The end of the year is nearing, and as usual, Google is recapping 2022's current events and trends with the most popular searches made through the platform. These are the terms Americans searched the most.

Google is merging the team it has working on the navigation app Waze into the same group that oversees Google Maps, the company has announced. The Wall Street Journal reports that the move is not expected to mark the end of Waze as a separate service, and no layoffs are planned as part of the reorganization. However, Waze CEO Neha Parikh is expected to leave the role after the transition, and the move is expected to reduce overlapping work, the WSJ notes.

Google plans to combine the teams working on its Maps product and Waze, a mapping service that Google acquired in 2013.

Using Google Analytics in a legally compliant way is still possible in Europe. Here we explain how.

Look, it's no big secret that I'm a fan of Google's Pixel program. I've personally owned Pixel phones since the first-gen model graced our gunk-filled pockets way back in 2016. And Pixels have been the only Android devices I've wholeheartedly recommended for most folks ever since.

Google even shared scripts.

Google's Project Zero team said it had alerted the chip designer ARM about the GPU bug, and the British chip designer had fixed those vulnerabilities.

And you think you have a duplicate content problem on your site?

Google’s new Nest Wi-Fi Pro is an excellent upgrade if you’re coming from an existing Google router. I saw significantly faster speeds, improved reliability, and better performance on the Nest Wifi Pro — which adds Wi-Fi 6 and 6E — compared to the previous Nest Wifi system and its Wi-Fi 5. It can’t handle multi-gig speeds, but that’s (sadly) not going to be a problem for most people. And while initially, I experienced slow speeds and high latency in the furthest rooms from the main router, a software update that arrived during my testing fixed this, resulting in consistent speeds throughout my home.

Google made at least 24 deals, including one $240 million agreement with Call of Duty publisher Activision, to prevent the creation of Play Store competitors, according to new documents from Epic Games..

If there’s an update available, that is.

Activist investor TCI Fund Management is calling on Google's parent Alphabet to pursue aggressive cost cutting on the back of a hiring spree during the pandemic, claiming the business could be more efficiently run. The UK-based hedge fund first bought Alphabet stock in 2017 and currently has shares valued at more than $6 billion in its portfolio, which it says indicates its belief in the future of the organization.

Google also promises to change the Location History settings again.

Google says it’s committed to connecting voters with accurate information. But the company is again allowing misleading ads to target people searching for how to vote. Google is serving misleading ads in English and Spanish to Americans looking for information on how to vote in the upcoming midterm elections, according to a new Tech Transparency Project (TTP) investigation that raises questions about Google’s commitment to provide accurate information about voting.

On Reddit, people have also complained about crummy Google Search results.

Google Hangouts is scheduled for death today. The phone app has been individually booting people off the service since July, but the last vestiges of Hangouts, the web app, will be shut down today. For a brief period, Hangouts was Google's best, most ambitious, most popular messaging effort, but 5 billion downloads later, Google is moving on.

Apple and Google have both come under fire for allegedly having a strong monopoly on the app industry.

Google’s Pixel 6 and Pixel 7 phones are powered by semi-custom Tensor processors, but these SoCs don’t really take the fight to Apple, Qualcomm, and other chipmakers when it comes to most benchmarks.

People with Android phones got a notification that a trembler was about to rock Silicon Valley. WIRED looks at the tech behind that feat.

It can be hard to keep track of all the lawsuits against Google. The Department of Justice filed one in 2020 and might have another one coming soon. Texas has at least two. Arizona recently settled theirs with the search giant for $85 million. And Washington state and D.C. have lawsuits, too.