Europe Blog
Our views on the Internet and society
Bringing bike directions to more of Europe
Monday, May 27, 2013
Back in 2012, we added
biking directions
to our maps for a number of countries in Europe. It proved to be a popular feature among cycling amateurs and enthusiasts. We're now delighted to announce that we are now enabling biking directions in Google Maps for Germany, France, Poland, Ireland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein.
Like in other countries, we've added information about bike trails, lanes and recommended roads directly to the map. In some countries we’ve worked with partner organisations. In others users have added hundreds of kilometers of biking paths through Google Mapmaker.
How does it work?
I am a big tennis fan, so lets say I live in Hamburg and want to head over from my house in the suburbs to a tournament. I am able to grab my Android phone and ask Google Maps for the directions to the stadium. Google Maps will return a route that avoids busy streets and uses suitable bike paths. Time estimates for the route will be based on a complex set of variables accounting for the type of road, terrain and turns over the course of my ride. I also am able to turn by turn Navigation for my bike. I just plug earphones into my phone, switch over to Navigation and let Google Maps guide me through the city - just as from the car.
Of course, you can also use biking directions for a more challenging trip. As the season of big bike races in Europe has started, why not check what route Google suggests for a historical stage of the Tour de France? Our bicycle route for the classic stage from Biarritz to Bordeaux navigates on 206 beautiful, often car-free kilometers close to the Atlantic Ocean, compared to the rather boring 206 kilometers on the N10/A63 which is suggested for cars.
Regardless of the scope of your trip, roads and paths suitable for a bicycle are available by switching on the
biking directions legend
. This is designed to make it easy to find nearby trails for a recreational ride. Click on the widget at the top right of the map to turn on the "Bicycling” layer.
Suitable roads for riding your bicycle in Dublin, Ireland
One group of people who know where the best cycle paths are cyclists themselves! If you know about a new bike trail, please tell us. Either use the “Report a problem” link at the bottom right of the maps screen or jump into Google MapMaker and add the information to our maps.
A bike path on Google Mapmaker in Poland
We know that many avid cyclists have been awaiting this feature y, so head over to Google Maps and click ‘Get directions’ to try it. Then hop on your bike!
Posted by Kai Hansen, Product Manager, Geo, Zurich
Calling for entries to the EU Hackathon
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
The European Union Hackathon is back. For the third straight year, Google is supporting two days of serious fun in September for programmers to code an application that shines a light on an important policy issue. This year’s theme is privacy - and contestants are being asked to work on products that visualize government government access to citizens’ private communications online.
Entries are now being accepted via this
online application
unti June 15, 2013 at noon CET. Complete information about the event is available on this
website
. Help us spread the word to attract talented applicants, or apply yourself!
The hackathon will take place on September 24th-25th, with programming sessions held in the Google Brussels office.
MEP Petru Luhan
is hosting the event’s awards ceremony on WednesdaySeptember 25th from 16.15 to 18.00 at the European Parliament.
European Commission Vice-President Viviane Reding
is scheduled to join the ceremonies.
In addition to Google’s support, a broad network of civil society groups are working on the event. They include
Access Now
, the
Center for Democracy & Technology
,
Digitale Gesellschaft
, the
European Digital Rights initiative
, the
Electronic Frontier Foundation
, Google, the
Net Users’ Rights Protection Association
, the
Open Knowledge Foundation
,
quintessenz
,
Transparency International
, and
visualizing.org
.
EUHackathon participants will build data visualizations using data sets from network analysis, corporate transparency reports and Freedom of Information Act requests. Greater transparency and awareness are critical to ensuring government surveillance is only used when necessary and proportionate.
Selected applicants will have their travel and accommodation costs covered and the winner or winning team will be awarded EUR5,000, courtesy of our sponsors. Not to forget, there will also be free food and WiFi.
We look forward to seeing you in September.
Posted by Marco Pancini, Senior Policy Manager, Brussels
Celebrating data-driven innovation in Brussels
Monday, April 8, 2013
Update, April 22:
Videos of the innovation forum are now available. Take a look on the European Institute of Innovation and Technology Foundation's
website
or below:
We now create as much information every two days as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003. And this rich flow is destined to accelerate.
McKinsey
projects 40% growth annually in global data generated. To showcase the potential of data for Europe’s economy and society, we recently teamed up with the
European Institute of Inovation and Technology Foundation
, the
Bavarian Representation to the European Union
and
Euronews
.
The forum,
Data-Driven Innovation: The New Imperative for Growth,
debated how data can improve the delivery of public services, provide accurate healthcare diagnosis, and generate higher business productivity.
Androulla Vassiliou
, European commissioner for education, culture and multilingualism, and
Neelie Kroes
, European commissioner in charge of the digital agenda, both called for unleashing a Big Data revolution in Europe. "This is the new frontier of the information age," Vassiliou said. "In the current path to stimulate European growth and jobs, there has never been a more critical time to harness the potential of data."
Androulla Vassilou
Alfred Spector
Debate Room
Senior representatives of the education, research, policy and business communities presented compelling evidence of how data could address big societal challenges. Computer-powered DNA sequencing open the possibility of accelerating medical diagnoses. Online college courses could revolutionize education. Google's own Vice President for Research
Alfred Spector
showed how we use data for products such as Google Translate.
Data also is powering entrepreneurs. New online business models make sense out of data include social media power startups such as news organiser
Storify
. Its founder
Xavier Damman
explained how established organisations and top politicians such as BBC, the White House or UK Prime Minister David Cameron use his company’s services to share knowledge from different online data sources, including Twitter, Google+, and traditional media websites.
The concluding panel looked at the ethical aspects of collecting, sharing and using data. Among other examples, they discussed how organizations such as
DataKind
are bringing together data scientists and NGOs to address social problems ranging from dirty water to urban sprawl. While speakers stressed that data-driven innovation is not based exclusively on data about people, they acknowledge, that all data regardless the source and type requires making tough ethical choices.
The Innovation Forum aims to inject data-driven innovation on the Brussels policy agenda. As well as focusing on privacy and data protection, we also need to encourage the unprecedented economic potential of data.
Posted by Sylwia Giepmans-Stepien, Public Policy and Government Relations Analyst, Brussels
Final call for summer policy fellowship applications
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
This Friday is the last day to apply for the 2013
Google Policy Fellowship
-- all applications must be submitted by March 15, 2013 at midnight Pacific Standard Time. Please visit the
website
for application and program details. Available positions in Europe and Africa were described in this previous
blogpost
.
The Google Policy Fellowship supports students and organizations working on the critical technology policy issues of our time. Fellows will have the opportunity to work at public interest organizations at the forefront of debates on broadband and access policy, content regulation, copyright and trademark reform, consumer privacy, open government, and more. The Google Policy Fellowship is open to students of all levels and disciplines.
Good luck on your application!
Posted by Kate Sheerin, Policy Analyst
Judging freedom of expression at Europe’s highest court
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Today, the
Court of Justice of the European Union
in Luxembourg will hear arguments in a case that aims to determine whether search engines can be ordered to block search results that link to valid, legal content on Spanish newspaper and government websites.
Over the years, we have consistently stood up for the principle that where legal online content is concerned, only the publisher of that content can make the decision, or be ordered, to remove content from the web.
In the case before the CJEU today - one that is representative of around 180 similar Spanish cases - Google declined to comply with an order from the Spanish Data Protection Authority. We were asked to remove links from our search results that point to a legal notice published in a newspaper. The notice, announcing houses being auctioned off as part of a legal proceeding, is required under Spanish law and includes factually correct information that is still publicly available on the newspaper’s website.
There are clear societal reasons why this kind of information should be publicly available. People shouldn't be prevented from learning that a politician was convicted of taking a bribe, or that a doctor was convicted of malpractice. The substantive question before the Court today is whether search engines should be obliged to remove links to valid legal material that still exists online.
We believe the answer to that question is "no". Search engines point to information that is published online - and in this case to information that had to be made public, by law. In our view, only the original publisher can take the the decision to remove such content. Once removed from the source webpage, content will disappear from a search engine's index.
Of course, there will also be times when information is published online that is subsequently found by a court to be incorrect, defamatory or otherwise illegal. Such content can be removed from the source website and from search engines. But search engines should not be subject to censorship of legitimate content for the sake of privacy - or for any other reason.
Posted by William Echikson, Head of Free Expression, EMEA, Google
Editor's note: 10:00 CET, minor edits made to better reflect the facts of the case.
Apply for a 2013 Google Policy Fellowship
Monday, February 18, 2013
The Internet policy world is ripe with fascinating issues. From cybercrime to government surveillance and security, to public procurement, trade and open access to information, there has never been a more exciting time to get involved.
We’re excited to launch the 6th summer of the
Google Policy Fellowship,
including, for the first time, opportunities to work with organizations from Africa and Europe, in addition to ones in Latin America, U.S. and Canada. Applications are open today, and students of all levels and disciplines are welcome to apply before March 15, 2013.
Fellows will spend ten weeks this summer working on a broad portfolio of topics at a diverse set of organizations in Europe and Africa, including:
Africa
ILab Africa
Kofi Annan Centre for Excellence in IT
Europe
Bruegel
ECIPE (European Centre for International Political Economy)
OpenForum Europe
The Lisbon Council
The full list of internships, including ones in the U.S., Canada and Latin America, is found
here
. Additional details about the program and application process are available on the
Google Public Policy Fellowship website
.
Posted by Nicklas Lundblad, Director, Public Policy
Interact with Nobel Prize winners via Google+ and YouTube
Friday, December 7, 2012
Every year since 1901 the
Nobel Prize
has been awarded for world achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and for peace. This year, The
Nobel Foundation
has teamed up with Google to livestream some of the key events during the
Nobel week on YouTube
, including the Nobel Lectures by the prize winners in Stockholm, December 7-8 and the Nobel Prize Award Ceremonies in Oslo, December 10.
The
Nobel Week Dialogue
will also be covered live. This is a full day of panel discussions and seminars with Nobel laureates, members of Barack Obama’s administration and other prominent politicians and authors. You can participate by submitting questions through
Google Moderator
and these will be addressed by Nobel Laureates during live streamed lectures. Throughout the week, the Nobel Foundation will actively engage on
google.com/+NobelPrize
and organize a panel debate through
Hangouts On Air
, December 9.
Finally, if you’re one of the 500 million people that live in the EU, this year’s Peace Prize lecture and award ceremony may be of particular interest to you, as the
European Union won it
.
Tune in at 12:50 CET
on Monday 10th December to learn more!
Posted by Emma Stjernlöf, Communications Manager, Google Nordics
Small businesses: Europe's economic engine
Friday, November 23, 2012
If Europe is to power its way to economic recovery, small and medium enterprises, which
create two out of three private sector jobs
, are likely to provide the necessary acceleration.
In recent months, we’ve been working to highlight how these same SMEs are taking advantage of the Internet to attract new customers, grow market share and go global. The
euronews Business Awards
competition asked SMEs to explain how they “shine online”, and attracted video entries from seven countries.
The winners - chosen by a jury and public vote - will receive their prizes at a reception at Google’s Brussels office on Thursday 29th November between 18:00 and 20:00.
If you’d like to join us in raising a glass to their success, please register here
.
Centercourt
, from Germany, started in a bedroom and is now one of the biggest online tennis shops.
MyDestination
, started in the UK, now provides local insider knowledge about hundreds of destinations around the world. And
Orientalmente
, a Spanish language school specialised in teaching Chinese, has just started out - and is growing fast online.
In Cyprus recently, our Greek country manager Stefanos Loukakos spoke at the European Commission’s first
SME Assembly
. He highlighted how the Internet is helping small Greek businesses in straightened times. As a company that started only 14 years ago in a garage, we know how small companies can become big ones. “The Internet enables the SMEs of today to become the multinationals of tomorrow,” Loukakos argued in his speech. The Commission highlighted the comment as one of its
top quotes of the day
.
Posted by Angela Steen, Senior Policy Analyst, Google Brussels
Marking the fall of the Iron Curtain
Thursday, November 8, 2012
There are certain events in history that are momentous enough to make you remember where you were at the time. This Friday is the 23rd anniversary of one of those moments—the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989.
To mark this turning point in history, we’re releasing a collection of online exhibitions under the theme of
The Fall of the Iron Curtain
. Partners, including The DDR Museum in Berlin, Polish History Museum, Romanian broadcaster TVR and Getty Images, have created 13 exhibitions containing
documents
,
videos
and
photos
telling the stories behind how events unfolded.
Independent historians have also contributed their expertise. For example, Niall Ferguson, professor of history at Harvard University, provides video commentary on events as part of his exhibition
The Fall of the Wall: Revelation, not Revolution
.
Some of the other exhibitions include:
Solidarity & the fall of The Iron Curtain
- the creation and evolution of the Solidarity trade union leading to Lech Walesa's election as President of Poland in 1990
Visions of Division
- Professor Patrick Major, a specialist in Cold War history, gives an account of life in a divided Germany and the everyday human cost of the Wall
Years of change
- diary of a fictitious author documenting events in Berlin such as the staged elections, the first protests and David Hasselhoff's concert at the wall
The Berlin Job
- a personal account of life in East Berlin made by independent curator Peter Millar, one of the only non-German correspondents in East Berlin in the 1980s
Romanian Revolution
- a series of four exhibitions containing more than 50 videos documenting the live TV transmission of the overthrow of Romanian dictator Ceausescu
The Fall of the Iron Curtain
is the latest chapter in the work of the Google Cultural Institute, following the launch last month of
42 online historical exhibitions
telling the stories behind major events of the last century. You can explore all the exhibitions on
www.google.com/culturalinstitute
and follow us on
our Google+ page
.
If you’re a partner interested in working with the Google Cultural Institute to turn your archives into online exhibitions, we’d love to hear from you—please fill out this
form
.
Posted by Mark Yoshitake, Google Cultural Institute
Slovakia’s Online Opportunity
Monday, October 15, 2012
The Internet is a motor for economic growth, particularly in times of financial crisis. In Slovakia, a new Boston Consulting Group report entitled
"Slovakia’s Online Opportunity"
reveals that the Internet is already making a big contribution to the economy and to employment - and that the country has the potential to become an Internet powerhouse in coming years.
In 2011, BCG says, the Internet contributed EUR 2.3 billion to the Slovak economy (equivalent to 3.3% of GDP) - which makes the Internet a bigger contributor to GDP than traditional sectors such as telecoms and banking. Internet-using businesses provided around 30,000 jobs (approximately 2.3% of overall Slovak employment).
Looking ahead to 2016, the net’s impact is expected to grow by 12% - one of the fastest growth rates of any country surveyed by BCG - reaching 4% of Slovak GDP by 2016. As a small, open economy, Slovakia is dependent on exports for growth. BCG says that because the Internet allows exporters to promote themselves more easily around the world, it could be a game-changer for Slovakian companies, and that exports will account for around 30% of the Internet’s enlarged contribution to Slovak GDP by 2016
More than 100 guests gathered in Bratislava recently for the study’s launch and a debate on the importance of the Internet to Slovakia’s economy. The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Director of Research at the National Bank of Slovakia, and the Deputy Finance Minister Pellegrini all participated in the debate, along with well-known business leader
Peter Littmann
, CEO of Brandinsider.
Minister Pellegrini confirmed that stimulating the Internet economy and encouraging innovation are a key part of his Government’s policies for the coming years - and announced that he is creating a new Digital Champion Advisory Committee to help develop Slovakia’s Internet economy. The group will bring together politicians, SMEs and Internet companies - and he extended an invitation to Google to be one of the founding members.
We warmly accepted the invitation and we look forward to helping Slovakia take advantage of it’s “Online Opportunity”.
Posted by Ondrej Socuvka, Public Policy and Government Affairs Manager, Slovakia
Debating the future of Europe’s Single Market
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
“Europe wake up! We will only return to growth and prosperity if we complete the Single Market.”
This motion will be
debated tonight at 19:00 CET
, live via Google+ Hangout on Air and on YouTube.
European Commissioner
Michel Barnier
will open the debate. Four EU experts - from the left and the right of the political spectrum and each with an axe to grind - will argue for and against the motion. Via Google+ Hangouts, the experts will cross-examine witnesses - including
journalists
,
academics
,
economists
and
entrepreneurs
from Ireland, Poland, Germany, France and Greece - to convince you they’re right. Veteran journalist and broadcaster
Christine Ockrent
will moderate.
The debate takes place just a few days before the EU marks the
Single Market’s 20th anniversary
. When it was launched in 1992, the Commission’s bold attempt to construct a seamless, truly tariff-free, pan-European market stimulated a wave of ‘Europtimism’. Now, with Europe facing challenging economic times, the Single Market’s importance to Europe is being re-examined.
You can have your say by voting on the motion - both before and after the debate - via
youtube.com/versusdebates
.
You can also join the discussion by adding your comments and questions to the
+Versus Google+ page
during the debate. The best questions, as decided by the debate organiser, Intelligence Squared, will be put to the panel, live on air.
Posted by Al Verney, Senior Communications Manager, Google
European Commission President Barroso speaks out
Saturday, September 22, 2012
An Irish homeowner asked what could be done to help him deal with his unsustainable mortgage. “What’s next for my country?” wondered a Greek worker. The Italian head of the Europe Youth Forum inquired about solutions to the continent’s high youth unemployment.
The questions were directed via Google+ Hangout to European Commission President
José Manuel Barroso
.
Aired live throughout Europe on Euronews, the interactive interview featured Europeans asking, often plaintively, about the continent’s economic and political crisis and its future. Take a look below on the European Commission’s
EUTube
to see how the president answered.
A full transcript is available here on the
European Commission website
.
Posted by Al Verney, Senior Manager, Communications and Public Affairs, Brussels
Does your business shine online?
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
If you are a butcher, sweet shop, clog seller, or baby clothes retailer - or any other small business - that has moved online, enter the
euronews Business Awards
. Broadcaster
euronews
and Google are looking for stories of how European small to medium sized enterprises are using the internet to successfully attract new customers, grow market share or go global.
Here’s how to enter. Film a video of up to one minute explaining how your business has moved online. Upload it to euronews Business Awards YouTube channel and choose one of the three categories: growing online, going international; or women in business.
Don’t worry, you don’t need to be a budding film director. We are not looking for beautifully shot videos using the latest in film technology and an array of props. A simple, homemade film shot with a simple, off-the-shelf video camera or even a mobile phone will be fine. The most important thing is to tell an interesting tale about a small business and the Internet. Any employee of the business is welcome to participate.
Winners will be announced during the European Commission’s
SME Week
in mid-October. They will be featured on euronews and win an all-expenses-paid trip to a prize-giving event in Brussels, a Galaxy Nexus phone, a Chromebook and online training from Google experts.
We’ve long believed that the Internet helps create innovative new small businesses - and that small businesses that go online, grow faster, export more and create more jobs than their offline competitors. A recent study coming out of Germany from the
IW Cologne
consultants
found
that German entrepreneurs have founded 28,000 new businesses over the past five years using online services from Google and other web companies. These new businesses have created nearly 100,000 new jobs and in 2010 generated EUR 8.6 billion in sales.
Help us illustrate these numbers by sharing some great stories of European businesses that are shining online.
Posted by Evelyn O’Keeffe, Small Business Marketing
Ask President Barroso your question on the State of the Union
Friday, September 7, 2012
How will Europe get out of the economic crisis? Will the European Union - and its currency - remain intact? What’s the plan to get young people out of unemployment? These are some of the key questions that
José Manuel Barroso
, President of the European Commission, is likely to address in his State of the Union speech on 12th September.
But if you had the chance, what would you ask him?
On Wednesday 19th September at 19:00 CET, you’ll have that chance. President Barroso will answer your questions in a special, live Euronews / Google+ Hangout interview. Starting today and up to Tuesday 18th September at midday, you can submit your video and text questions - and vote for your favourites - via
youtube.com/eutube
. Euronews will select several top-voted questioners to join President Barroso in the Google+ Hangout and ask him their questions in person.
Video questions are preferred (though text questions are fine too) and they should be about 20 seconds long - further tips on how to make and submit questions are available
here
.
If you need ideas, you can also watch President Barroso’s State of the Union address live on Wednesday 12th September at 9am CET via the
Commission’s website
or you could join the discussion on
Google+
.
The interview will be broadcast live on 19th September on the Euronews cable network and
website
,
on EUtube
, on the Commission’s
Google+ page
, on
Europe by Satellite
, and the
President's website
.
Posted by Al Verney, Communications Manager, Google Brussels
Updating Google's voice in Europe
Monday, August 20, 2012
Today, this blog is making a small but significant change to its name. The Google European Public Policy Blog is becoming the Google Europe Blog.
When we first launched this blog four years ago, the idea was to focus on Brussels-based European Union policy issues. Our horizons and subject matter have since expanded. Instead of dealing just with policy we began blogging on the revival of Internet history projects, free expression, cultural and economic outreach, and other Google and YouTube activities.
We publish on average three posts weekly, with readership averaging around 60,000 a week. Initially, most of our readers came from the United States. Today we have fast-growing numbers of readers in the UK, France, Belgium and Germany.
Our goal has become become a one-shot destination of choice for Google in Europe. The new Google Europe Blog name reflects this ambition.
Posted by William Echikson, External Relations
Improving Google Patents with the European Patent Office
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Cross-posted from the
Google Research Blog
At Google, we're constantly trying to make important collections of information more useful to the world. Since 2006, we’ve let people discover, search, and read United States patents online. Starting this week, you can do the same for the millions of ideas that have been submitted to the European Patent Office, such as
this one
.
Typically, patents are granted only if an invention is new and not obvious. To explain why an invention is new, inventors will usually cite prior art such as earlier patent applications or journal articles. Determining the novelty of a patent can be difficult, requiring a laborious search through many sources, and so we’ve built a Prior Art Finder to make this process easier. With a single click, it searches multiple sources for related content that existed at the time the patent was filed.
Patent pages now feature a “Find prior art” button that instantly pulls together information relevant to the patent application.
The Prior Art Finder identifies key phrases from the text of the patent, combines them into a search query, and displays relevant results from Google Patents, Google Scholar, Google Books, and the rest of the web. You’ll start to see the blue “Find prior art” button on individual patent pages starting today.
Our hope is that this tool will give patent searchers another way to discover information relevant to a patent application, supplementing the search techniques they use today. We’ll be refining and extending the Prior Art Finder as we develop a better understanding of how to analyze patent claims and how to integrate the results into the workflow of patent searchers.
These are small steps toward making this collection of important but complex documents better understood. Sometimes language can be a barrier to understanding, which is why earlier this year we
released an update to Google Translate
that incorporates the European Patent Office’s parallel patent texts, allowing the EPO to provide translation between English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Swedish, with more languages scheduled for the future. Details are
here
.
And with the help of the United States Patent & Trademark Office, we’ve continued to add to
our repository of USPTO bulk data
, making it easier for researchers and law firms to analyze the entire corpus of US patents. More to come!
Posted by Jon Orwant, Engineering Manager
Compete in the EUhackathon
Monday, March 19, 2012
Have you ever had an amazing idea for improving the experience of children on the Internet? Or perhaps you’ve wondered why a tool or platform for harnessing the limitless creativity of young people didn’t already exist?
Then you should apply to participate in this year’s
EUhackatho
n. The Hack4Kids event will be the second
hackathon
organised with the European Union institutions in Brussels and will take place on June 20 and 21, 2012 in Brussels.
Developers are invited to apply in one of two tracks: Child Safety or Child Creativity. The Child Safety Track focuses on building or improving tools that allow children, their parents and teachers enjoy a better Internet experience. Areas for focus include improved reporting mechanisms around cyberbullying, age verification tools and facilitating responsible web surfing.
The Child Creativity Track invites coders to create a tool or platform that enables children to create new online content such as a website, game, or video to be shared. Our ultimate goal is to unlock young people’s creativity.
Last year’s event
was a major success with hackers from across Europe developing tools to help measure network speeds and to improve global transparency tracking. You can check out last year’s winners of the transparency track’s game,
Beat the Censor
and
Internet Performance Analysis
.
Applications
are open until 16 April 2012 at noon CET. Good luck!
Posted by Marco Pancini, Senior Policy Manager, Brussels
Translating patents with the European Patent Office
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Last March
, we signed an agreement with the European Patent Office (EPO) to break down linguistic barriers and improve the machine translation of patents. Today, we’ve released an update to our Google Translate system that incorporates the EPO’s parallel patent texts and allows translation between English and French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Swedish.
This improved system is now part of the EPO’s
Espacenet
service, and goes under the name Patent Translate. Espacenet provides free access to millions of patent documents worldwide - and its users can use Patent Translate to read patents from around the world in their own language. Here’s a video that shows how it works:
Using the EPO’s parallel texts, we’ve been able to improve our ability to translate patents, as the following examples show:
Polymerisable ink
Source: une tête d'impression pour diriger une encre polymérisable par rayonnement vers un substrat reçu sur le support
Old translation: a print head to direct a radiation curable ink to a substrate on the support received
New translation: a print head for directing radiation polymerisable ink to a substrate received on the support
Ultrasonic vibration
Source: The crystals supply the required ultrasonic vibration needed to drive both the horn and the attached cutting tip during phacoemulsification and are controlled by the console.
Old translation: I cristalli di fornire la vibrazione necessaria ad ultrasuoni necessari per guidare sia il corno e la punta di sezionamento annesso durante facoemulsificazione e sono controllati dalla console.
New translation: I cristalli forniscono la vibrazione ultrasonica richiesta necessaria per pilotare sia il corno e la punta da taglio allegata durante la facoemulsificazione e sono controllati dalla console.
We share a similar vision to the EPO, that machine translation can help to overcome language barriers - and help to make the information contained in patents universally accessible and useful. Whilst the improved system is pretty good, machine translation is a challenging computer science problem and does not always deliver perfect results. But it can be a very useful way for people to search and read patents that aren’t written in their language.
We’re excited to continue our collaboration with the EPO. We look forward to adding more languages - and showing how this public-private partnership will further improve access to patents for people around the world.
Posted by Jeff Chin, Product Manager, Google Translate
Our thoughts on the right to be forgotten
Thursday, February 16, 2012
One of the most talked about concepts in the European Commission’s new
Data Protection Regulation proposal
is the right to be forgotten. It is, at least in part, a continuation of the rights of access and objection that web users were granted in the 1995 Data Protection Directive. It also goes further, including other concepts that we have already embedded in our
privacy principles and practices
like improved transparency, providing clear information to people and giving them fine-grained privacy choices - including the ability to remove data they uploaded to our services.
Today, more and more people are entrusting their data to online hosting platforms and using social networks and search engines to find information on the Web - and there are no signs of web usage slowing. So it’s vitally important that both those who provide online services and those who use them have a clear understanding of how a concept such as the right to be forgotten might apply.
For providers of online services, we think there are some important distinctions that need to be made between services that host content created by people (such as Facebook and YouTube) and services that point people to content that exists elsewhere (for example, search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo!).
Hosting Platforms:
Users’ Rights
: At the core of the right to be forgotten is the idea that a person using a hosting platform should have full control over, including the ability to delete, data he or she published intentionally. That means that a user should be able to delete an individual post, photo or video that he or she stored with the hosting platform. The user should also be able to delete his or her entire account with a given hosting platform, thereby deleting all the materials he or she had published and which was stored in that account.
Hosting Platforms’ Obligations
: Hosting platforms, for their part, should respect deletion requests made by a user regarding content placed there by that user, and carry them out in a timely way. That does not necessarily mean that deletion should be instantaneous; there are practical reasons why some delay should be permitted, for example to prevent the abusive deletion of content when an account has been compromised. Other limits, including legal or contractual obligations, may also legitimately delay deletion in certain circumstances.
Understanding the practical limits on what hosting platforms can do
: There are practical and legal limits to what can be expected of hosting platforms.
First, it is possible for any material published online to be copied and re-published elsewhere. A hosting platform can and should delete copies of material that they store on behalf of a user upon his or her request, but it cannot be expected to maintain control over other copies of the material published elsewhere online, as these are outside of the control of the hosting platform.
Second, it is important that hosting platforms not be obliged to delete materials when doing so would be likely to undermine the security of the service or allow for fraud.
Third, hosting platforms cannot be expected to delete materials created collaboratively at the unilateral request of a single contributor. Where a clear ownership of a collaborative document has been assigned, responsibility for deletion should lie with that owner. In cases where ownership of a collaborative document is not clear - as in the case of wikis or usenet posts - the questions are more complex, and a clear solution is not currently obvious.
Fourth, in the same way postal services are not expected to monitor what is in the letters they carry, Internet hosting platforms should not be expected to exercise control over materials published by third parties. Fundamental responsibility for information available online must rest with the party that put that particular copy online, rather than with the hosting platform. This is consistent with the premise of existing European law, namely, the eCommerce Directive.
Search engines:
Search engines serve an important function online, and the right to be forgotten should not interfere with their ability to point consumers to information published elsewhere.
For their part, search engines should respect the standard ways in which websites instruct search engines whether to crawl and index particular pages, such as header meta tags and robots.txt files
When, in the course of crawling the web, a search engine discovers that a page or site is no longer available online, it should update its search index to reflect these changes in a timely way.
Search engines should also provide a means for webmasters to accelerate removal of their site from search results. As with hosting platforms, the fundamental responsibility for information available online must rest with the publisher of that information, rather than with a search engine or other similar intermediary.
Ultimately, responsibility for deleting content published online should lie with the person or entity who published it. Host providers store this information on behalf of the content provider and so have no original right to delete the data. Similarly, search engines index any publicly available information to make it searchable. They too have no direct relationship with the original content.
We’re supportive of the principles behind the right to be forgotten - and believe that it’s possible to implement this concept in a way that not only enhances privacy online, but also fosters free expression for all.
Posted by Peter Fleischer, Global Privacy Counsel
More information on our privacy policy changes
Friday, February 3, 2012
Update, Tuesday 28 February, 14:30 CET
: Today we received a letter from the CNIL, and we have responded with
this letter
.
Update, Friday 20 April, 14:15 CEST
: We have now responded to all the
questions from the CNIL
with
this letter
and
this appendix
.
Update, Thursday 21 June, 14:35 CEST
: We have responded to the second set of questions from the CNIL with
this letter
.
Last night we received a letter from the Jacob Kohnstamm, Chairman of the Europe's Article 29 Working Party, asking for additional information about the changes to our privacy policy.
We briefed most of the members of the working party in the weeks leading up to our announcement. None of them expressed substantial concerns at the time, but of course we're happy to speak with any data protection authority that has questions.
We have responded to Mr Kohnstamm with further information, which you can read
here
.
As we’ve said several times over the past week, while our privacy policies will change on 1st March, our commitment to our
privacy principles
is as strong as ever.
Posted by Peter Fleischer, Global Privacy Counsel
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