Europe Blog
Our views on the Internet and society
Curbing patent trolling in Europe
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Last September, we joined a
coalition
of European and U.S. companies and associations in an
open letter
applauding Europe’s move toward a Unitary Patent System. Today, we’re releasing
another letter
with an expanded coalition.
We are participants in and supporters of the European patent system and look forward to its harmonized future. The coalition has proposed some changes to the Unitary Patent System draft rules to help ensure its smooth operation and to curb abuses by the kinds of patent trolls that have plagued the U.S. economy.
Patent trolls
—entities that don’t make anything, instead using
dubious patents
to extort money from companies that do—are placing a huge drag on innovation. In the United States, trolls use the threat of expensive and lengthy litigation to extract settlements, even if their patents wouldn’t hold up in court.
A Unitary Patent System could promote efficiency and long-term competitiveness. But the current draft rules contain certain provisions that trolls could exploit, taking a potentially serious toll on economic growth and innovation in Europe.
For instance, the rules as currently written could allow a troll to block a product from the European market using a patent that later turns out to be invalid. We think that the validity of a patent should be tested before it impacts 500 million European consumers.
The proposals outlined in our coalition letters would build confidence that Europe’s new Unitary Patent System will address the problem of patent trolls, allowing companies to invest in innovation and growth—not frivolous patent litigation.
Posted by Catherine Lacavera, Director of Patent Litigation
Become a cartographer: help us improve Europe's maps
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Maps are no longer static paper records, but living, breathing representations of our world. Places around us are constantly changing — while mountains don’t move, roads are rerouted, homes are built, shops open and close. Many times, the best way to keep Google Maps fresh and up to date is by allowing anyone, anywhere with an Internet connection to contribute to the map using their knowledge of the areas they know best. So we’re delighted that
Google Map Maker
is now available for budding cartographers to edit our maps of Greece, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
With Map Maker, everyone can contribute your local expertise to make an even more comprehensive, useful and interesting map. Begin in your town or village and try adding the outlines or ‘footprints’ of local shops, restaurants and other businesses. Then help enrich the maps of national parks, or add leisure facilities and historic landmarks. If you enjoy the great outdoors, try adding campsites, beautiful beaches or your favorite cycling paths.
Whether you add a biking route through Tallinn or a landmark in Vilnius, each improvement to the map will help locals and tourists alike better understand the area and discover new things to do. Once approved, your contributions will appear on
Google Maps
,
Google Earth
and
Google Maps for mobile
.
The map of Korčula, Croatia, often cited as the birthplace of Marco Polo, before and after Map Maker edits
To get started, visit our
Google Map Maker community forum
and see the
Help Centre
for tips and tricks, or watch mapping in real-time with
Map Maker Pulse
. Happy mapping!
Posted by Nicole Drobeck, Map Maker Community Manager
Settlement with the European Commission
Friday, February 14, 2014
Following three rounds of negotiations and significant concessions, we are glad to have now reached an agreement with the European Commission that addresses its competition concerns.
Commissioner Almunia laid out
the details
of that settlement at a press conference last week, including:
Changes to our AdSense terms to make it even easier for publishers to place ads on their sites from multiple providers;
Changes to our AdWords API terms to make it even easier for software providers to build tools for advertisers to manage campaigns across platforms;
New rules regarding how we will use website content in vertical search services; and
Changes to our UI that will give rival services significant prominence (and valuable screen space) on our search results pages. You can see what this looks like
here
.
In addition, our suggested changes have (unusually) been through two separate “market tests” which enabled the Commission to hear directly from a number of our competitors, as well as third parties. In response to their feedback, we made two rounds of significant further changes to our initial proposals. Today, to ensure that everyone understands the wide-ranging nature of this settlement, we are taking the (again unusual) step of publishing the
full text
of the agreement.
While this process has been challenging, we are pleased to have a resolution of these issues and look forward to a continued focus on providing new generations of great services for our users.
Posted by Kent Walker, Senior Vice-President and General Counsel
Working with Spanish Publishers
Friday, February 14, 2014
The cafe in our Madrid office was full with guests, news publishers, members of the
Spanish Association of Publishers of Periodicals
(AEEPP) who had come to learn about how web tools could boost their businesses. Under a recently signed partnership, we are working designed to "increase visibility" of their publications online and seek sustainable business models in the digital world.
AEPP members attended a workshop at Google's Madrid offices
It's no secret that the news industry has been through a period of upheaval. As our chief economist Hal Varian noted last year in a
speech
at the Perugia Journalism Festival, while the Internet has made distribution much easier and cheaper, it has also increased the supply of news and competition for readers, challenging traditional business models. At the same time, media consultancy
Oliver & Ohlbaum
recently published a
study
showing that the net is powering the rise of exciting new voices and small players. YouTube stars are building fame online before securing a record deal or a film contract. Newshounds now discover, share, and comment on stories on platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
Many win-win ways exist for Google and publishers to join forces in the new digital universe. We drive traffic to publishers - ten billion clicks a month around the globe, offering publishers 100,000 business opportunities per minute. In 2013, our
AdSense
program paid out $9 billion a year to web publishers worldwide. Publishers remain free, with the addition of just a few lines of code, to pull out of Google web search and Google News. Publishers also remain free to determine whether to put their articles discovered through Google search behind a paywall.
We have set up a working group to discuss these new digital solutions with the AEEPP members in Spain. Our joint goal, in the association’s own words, is to find tools that new technologies offer publishers to "increase the monetization of their content, give greater visibility to their websites and strengthen their relationship with their own readers." During the recent workshop at our Madrid office, we demoed Webmaster tools, designed to attract readers. We analysed digital advertising solutions. And we explained our fight against spam.
The AEEPP represents Spain’s small and medium-size publishers. They like how all media are equally likely to appear in Google News. Today, more than 25,000 news organizations across the globe make their content available in Google News and other web search engines. We remain open to work with all publishers, big and small, local and national, to help them manage the transition to the new digital age.
Posted by Fran Ruiz Anton, Senior Public Policy Manager, Madrid
Involving French citizens in the 2014 municipal elections
Thursday, February 13, 2014
In March, French citizens will head to the polls to decide who is best fit to manage their cities. Before they vote, they will engage in a heated debate on issues ranging from housing, to urban planning and local taxes. We believe the Internet can play a central role in facilitating this debate and access to information. This is why we have partnered with France’s public TV network France Televisions - its information website
France TV info
and its regional TV channel
France 3
- to allow French internet users to question candidates via Hangout on Air.
Visit
“Mon Débat 2014”
(My debate 2014) and register for these live debates or organise your own. More than 50 Hangouts are set to take place across the country in the weeks to come. Once they have taken place, the playbacks of the debates will be available to watch.
This week, the two main candidates in the race to become the next mayor of Paris,
+Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet
and
+Anne Hidalgo
, will both answer questions from citizens via Hangout on Air. Sign up now to participate. Below, see an example of an already conducted hangout.
The platform also will serve as a news hub. Users will be able to browse electoral news curated just as the rest of the platform by our partner, France TV info, and discover election search trends to get a sense of what fellow French citizens have on their mind.
Posted by the Election Team, Google France
Participating in Safer Internet Day
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
In time for Safer Internet Day this week, we revamped our
Family Safety Centre
. The new version aims to be a one-stop shop that provides step-by-step instructions for using safety tools built into Google products. We attempt to answer questions about specific topics that are most concerning to parents, such as accessing inappropriate content and meeting strangers online.
Throughout Europe, we promoted Safer Internet Day on Google home pages and our teams got into action. In Spain, for example, we participated in a presentation with local partner Protegeles bringing together kids, parents and teachers. In Israel, the Children’s Rights Committee at the Parliament met with our
Web-Rangers
, to discuss how teenagers can promote online safety.
Here in Brussels, we hosted for lunch in our office with the winners of the European Award for
Best Content for Kids
, a European wide contest highlighting content allowing young people online opportunities to learn, play, discover and invent. Winning entries such as the from the UK (see below) touch important topics like the issue of
cyberbullying
.
European Commissioner Neelie Kroes
received the winners later in the day at the Commission’s Berlaymont headquarters and posted its “Let’s Create a Better Internet Together” video on YouTube.
The Internet and social platforms offer tremendous opportunities for youth: self-expression, civil engagement, and collaboration with communities. At the same time, like any tool, the web can be abused. We are proud to build powerful safety tools into our products, ranging from SafeSearch to Safety Mode. In the end, its up to all of us to stand up for for a safe and secure internet, not just on the annual Safer Internet day - but every day!
Posted by Marco Pancini, Senior Policy Manager, Brussels
Promoting Child Safety in Greece
Friday, February 7, 2014
The play takes place on a farm with many animals who love to surf the Internet. Unfortunately, they soon run into trouble. A naughty pig finds how dangerous it is to reveal personal data online. A shy hen runs encounters difficulties after talking to strangers online. Playful geese learn the importance of cross-checking the reliability of information they find online. Thankfully, a wise owl and the two kids living in the farm always come to the rescue.
In Greece, in collaboration with
Saferinternet
, we took this play called
“The Internet Farm”
on tour through ten cities around the country. In addition to the theater, the program included integrated digital workshops for children and informative sessions for teachers and parents.
The project attracted widespread support. Besides the national Ministry of Education, some 30 local and regional organizations offered their support. They included
Western Greece's Education Directorate
, the
IT teachers Association of Evros
, the
municipality of Chania
, the
Region of Crete
, and the
Church of Kalamata
.
The tour had a strong impact. About 40,000 children and 3,000 parents and teachers attended the play and participated in the activities. Many theaters were fully booked, with some spectators standing or sitting on the steps.
Our hope is that the show’s lessons are carried beyond the theater. Many of the educators who are involved are taking the messages back to their classrooms. So the Internet Farm will live on - and maybe even spawn a sequel.
Posted by Dionisis Kolokotsas, Public Policy Manager, Athens
2014 RISE Awards: Supporting computer science education
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
"We need more kids falling in love with science and math.” Our CEO Larry Page said this at last year's
Google Developers I/O event
, and it's a feeling shared by all of us. We want to inspire young people around the world, and so five years ago we created the
Google RISE (Roots in Science and Engineering) Awards
, which provides funding to organisations around the world that engage girls and underrepresented students in extracurricular computer science programs.
This year, the RISE Awards are providing $1.5 million to 42 organizations in 19 countries that provide students with the resources they need to succeed in the field. Ten winners come from Europe. They range from
Generating Genius
in the U.K. which provides after-school computer science programs and mentoring to prepare high-achieving students from disadvantaged communities for admission into top universities to
Mezon
in Russia, which operates a learning center for educational robotics, developing curriculum for senior school teachers. Visit
our site
for a full list of our RISE Award recipients.
Created in 2007, the Children’s University Foundation has been carrying out educational programs for more than 20,000 children aged 6-13. Click on the photo to learn more about this and other RISE Awardees.
This year we’re also expanding the program with the RISE Partnership Awards. These awards aim to encourage collaboration across organizations in pursuit of a shared goal of increasing global participation in computer science. For example, more than 5,000 girls in sub-Saharan Africa will learn computer science as a result of a partnership between the Harlem based program
ELITE
and the
WAAW Foundation
in Nigeria.
We’re proud to help these organisations inspire the next generation of computer scientists.
Posted by Hai Hong, RISE Program Manager
Inviting you to take a Romanesque journey
Monday, February 3, 2014
More than a millenium before the birth of the European Union, a style of architecture and art spread across the continent. It was called Romanesque and it emerged almost simultaneously in Spain, France, Italy, and Germany with sufficient unity to be considered Europe’s first common international art style.
Celebrating this achievement, our Cultural Institute just has launched launch a new, virtual exhibition, called
“Origins of Romanesque: the Birth of Europe.”
Curated by the
Santa María la Real Foundation
, it presents 26 iconic expressions of Romanesque beauty, explaining their social, political and cultural context. More than 100 guests attended the launch event in Madrid, featuring the president of the Foundation, José María Perez Peridis and the President of National Heritage as speakers.
Monestaries and abbeys led the way in spreading Romanesque constructions. In Spain, Romanesque cathedrals, churches, monasteries, cloisters and chapels mark the famed
Camino de Santiago pilgrammage
route.
Elsewhere in Europe, abbeys in
Fulda,
Lorsch
,
St. Gallen
and
Bobbio
arose in the 11th century and became beacons for the new style, as did Europe’s first universities, beginning with
Bologna
in 1088.
Beside exploring Romanesque buildings, the new online exhibition includes drawings, photographs, films and video about Romanesque Europe.
We hope this present exhibition is only the first of a series, exploring other a series of exhibitions on life and art in Europe from Roman to modern times. Our goal is help everyone learn about and enjoy the beauties from the past.
Posted by Barbara Navarro, Director of Institutional Relations and Public Affairs Google
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Curbing patent trolling in Europe
Become a cartographer: help us improve Europe's maps
Settlement with the European Commission
Working with Spanish Publishers
Involving French citizens in the 2014 municipal el...
Participating in Safer Internet Day
Promoting Child Safety in Greece
2014 RISE Awards: Supporting computer science educ...
Inviting you to take a Romanesque journey
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