2019年5月4日
'What is Google Express?': A guide to Google's online shopping service
Google Express?is an online shopping service owned by Google.?Google Express?is akin to a virtual mall that offers products from thousands of retailers, both online-only and brick-and-mortar.
You can explore the?Google Express storefront?in a web browser on your computer. You can also browse the store using the?Google Express app for the iPhone?or?Android.?You can search for products by name (“Xbox”) or by its general description (“cookies”). Product pages contain full descriptions and reviews, like you may be used to on other sites like Amazon.
You can also use voice commands to place an order. In much the same way that you can place orders to Amazon verbally with an Amazon Echo, you can tell a Google smart speaker like the Google Home to place orders for you.?
Given the vast array of stores that are a part of Google Express, you can find an astonishing array of products.?Google Express offers quick delivery, ranging from same day to three-day delivery, depending upon the store and your geographic location.
There is no membership or subscription service for Google Express, so it has no annual or monthly fee. Delivery is free for many purchases over $US15.?
Twice as many Canadians are trying marijuana for the first time since it was legalised
Canadians are embracing the country’s recent legalization of marijuana.?Canada?legalised the drug for recreational use in October 2018, becoming the first country in the G7 to do so.
In the first three months of 2019, 646,000 Canadians reported trying pot for the first time.?The report found that a large number of these first-time users were middle-aged, with half being aged 45 or older. Overall however, general cannabis use remained most frequent amongst people aged 15 to 24 – with 30% reporting they’d used the drug.
Canada’s legalization of weed was targeted at neutralising the illegal sale of the drug. It?is having some success in diverting weed users away from illegal sources – with an estimated 47% of cannabis users getting their weed from legal sources in the first three months of 2019, up 24% from the previous year.
Microsoft is partnering with JPMorgan Chase on its blockchain product
Microsoft’s cloud-computing platform, Azure, will make JPMorgan’s platform, called Quorum, available on the software maker’s blockchain service.?The partnership will make it easier for JPMorgan customers, such as Starbucks and Louis Vuitton, to develop more applications for its blockchain network.
It integrates with a rich set of open-source tools while also supporting confidential transactions – something our enterprise customers require.?Blockchain, which is best known as the system for tracking cryptocurrencies, is a fast-growing technology that allows users to create and share transaction records, or ledgers, across different parties.
The transaction data is encrypted and supposedly cannot be easily modified or tampered with, and it is updated constantly in all of the participant’s systems.?The partnership highlights the emergence of an “industry cloud” in the financial-services industry where fintech, or financial technology, also has become an important trend.?
Blockchain will be critical in reducing friction in markets and/or transactions. Obviously financial services has many of these kinds of transactions where a distributed ledger technology can be used to, for example, reduce the amount of time it takes to settle a specific transaction between financial institutions.
