Google announces it will build Toronto’s neighbourhood of the future
Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is officially building a futuristic mini-city along a 12-acre section of Toronto’s eastern waterfront.
This is absolutely huge – for the city, for the country, and for the California-based tech giant in its quest to develop high-tech “smart cities” around the world.
This will mark the biggest project tackled by Sidewalk Labs to date, according to Reuters, and the citizens of Toronto are here for it. Sidewalk Labs describes itself as a company that “imagines, designs, tests, and builds urban innovations to help cities meet their biggest challenges.
Today no single city stands as a model for our urban future,” reads the Alphabet division’s website. “Yet our cities rest on the way potential solutions to big urban challenges fit together. So we’re pursuing a large-scale district that can serve as a living laboratory for urban technology — a testbed for coordinated solutions, a foundation for people to build on, and a vision for other cities to follow.
“A 220-page-long document outlining the Alphabet company’s plans for Toronto’s Eastern waterfront was released on Tuesday.
The more than $1 billion development will see the creation of new public spaces, residential and commercial buildings, and advanced infrastructure for Toronto’s thriving tech industry.”The district will become a place for tens of thousands of people to live, work, learn, and play,” reads a press release announcing the project in Toronto. “It will also reflect the cultural diversity and openness of Toronto, and help connect all Torontonians to waterfront beaches, parks, and communities.””Working together with the local community, Sidewalk Toronto aspires to create a place that encourages innovation around energy, waste, and other environmental challenges to protect the planet, A place that is enhanced by digital technology and data without giving up the privacy and security that everyone deserves.”According to The Wall Street Journal, which was first to report on the rumoured closure of this deal earlier in October, the smart city will span 3 million square feet in total.That’s roughly the size of the Empire State Building….
Source: Google announces it will build Toronto’s neighbourhood of the future
New Industry Benchmarks for Mobile Page Speed – Think With Google
The average time it takes to fully load a mobile landing page is 22 seconds, according to a new analysis.1 Yet 53% of visits are abandoned if a mobile site takes longer than three seconds to load.2 That’s a big problem. It’s no secret that shoppers expect a fast mobile experience. If there’s too much friction, they’ll abandon their cart and move on. Today, it’s critical that marketers design fast web experiences across all industry sectors.
Consumers want to quickly pay bills on finance sites, get rapid results when they’re browsing vacation reviews, and view an article immediately when they click through.
Despite the fact that more than half of overall web traffic comes from mobile,3 our data shows that mobile conversion rates are lower than desktop.4 In short, mobile page speed equals revenue.
Source: New Industry Benchmarks for Mobile Page Speed – Think With Google
Test your URL mobile speed.
https://testmysite.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-us
Tech billionaires want to break humans out of a computer simulation – Business Insider
The theory that we might all be living in a computer simulation has gotten so popular among Silicon Valley’s tech elites that two billionaires are now apparently asking scientists to help break us out of the simulation.
Source: Tech billionaires want to break humans out of a computer simulation – Business Insider
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