How Google Maps, Spotify, Shazam and More Work | WSJ Tech Behind

How does Google Maps use satellites, GPS and more to get you from point A to point B? What is the tech that powers Spotify’s recommendation algorithm?
From the unique tech that works in seconds to power tap-to-pay to how Shazam identifies 23,000 songs each minute, WSJ explores the engineering and science of technology that catches our eye.
Chapters:
0:00 Google Maps
9:07 LED wristbands
14:30 Spotify’s algorithm
21:30 Tap-to-Pay
28:18 Noise-canceling headphones
34:33 MSG Sphere
41:30 Shazam
Tech Behind
'The Tech Behind' explores the amazing engineering, computing, science and algorithms that power our favorite tech.
#Tech #Algorithm #WSJ

[@koncinar]

Street view is an insane project. Whoever thought of it is crazy and whoever approved it even more so. Kudos!

[@mohamedfahad2364]

Back when google had ambitions. Now they’re dead walking.

[@daviddanielng]

@@mohamedfahad2364 you can also think of something crazy to do and create it. Google bought these crazy and ambitious projects and improved it. Build your one and sell it to goole to improve.

[@aniketbhanderi5927]

Shazam was way ahead in terms of Engineering when they launched it on nokia phones. Glad they survived and we see it all iPhones nowadays.

[@kiyoponnn]

shazam is so useless it cannot recognise any song i want to know about. in my experience, acr cloud performs so much better

[@Oystein87]

​@@kiyoponnn Finds almost all songs I want. Even really hard ones

[@Oystein87]

iPhones? It's not just on iPhone

[@caty863]

@@Oystein87 yeah. I cringed too. Some people are so deep buried in the apple universe.

[@Oystein87]

@@caty863 So true... I in general avoid Apple. They don't fit my needs and are more locked than better alternatives. And Apple is not really a customer friendly company either.

[@antowane]

Shazam's story is incredible, I did not know it has been around since the early 2000s.

[@Futur3musi3kproducer]

My inner nerd has really been satisfied by learning and understanding how some of the apps actually work. makes one love tech even more.

[@caty863]

I am happily surprised that Shazam started before the era of smartphones; that's impressive. their tech works like magic. I still like to see peoples' jaws drop when I show them I can open my phone and instantly get the scrolling lyrics of the song playing in a bar. I wish all songs on the platform had that feature!

[@facebookreal]

Yeah that's crazy, launched at 2002... way ahead of their time

[@kevin.o]

These Tech Behind series are incredibly well made! WSJ - Please keep up the great work!

[@Rick_Smooth]

I love these type of videos/docs! It's insane how far we've come in the last 20 years. Very informative, I always wondered how apps like Spotify worked.

[@LarryBotzong-hb4qn]

It's absolutely incredible how far The Technology has come.

[@cexeodus]

WSJ Tech Behind is such a great series man plz never cancel this feature

[@pla_yd]

45:05 that picture on the wall is crazy

[@Mesazane]

Crazy? I was crazy once...

[@xyuv6769]

its crazy to have a peek inside the working of these great tech. Loved this vid

[@davidliu8796]

WSJ shd do more of these!

[@theemperor4901]

This is so helpful. Great Informative Video. 👏🏻

[@nyanamdzvt3704]

All I can say is technology is fascinating. Thanks for the vid.

[@decrpt_]

The coffee shop at 45:08 has an interesting taste in interior decoration.

[@PrashantMohta]

Was about to say 😂😂😂

[@mth32871]

Now that was an excellent collection of extraordinarily interesting technologies. Thank you!

[@djp1234]

I remember using Google Earth on my iPhone 4. Then I was blown away by Google Earth VR on PC. But then Google abandoned it, like all of their other projects. Wish they updated it brought it to Oculus Quest and Apple Vision Pro.

[@MarcSpctr]

don't know about the VR, but pretty sure Street Maps as well as Google Earth is still working and being improved.

[@AlphaGeekgirl]

Still use Google Earth all the time

[@caty863]

@@AlphaGeekgirl I think you mean Google Earth Enterprise, the platform that companies could use to host their custom maps.

[@pbase36]

Google Earth is readily available for the Oculus Quest in VR. Not the enterprise version, the regular version.

[@djp1234]

@@pbase36 there is no Google Earth on the Quest store. There is only Google Earth for PCVR, which hasn’t been updated for years.

[@district2d]

Very interesting show !! Great to learn about this products we use everyday.

[@joshhoffman1975]

I cant wait to see the sphere! 😮❤🎉

[@bimobheemo3013]

Sony Ericsson phone used to have TrackID, very similar to Shazam, and it was already there more than a decade ago. It is amazing to witness that now computer can recognize a music from us humming some notes, like Google Assistant does.

[@somaghosh2960]

Quite elaborate discussion. Good documentary, thank you WSJ.

[@Avesevenfold]

This was such a great video, so many things I've been curious about

[@binyamhaile1543]

I do love Spotify more after watching this, specially the color representation. This is good!

[@sujitkumarsingh3200]

Excellent documentary. I appreciate these unsung heroes who work tirelessly to enhance standards of our life. 🙇🏻

[@n6moses]

This video makes me to start using Spotify because i love listening to songs that sounds the same I love that

[@daviddanielng]

just created an account because of DJ. but i cant find it 😢

[@yeffblanco]

Great video, I liked & downloaded. I also appreciate the chapters & transcription.

[@Taesian]

This is great and awesome content! Another AI and infrared that could be useful would be Traffic lights and rerouting traffic patterns

[@AltevBaka]

I can’t believe Spotify is showing us the way their algo works. That’s insanely fascinating

[@user-jd3de8zj4n]

A little guy in your phone does all the work

[@abdellahcodes]

36:26 how wide do you want your lens? YES

[@rohitpillai]

LOVED THIS

[@Repz98]

Tap to pay is nice. Usually you have to stick the card in and then type the code, but with tap you just touch the machine and can even move the card away and back into the wallet, and when it’s in your wallet first then the transaction are confirmed (paid). and you can easiler move on, instead of have to rush putting the card away

[@chethanforyou]

Appreciate this detailed observation

[@code_name_uzi]

But that also means any body with active rfid device can get your money by just sneaking close to your wallet. Unless you have aluminium line wallet in that case u r swfe it doesnot allow waves to pass

[@Netryon]

You have to be surprised with some new service taking over and rendering you bank contactless payment inactive on your smarth phone, but not using a card.

[@gorillashop337]

I love Shazam it’s always among the first downloads every time I change phones that and Pandora music always on the lookout for new bands

[@MarcSpctr]

are you using iPhone ? cause if not then why exactly would you download Shazam, when you can just ask Google Assistant what song it is, and it will give you pretty accurate results, considering it has access to whole KZbin/KZbin Music library. edit: I used to use Shazam but I remember few years ago, you need to play song for it to recognize while Google can find it even with just HUMMING. Maybe now Shazam can do that as well, but at that time only SOUNDCLOUD and Google were capable of it, and SOUNDCLOUD was very bad at it and also it's library was pretty bad. So I started using Google and now just don't need to download any app anymore.

[@truefranck]

For me is Shazam & Spotify 😅

[@metafuel]

This was really interesting. Thank you

[@cosminmorga1331]

Thanks for the video

[@devasish204]

Thank you very much, useful information and also interesting or engaging

[@cameronscott8510]

This was hilarious and informative! Sub just because of this!!

[@nathan6899]

Great video, very interesting 👌🏾

[@evanh1066]

Poppy Crum...could listen to her for hours 😂. Excellent at public speaker / breaking down complex info

[@peterbrendan1583]

I love that Dermot Kennedy was listed in the Spotify part

[@dota2fan670]

shazam coming up before even apps existed is so cool!

[@Skybar23]

One thing I dont get about google maps and something they need to improve is why dont they update speed/red light detection cameras since they can detect changes in road signages, buildings, amd road changes. Surely it cant be a legal thing because apps like Waze have always detected them

[@CharlieBloxham]

Great video. Thanks WSJ. Does anyone know if there are any schools or courses that give people hands on experience with understanding how technology like this works? I’d love to go further into it after this video.

[@poleonpoleon706]

I believe it all starts with learning advanced maths and coding . By learning a coding language such as Python you get to build software applications which are at the heart of the devices we use

[@RommelNunez-oh8ur]

Here is the syllabus for a course I took at Columbia University on Policy for Privacy Tech. The readings prescribed by Professor Cummings were fascinating: rachelcummings.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/IEOR-4575-Syllabus_final.pdf

[@RommelNunez-oh8ur]

If you want to pursue a career in tech like this, you might want to look at enrolling in a coding boot camp or pursuing a masters in electrical engineering/software engineering

[@RommelNunez-oh8ur]

Search up ‘Rachel Cummings, Policy for Privacy Technology Columbia University”. Her syllabus will pop up. I took this course in my last year of college and the readings she shared were very insightful. It changed my perspective on tech policy and how we handle big data!

[@user-ee4do8yc8f]

Good applications, will change life a lot.

[@ArnaudJoakim]

Very interesting! Thanks

[@mr_unsane]

"Trust us bro, we are using your data in a moral way" yeah right

[@user-qi8xm5bw6s]

Заносы лютейшие!) давай больше таких видосов) хочется глянуть как ты играешь с большим баликом)

[@nerd26373]

This ecosystem has persisted throughout the years in a continuous manner. Pretty incredible how much modern technology has improved.

[@DC-lw7dj]

Record migrant intake does reduce standard of living. We are in a GDP per capita recession. There are too many humans for the current infrastructure levels. There is more congestion on our roads, hospital/ambulance wait times have increased, rental vacancy rates are at record lows, rent prices are exorbitant, and house prices are increasing despite interest rate rises. So, yes, the standard of living is drastically declining due to the unsustainably high immigrant intake levels over the last 2 decades (particularly the last 2 years).The migrant intake levels needs to drastically drop.

[@Netryon]

No those be the ones we last meet

[@aniketbhanderi5927]

The idea of Collaborative filtering from Netflix changed whole worlds of recommendations.

[@itsROMPERS...]

My android phones does a "shazam" through Google assistant. I just say, "hey Google, what is this song?", and it answers in a few seconds. So i wonder if they're licensing technology from Shazam, or actually duplicating it. If seems insane to replicate something so complex, but then Apple made it's own map system, so companies definitely do it.

[@MarcSpctr]

I am pretty sure Google made it's own thing. Cause a few years back when I used to use Shazam, it didn't recognize any songs when HUMMING. it needed a song playing to recognise it. At that time only SoundCloud and Google were able to recognize song by just HUMMING. and SoundCloud was pretty bad at it and had very few songs in the library as compared to Google which has the whole of KZbin. I am pretty sure they made their own, cause that was my main reason to shift from Shazam to Google Assistant and now I don't need to download a separate app for this. I just hope they give an option to make a SHORTCUT on my homescreen which will directly start song recognition, instead of needing to start the Assistant and then asking it to recognise a song. edit: just found out you can make a shortcut on homescreen for that.

[@itsROMPERS...]

@@MarcSpctr interesting. So I don't need to download Shazam to get the best, Google is probably as good or better.

[@RixMorales]

I use Google Assistant for every song that I want to get ID'ed. The humming feature is heavensent. I only use Shazam when Google Assistant failed to identify the song (which is a rare occurrence)

[@caty863]

@@MarcSpctr how do you speak to the google assisstant to tell it to search for a song in the club? it's so noisy and you'd look weird to shout to your phone when you are sitting in the cloud. Shazam's interface is much better. I am pretty sure shazam also has access to KZbin songs; the API is free. Besides, does Google Assisstant have the scrolling lyrics feature? that's what I like most about Shazam.

[@manicj369]

@7:52 Did anyone else notice the lady with her phone mount suction cupped onto her navigation screen

[@smrthbeats]

This was interesting.

[@AltevBaka]

I thought the LED wristbands were gonna be some next gen Google Maps tracking 😭

[@ross.neuberth]

I will say, apple pay has been a real lifesaver on occasion. I have forgotten my wallet but never my phone. Overall I really enjoyed this episode. Thanks.

[@VazerOG]

Y'all should do a story on why Walmart refuses to adopt tap-to-pay...

[@Oystein87]

Nice to have explained why ANC ruins my music experience. I rather have good passive noise cancelation

[@YasinHasan]

google maps is just an incredible piece of technology

[@donlean2164]

The spotify dj feature was pretty cool at first until it kept repeating songs

[@HobbyGamesTeam]

Good material, but it's hard to watch because of bad montage May you please add some extra seconds when you change topics? Hard enough to be switched from one theme to another with no pause

[@roberttaylor9259]

Problem with tap to pay is it's half the time faster the other half the machine freaks out for twice as long as the other choices.

[@rstudio2618]

Soo... this Spotify, algo has an API? So potentially, the sonic char's and temp structure... for latest songs = could predict next big hit? (with a little Ai too)

[@markovo.trails]

Me: I want Adam Savage. Mom: We have Adam Savage at home. Adam Savage at home: 2:33

[@albertplumer]

Map info , do the origin of info, gathered, is it paid for?ok Why or how can the spotify lists off? Choose what i want.

[@AnyBodyWannaPeanut]

7:52 What kind of person sticks the suction cup phone holder to the screen???

[@od7763]

Google should use drones for capturing images, def cheap in power etc, compared to their alternatives.

[@BirthrightGaming]

Man these videos are cool and knowledgeable but I wish they went more in depth

[@luisescamadonhamue4117]

In a few months you will come to Mozambique to see my business. Praise God!

[@celtic2000]

Images from drones, the future?

[@ninjanerdstudent6937]

Spotify still does not give me relevant music recommendations. I even manually entered my entire music collection into it, liked all the songs, and it still does not know how to give me new songs that I will actually like. KZbin Music, on the other hand, just knows without me entering my entire music library manually. I discovered so much new music due to KZbin and YT Music.

[@lllllREDACTEDlllll]

Imagine if they had a sphere camera during the D-Day landings...

[@cryptowhore3957]

So the majority of us say have kids and have invested in Crypto. We’re possibly not that well invested and the price you ask for the FFA is more than say what people have invested. You spoke of an investment/trading opportunity which can only be viewed being a member on the inside. So how about next time revel it on your channel and then the gains could be used to invest in your company to start things off. I don’t trade or want to get my head around it, I’m just investing and watching. What you think BTC will do. Also thank you Steve and if I’ve offended you I apologise, it’s just a thought for myself and what possibly other might be in. Thank you

[@undertow2142]

How about just not making my destination address disappear when I get close to it. Then I have to enter it again when I’m trying to narrow down to the exact driveway.

[@user-ig5cb9uu9x]

📍Bauer College of Business 📍Lundquist College of Business 📍Alvarez College of Business 📍Katz College of Business 📍Mendoza College of Business 📍Jones College of Business

[@RyeonLok]

Sometimes when we are too nerd we forgot other basic attributes such as family

[@vithukichodhan5874]

I am speechless 😮😮and not now at 92 years of age !!

[@EASMEDIA]

the shazam guy's right nostril is huuuuuge.. wonder what kind of activities he does on the weekend ❄❄🤣🤣

[@doug774]

US was slow to adopt tap to pay because of tipping culture

[@l1982echarg]

14:19 River Plate ⚪🔴⚪🇦🇷

[@M0DB0Y]

It will get rejected at 60k and bottom around 43k. Smart money is always smart. If we want 350k+ we have to short until retail starts buying. That will be around 43k

[@samalias6784]

Nio is the Apple of EV❤❤❤

[@nishant479]

they did not discuss any technology in google map's case that how algorithm works and sort the results for users.

[@louiesim7827]

What happen to terra vision?

[@adityathota5158]

22:02

[@AnDy-of3mj]

Seem like a Native advert for several tech companies. I wonder if WSJ was paid for these "Stories"

[@MDUBZ]

16k rez so four TVs in the sphere.

[@justn1n]

Middle 45:08 AYO

[@user-ig5cb9uu9x]

📍Mays College of Business 📍Rawls College of Business 📍Price College of Business 📍Leeds College of Business

[@albertplumer]

Map info , do the origin of info gathered, is it paid for?

[@rnts08]

If the service is free your information is the product that's being sold.

[@RixMorales]

I don't think tap to pay is more secure than inserting your card into a POS machine, where you have added security by inputting your PIN code. Whereas in tap to pay, anyone with a card reader could just put it near your bag or wallet that don't have RFID blocker and they could get your money without you even knowing it because tap to pay doesn't have any layer of protection itself

[@smc1377]

I don't think you understood the explanation. They didn't do that great of a job explaining either though. It's true that some of the information is unprotected and any reader can read the info. But, the card also has an encryption process that sends a very unique code that goes along with that data, and if that data string is wrong, the transaction is declined. This string of encrypted data is different with every transaction, so even if you were able to read the data string, it's useless cause it's a one-time use string of data. Whereas your PIN is the same for every transaction. All someone has to do is watch or record you entering your PIN and they now can use the same code to access your account multiple times. With tap to pay, even if you could record that encrypted key, it's a one-time use PIN, if you may, that will never work again.

[@Netryon]

Probably don't need it anymore if haven't turned out to be your java spring occupation.

[@gerardolopez9368]

Bro is going to hit a million followers before they show the footage 😅

[@auro1986]

how? advanced technology

[@ItsMauriceMoReece]

Google maps rocks

[@noadsplease2737]

“AirPods Pro…” while showing a pair of AirPods 3

[@devasish204]

the big question still remains, why things work the way it works? want to meet the Creator or the God who made all this work

[@mikeames8339]

Somewhere a nursing home is missing a resident.

[@youxkio]

However, it has a little BS on it. I have been a ferry commuter riding a scooter (the ferry carries scooters also) for six years. Always sharing location. Google never added the use of ferries for motorcycles and scooters in its suggested directions for a destination that could be faster and cheaper.

[@baronvonlimbourgh1716]

We trully live in the dystopian timeline..

[@Waltaere]

WSJ 😃

[@budgetking2591]

always preferd the nokia mapps app over the google maps app.