Europe Blog
Our views on the Internet and society
Driving Europe’s digital road to economic growth
Friday, May 23, 2014
For the past few years, Europe’s financial crisis has dominated economic debate. The
Lisbon Council
attempted this week to shift the discussion at its Europe 2020 summit to what policies are needed to move beyond the immediate crisis and build the foundation for future prosperity.
Google supports this agenda. We have worked with the Lisbon Council to launch its
Innovation Economics Centre
of excellence committed to shedding light on and providing scientific evidence of the profound impact of the Internet and digital technologies. At the Europe 2020 summit, our European policy head Nicklas Lundblad explained how the Internet represents a core component of any European growth strategy.
Top European officials participated, including
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso
and European Commissioner Neelie Kroes. European startups and innovators including Simon Schaefer, founder and CEO of Germany’s leading startup lab Factory, angel investor Sherry Coutu, and Spotify's Head of Product, Tech, IP and Policy Mark Silverstein urged them to end the continent’s present fragmented regulatory regimes, that forces companies must obtain separate permission to access each of the European Union’s 28 national markets.
At the summit, a new Digital Single Market study
“Productivity and Digitalisation in Europe: Paving the Road to Faster Growth”
was released. Written by Bart van Ark, chief economist of the research association called
The Conference Board
, it argues that Europe’s productivity, which is key to growth,is falling far behind America because it lags in intangible investments (see chart below) and adoption of digital technology across all sectors of the economy. As van Ark stressed “ the potential of digitisation to accelerate growth will come primarily from the use of these technologies by industries in non-ICT sector.” This should be a vision for the next European Commission.
In the addition, Dirk Pilat of the OECD, presented new evidence on contribution of young companies to the economy. 42% of new jobs come from startups and high-growth firms, which shows that policymakers in Europe should focus on enabling entrepreneurship and experimentation, rather than focusing only on SMEs and incumbents.
The event underlined how Europe enjoys a giant opportunity for the Internet to support economic growth and employment in Europe - as well as the risks of Europe being left behind related to lack of the digital single market and global scale, digital skills gap, excessive regulation or risks of emerging digital protectionism in Europe.
Google is committed to doing its part. We’re supporting a range of initiatives that help Europeans -- entrepreneurs, startups, and youth -- tap the potential of the net to start a business, reach global markets, and learn new skills and become employable. In
Germany
, we’re helping the country’s famed exporters find new customers, grow their businesses and maximize their online presence through a suite of digital tools. In
Italy
, we’re bring Italy’s famous artisan producers online. In
Spain
, we’re working with partners to create a 21st century workforce by helping people of all ages acquire new digital skills including coding and computer science. All the efforts are meant to send a single important message: in order to prosper, Europe needs to embrace the internet.
Posted by Sylwia Giepmans-Stepien, Senior Policy Analyst, Brussels
Tennish champ Federer takes to the court with Glass
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Right in time for the
French Tennis Open
, which opens in Paris on May 25, two of the greatest tennis players of all time, Roger Federer and Stefan Edberg, recently took Glass for a swing. It’s safe to say that their combined 23 Grand Slam titles will be the most that ever step foot on Google’s tennis courts at our headquarters in Mountain View.
"It was really fun shooting this video through Glass,” said Roger. “It's not often you get to explore new angles of watching tennis. I hope fans enjoy this new perspective.”
As our Glass Explorer community has grown, we've heard time and time again that Glass is a great companion for sports. Glass has been a hit with several pro athletes from Indiana Pacer
Roy Hibbert
and PGA player
Billy Horschel
. Take a look and swing away.
Posted by Chelsea Maughan, Communications Manager
GEN 2014: challenging journalism’s status quo
Monday, May 19, 2014
The countdown has begun. The
Global Editors Network
has announced its shortlist of 75 finalists for the
Data Journalism Awards
, supported by Google and the Knight Foundation. Winners will be named at GEN’s upcoming summit in Barcelona on June 12.
The young field of data journalism--analyzing large datasets to unearth news stories and information--is growing tremendously. The 2014 Data Journalism Awards received a record 520 submissions, 200 more than last year. A total of 65 countries were represented. While some newsrooms around have installed dedicated specialists to focus on reporting based on data, Mirko Lorenz, Director of the 2014 Data Journalism Awards, said solo journalists accounted for the vast majority of submissions. “Journalists are taking it on themselves to use data for projects, for experimentation,” Lorenz said.
GEN champions journalistic innovation, demonstrating how the online world offers great opportunities for the future of journalism. Its summit this year in Barcelona is entitled “Mobile. Video. Data. Challenge the Status Quo.” Sessions and keynotes will revolve around the idea that these three things must be top-of-mind in the modern newsroom.
Speakers
range from the Guardian’s lead digital strategist Wolfgang Blau to Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersch.
This is GEN’s fourth annual summit - take a look below at highlights from last year’s event in Paris.
This year’s summit promises to be three days of hard work and learning - and also a treat. One of the featured speakers will be Ferran Adria, the famed Catalan chef and founder of the restaurant El Bulli. See you in Barcelona.
Posted by Peter Barron, Director, Communications, Europe, Middle East and Africa
Bringing the Father of the Internet to Finland
Thursday, May 15, 2014
Back in the 1970s, Vint Cerf played a decisive role developing what became the backbone of the future Internet - TCP/IP protocol that allowed computers to communicate with each other over an arbitrarily large number of networks. This “father of the Internet” recently visited Finland, home to our EUR850 million data centre in Eastern Finland and addressed an audience of 300 students at the beautiful new
Vellamo Museum
.
Many of our data centres are located in traditional industrial areas where one might not immediately think of being the home for a Google facility. In Finland, the region around our data center is struggling with the decline of its traditional economic motor - the paper industry. In March 2009, we purchased Summa Mill from Finnish paper company Stora Enso and converted the 60 year old paper mill. The first phase of the facility became operational in September 2011 and serves Google users across Europe and around the world.
During the recent event with Vint, the local data center directors Arni Jonsson and Herman Arsaelsson demystified the data center. They talke about how our investment is about more than just bricks, mortar and servers. Its about jobs. In Hamina, we’re providing work for (at peak) approximately 800 engineering and construction workers. In addition, the data center provides full time jobs for people who come from diverse backgrounds and skills. All of our open positions can be found on
Google Jobs page
.
Our economic and academic partners in Finland told about how we are helping the region to fly into the flourishing 21rst century digital economy. In the spring of 2013, we announced a new partnership with
Aalto University
and the regional development agency
Cursor
. With Google's financial support, Aalto University is strengthening the Venture Gym acceleration program around the growing Playa Game Industry Hub, as well as the region's Kaakko 135 travel and tourism initiative.
Vint continued by wowing everyone with a lecture about the past and future of the net. Take a look above at some of the highlights and enjoy a few minutes of news from the north of Europe.
Posted by William Echikson, Head of Community Relations, Europe
Speak and learn new languages with Spell Up
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
As a student growing up in France, I was always looking for ways to improve my English, often with a heavy French-to-English dictionary in tow. Since then, technology has opened up a world of new educational opportunities, from simple searches to
Google Translate
(and our backpacks have gotten a lot lighter). But it can be hard to find time and the means to practice a new language. So when the Web Speech API made it
possible to speak to our phones, tablets and computers
, I got curious about whether this technology could help people learn a language more easily.
That’s the idea behind
Spell Up
, a new word game and Chrome Experiment that helps you improve your English using your voice—and a modern browser, of course. It’s like a virtual spelling bee, with a twist.
We worked with game designers and teachers to make Spell Up both fun and educational. The goal of the game is to correctly spell the words you hear and stack them to build the highest word tower you can—letter by letter, word by word. The higher the tower gets, the more difficult the word challenges: You’ll be asked to pronounce words correctly, solve word jumbles and guess mystery words. You can earn bonuses and coins to level up faster.
Spell Up works best in Chrome on your
computer
and on
Android phones and tablets
. (It also works on iPhones and iPads, but you’ll need to type rather than talk.) Whether you’re just learning English or you’re already a pro,
check it out
! And if you’re a teacher, we encourage you to try it out in your classroom.
Posted by Xavier Barrade, Creative Lead and Polyglot, Creative Lab London
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Driving Europe’s digital road to economic growth
Tennish champ Federer takes to the court with Glass
GEN 2014: challenging journalism’s status quo
Bringing the Father of the Internet to Finland
Speak and learn new languages with Spell Up
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