Google shutting down Area 120 project Touring Bird

Touring Bird helps you explore and compare prices and options across providers and makes it easier to book tours, tickets and activities in top destinations around the world. We also wanted to make travel more fun and memorable by making it easier to discover unique things to do. They think that bird feathers are a natural progression from the recent flower wallpapers, which Google introduced in its older Pixel devices. The Bird Song Skill from Thomptronics can play more than two hundred bird sounds — from a wild turkey to half a dozen swan species to the Veery, which is said to have one of the most beautiful bird songs in all of North America. About 25 new actions have landed on Google Home for Google Assistant, including an action that lets you listen to the sounds of hundreds of bird songs and one that mimics the person in your office who says innocuous, buzzword-laden things in meetings.

Google searches reveal popular bird species

If you own a Google Pixel device launched in 2022 onwards, then you will notice that its wallpapers are bird feathers. Google Assistant can tell you what a swan or hummingbird sounds like, but it has limits — it cannot tell you about a grey wagtail or a black browed albatross, for example. If you get especially good at recognizing the birds, you can try your hand at the Bird Song Skill’s song quiz. I can’t wait for an action like this to take my location into account so I can learn the sounds of birds in my immediate surroundings.

Touring Bird

• Cross-referencing a decade of Google searches and citizen science observations, researchers have determined which of 621 North American bird species are currently the most popular and which characteristics of species drive human interest.
• The Area 120 project will be shutting down next month as the Touring Bird team joins Google’s unified Travel initiative.
• They pooled the results into four categories which Schuetz and Johnston call «cultural niche space,» based on how frequently people searched for a species relative to how often they might encounter it in nature.
• Continuing a trend of actions made for public transit times in major cities, the Atlanta rail action was recently made available to tell Atlanta metro area residents about the arrival time of the next bus or train.
• Announced last September, Touring Bird is a simple website that curates things travelers can do on a city-by-city basis.

More than 175 actions have been made available on the Google Home app since the launch of the Actions on Google platform last December. In recent weeks, the third-party ecosystem of actions has grown to include a WikiHow action for thousands of DIY instructions and a Bible reader that can read scripture based on how you feel. Though proximity to a species often plays a role in shaping public interest, the authors also found that some «celebrity» species, such as Common Raven, Barn Owl, and Whooping Crane, are popular even outside their range. They pooled the results into four categories which Schuetz and Johnston call «cultural niche space,» based on how frequently people searched for a species relative to how often they might encounter it in nature. Announced last September, Touring Bird is a simple website that curates things travelers can do on a city-by-city basis. The Area 120 project will be shutting down next month as the Touring Bird team joins Google’s unified Travel initiative.

Surmising that people would probably search more often for birds they encountered frequently, the authors turned to eBird for the geographical piece of the puzzle. EBird is a global citizen science database of bird observations managed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Mercedes and Hyundai recently launched actions to give owners of their vehicles control of their cars via Alexa or Google Assistant.

• «But we can start to understand why some species garner more attention than others. Then the challenge to conservationists is to raise awareness around lesser-known species.»
• Though proximity to a species often plays a role in shaping public interest, the authors also found that some «celebrity» species, such as Common Raven, Barn Owl, and Whooping Crane, are popular even outside their range.
• If you get especially good at recognizing the birds, you can try your hand at the Bird Song Skill’s song quiz.
• About 25 new actions have landed on Google Home for Google Assistant, including an action that lets you listen to the sounds of hundreds of bird songs and one that mimics the person in your office who says innocuous, buzzword-laden things in meetings.
• According to Android Police’s latest report, Google’s design team decided to try something different for Google Pixel wallpapers.

The Mercedes Me action can unlock the car door, start the car engine, or take navigation directions. Continuing a trend of actions made for public transit times in major cities, the Atlanta rail action was recently made available to tell Atlanta metro area residents about the arrival time of the next bus or train. Thanks to the efforts of Google’s design team, 12 wallpaper images of bird wings are included in the final result. According to Android Police’s latest report, Google’s design team decided to try something different for Google Pixel wallpapers.

Knowledge may help fine-tune conservation messages

Understanding people’s interest in different bird species can also help conservation organizations focus their efforts, says Schuetz. For example, «conservation groups might want to identify species in need of help that are regionally well-known but don’t have a reputation beyond that region. These species could be good candidates for stewardship programs that encourage a sense of regional pride.» Cross-referencing a decade of Google searches and citizen science observations, researchers have determined which of 621 North American bird species are currently the most popular and which characteristics of species drive human interest.

Google shutting down Area 120 project Touring Bird, integrated into other Travel efforts

Study findings have just been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Besides curating popular sites to visit and things to do, the crux of Touring Bird is directly listing ticketing and reservation providers. This simplifies the purchasing experience for travelers, while also providing a potential source of monetization for Google. Many free sites and activities are listed, with locals often contributing popular destinations.

Google searches reveal popular bird species

Touring Bird shutting down ultimately makes sense given how Google Trips was killed in favor of a unified Google Travel offering, as well as Maps. Hopefully, this rich corpus of data and refined implementation lives on in other first-party products. It first launched with a Paris guide in early 2018 before expanding to 20 cities later that year.

«Google Trends data describe how often people search for birds and provide a snapshot of public interest in different species,» says researcher Justin Schuetz, Cornell alum and lead author of the study. Co-author and Cornell Lab of Ornithology researcher Alison Johnston notes that Google data cannot reveal the underlying motivations for searches but knowing which species capture public interest matters for conservation. «But we can start to understand why some species garner more attention than others. Then the challenge to conservationists is to raise awareness around lesser-known species.» 9To5Mac reported that the transition of Android wallpapers to bird feathers is a part of the relaunched Google Design.