We’ve all seen the news headlines. They queue, they camp, they chant. And sometimes, they even stampede. Just to get their hands on a new device.

And while these are the more extreme cases, it’s clear that consumers love technology, ready to cast off last year’s phone for one with a better battery, more pixels, and a blush-gold case.

But of course, the decision journey begins long before launch day, creating a significant opportunity for retail advertisers – as long as you get in on the action at the right time.

What makes this new device season even more interesting is the rise in opportunity for brands outside of Apple.

iPhone users are becoming less loyal to Apple over time, according to research by UBS analysts Steven Milunovich and Benjamin Wilson.

This chart is particularly surprising because it shows that Apple’s customer retention rates are heading toward parity with Android phones, including those made by Samsung (which suffered last quarter due to the recall of its flagship device, the Galaxy Note 7).

How can iPhone retailers win back sales? And how can other brands benefit from this launch season? Here’s your optimization plan based on research compiled by Bing Ads (disclosure: my employer) into the customer journey that surrounds new device launches.

Before the announcement

Bing Ads research shows that 33 percent of users start their device journeys well before the official announcement – around 90 days before the official release date – with phone searches peaking on the announcement day.

What does that mean for you?

Pre-launch announcement, your advertising campaign should focus on providing and linking to helpful, informative content and reviews that detail the features and benefits of the device or device plans.

Research and awareness is the name of the game, and your focus right now should be on building up the all-critical top of mind awareness.

After the announcement

On the day of the announcement, Bing Ads data shows that searching peaks, with about 32 percent of searchers starting their research that very day.

Looking at last year’s data, we saw that the announcements impacted behavior across all demographics, with most searches coming from the 35-49 range and women searching far more online than men.

Microsoft internal data, search volume, in selected categories related to iPhone new device launch – all devices, U.S., September 1, 2016 – October 31, 2016.

1. Be sure to layer on demographic bidding on top of your existing bid modifiers.

2. Your next order of business is to make it easy for shoppers to pre-order, upgrade, trade-in, and find accessories for their new device. Key tips:

• Bid on non-brand and competitor brand keywords to capture switchers.
• Update keywords and bids periodically as new phone information is revealed to capture incremental traffic volume.
• Use Sitelink Extensions that point to different phone and plan options.
• Best of all, for wireless carriers that subsidize the price of phones with contracts, Bing Shopping Campaigns will now accept $0 price products for mobile and tablet devices that are paid for in installments or as part of a contract.

3. You’ll also want to give searchers the ability to comparison shop. Bing Ads research shows that device shoppers like to compare new-to-new, new-to-old, and old-to-old models as well as brand-to-brand. As a frame of reference, last year’s top 10 iPhone-related comparison queries were:

• iphone 7 vs iphone 7 plus
• iphone 7 vs iphone 6
• iphone 6 vs 6s
• iphone 6 vs iphone 7
• iphone 7 vs 7 plus
• iphone 6s vs iphone 7
• iphone 7 vs galaxy s7
• iphone 7 vs iphone 6s
• iphone 7 vs samsung s7
• iphone se vs iphone 6s

When the device goes on sale

Devices typically go on sale a week or so after pre-order begins.  Once that happens, shoppers are usually ready to buy, so you’ll want to make it easy for them to purchase online (or in-store).

1. Test out shorter ads with clear calls to action that take shoppers directly to the item for purchase.

2. Be sure to run Local Inventory Ads as part of your Shopping Campaigns to make it easier for nearby shoppers to find local store information.

3. When you’re setting up your campaign, be sure to set bids in anticipation of peaks when the device announcement hits. As a frame of reference, here’s how CPCs and CTRs were impacted during last year’s launch:

4. To drive foot traffic for in-store purchases, be sure to use location extensions and targeting.

When pre-orders ship

Once the device starts to ship, you’ll want to continue advertising the device, plans, and accessories.

You’ll also want to have budgets ready in anticipation of competing device launches. For example, the research shows that iPhone searches spiked when the Google Pixel was announced.

Continue to test ad copy and image variations. And be sure to go above and beyond to populate your feed with as many recommended attributes as possible for each product offers.

In summary, use the data from last year to help shape your strategy most effectively this season. For more information, the full Bing Ads insights deck includes a handy new device launch checklist and many other valuable tips and insights.

Fittingly, Google has termed these “tappable shortcuts” and they will lead searchers to instantaneous information on dozens of topics, including sports, restaurants, local amenities, and entertainment.

The new feature is available within the Google app in the US, although users will have to upgrade the app to the latest version before the shortcuts are accessible.

As Google continues its relentless release of new mobile-first products, this announcement is entirely aligned with the search engine’s strategy to keep pace with – and anticipate – trends in user behavior.

Tappable shortcuts lend themselves to a search experience that is more open-ended in nature than traditional Google queries. Notably, they also remove a fundamental element of the Google experience: either typing or voicing a query.

In a wider ecosystem that now includes maps, the knowledge graph, and structured data, it is understandable that Google has chosen to make this move now. With the addition to their fold of hardware like Google Home and the Pixel smartphones, combined with an upgraded Assistant on all Android phones, Google seems closer than ever to unifying the digital user journey.

The following (very short) video was also released yesterday to demonstrate how ‘shortcuts in search’ will work:

But will this initiative take off, what will it mean for SEO, and how will Google manage to integrate paid ads into this new search experience?

Will Google convince users to get on board?

The first phase will be to convince its vast user base to transition across to this way of discovering information.

The actual functionality underpinning this change has not been updated; it is merely a more streamlined way to surface information. Google Now has offered access to many of these features for some time, but user behaviors can be slow to change.

One could even suggest that this launch is Google giving a nudge to the public to show them just how much is possible through their products now.

At SMX West yesterday, Google’s Jason Douglas summarised one of their core objectives as simply trying to find the “easiest way to help the user get things done.”

No doubt, achieving that goal would go some way to convince people to take the small step of updating an app.

A mass migration of users to this app would have myriad benefits for Google. By keeping users enclosed within its own ecosystem of information, Google gains access to their data and, just as crucially, keeps those users out of Facebook’s grasp.

With machine learning at the core of everything Google does now, all of that data will only serve to improve the accuracy of search results, and those improved results will convince users to stay on the app.

How will Google rank these results?

This is an important question for SEO professionals, although it is a little early to answer it conclusively. Its degree of importance will also, of course, depend on just how many users elect to search by tapping on shortcuts.

Intriguingly, Jason Douglas implied at SMX West yesterday that as part of the wider Actions on Google initiative, consumers will be able to set preferences, not just on their sports teams or favorite restaurants, but also on the brands they like most.

Douglas went on to add:

“We’re trying to decide now how sticky those preferences should be. In some cases, you can set some preferences in the app. We’re trying to learn as we go. For shopping, is it convenience or best price that matters most? There are a lot of new ranking and quality challenges.”

The ramifications of that statement could be far-reaching, and it is understandable that Douglas chose to equivocate slightly on these points, refusing to take a definitive stance on such an important point.

Nonetheless, it is certainly plausible that user ‘preferences’ on certain brands would factor into personalized organic search results.

The advice to SEOs in that eventuality is as trite as it is true; all we can do is create great content and exceptional user experiences to ensure we make our way onto the preferred brands list.

Will Google offer paid placements?

Google has been open in stating that this new environment presents a huge challenge to its paid search business. Voice search is best suited to providing just one answer, which leaves little room for paid placements.

The inherent complexities for an auction-based bidding model like AdWords in this scenario are subtle and difficult to disentangle, but this is especially true if users state an overt preference for one brand over another.

For example, if a user has selected Kayak as a preferred flight aggregator over Skyscanner, how would that affect the price each would have to pay to rank first on that user’s travel searches? How would Google factor that into its auctions, at a grand scale?

If Skyscanner did choose to pay an inflated rate for first position, how would that sit with the user, who no doubt would recall selecting Kayak as their preferred brand?

These are challenges that Google is all too aware of, but there can be little doubt that ultimately, they will find a way to monetize this trend if it does take off.

What should we expect next?

We should expect any attempts to monetize this to be tentative at first – especially in the wake of the opprobrium raised by the recent ‘Ads on Google Home’ fiasco.

That said, Google’s decision to make these updates has been driven by what it foresees to be a new way of discovering information.

Therefore, we can first expect Google to entice users to use its new range of hardware and software through their ubiquity and ease of use, before making those first forays into transforming its paid search model to an interaction that no longer requires a user to search.

Here’s a brief introduction on app indexing to get started…

What is app indexing?

When someone searches on Google from their mobile, results can now be served direct from an app they have installed. When they click on the result, they have the option of seeing the page either on the mobile web or within the app itself.

App-indexing has been around for a couple of years, but only available to every publisher (on both iOS and Android) in 2015.

In order to allow Google to index your app, you need to allow ‘deep linking’, which basically means giving each page within your app a specific crawlable link. So when the app opens, a searcher is served relevant content rather than just the first screen of the app.

At the moment Android users will see app results even if they don’t have the app. This will likely happen for iOS users too in the near future.

Implementing deep-linking is relatively straightforward, there’s a detailed guide on how to it available from Searchmetrics here (registration required) and any publishers that haven’t done this yet are missing out.

In a study of the 100 most visible websites in Google US searches, Searchmetrics found that although 84% offer an Android App, only 30% of these had implemented app-indexing.

And then of the 88% that offer an iOS app, just 19% were found to be support app-indexing.

The study also looked at which sectors were most likely to allow deep linking to their mobile apps. Retailers in the fashion industry came top on both Android and iOS…

Most companies in this sector were found to offer some type of app, with just 5% of apparel sites not offering an iOS app and 9% not offering an Android app.

Among the apparel retail sites that offer an iOS app, 32% have enabled app indexing, while for Android apps this is 31%.

Why should you allow app-indexing?

• At the moment, because only a third of (or fewer) visible sites are using app-indexing, you’ll have a competitive advantage.
• Google has stated that it’s a ranking factor, “If your app is indexed, Google will use the content within your app as a signal in ranking, not just your web content.”
• App-indexing can encourage searchers to install your app if they deem the content you provide useful enough, and apps can be an excellent customer retention tool.
• Apps that are indexed properly can form the ‘missing piece’ from your complete customer journey, now that you can see exactly what content is being accessed directly from search.
• On average 20% of the apps a person installs on their device are only ever opened once. As Marcus Tober, CTO and founder of Searchmetrics states, “App indexing is a fantastic opportunity to maximize the investment in your app – by helping to drive more traffic and interaction and potentially even conversions.”

The full Searchmetrics report can be downloaded from here (registration required)

Yandex filed an anti-trust campaign back in February, accusing Google of illegally trying to squeeze out its local competition. In addition to preloading its apps, Google was accused of giving them preferential placements on the first page. Yandex sites accounted for more than 71 million views in Russia, compared with Google’s 66.5 million views, according to comScore research conducted in June. But while Yandex still has the edge, the overwhelming majority of Russian smartphones are powered by Android, limiting the company’s ability to compete in the mobile market.

According to Richi Williams, chief executive of Fearch, a U.K. search engine that defines itself as “where social meets search,” the rivalry between Google and Yandex is a natural byproduct of business.

“Yandex complaining over Android is just a business complaint. Yandex can go out and create its own operating system, so what’s stopping it from doing so and building up a following that way, and then providing search through it?” Williams asks. “At the end of the day, you can’t argue or do anything about a sandwich or coffee shop being better placed on the shopping high street. All you can do is focus on what you’re good at, and try and attract customers and users naturally.”

Since Google was found guilty yesterday, Yandex’s shares have jumped more than 8 percent. Could the anti-trust complaints be an attempt to push Google out of the country and even the playing field? Steven Dunston, director of marketing technology at tax compliance software company Avalara, thinks it’s possible.

“To the extent that the West gets pushed out of Russia, I could see Google getting pushed out,” Dunston says. “I think that’s going to be out of Google’s control – the larger political climate is going to affect that pretty similarly. I think the whole monopoly gets tricky, especially when you’re global because there are different laws in different parts of the world which make it difficult to monopolize on.”

However, the monopoly is exactly why it’s so difficult for Yandex to be a true competitor. Dunston points out that beyond search, Google has its whole suite of products, such as AdWords and Analytics, in addition to Android.

“If [Yandex] wants to focus on desktop search, it could keep winning there,” Dunston says. “The world is moving to mobile-first and Google has such an incredible advantage with Android – it’ll be tough to compete.”

In its official statement, Yandex referenced the famous Microsoft case from 2009, in which the tech giant violated anti-trust European Union rules by selling the Internet Explorer browser alongside the Windows operating system.

“We welcome the positive ruling of the Federal Antimonopoly Service, which took up this complex case and, having examined the evidence, recognized a violation on the part of Google […] The investigation confirmed the existence of agreements on prohibition of pre-installation of competitors’ apps – in part, it was not denied that Yandex was specified in these agreements,” said Yandex.

Regarding Google’s verdict, the search giant can still appeal the ruling. If the decision holds, the company may be forced to comply with Russia’s competition rules, changing the services included in Android, or risk paying 15 percent of its Russian income. Details about the decision will be publicized within the next 10 days.

That means 90 percent of users‘ mobile time is spent in apps. Marketers are responding to this consumer behavior too by directing their ad dollars to apps and app advertising spending is likely to outpace that of mobile Web browser nearly three-to-one this year.

For app developers, there’s an increasing challenge to drive discovery and installs in a growing, competitive market.

Recent data reveals that social advertising spend on mobile by app developers has almost quadrupled year-over-year from Q2 2014 to Q2 2015, but that mobile app installs are growing at a faster clip.

Additionally, an influx of new advertisers and new apps has driven cost-per-install down over the past several quarters, making these ads an appealing option.

As the market matures, new inventory sources are cropping up to give app developers opportunities to scale efforts and reach mobile consumers. One of those new avenues is search ads via Google Play.

The Google Play store boasts upwards of 1.6 million apps, and now, you can increase discoverability to give your app even more exposure to the right audience.

For those already running app install ads on Google Search, expanding into Google Play is a no-brainer. The value of advertising directly in the Google Play store is that you are messaging to nearly one billion Android users who are actively searching and interested in downloading apps.

With millions of options to choose from, this opens up another way to stand out at the right time, to relevant and in-market audiences.

Extending beyond Google Play, Universal App Campaigns will facilitate app discovery and promotion across Google properties including search, YouTube, AdMob, and the Google Display Network. But it’s more than just Google. The opportunity to drive app downloads is possible across more and more prominent mobile properties – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Yahoo Gemini, to name a few.

Marketers looking to expand efforts into these other publishers should understand the nuances between each and know that campaigns and ads can’t always be a simple copy and paste. A highly visual ad unit, like that on Instagram, may not work on Facebook, for example. Constant testing and iterate to see what works for your brand in each emerging environment will be key.

Once an install is achieved, app marketers must focus on retaining consumers – Google research found that one in four installed apps is never used. Providing a clear value and compelling user experience will drive adoption and loyalty to your app, but you can also stay top of mind with mobile app engagement ads.

When used in conjunction with deep linking to particular content, you can direct your audiences to a highly tailored experience and give consumers a reason to stay engaged beyond the initial install.

Almost exactly a year ago, Apple released the iPhone 6, which included Apple Pay. Apple Pay was designed to blow Google Wallet out of the water. It came with tighter security and greater adoption of technology such as near-field communication (NFC). Android Pay is also head-and-shoulders above Google Wallet, though it’s not necessarily better than Apple Pay. Still, it’s similar enough to be a formidable competitor – which is necessary, according to Cyriac Roeding, chief executive of shopping companion app Shopkick.

“Not everyone has an iPhone. Just like we have two operating systems for our smartphones, we’re going to have at least two operating systems for our mobile payments,” Roeding points out. “That’d be like saying, ‘We have a Ford car, so nobody else needs to make cars anymore,’ or ‘There’s no need to make seatbelts because Ford already has them.’ I hope [Google and Apple] both win so we’re able to kickstart this market.”

While Google promises to add new retailers and banks regularly, the platform’s participants aren’t as extensive as those for Apple Pay. As a result, some users may lose the ability to tap and pay. The increased security from Android Pay doesn’t allow you to link any debit card, rather it requires participation from Google partners.

Josh Engroff, chief digital media officer at The Media Kitchen, points out that this isn’t Android’s only disadvantage. Android Pay will come pre-loaded on all AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile smartphones running Android Lollipop and all subsequent system updates. Apple Pay also comes pre-loaded on Apple devices.

“Android Pay’s approach to security is not much different than Apple Pay’s, and therefore also not a competitive advantage. Both pass secure tokens to merchants, keeping the actual credit card number hidden,” Engroff says. “The challenge for Android is that since it doesn’t control the hardware layer completely like Apple does, different handset makers with their own payments solution may claim their method is more secure than Android Pay’s. That is already happening with Samsung.”

Engroff says that mobile payments aren’t significantly more convenient than pulling out a credit card. He thinks they have potential beyond transactions.

“Where it will get really interesting is when they work across all apps on a user’s phone,” he says. “Then Apple Pay and Android Pay both become extremely convenient services available to all apps, which eliminates the need to enter payment info into different app environments. This is true whether for in-app purchases of virtual goods like mobile games or physical goods like Amazon delivery.”

Rodeing agrees, adding that mobile payments can become a piece in the loyalty programs, ultimately creating the best possible experience for a consumer in-store.

“After all this, the next step needs to be a focus on what happens before the payment,” he says. “That’s where the problem is. You don’t know what to buy, you don’t know what the discounts are, and nobody knows you’re there to greet you.”

Currently Android Pay is limited to physical stores – McDonald’s, Walgreens, Whole Foods, Staples, and Subway are among its early adopters. It will be expanded to include purchases within Android apps later this year, though Google hasn’t specified when.

Earlier this month, former Google chief executive (CEO) Larry Page announced that the brand’s expansive portfolio would be broken up and reformed into separate companies with their own CEOs under the Alphabet umbrella. The new streamlined Google brand will continue to include search, ads, apps, maps, YouTube and Android.

The greater autonomy for Alphabet products now falling outside the Google brand name could be particularly good for mobile and Internet penetration rates for developing markets like India, according to Bangalore-based Parth Mukherjee, head of marketing at Jifflenow. Mukherjee points to the Indian smartphone market, which still accounts for less than 20 percent of all phones sold, despite Google’s push to launch Android One smartphones into the market last year.

“Much of the operating system (OS) market [in India] will be driven by how many integrations they are able to pursue with hardware manufacturers, and Android already has a big lead in that matter,” Mukherjee says, adding that start-ups in the region may also be impacted.

“I’m very excited that Google Capital and Venture will be directly under the founders; that does mean a lot more focus on those initiatives and more opportunities for start-ups in Asia becoming a part of that family,” he adds.

Mukherjee also sees potential for other Google services – including YouTube, Drive and Google Hangouts – that haven’t fared as well in Asian markets. Like mobile penetration, he believes the success of these platforms in Asia will be somewhat reliant on the success of Android and developing Internet penetration in markets like India and China.

Motoko Hunt, president and search marketing consultant for Japanese SEO company AJPR, doesn’t believe the reorganization will have any effect on the search and advertising sectors in Asia – or anywhere else for that matter – unless service models are changed. However, she does think the move could make it easier to bring other Alphabet services and products – such as robotics, Nest, and autonomous vehicles – to China, now that they are detached from the search department. Google and its properties have been blocked in China for some time now.

“It’s a smart move for Google, as it will allow each department to grow independently,” Hunt says, adding that the restructuring also gives more financial flexibility. “This is good news to Google’s search department, as they are the biggest money generator.”

Lee Smith, president, Annalect APAC, Omnicom Media Group, says Google products have always been global with a consistency in products. From a marketing perspective, however, he does believe the new Alphabet structure will give more autonomy to the product teams, in turn, allowing them to make more independent decisions on the directions for new product integration.

“I’m not sure that the launch of Alphabet will act as a catalyst for products in Asia, but it will certainly give more autonomy to the products on a global basis, as each product lead manages a more autonomous product roadmap,” Smith says. “You can imagine Australia will benefit most directly, given its similarities to the U.S. and other developed markets.”

The move echoes a similar one announced by Google earlier this year with the roll out of Google Now on Tap, a feature designed to make everything from text messages to Instagram posts searchable, within apps. Though Google announced this enhancement at its I/O Developer Conference back in May, Bing was first to actually make such a feature available to consumers.

With Bing Snapshots, developers will be able to incorporate all of the search engine’s information into their apps, allowing users to perform searches in context without navigating outside. For example, a friend could mention a restaurant on Facebook Messenger. When you long-press the Home button, Bing will analyze the contents of the screen and bring up a snapshot of a restaurant, with actionable information, such as the restaurant’s official website and Yelp reviews, as well Uber.

“While we are excited that these snapshots enhance applications with rich knowledge and actions, we believe this is just the start,” wrote Gurpreet Pall, director of program management for Bing for Partners, in a blog post earlier today. “By working with developers to bring Bing‘s rich data and actions directly into their applications or services, we can address very real needs for developers to join hands and delight users.”

Beyond making sure Snapshots got a headstart over Google Now on Tap, Bing is also able to stand out by becoming the first search engine to make its knowledge graph available to developers. That will happen this fall, though some APIs are already available on the company’s online developer center. Bing is currently giving potential users sneak peeks on its Android app.

Not according to David Erickson, vice president of online marketing for Karowski Courage, a Minneapolis public relations agency. Beyond Alphabet, Google has rolled out several updates this week, including enhancements to Android prior to the Android M’s release. The company was going to focus on Android whether or not a new holding company was formed, he says.

“[Google] kept all the things that affect search together so I don’t really think there’s an impact on anything having to do with search right now, Android or otherwise,” Erickson says. “Maybe things will get better and tighter and more integrated, but I don’t see much change at all now.”

Dave Davies, chief executive (CEO) of Canadian SEO firm Beanstalk Services, agrees that Google staples won’t be impacted much by the restructuring, though he sees the appointment of Sundar Pichai as CEO resulting in innovations around areas like Local and Hangouts.

“Personally, I think the biggest impact is helping keep segments of Alphabet isolated from each other so that if one gets hit with an anti-trust issue, it won’t necessarily hit the others,” Davies says. “I think the other one is helping investors by allowing for more transporting on Google search separate from their other endeavors, allowing for investment in one over the other.”

The new, slimmer Google will include search, ads, apps, maps, YouTube and Android. Alphabet covers everything else, such as Boston Dynamics, Google’s engineering and robotics design company; Project Jacquard, which the search giant partnered with Levi’s to create “smart jeans;” and Google Express, which is still “miles away” from being a serious competitor to Amazon Prime, according to TheStreet.

Erickson points out that smaller, less profitable facets of the business probably haven’t received as much attention and nurturing from Google in the past. He thinks the formation of Alphabet is positive because it’ll result in more focus beyond search and ads, ultimately leading to improved data collection within the company and improved communication outside of it.

“One thing that’s always frustrated me about Google is that as brilliant as they are – they’re a bunch of engineers, but they’re not communicators,” he says. “There’s not a lot of clarity in what they’re trying to do. Maybe this reorganization will allow each individual unit to be more savvy about how they communicate with their end users.”

“I’ve always said that once a company gets to 100 people, you’ve got to chop it in half because there’s more accountability when you have a smaller organization,” Erickson adds. “That’s not entirely applicable to a huge organization and what Google has done, but I do think there’s something to it.”

Oh, wait. All that did happen. But there’s a lot more that went under the radar as a result. As we’ve already reported, Android user loyalty has now overtaken iOS users, as proved by last week’s debate in which 72 percent of you chose Android over iOS.

As a reward for your unending loyalty, Google has announced Android Experiments, a new site that showcases some of the weird and wonderful things that people have done with the platform.

The company explained, “Android was created as an open and flexible platform, giving people more ways to come together to imagine and create. Developers everywhere have used the unique capabilities of the platform to push the limits of what’s possible on phones, tablets, watches and beyond.

“We’re working to document creative experiments like these and make them open source so anyone can see how they are made, or get inspired to create their own. Our hope is to encourage more developers to challenge how we interact with the devices we use every day.”

There’s some cool stuff there. We won’t spoil it. Go and explore.

Android Hangouts 4.0 is here! Hoorah! The update you didn’t know you needed offers speed and performance boosts, material design, an on-screen compose button, streamlined contacts lists, and support to say, “OK Google, send a Hangouts message” for that extra impersonal touch.

All this and the return of custom status messages so you can say, “So sad. Terrible day” and have the whole world checking up on you to discover that your favorite TV show has been canceled or something equally unimportant.

It’s rolling out now and should be among you soon.

Android Wear also gets an update to version 1.3. New features will include touch-sensitive watch faces with the ability to pair your watch with a friend’s, for some reason, plus four-day weather forecast and Google Translate built in. Now all we need is that long-awaited Huawei watch.

After “Peegate,” Google took its custom Map Maker offline. But now it’s “back, back, back!” as they used to say in Smash Hits (ask your mom). New moderation tools to try to avoid a repeat mean that so far, only a few countries, none of which are the U.S. or the U.K., have it online, but it’s only a matter of time. Google is appointing “regional leads,” power users who will keep tabs on changes in their territory. As soon as they’re in place in your area, you’ll have access once again.

Also new in Maps is Open Location Codes, a shorthand way of encoding latitude and longitude coordinates for places that don’t have a clear address. This could be handy if you live on a newly-built estate, or find yourself waking up in a field after a night out. We’ve all been there.

More leaks suggest there will be two Nexus devices this year, one from Huawei and one from LG. We’re not big into reporting leaks in detail, but we do love to drool and hope, and it’s worth you doing the same. When we have more solid info, we’ll add it in.

Google+ for Android is out; it begins the process of dismantling the failed social layer with the removal of Photos, which have been superseded by their own app. It also features changes which will make it play nice with Android M, which has a whole bunch of new permissions to deal with.

There’s a new feature in Google Drive for desktop, an extension that will allow you to “open with” third-party apps. So say, for example, you find a PDF in your Drive, you can now open it with Adobe Reader, instead of Chrome or the internal PDF reader. Docs can be opened in Word (where compatibility allows) and so on. It’s a neat little touch in a world where companies are starting to realise that compatibility beats proprietary any day of the week.

Finally for this week, one Google startup that won’t be joining the Alphabet soup is Niantic Labs. The company behind cool but slightly off-message apps like location-aware tour guide Field Trip, and the massive multiplayer augmented reality game Ingress, is being spun off into its own company. It never really fit in, with its own branding and very un-Google interfaces, but both apps are exceedingly cool, so good luck to them as they strike out on their own.

Enough. Next Thursday OK for you? We’ll get the kettle on.

This article was originally published on the Inquirer.