Europe Blog
Our views on the Internet and society
Google TechTalk: social activism and YouTube
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Every month, YouTube viewers watch four billion hours of video, allowing bloggers, campaigners, vloggers and entertainers ways to reach their audience on an unprecedented scale. Many of the most popular challenge conventional wisdom and shine a spotlight on otherwise forgotten issues. Perhaps the best example is
Kony2012
, shown below, which highlighted the plight of child soldiers in Central Africa. It has recorded more than 93 million views and pressured governments to take action.
Hunter Walk, one of YouTube’s most senior executives, will speak in Brussels this coming Tuesday about YouTube’s emergence as a platform for social good, activism and free expression.
When:
Tuesday, October 16th 2012 @ 18.00
Where:
Google Brussels
, Chaussée D'Etterbeek 180 | 1040 Brussels
Registration:
Please register
here
Need another reason to come?:
Enjoy some Googley refreshments!
About our Tech Talks: Ever wondered how exactly Google is tackling the big technology problems that the online world faces? Want to take a look behind the curtain of our engineering operations and learn from the people who actually work on the Google products and services day-in, day-out? Here's your chance: The Google Brussels TechTalks.
Posted by Angela Steen, Senior Policy Analyst
Sweden's Gazelles go digital
Thursday, October 4, 2012
“Sweden needs constant economic growth, and Swedish businesses and entrepreneurs need inspirational role models”. This is how Dagens Industri, Sweden’s biggest business daily newspaper, explains its annual
Gazelle Award programme
. The Gazelle, which turns 13 this year, is a high profile and prestigious initiative honouring local companies that are growing the fastest and creating the most new jobs.
This year, we’ve partnered with Dagens Industri to take the Gazelle award digital. Companies that use the Internet in an inspiring way, boosting growth or empowering other businesses, now also have a chance for recognition thanks to the new “Digital Gazelle” prize. Regional winners will be announced during the nationwide tour currently underway, with the overall winner being crowned on stage at the 2012 Gazella Gala on December 3rd in Stockholm.
The concept of a business ‘Gazelle’ was first coined by the American researcher David Birch in the 1980s. His work showed it is the small, fastest growing businesses - the “gazelles” - that create most new jobs and growth, unlike the “elephants” who often have to streamline their businesses and reduce employment.
Annually less than 0.5 percent of all Swedish companies are appointed as Gazelles. To achieve this companies must meet tough criteria, including annual turnover exceeding 10 million SEK, and a 3 year track record of strong sales growth, with turnover more than doubling in the past year. It’s no exaggeration to say all Swedish businesses strive to have a Gazelle diploma to hang on their wall.
According to BCG
, the Internet economy already accounts for more than 6.6% of Sweden’s GDP and the web has proven a strong catalyst for business growth. We’re delighted to sponsor this new award to celebrate Sweden’s online successes.
Posted by Emma Stjernlöf, Communications Manager, Nordics
No chillers needed with Irish weather
Monday, October 1, 2012
For once, Ireland’s fickle weather is proving a good thing. Our new data centre in Dublin benefits from an advanced air-cooling system that uses cool Irish air to keep our computers running smoothly - and removes the need for costly and power-hungry chillers.
Located in West Dublin, the new facility has been designed to deliver lightning fast, secure online services - but not at the cost of energy-efficiency. We’re committed to
carbon neutrality
and over the years, have reduced our overall energy requirements to
around 50% of the energy
used by a typical data centre.
As a result, we can now pass on our energy savings to our users - for the same amount of energy a single small business uses to host its email locally,
approximately 80 businesses could be hosted in the cloud
.
Minister Richard Bruton TD, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, visited the €75 million centre last week to officially open the facility. In his speech, he noted how the Irish government is committed to ambitious policies to take advantage of the country’s potential as a centre for cloud computing and the Internet - policies which would “contribute to Ireland’s economic recovery.”
Minister Bruton, TD, and Google's Paul Dunne inspect the air-cooling system
From left to right: Dan Costello, Director of Datacenter Operations, Google and John Herlihy, head of Google Ireland, with Minister Bruton, TD, as he switches on the air-cooling system.
Construction of the new Irish centre took just under one year to complete. More than 1,000 people working for 90 specialist building and engineering companies contributed to the build. In total approximately 400,000 man-hours were dedicated to the project. Google now employs over 2,500 people in Dublin, up from around 2000 people a year ago.
Google owns and operates energy-efficient data centres elsewhere in Europe, including Hamina in Finland and St Ghislain, in Belgium. Details of the locations of our data centres, how they work, their energy performance data, energy efficiency best practices and more can be found on our
data centre website.
Posted by Al Verney, Senior Communications Manager, Google
Estonia earns top e-freedom award
Friday, September 28, 2012
Freedom House
launched its the
2012 Freedom on the Net
report in Brussels this week, an appropriate moment given the rising global debate about free expression sparked by a YouTube video that ridicules Islam. The report makes for chilling reading. Online censorship is growing and attacks on bloggers and online critics are mounting. In 19 out of 47 countries Freedom House examined, “restrictions on Internet freedom in many countries have continued to grow.”
Amid the alarming news, an impressive beacon of freedom stood out - Estonia. The Baltic nation ranked first in Freedom House’s rankings. Thanks to a high internet penetration rate and widespread e-commerce and e-government services embedded into the daily lives of individuals and organizations, Estonia has become a model for free internet access as a development engine for society,” reads the report. Estonia has used the net to solidify its freedom from the Soviet Union and ’as a key to economic growth and invested heavily in their development,” reads the report.
Freedom House ranks countries’ “Internet Freedom Status” in three main ways: obstacles to access, limits on content and violations of users’ rights. It also factors in tertiary factors, including internet penetration and blogger arrests. Estonia got high marks in almost every category. Other top scorers included the United States, Germany, and Australia.
Google helped sponsor the report. We hosted its Washington launch, which featured Estonian President
Toomas Hendrik Ilves
. In Brussels, European Parliamentarian
Marietje Schaake
, the rapporteur on digital freedom, used the occasion to call on Europe to step up its defense of Internet liberties, in particular, by heading off attempts by governments to exert
control
through the
International Telecommunications Union
.
Posted by Posted by William Echikson, Head of Free Expression, Europe, Middle East and Africa
Boosting online child safety in Europe
Friday, September 28, 2012
Just as children need to know how to safely cross the street, they need to learn how to safely surf the web. I just finished a trip in Europe, which underlined the emergence of an inspiring movement bringing together NGOs, governments and private business to raise awareness of online safety and security tools.
The European Commission has been working closely with the
CEO Coalition
on safety solutions and
European Commissioner Neelie Kroe
s has endorsed the project. In Brussels, I participated in the working group focused on providing tools to help parents understand content, sharing best practices taken from YouTube and Google Play.
Across the Channel in London, I attended Vodafone's launch of their brilliant
Digital Parenting magazine
. Chock full of how-tos and expert views from kids and PhDs, the magazine is a fun and informative read. (Tip: use an article as a conversation starter during a school ride or at dinner.)
Our Google UK office hosted the
Family Online Safety Institute’s
roundtable on transatlantic trends in child safety and global implications. The Safety Institute brought together a room full of industry representatives from both sides of the Atlantic to share experiences, set out key priorities, and demonstrate best practices. I heard about campaigns like
AT&T’s “It Can Wait”
and shared our own experiences with
Good to Know
and the new
YouTube child safety curriculum
. We lobbed questions at each other -- how do we make these resources relevant and fun? What can we improve? How can we get youth involved?
After attending three events, it’s clear that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to something as intricate and personal as child safety. As technology forecaster
Paul Saffo
said, “never mistake a clear view for a short distance.” But that gap is closing -- we are coming together to find unique ways to build a better environment for our users. It is heartening to see this level of passion and dedication.
Posted by Katharine Wang, Policy Analyst
Tracking Europe's interest in Red Hot Chili Peppers
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Cross-posted from the
Insights for Search Blog
Since we launched
Google Trends
and
Google Insights for Search
, we’ve seen millions of people using Trends to keep up with trending interests online, and a range of journalists, businesses and researchers around the world using Insights for Search to compare the popularity of search terms over time and across regions. We have made steady
improvements
over time, most recently
revamping our Hot Searches list
to provide richer context for breakout searches.
Now we are merging Insights for Search into Google Trends, wrapping it all up in a clean new interface to give you a clearer view of what’s on the world’s mind.
The new Google Trends
now includes features from both products and makes it easier and more intuitive to dig into the data. We’ve updated the line chart and map using
HTML5 based Google Chart Tools
so you can now load the page on your mobile devices, visualize the results without scrolling, and get Hot Searches not just for the U.S., but also India, Japan, and Singapore.
So, what exactly can you learn about people’s interests from Google Trends? A few of our recent favorites:
[beach] and [snow] are
just about inverse throughout the year
West Virginia leads the US in
searches for spooky things
(play around at the bottom left!)
Interest in [
red hot chili peppers
] shifted around Europe this summer as the band toured there -- see this time-lapse map:
We’ve seen so
many examples
of insights gleaned from Trends, from the
Oscars
to the
Super Bowl
; from
shopping
to
elections
; from our yearly
Google Zeitgeist
summary to the many we’ve found
around the web
.
Google Trends data can be used to better understand global trends -- identifying health trends such as in
flu trends
,
nowcasting in economics
, and studies on the
predictability of search trends
. And it has been used in many
scientific articles
across disciplines.
There’s so much in this data for journalists, academics, and anybody who’s curious about the world to explore, and we’d love to see what you find. Email us your favorites at
trends-stories@google.com
.
Posted by Yossi Matias, Senior Engineering Director in Search, Head of Israel R&D Center
Boosting innovation in Denmark
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
In Denmark, as elsewhere in financially-strapped, slow-growing Europe, the government is looking to digital technology to encourage innovation and boost the economy without extra spending. Danish Minister of Science, Innovation and higher Education,
Morten Østergaard
recently visited Google’s offices in Århus University to discuss how to to spur Internet innovation.
Our lead engineer and one of the key designers of the Google Chrome web browser,
Lars Bak
, also hosted a public debate with the Minister in a crowded auditorium at Århus University. Some 100 students, start-up employees and university staff took part. The debate was also live streamed as a Hangout on Air.
During the Hangout, participants discussed how the Internet already contributes some 5.7% to Danish GDP, a figure that is expected to grow to 7.3% by 2015. Despite this success, participants suggested that Denmark could do even better. Lars Bak started his career in Silicon Valley before returning to Denmark. In California, he told the Minister, failure is an accepted part of the innovation process, whilst in Denmark, it remains hard to get back on your feet for those who fail early on. More generous bankruptcy and venture financing rules would help Denmark reach its full innovation potential, Bak argued.
The Minister soon plans to publish a broad strategy for innovation in Denmark. Lars Bak urged him to use this opportunity to rev up Denmark’s digital engine.
Posted by Martin Ruby, Policy Manager, Denmark
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