Monthly Archives: December 2020

News: Squire, a barbershop tech startup, triples its valuation to $250M in latest round

Squire, a startup that sells software to barbershops, has raised $59 million in a round led by Iconiq Capital. The raise is $45 million in equity capital, and $15 million in debt financing. The round comes just months after Squire closed its $34 million Series B, led by CRV. With the new financing, Squire has

Squire, a startup that sells software to barbershops, has raised $59 million in a round led by Iconiq Capital. The raise is $45 million in equity capital, and $15 million in debt financing.

The round comes just months after Squire closed its $34 million Series B, led by CRV. With the new financing, Squire has nearly tripled its valuation, up from $85 million in June to $250 million today. Other investors include Tiger Global, Charles River Ventures, and Trinity Ventures.

What happened? Squire’s revenue went from zero in March, when all barber shops closed, to between $10 million to $20 million in ARR just 10 months later, TechCrunch has learned. The growth indicates how the next wave of barbershops will be built atop digital technology, instead of offline processes.

“We just took off like a lightning bolt,” co-founder Dave Salvant tells TechCrunch.

Salvant and Squire’s other co-founder, Songe LaRon, began the business as a back-end barbershop management tool for independent businesses in 2016. Squire lets businesses schedule appointments, offer loyalty programs and install contactless and cashless payment. The team claims that barbershop operations are more complex than many other types of small businesses because there are multiple parties transacting, plus customers might check out different services from different barbers all within one service.

That’s where Squire comes in — to be a point of sale to manage those confusing transactions.

The coronavirus has threatened the livelihoods of small and medium-sized business owners, making it harder for them to secure loans or financing to undergo tricky times. Salvant says that Squire took on $15 million in debt financing to create a banking-as-a-service feature for these business owners.

“This market is underserved by traditional financial institutions,” Salvant said. “And we think there’s opportunities to help these owners with financial tools.”

Going forward, Squire plans to expand into new markets, including Australia, Canada, and the U.K. The majority of capital raised will go toward hiring new sales and marketing professionals.

Squire’s total staff is currently 100 people.

News: DoorDash, C3.ai skyrocket in public market debuts

Haters gonna hate, IPOs gonna pop. That’s the story today as richly valued DoorDash and C3.ai, two American technology unicorns, saw their values skyrocket after they began trading today. DoorDash shares are up just under 83% to $186.51. The company priced its IPO at $102 per share last night, ahead of its raised IPO range

Haters gonna hate, IPOs gonna pop.

That’s the story today as richly valued DoorDash and C3.ai, two American technology unicorns, saw their values skyrocket after they began trading today.

DoorDash shares are up just under 83% to $186.51. The company priced its IPO at $102 per share last night, ahead of its raised IPO range of $90 to $95 per share.

And as I write to you, shares of C3.ai are up an even sharper 151% to $105.58, after pricing at $42 per share earlier today. The company had raised its IPO range from $31 to $34 per share to $36 to $38 per share.

It appears that public investors are, again, more exuberant about the growth and profit prospects of select late-stage unicorns than private investors. Earlier this year DoorDash raised $400 million at a valuation of around $16 billion, for example.

Today on a non-diluted basis, the company is worth around $59 billion. That figure rises sharply if you include shares that could be created from the exercise of options and other forms of compensation.

TechCrunch is speaking with DoorDash’s CFO and the CEO of C3.ai later today.

For a passel of companies coming next, the day’s tidings are more than welcome. Airbnb may be able to secure a higher per-share price when it prices later today. And with Affirm and Upstart and Roblox and Wish quickly approaching their final IPO prices, the explosive early trading of today’s debuts could provide them with a boost as well.

Why are the two companies up so sharply? Your guess is as good as mine, but factors could include — as noted this morning — a boom in retail trading and a possibly constrained float, among other factors. Regardless, for both firms it has been a dream week, first raising more money than they likely anticipated, then receiving a rapturous welcome from public investors.

How should we understand the new valuations? It’s too soon to fully grok what is going on. More trading with more shares in motion will help clarify the two companies’ more stable value.

Until then we’re going to sit back and watch Yahoo Finance.

News: Chrome adds new capabilities for developers, introduces new privacy rules for extension developers

At the Chrome Dev Summit, Google’s Chrome team today announced a number of new capabilities for developers, updated rules for extension developers, as well as new steps to improve the overall performance of the browser. In addition, the Chrome team also announced a major change for extension developers: sometime in 2021, users will get more

At the Chrome Dev Summit, Google’s Chrome team today announced a number of new capabilities for developers, updated rules for extension developers, as well as new steps to improve the overall performance of the browser.

In addition, the Chrome team also announced a major change for extension developers: sometime in 2021, users will get more granular control over which sites an extension can access and starting in January, every extension will feature a ‘privacy practices’ section on the Chrome Web Store that details what kind of data the extension collects.

Image Credits: Google

The Chrome team also today announced that it will launch Manifest V3 in mid-January, when Chrome 88 hits the stable channel. That’s something a lot of extension developers — especially those working on ad blockers — have been dreading. Manifest V3 introduces new limits for extension developers that are meant to prevent them from accessing too much data from their users, but it also puts relatively severe limits on how extensions can interact with a web page. Google now says it has made some changes to V3 based on the feedback it has received, but this is probably not the last we’ve heard of this.

Overall, however, if you’re a user, the most welcome news from today’s event may be that, after working to reduce the overall memory footprint of the browser with a couple of updates earlier this year, the team is now tackling the V8 JavaScript engine and reducing its memory footprint as well. In addition, the team found some new ways to speed up V8 and eliminate any parsing pauses by loading a site’s JavaScript files in parallel to make sure they can be used the moment a page wants to execute them.

The team also continues to work on new ways to speed up the browsing experience, too. The team is doing this by actually changing the way it compiles Chrome, something it first talked about this summer, when these changes arrived in the Chrome beta channel.

“Based on looking at the usage patterns of Chrome, we asked ourselves — with insights of how users are actually using Chrome — are there things we could do in how we compile chrome itself that would make it more efficient? And we found that the answer is yes,” Google’s Ben Galbraith told me. “[…] We call it profile-guided optimization and in [certain] scenarios, we found up to 10 percent faster page loads due to these task-specific compiler optimizations.” Most of the scenarios are in the 2 to 5 percent range, but given how mature most browser engines are now, even that’s a significant difference.

The team is also recently worked on improving tab throttling and how it allocates resources to foreground and background tasks. Galbraith noted that the plan is to do more work along these lines moving forward.

Developers, too, will get some new tools to improve the performance of their web apps as part of Google’s Web Vital initiative, which aims to provide developers with the right performance metrics to help them understand how users experience their web apps. Google Search will use some of these core metrics in its rankings, starting May 2021. Google already highlights this data in the Chrome Experience Report, in its Search Console and elsewhere, but today it is also launching an open-source Web Vitals Report tool to help developers create custom visualization based on the Web Vitals data they’ve sent to Google Analytics. Google Analytics doesn’t currently surface this data in the context of Web Vitals, so developers can now run these reports using Google’s own hosted tool or fork the code and run them on their own infrastructure.

Image Credits: Google

“When you look at the different metrics, we’re focused on the things that we understand the most: loading metrics, visual stability and the like, and interaction — so when you click on something, something actually happens. The mission for these metrics is to be able to really understand the quality of the experience that you’ve got.,” Google’s Dion Almaer explained.

And there is more. On the privacy front, Google continues to iterate on its Privacy Sandbox model. It’s adding two new experiments here with the Click Conversion Measurement API to measures ad conversions without using cross-site identifiers and the new Trust Token APIs that allow a site to issue a cryptographic token to a user it trusts. The idea behind this token is that the browser can then use this token in another context as well to evaluate that a user is who they say they are — and not a bot or an impostor with malicious intent.

In addition, there are also new features for developers who want to write PWAs, updates to how developers can accept payments in Chrome and more.

Image Credits: Google

News: Automattic, Mozilla, Twitter and Vimeo urge EU to beef up user controls to help tackle ‘legal-but-harmful’ content

Automattic, Mozilla, Twitter and Vimeo have penned an open letter to EU lawmakers urging them to ensure that a major reboot of the bloc’s digital regulations doesn’t end up bludgeoning freedom of expression online. The draft Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act are due to be unveiled by the Commission next week, though the

Automattic, Mozilla, Twitter and Vimeo have penned an open letter to EU lawmakers urging them to ensure that a major reboot of the bloc’s digital regulations doesn’t end up bludgeoning freedom of expression online.

The draft Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act are due to be unveiled by the Commission next week, though the EU lawmaking process means it’ll likely be years before either becomes law.

The Commission has said the legislative proposals will set clear responsibilities for how platforms must handle illegal and harmful content, as well as applying a set of additional responsibilities on the most powerful players which are intended to foster competition in digital markets.

It also plans to legislate around political ads transparency — under a Democracy Action Plan — but not til Q3 next year.

The Internet is at a crossroads. What happens next will define our online lives for an entire generation.

Today, in Europe, Twitter is joining @automattic @mozilla @Vimeo to call on regulators to endorse a digital future built on the #OpenInternet. https://t.co/D27Woy36pe

— Twitter Public Policy (@Policy) December 9, 2020

In their joint letter, entitled ‘Crossroads for the open Internet’, the four tech firms argue that: “The Digital Services Act and the Democracy Action Plan will either renew the promise of the Open Internet or compound a problematic status quo – by limiting our online environment to a few dominant gatekeepers, while failing to meaningfully address the challenges preventing the Internet from realising its potential.”

On the challenge of regulating digital content without damaging vibrant online expression they advocate for a more nuanced approach to “legal-but-harmful” content — pressing a ‘freedom of speech is not freedom of reach’ position by urging EU lawmakers not to limit their policy options to binary takedowns (which they suggest would benefit the most powerful platforms).

Instead they suggest tackling problem (but legal) speech by focusing on content visibility as key and ensuring consumers have genuine choice in what they see — implying support for regulation to require that users have meaningful controls over algorithmic feeds (such as the ability to switch off AI curation entirely).

“Unfortunately, the present conversation is too often framed through the prism of content removal alone, where success is judged solely in terms of ever-more content removal in ever-shorter periods of time. Without question, illegal content — including terrorist content and child sexual abuse material — must be removed expeditiously. Indeed, many creative self-regulatory initiatives proposed by the European Commission have demonstrated the effectiveness of an EU-wide approach,” they write.

“Yet by limiting policy options to a solely stay up-come down binary, we forgo promising alternatives that could better address the spread and impact of problematic content while safeguarding rights and the potential for smaller companies to compete. Indeed, removing content cannot be the sole paradigm of Internet policy, particularly when concerned with the phenomenon of ‘legal-but-harmful’ content. Such an approach would benefit only the very largest companies in our industry.

“We therefore encourage a content moderation discussion that emphasises the difference between illegal and harmful content and highlights the potential of interventions that address how content is surfaced and discovered. Included in this is how consumers are offered real choice in the curation of their online environment.”

Twitter does already let users switch between a chronological content view or ‘top tweets’ (aka, its algorithmically curated feed) — so arguably it already offers users “real choice” on that front. That said, its platform can also inject some (non-advertising) content into a user’s feed regardless of whether a person has elected to see it — if its algorithms believe it’ll be of interest. So not quite 100% real choice then.

Another example is Facebook — which does offer a switch to turn off algorithmic curation of its News Feed. But it’s so buried in settings most normal users are unlikely to discover it. (Underlying the importance of default settings in this context; algorithmic defaults with buried user choice do already exist on mainstream platforms — and don’t sum to meaningful user control over what they’re exposed to.)

In the letter, the companies go on to write that they support “measures towards algorithmic transparency and control, setting limits to the discoverability of harmful content, further exploring community moderation, and providing meaningful user choice”.

“We believe that it’s both more sustainable and more holistically effective to focus on limiting the number of people who encounter harmful content. This can be achieved by placing a technological emphasis on visibility over prevalence,” they suggest, adding: “The tactics will vary from service to service but the underlying approach will be familiar.”

The Commission has signalled that algorithmic transparency will be a key plank of the policy package — saying in October that the proposals will include requirements for the biggest platforms to provide information on the way their algorithms work when regulators ask for it.

Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said then that the aim is to “give more power to users — so algorithms don’t have the last word about what we get to see, and what we don’t get to see” — suggesting requirements to offer a certain level of user control could be coming down the pipe for the tech industry’s dark patterns.

In their letter, the four companies also express support for harmonizing notice-and-action rules for responding to illegal content, to clarify obligations and provide legal certainty, as well as calling for such mechanisms to “include measures proportionate to the nature and impact of the illegal content in question”.

The four are also keen for EU lawmakers to avoid a one-size-fits-all approach for regulating digital players and markets. Although given the DSA/DMA split that looks unlikely; there will at least be two sizes involved in Europe’s rebooted rules, and most likely a lot more nuance.

“We recommend a tech-neutral and human rights-based approach to ensure legislation transcends individual companies and technological cycles,” they go on, adding a little dig over the controversial EU Copyright directive — which they describe as a reminder there are “major drawbacks in prescribing generalised compliance solutions”.

“Our rules must be sufficiently flexible to accommodate and allow for the harnessing of sectoral shifts, such as the rise of decentralised hosting of content and data,” they go on, arguing a “far-sighted approach” can be ensured by developing regulatory proposals that “optimise for effective collaboration and meaningful transparency between three core groups: companies, regulators and civil society”.

Here the call is for “co-regulatory oversight grounded in regional and global norms”, as they put it, to ensure Europe’s rebooted digital rules are “effective, durable, and protective of individuals’ rights”.  

The joint push for collaboration that includes civic society contrasts with Google’s public response to the Commission’s DSA/DMA consultation — which mostly focused on trying to lobby against ex ante rules for gatekeepers (like Google will surely be designated).

Though on liability for illegal content front the tech giant also lobbied for clear delineating lines between how illegal material must be handled and what’s “lawful-but-harmful.”

The full official detail of the DSA and DMA proposals are expected next week.

A Commission spokesperson declined to comment on the specific positions set out by Twitter et al today, adding that the regulatory proposals will be unveiled “soon”. (December 15 is the slated date.)

Last week — setting out the bloc’s strategy towards handling politically charged information and disinformation online — values and transparency commissioner, Vera Jourova, confirmed the forthcoming DSA will not set specific rules for the removal of “disputed content”.

Instead, she said there will be a beefed up code of practice for tackling disinformation — extending the current voluntary arrangement with additional requirements. She said these will include algorithmic accountability and better standards for platforms to cooperate with third-party fact-checkers. Tackling bots and fake accounts and clear rules for researchers to access data are also on the (non-legally-binding) cards.

“We do not want to create a ministry of truth. Freedom of speech is essential and I will not support any solution that undermines it,” said Jourova. “But we also cannot have our societies manipulated if there are organized structures aimed at sewing mistrust, undermining democratic stability and so we would be naive to let this happen. And we need to respond with resolve.”

News: Extra Crunch Partner Perk: Find peace of mind with ‘Spotify for Mindfulness & Sleep’ app Aura

Stress can come in many forms. Burnout at work, anxiety to close that big deal or, like everyone, suffering from the changes the pandemic has had on your startup. While we can’t cover all bases, help is on the way. Mental health and stress management is pivotal to keeping your brain at peak performance, so

Stress can come in many forms. Burnout at work, anxiety to close that big deal or, like everyone, suffering from the changes the pandemic has had on your startup. While we can’t cover all bases, help is on the way. Mental health and stress management is pivotal to keeping your brain at peak performance, so we’re excited to announce a new Extra Crunch Partner Perk from health and wellness app Aura. Starting today, annual and two-year Extra Crunch members that are new to Aura can receive a 30-day free trial plus 30% off an annual plan.

Aura, “Spotify for Mindfulness” is an Apple award-winning app for emotional health and sleep that brings you the world’s largest premium library of  mindfulness meditations, stories and coaching tracks created by the top coaches around the world. Aura’s personalized recommendations give you the daily support you need to find peace — in just three minutes a day. Aura is loved by more than 5 million people around the world.

Two brothers, Steve and Daniel Lee, developed a passion for mental health as they set out to create a mobile application that deeply understood each person’s unique challenges and provided people with personalized, on-demand access to knowledge and wisdom shared by the world’s best coaches and therapists.

Learn more about Aura here.

News: TC Sessions: Space 2020 launches next week

TC Sessions: Space 2020, our first conference dedicated to galactic endeavors, launches in just one week (December 16-17). We can’t wait to host out-of-this-world experts, innovative agencies and the bold, boundary-breaking startups focused on building a future in space. If you have not yet secured your seat on the space-race express, do so now while

TC Sessions: Space 2020, our first conference dedicated to galactic endeavors, launches in just one week (December 16-17). We can’t wait to host out-of-this-world experts, innovative agencies and the bold, boundary-breaking startups focused on building a future in space.

If you have not yet secured your seat on the space-race express, do so now while late registration prices remain in play — prices go up December 15. You’ll also find discounts for groupsstudents and active military/government employees.

Ready to place your early stage startup in orbit with industry movers and shakers — and pitch your startup to attendees during the event? Buy a Space Startup Exhibitor Pass. We even offer a super budget-friendly, expo-only pass for $25 (Note: this does not include networking, access to the main stage programming or the free Extra Crunch membership).

Pro Tip: Not all virtual conferences are created equal. Michael McCarthy, the CEO of Repositax, found unexpected benefits.

“The online experience was far more efficient than I anticipated, and the video on demand was a huge benefit. I could attend without disrupting my customer work by moving between the main stage and breakout presentations knowing I could catch anything I missed later.”

The two-day event agenda practically vibrates with opportunity. Let’s look at just a few of the many sessions waiting for you.

Fast Money Breakout Sessions: Learn about the different accelerators, incubators and grant programs available to help you fund and grow your startup. You’ll find six of these breakout sessions spanning the two days. Check the agenda for exact days and times and plan your schedule accordingly. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to find money, um, fast.

Founders in Focus Series: TechCrunch editors will sit down and talk with four different founders poised to be the next big disruptors in the space industry. Don’t miss this four-part series with Araz Feyzi, co-founder of Kayhan Space; Will Edwards, CEO of Firehawk Aerospace; Pawan Chandana, co-founder of Skyroot; and Yotam Ariel, co-founder of Bluefield Technologies.

Pitch Feedback Session: Join us for a pitch feedback session open to all startups exhibiting at TC Sessions: Space 2020 and moderated by TechCrunch staff.

This may be our first foray into space technology, but we’ve hosted many TC Sessions. Here’s what Karin Maake, senior director of communications at FlashParking told us about her experience.

“TC Sessions isn’t just an educational opportunity, it’s a real networking opportunity. Everyone was passionate and open to creating pilot programs or other partnerships. That was the most exciting part. And now — thanks to a conference connection — we’re talking with Goodyear’s Innovation Lab.”

TC Sessions: Space 2020 runs from December 16-17. You have just one week left to buy your pass, join your global community of bold boundary breakers and move your space-based business forward.

Is your company interested in sponsoring TC Sessions: Space 2020? Click here to talk with us about available opportunities.

News: Nutanix brings in former VMware exec as new CEO

Nutanix announced today that it was bringing in former VMware executive Rajiv Ramaswami as president and CEO. Ramaswami replaces co-founderr Dheeraj Pandey, who previously announced his plans to retire in August. The new CEO brings 30 years of industry experience to the position including stints with Broadcom, Cisco, Nortel and IBM — in addition to

Nutanix announced today that it was bringing in former VMware executive Rajiv Ramaswami as president and CEO. Ramaswami replaces co-founderr Dheeraj Pandey, who previously announced his plans to retire in August.

The new CEO brings 30 years of industry experience to the position including stints with Broadcom, Cisco, Nortel and IBM — in addition to his most recent gig at VMware as Chief Operating Officer of Products and Cloud Services at VMware.

At his position at VMware, Ramaswami had the opportunity to see Nutanix up close as a key competitor, and he now has the opportunity to lead the company into its next phase. “I have long admired Nutanix as a formidable competitor, a pioneer in hyperconverged infrastructure solutions and a leader in cloud software,” he said in a statement. He hopes to build on his industry knowledge to continue growing the company.

Sohaib Abbasi, lead independent director of Nutanix says that as a candidate, Ramaswami’s experience really stood out. “Rajiv distinguished himself among the CEO candidates with his rare combination of operational discipline, business acumen, technology vision and inclusive leadership skills,” he said in statement.

Holger Mueller, an analyst at Constellation Research says the hiring makes a lot of sense as VMware is quickly becoming the company’s primary competitor. “Nutanix and VMware want to be the same in the future — the virtualization and workload portability Switzerland across cloud and on premise compute infrastructures,” he told me.

What’s more, it allows Nutanix to grab a talented executive. “So hiring Ramaswami brings both an expert for multi-cloud to the Nutanix helm, as well as weakening a key competitor from a talent perspective,” he said.

Nutanix was founded in 2009. It raised over $600 million from firms like Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, Fidelity and Wellington Management, according to Crunchbase data. The company went public in 2016. Investors seem pleased by the announcement with the company stock price up 1.29% as of publication.

News: MTG acquires mobile racing game studio Hutch Games for up to $375 million

Sweden’s MTG is making a significant acquisition in the mobile gaming industry. The company is acquiring Hutch Games, the London-based game studio behind popular mobile racing games, such as Rebel Racing, F1 Manager and Top Drives. The acquisition is an important one for MTG as the company is spending $275 million right away and setting

Sweden’s MTG is making a significant acquisition in the mobile gaming industry. The company is acquiring Hutch Games, the London-based game studio behind popular mobile racing games, such as Rebel Racing, F1 Manager and Top Drives.

The acquisition is an important one for MTG as the company is spending $275 million right away and setting aside another $100 million for performance-based payments.

If you’re not familiar with MTG, you probably know its portfolio companies. Over the past few years, MTG has acquired ESL and DreamHack to become an esports leader.

MTG has also acquired InnoGames and Kongregate for their popular web-based and mobile games. And it sounds like MTG isn’t done just yet as the company plans to acquire more companies in the near future.

MTG explains why the acquisition makes sense in its announcement. Hutch Games isn’t focused on a single game. It has built a portfolio of successful games, which is always a good sign for future growth.

The game studio has also licensed some well-known brands, such as F1. And MTG believes that F1 Manager, Top Drives and Rebel Racing still have a lot of growth potential. Free-to-play mobile games have become games as a service, so you want to keep them popular over the long run.

When it comes to long-term potential, Hutch Games also has more games in the pipeline for 2021 and 2022. Finally, it’s a cost-effective studio as most employees are developers.

During the first nine months of 2020, Hutch Games generated $56.3 million in revenue and $13.3 million in earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT). Hutch Games investors included Backed VC, Index Ventures, Initial Capital and angel investor Chris Lee.

As you can see, free-to-play games can be lucrative. That’s why there will be some consolidation in the future. Some companies will use their deep pockets or take advantage of debt to build out big portfolios and the real estate of your home screen, one game at a time.

News: Microsoft brings new process mining features to Power Automate

Power Automate is Microsoft’s platform for streamlining repetitive workflows — you may remember it under its original name: Microsoft Flow. The market for these robotic process automation (RPA) tools is hot right now, so it’s no surprise that Microsoft, too, is doubling down on its platform. Only a few months ago, the team launched Power

Power Automate is Microsoft’s platform for streamlining repetitive workflows — you may remember it under its original name: Microsoft Flow. The market for these robotic process automation (RPA) tools is hot right now, so it’s no surprise that Microsoft, too, is doubling down on its platform. Only a few months ago, the team launched Power Automate Desktop, based on its acquisition of Softomotive, which helps users automate workflows in legacy desktop-based applications, for example. After a short time in preview Power Automate Desktop is now generally available.

The real news today, though, is that the team is also launching a new tool, the Process Advisor, which is now in preview as part of the Power Automate platform. This new process mining tool provides users with a new collaborative environment where developers and business users can work together to create new automations.

The idea here is that business users are the ones who know exactly how a certain process works. With Process Advisor, they can now submit recordings of how they process a refund, for example, and then submit that to the developers, who are typically not experts in how these processes usually work.

What’s maybe just as important is that a system like this can identify bottlenecks in existing processes where automation can help speed up existing workflows.

Image Credits: Microsoft

“This goes back to one of the things that we always talk about for Power Platform, which, it’s a corny thing, but it’s that development is a team sport,” Charles Lamanna, Microsoft’s corporate VP for its Low Code Application Platform, told me. “That’s one of our big focuses: how do bring people to collaborate and work together who normally don’t. This is great because it actually brings together the business users who live the process each and every day with a specialist who can build the robot and do the automation.”

The way this works in the backend is that Power Automate’s tools capture exactly what the users do and click on. All this information is then uploaded to the cloud and — with just five or six recordings — Power Automate’s systems can map how the process works. For more complex workflows, or those that have a lot of branches for different edge cases, you likely want more recordings to build out these processes, though.

Image Credits: Microsoft

As Lamanna noted, building out these workflows and process maps can also help businesses better understand the ROI of these automations. “This kind of map is great to go build an automation on top of it, but it’s also great because it helps you capture the ROI of each automation you do because you’ll know for each step, how long it took you,” Lamanna said. “We think that this concept of Process Advisor is probably going to be one of the most important engines of adoption for all these low-code/no-code technologies that are coming out. Basically, it can help guide you to where it’s worth spending the energy, where it’s worth training people, where it’s worth building an app, or using AI, or building a robot with our RPA like Power Automate.”

Lamanna likened this to the advent of digital advertising, which for the first time helped marketers quantify the ROI of advertising.

The new process mining capabilities in Power Automate are now available in preview.

News: Coronavirus, election results, Kobe Bryant and Zoom among Google’s top 2020 search trends in U.S. and world

The coronavirus outbreak, elections, and Zoom meetings were on U.S. consumers minds’ this year, according to Google’s list of the U.S. top trending searches in 2020, released this morning. These search trends don’t reflect the most-searched for words and phrases across Google, but rather those that saw high spikes in traffic over a sustained period

The coronavirus outbreak, elections, and Zoom meetings were on U.S. consumers minds’ this year, according to Google’s list of the U.S. top trending searches in 2020, released this morning. These search trends don’t reflect the most-searched for words and phrases across Google, but rather those that saw high spikes in traffic over a sustained period of time during the year, as compared with 2019. This paints a more accurate picture of consumers’ changing interests during the year, than Google’s top searches would.

The lists of top Global search trends had a similar set of results.

In the U.S., Election Results was the No. 1 top trending search, followed by Coronavirus.

The PlayStation 5, Zoom and the names of several celebrities we tragically lost in 2020 also made the list.

In order, the top trending searches of 2020 were: Election results, Coronavirus, Kobe Bryant, Coronavirus update, Coronavirus symptoms, Zoom, who is winning the election, Chadwick Boseman, and PlayStation 5.

The top trending News searches reflected similar trends, with Elections, the pandemic, and other related impacts making the list. There was a lot of bad news in 2020, including natural disasters and the largest stock market crash since 1929 (the Coronavirus Crash), which made the list, too.

In order, the top trending News searches were: Election results, Coronavirus, Stimulus checks, Unemployment, Iran, Hurricane Laura, Super Tuesday, Stock Market, Murder hornet, and Australia fires.

Google’s year-end search trends also highlighted top people, actors, politicians, athletes, musicians and losses of the year, with the U.S. No. 1’s going to Joe Biden (top people search trend and politician search trend), Tom Hanks (who got COVID in 2020), Ryan Newman, Shakira, and Kobe Bryant.

The year-end review also broke out other topics, like top trending TV shows, sports teams, songs, movies, games, and more.

The No.1’s across these lists, in order, included the Netflix viral hit, “Tiger King,” the Boston Celtics, “WAP,” “Parasite,” and Among Us.

Globally, many of the top trends remained the same, with Coronavirus, Election results, Kobe Bryant, Zoom and IPL as top search trends. Meanwhile, the Coronavirus, Election results, Iran, Beirut, and Hantavirus were top trending News searches.

There were other similarities across subtopics, too, like No. 1’s which included Tom Hanks, Ryan Newman, Among Us, WAP, Parasite, Joe Biden, “Tiger King,” and more.

Beyond the terms themselves, Google says there were other apparent trends that emerged from its data. This year, people continued to use Google to ask “why” to learn about the world. Although, this year, many of our “why’s” were related to COVID — like where to buy toilet paper, face masks, and hand sanitizer and top “where to buy” search trends. We also looked for nearby places like covid testing and early voting centers, as well as protests in our “Near Me” searches.

And, despite everything, people remained optimistic as Google users searched for ways to spend time in coronavirus lockdowns. Searches for “sourdough bread recipe” hit an all-time high, for example. Other popular food searches included whipped coffee (thanks TikTok!), Disney churro, Dole whip and others. Top trends in “how to” searches reflected a world where we learned to stay at home, doing things for ourselves — like how to cut hair, or cut bangs, or color hair at home, as well as work from home, take virtual field trips, go on virtual dates, and more.

Searches for Black Lives Matter increased five-fold over 2019, as well.

These searches and those for other supported markets can be viewed on Google Trends.

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