Google-PCNE exam contents - Professional Cloud Network Engineer Updated: 2023

Google Cloud said today it’s building on its educational initiative for cloud computing, introducing new skill badges and role-based certifications for individuals seeking a way to demonstrate their expertise with its cloud infrastructure.

In an update today, Google Cloud explained that it has been leading the way in awarding cloud-based learning credentials. To date, individuals have earned more than 1.5 million Google Cloud skill badges that can be used to show off proficiency to potential employers. According to Google, these skills can lead to significant career growth.

The company has now added three new skill badges, bringing its total portfolio to more than 80. The badges cover a range of in-demand topics, including artificial intelligence, big data and security, and the courses that must be taken in order to earn them are now available in 11 languages, with more than 20 offered in French, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish, the company said.

The most popular skills badge at the moment is the Generative AI Fundamentals skill, which was announced in June 2023 and has since become the most rapidly adopted so far, reflecting what Google Cloud said is “tremendous interest” from customers, learners and employers to implement generative AI technologies. The course work was recently made available in Polish and Ukrainian languages.

The new skill badges announced today reflect high demand for skills in areas such as AI, data architectures and cybersecurity. They include the new “Build a Data Mesh with Dataplex” introductory course, “Mitigate Threats and Vulnerabilities with Security Command Center” and “Build Custom Processors with Document AI.”

Whenever someone completes one of the courses and passes the assessments within, Google Cloud will issue them a badge that acts as a verified digital credential, highlighting their proven skills. According to the company, the skills badges can then be shared on social media. They’re often used by recruiters looking to identify suitable talent, it added.

In addition to the skills badges, Google Cloud said, it recently announced a new, lab-based exam as a model for those who want to renew their Associate Cloud Engineer certifications. The lab exam’s hands-on nature is said to provide an effective assessment of user’s ability to apply their skills in real-world scenarios, the company said. Candidates can take the exam whenever they want, from any location.

Eligible candidates for the lab exam will receive an invitation asking them to take it, and will see an additional notification when they log into their Google Cloud Certification Account on the company’s CertMetrics portal. This is a new service that’s said to simplify how users can manage their certifications, providing a one-stop shop for individuals to update their profile information, schedule exams, claim certification benefits such as discounts and view the latest news from Google Cloud.

Last year, Google Cloud commissioned the research firm Gallup Inc. to conduct a survey on the impact of its skill badges. The study found that most skill badge holders feel well-equipped with the skills they have gained through the company’s courses, more confident in their cloud skills, and excited to promote their skills across their professional networks.

A second study, looking at the impact of Google Cloud’s Associate Cloud Engineer certifications, found that 94% of participants believed the renewal experience allowed them to demonstrate their knowledge and experience.

In addition, Google Cloud said a growing number of companies have come to recognize its skill badges and certifications. For instance, Brian DeLarber, the global leader of the Google Business Group at Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp., said his organization uses Google’s skill badges to upskill talent to meet its client’s requirements for AI modernization. “We’ve recently celebrated our employees’ proficiency with Google Cloud products and services, and recognized incremental achievements on their AI/ML learning journey with more than 3,500 Generative AI Skill Badges earned,” he said.

Image: Google Cloud

Google SearchLiaison cleared up a confusing passage in their Helpful Content System guidance that seemingly had the potential to cause inadvertent issues for innocent publishers.

Helpful Content System

Google’s Helpful Content System is based on a machine learning model that uses classifiers to generate a signal that is then used by Google’s ranking system to weed out low quality content.

A classifier is an algorithm in a machine learning model that assigns a label to an input. In the context of the Helpful Content System, the machine learning model is assigning a label to website content, which is turn generates a signal, like a thumbs-down.

That signal is also weighted, which means that a site with just a little unhelpful content gets a smaller thumbs down than a site with a lot of unhelpful content which would get a larger thumbs down.

The Helpful Content System generates a signal, which is one of hundreds or thousands of other signals used to rank a site (like links, relevancy, etc.).

Google Guidance Unintentionally Opaque

Google updated their guidance for the Helpful Content System during the last Helpful Content System in order to help add clarity of what this signal was so that publishers and SEOs could understand why sites lost rankings.

The word “opaque” means something that lacks clarify or transparency. And unfortunately there was one part of that guidance that seemed to be unintentionally opaque and consequently confusing.

This is the passage in question:

“Are you changing the date of pages to make them seem fresh when the content has not substantially changed?”

That passage is aimed at some users who are attempting to game Google’s freshness algorithm by making a relatively trivial change to the content then updating the publication date in order to trick Google into thinking that the old content is a newly published webpage.

But the problem is that many people return to a webpage and make minor changes to content to:

• Fix typos
• Replace or add a word to make it grammatically correct or clearer
• Change words to make the content clearer

There are many legitimate but small changes that many people make to content.

The guidance that seemingly prohibited making small changes that results in date changes created the situation where a small improvement now held the potential to contribute to a negative assessment by the Helpful Content System.

This is exactly the issue flagged on X (formerly Twitter).

Luke Jordan (@lr_jordan) shared their valid concern:

“Google doesn’t understand nuance well enough to make blanket rules

It’s punishing websites for using a ‘last updated’ date for “small” changes

But in gaming, a patch/update could be as simple as an upgrade that cost 5 points now costs 6

And that tiny increase could change a lot about its usefulness

Users will want to know the post is up to date, and therefore relevant, so will refer to date and patch number

A genuinely valuable update might require changing the number 6 to 5, and a patch number from 9.0.1 to 9.0.2.

If the date says the guide was last updated 6 months ago, that makes no sense

Plus the (massively outdated) date shows in Google results, so people would click it far less too, with CTR being another ranking factor

Of course they can just pretend they understand all of this and being super duper helpful will always win!”

Google SearchLiaison responded:

“No, we don’t do this if updates are made to be helpful to people.

Not something we say.

Not in our guidelines.”

SearchLiaison is correct but because of the opacity of that one passage, it does appear to say what Luke Jordan says it means.

Luke followed up with:

“So, to confirm, you know if a single character change to an article is designed to be helpful for people?”

There is one additional post from Luke, accompanied with a screenshot of the passage in the guidance:

“cos it’s literally in your guidelines that you shouldn’t change the date of pages when the content has not substantially changed.”

SearchLiaison responded:

“The context of those question are if your doing something for Google.

If your just changing the date because you think “that’ll make Google think this is fresh,” you’re likely aligning with other behaviors that overall align with signals we use to identify the helpfulness of content.

It’s not just one thing. It’s not direct.

And it’s not an issue if you’re not doing things primarily for Google.”

Aligning With Other Behaviors

What SearchLiaison appears to be saying is that the date change tactic is just one of many tactics that the machine learning model uses to calculate the statistical probability that the webpage is employing SEO tactics for Google instead of doing something to create helpful and useful content.

There’s a thing about statistics where if you use only one metric in isolation the statistical model will make bad decisions.

That’s why in statistical models related to search it’s well documented that using multiple signals together to calculate the statistical probability is more accurate than using just one signal (metric).

If you’re new to this, check out this PDF of a statistical spam identification system that combines multiple features like on-page, off-page and user interaction metrics to arrive at the classification of whether a webpage is spam or not.

Not to put words into SearchLiaison’s response, but it seems they are implying that doing just one thing that’s a possible indicator of unhelpfulness is not enough to brand the webpage as unhelpful when there are no other negative signals in.

Here is what SearchLiaison said:

“If your just changing the date because you think “that’ll make Google think this is fresh,” you’re likely aligning with other behaviors that overall align with signals we use to identify the helpfulness of content.”

It’s good that SearchLiaison clarified this point because I also felt that the passage seemed overly broad and could lead to false positives (when an innocent site is classified as spam).

Featured image by Shutterstock/Merkushev Vasiliy

Google has provided insight into how its algorithms handle recipe website content, responding to a question on X (formerly Twitter) about whether the company prioritizes simpler, more streamlined recipes over those with additional commentary.

The Recipe Debate

Recipe formatting has become a contentious topic in recent years, as some sites have been accused of adding excessive fluff purely as a search engine optimization (SEO) tactic to rank higher in results.

With the recipe space getting more competitive, creators have looked for an edge – some by tapping into SEO techniques while others aim to differentiate through simplicity.

This has put Google in a delicate position. Recipe creators rely heavily on search traffic, but many users prize convenience and get frustrated by lengthy introductions before getting to the ingredients and instructions.

Google’s Nuanced Stance

X user @IntrovertedGeekUK asked Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison:

“Help me understand Danny! RE recipe sites: in theory, the user wants a recipe, and that’s it. No fluff. No tweaks. But will Google really rank (and know how to) a stripped back barebones list of ingredients and method?”

In a series of tweets, Sullivan explained that Google aims to serve diverse preferences, not just the simplest recipes.

Sullivan writes:

“Some people want just a list of ingredients. Some people want recipes from people or places they might recognize. Some people might want a recipe along with some background about the recipe, what it means to the person who is sharing it and so on. All people don’t want the exact same things. Our systems try to show what seems generally helpful.”

However, Sullivan acknowledged complaints that some recipes include excessive commentary before getting to the ingredients and instructions:

Sullivan continues:

“I think that’s something content producers might want to keep in mind. If you want to appeal to that audience, you might want to ensure your recipes are helpful in that way, easy access to the key parts.”

At the same time, he emphasized respecting creators’ preferences in how they present recipes.

Sullivan concludes:

“If someone wants to tell you more about their recipe because they want to, because it’s important to them, because they think that’s useful to them and their readers — that’s up to them. That should be respected.”

What’s “Generally Helpful” Content?

Google relies on advanced artificial intelligence (AI) to determine what constitutes “generally helpful” content to rank.

Algorithms like BERT and MUM incorporate machine learning to parse semantics, understand context and user intent, and overcome challenges like synonyms and sarcasm. This allows Google to match searches with useful results even when queries don’t contain exact keywords.

While recipes represent one content type optimized by these systems, Google also uses AI to understand and serve many other information queries, ranging from lyrics to product specs to coding issues.

Takeaways For Publishers

The exchange provides transparency into Google’s nuanced approach to recipe content, aiming to balance simplicity with author expression.

It underscores the importance of putting users first while avoiding overly formulaic content.

As Google’s systems continue advancing, it remains committed to informing creators on best organic search practices.

Featured Image: ra2 studio/Shutterstock

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 16, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Udemy (Nasdaq: UDMY), a leading online skills marketplace and learning platform, today announced a new partnership with Google Cloud, joining their new Google Cloud Endorsed Content Program. Through this program, Google Cloud will endorse high-quality Udemy content that current and aspiring cloud professionals can trust to learn more about Google Cloud emerging technologies such as generative AI and prepare for future certification exams. This new Google Cloud Endorsed Content adds to a growing portfolio of Google Cloud training available on Udemy. Additionally, select Udemy instructors will be invited to preview new products and features coming to Google Cloud, allowing them to provide learners with fresh, relevant content the moment a new capability becomes available. This supports Udemy’s commitment to ensuring its content is keeping pace with the rate of technology changes in the marketplace. These new courses will be easily identifiable via Google Cloud Endorsed badges and will be featured on Udemy’s dedicated, Google Cloud Endorsement page.

“Today, we’re at the forefront of the next digital revolution, and as a result, there’s a critical need for skilled professionals who are well-versed in tools like Google Cloud to help their organizations modernize and take full advantage of all that AI-powered cloud computing platforms have to offer,” said Greg Brown, President and CEO at Udemy. “We’re thrilled to be partnering with an iconic technology leader that’s been at the cutting edge of innovation for more than two decades, so that together, we can help train the next generation of cloud computing professionals.”

With demand for cloud computing skills on the rise, Udemy currently offers more than 430 dedicated Google Cloud courses with nearly 500,000 enrollments over the past 12 months. Additionally, as it is becoming an increasing priority for organizations and professionals to understand generative AI, Udemy has seen increased interest in the 124 Google Bard courses available on its platform with more than 73,000 course enrollments since its launch in March 2023. Further, in Udemy’s recently published 2024 Global Learning & Skills Trends Report, Google Cloud’s Professional Cloud DevOps Engineer certification was noted as one of the most in-demand technical skills for 2024 with a 1,454% growth in course consumption over the past year alone.

As companies increasingly prioritize adoption of skills-based practices, it is critical that they have access to the freshest content available to support certification preparation so professionals can not only acquire new skills, but also validate them and demonstrate mastery to their employers. Udemy’s learning platform does just that and also recently introduced an Integrated Skills Framework earlier this year which provides organizations with a roadmap to help them understand and more easily navigate the fundamental components of a skills-based approach to learning. This approach, coupled with endorsement by Google Cloud, provides learners and organizations with confidence that they are accessing the most current, high quality Google Cloud certification preparation available.

In the initial phase of the pilot program, Google Cloud will be focused on endorsing generative AI courses––beginning with courses from world-renowned Udemy instructors Jose Portilla and Ranga Karanam––with plans to review and endorse additional content related to Google Cloud certification preparation, data analytics, developer content and infrastructure and networking capabilities in the coming months.

“We are thrilled to announce Google Cloud Learning Services’ collaboration with Udemy to bring learners cutting-edge cloud computing and generative AI courses from industry experts like Jose Portilla and Ranga Karanam,” said Natalie Van Kleef, Head of the Current & Future Technologists organization in Google Cloud Learning Services. “This exciting partnership will empower developers to gain the skills and knowledge they need to become confident in these new technologies as generative AI continues to shape the future of work.”

To learn more about Google Cloud Endorsed Udemy courses, visit: business.udemy.com/google-endorsed-content/.

About Udemy
Udemy (Nasdaq: UDMY) provides flexible and effective skill development and validation to empower organizations and individuals. The Udemy platform offers users thousands of up-to-date courses in dozens of languages, providing learners, real-world expert instructors and enterprises the solutions they need to collaborate, achieve goals and transform lives. Through the Udemy platform and community, millions of learners gain expertise in a wide range of topics, from programming and data science to leadership and team building. Udemy Business enables employers to offer on-demand learning for all employees, immersive learning for tech teams and cohort learning for leaders. Udemy Business customers include Fender®, Glassdoor, On24, The World Bank and Volkswagen. Udemy is headquartered in San Francisco with hubs in Ankara and Istanbul, Türkiye; Austin, Texas; Denver, Colorado; Dublin, Ireland; Melbourne, Australia; and New Delhi, India.

Media Contact:
Ellen D. Kiehl
Director, Corporate Communications
press@udemy.com

Investor Contact:
Dennis Walsh
Vice President, Investor Relations
dennis.walsh@udemy.com

Google's Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, said on X that just because content is old, it doesn't mean that content is unhelpful. He said, "Just because something is older doesn't make it unhelpful."

The question was from Matt Cannat who asked, "Would be good for Google to release guidance for news publishers. There’s no way we can go back in the past and update topical articles — these sites are vastly different than those who are building authority on specific KPs with evergreen posts."

In which Danny Sullivan from Google replied, "If content is written for people first, that's all that needs to be considered (as our guidance says). Just because something is older doesn't make it unhelpful."

This was in reference to my coverage that the helpful content update uses machine learning.

Here are those posts:

We have a lot of old content on the topic of old content here.

Forum discussion at X.

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