Google Patent to Stop Domain Squatting and Spoofing

To help lower scams and malware injections as a result of spoofed domains that are one character off and then compromise innocent web victims. Hat tip to the security team for working on this one: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20200099716A1/en

Facebook & Google Safety Check

Facebook has a safety check to let your friends and family know that you're safe in an emergency situation. After a Tsunami and the Earthquake in Italy this came into the eye of the public and helped us realize how great of a tool Facebook is for protecting the world in times of crisis. The most recent one that popped up today was for the Oakland Warehouse Fire:  https://www.facebook.com/safetycheck/?crisis_id=1761642987430823

Today Google has announced something called Trusted Contacts (read more here https://blog.google/products/maps/let-your-loved-ones-know-youre-safe-our-new-personal-safety-app/) this uses your cell phone to let trusted contacts know your last known whereabouts.

For example: "Invite a trusted friend to virtually walk you home if you feel unsafe
Elliot stayed at the office later than normal and notices it’s awfully dark out. He opens Trusted Contacts and shares his location with Thelma. Now Thelma can walk him home — virtually. When Elliot gets home, he simply taps the banner at the top of the screen or from the lockscreen and stops sharing his location."


It's great to see technology improving our lives and having two of the top tech companies compete by bringing innovative ideas and products to this world.

Google Noto - No Tofu

An amazing project from Google named Noto. The name Noto stands for No Tofu and is named as such because of those little boxes you are used to seeing on foreign language websites because your browsers can't decipher what it is.

So now after 5 years of hard work Google has launched Noto. In the video the engineers discuss the
scope of a project so big that you have to let the whole process play itself out knowing that it won't be done tomorrow or next year but years from now. A long term play to make a difference similar to Jamie Dimons vision on building sustainable banking systems in Africa that I blogged about and similar to the Chan Zuckerberg initiative to solve all current diseases in our childrens lifetime.

Languages that they had to ask for help with from internal staff was Malayalam and Telugu and Cherokee was a language that they could not find in house experts to help review the fonts for so they had to find friends of friends to solve the issues.

The idea was to have a unified set of scripts and then multiple weights (3300 characters per weight and then it grew geometrically from there). This project was a huge investment of time and was open source for all products that want to use these fonts. Currently the Sans Serif family is just now about done and the quality and design is something that was always kept in mind during the project. Nobody else has done this before with over 100 writing systems and more than 100 languages in place.

For more information check out #googlenoto or watch this Vimeo video: https://vimeo.com/185700918