fan, sconce, or some other pre-wired bulbs, you’ll just need to invest in a smart light switch.

These web-connected products come in multiple gang box sizes, and are sold by many different companies. Not all switches are created equal though, and we wanted to round up the best options for those with Alexa, Google Home, and HomeKit ecosystems. So we’ve done just that!

Smart Home

The most common Google Home problems and how to fix them

best google home compatible devices hands on 4652

Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, and Google Home make up the three biggest smart home platforms on the planet. Google Home is popular thanks to its lineup of Nest products, which includes the Nest Hub Max, Nest Doorbell, and Nest Cam, along with many other devices. Best of all, Google Home supports a wide array of third-party products, giving users an easy way to link all their gadgets together and control them from one streamlined app.

But, as you'd expect, getting all these devices working seamlessly isn't always as easy as it sounds. The Google Home platform is also susceptible to the same issues as other smart home platforms, which include various connectivity hiccups and problems with voice commands. Solving these problems is usually pretty easy -- that is, once you know where to look.

Smart Home

Google rolls out new Nest Cam features to Google Home for web

Nest Cams on a counter.

While many users access Google Home on their smartphone or smart display, the platform is also available via web browser. The web-based Google Home experience wasn't exactly the best way to access your smart devices, but that's rapidly changing as Google rolls out new updates to the client -- the latest of which adds a ton of new ways to access your Nest Cams.

Google began rolling out the update late last week, and most users should now have access to the improved Google Home for web experience. The big draw is access to your Nest Cam history and the option to download clips. Prior to this update, it was impossible to view recorded clips via Google Home for web, forcing you to instead jump into the official Google Home app.