Google is testing augmented reality in its messaging app. Five special camera effects--plane, balloons, fireworks, confetti, and an angel--are present in the camera viewfinder, so when someone goes to send a picture they can select the effect tab for one of these images. The Android Messages effects can recognize the person's face, adding the AR images in front and behind the person in the picture. The Halo effect screenshot, for example, will track the person, so it will always appear just above the head. In another example, the colors of the fireworks will reflect on the person's face.

The University of Chicago medical center, and Google got slapped with a potential class-action lawsuit on Wednesday that accuses the hospital of sharing hundreds of thousands of patients’ records without stripping identifiable date stamps or doctor’s notes. The  New York Times explains.

Google reminded marketers on Wednesday through a Twitter tweet that mobile-first indexing by default for new sites will begin July 1, 2019. These include all previously unknown to Google Search websites. Search marketers can identify how the website was crawled and indexed by looking at the URL. For older websites, Google will continue monitoring and evaluating pages for their readiness and will notify them through Search Console.

Google is rolling out two tools that will let marketers check the code and the structured data markup. The AMP and URL testing tools in Search Console will let marketers search within the markup, and copy specific sections of code to make changes and fix errors faster. When testing a URL and finding a structured data error, marketers can now pinpoint the exact piece of code containing the error to make the fix.

Google wants to give those using Assistant a "daily dose of good news," so it is giving the virtual assistant an upgrade, while spreading a bit of cheer. Just ask the Google Assistant “Hey Google, tell me something good" to hear stories about people working to improve our world. The stories are told by journalists from the Solutions Journalism Network. …

Apple's latest trademark filings for Apple Search Ads includes one for a figurative trademark and the other for Close your Rings. Both were filed in Hong Kong under International Class 35, which covers a variety of topics related to advertising, marketing, and promotional services. Patently Apple explains.

The disruption in service on Sunday was caused by an “incorrectly applied” server configuration, according to the Inside Google Cloud blog. The configuration should have been applied to a small number of servers in a specific region, but was applied to a larger number across several regions. The mistake limited network capacity. Google says it identified the issue within seconds, but it took much longer to fix the problem. The impact was slight. YouTube measured a 2.5% drop of views for one hour, while Google Cloud Storage measured a 30% reduction in traffic. Approximately 1% of active Gmail users had problems with …