First up, Google is rolling out an update to its Search Generative Experience (SGE) that will allow users to build travel itineraries and trip ideas using AI, the company announced on Wednesday.
For now, the itineraries are just that: no options to buy and services or experiences on the spot.
But it points to how the company is experimenting with how and where it can apply its AI engine.
A lot of players in the travel industry may be eyeing up the role that generative AI will play in travel services in the coming years — some excitedly, some warily.
Google also announced that it’s making it easier to discover lists of recommendations in Google Maps in select cities in the U.S. and Canada.
Global Screening Services (GSS), a London-based regulatory compliance platform that helps financial institutions meet their global sanctions obligations, has raised $47 million in a round of funding.
The raise comes amid a spike in economic sanctions, with the U.S. issuing trade-restrictions and asset-blocking against states including Russia, China, Iran and more.
The company actually raised a similar amount of funding last year from big-name backers including Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), one of the world’s largest banks.
Banks often find themselves at the forefront of sanctions enforcement, given their role in controlling the flow of money around the globe.
GSS sells a sanctions-screening platform to help banks and other financial institutions comply with regulations.
WhatsApp announced today that it is rolling out a “search by date” function for individual and group chats on Android devices.
Users can only search for a chat on a particular date instead of specifying a date range.
To use the feature, users have to go a one-on-one or group chat details by tapping on the contact or the group name.
To search by date, they have to tap on the search button and then tap the calendar icon.
Users can already search through conversations by media type such as links, media, and docs through the conversation detail page.
Spend enough time online, and you’ll collect a digital paper trail of accounts, logins, subscriptions, mailing lists, and passwords wrapped up in data breaches.
From its web-based dashboard, you can organize, monitor, and manage your online accounts, unsubscribe from mailing lists, cancel subscriptions, review privacy policies, and more.
The end result is something like a Mint for your entire online life, so to speak.
Instead, it works by connecting with your online accounts, like your Gmail, and soon other online services and cloud storage providers.
Some of the functionality Yorba offers may not be unique.
After years of copying and pasting shopping links into spreadsheets and taking screenshots of products to share with her friends and family, Kristine Locker finally decided to launch a social shopping platform (which she named after herself) that could take her endless tabs and organize them into a shareable, virtual wish list all in one place.
Locker recently closed on a $2.5 million round from Wonder Ventures at a $9 million valuation, the company announced today.
For instance, you get exclusive Locker merch if you refer 25 users to Locker.
At 500 users, you get $750 to purchase an outfit from your Locker collection, the startup’s founder explains.
Its average commission rate is around 12%, however, depending on how much exposure the brand wants, Locker raises the rate to as high as 25%.
WhatsApp said today it is rolling out a number of new formatting options on the app, including bulleted lists, numbered lists, block quotes, and inline code.
Numbered lists: You can create a numbered list by typing a digit followed by a period and a space.
“ Block quotes: To insert block quotes to highlight certain text by typing “>” and then a space.
WhatsApp already has basic text formatting options such as Bold, Italic, Strikethrough, and Monospace.
It is possible that these formatting options would also help the AI-powered bots to show responses neatly.
Clear offers a specific vision for how to-do lists should work and, as an indie app, it doesn’t have to deliver increasing returns on investment or answer to investors.
“It feels a little punk compared with the average app on the App Store,” notes Ryu about Clear’s lack of subscriptions.
But for most of that time, the app was just being updated on TestFlight, not on the public App Store.
The original team had kind of “burned out” on Clear, Ryu explains, after being overloaded with projects like porting Clear to Mac or adding iCloud Sync.
You can also drag and drop items between lists, swipe to schedule reminders, screenshot to share lists, and swipe to archive lists.
When looking to the future, it seems as if space exploration is just getting started. With companies like ispace challenging the status quo, there’s no telling where we’ll be headed…
