Europe Blog
Our views on the Internet and society
Blogging in Solidarity's shadow
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Three decades ago in Gdansk, Poles rose up and created a marvel - an independent trade union Solidarity that, after a decade of non-violent struggle, threw off the shackles of communism. Today, the country is part of the European Union and has created a vibrant free market democracy - making it a potential leader in pushing Internet freedom. I travelled to Solidarity's birthplace, to give the keynote speech at the largest conference of Polish bloggers,
Blog Forum Gdansk
.
More than 200 young, energetic bloggers (and 120,000 online viewers) assembled in the conference room of the sparkling new
Gdansk Stadium
, constructed for the
Euro 2012 tournament
. In a keynote speech, we outlined the promise and perils of Internet freedom. For me, it was a moving moment - I remember covering the Solidarity revolution in the 1980s as a journalist and I compared how I took notes almost in secret and only could publish my stories after I left the country. Now Tweets and blogs were published direct from the conference room, in real time.
In many ways, Poland should be ripe for Internet freedom to flourish. More than any other Central European country under Soviet rule, Poland resisted and kept the spirit of free discourse alive with a vibrant
samizdat
press. Estonia recently captured first place in
Freedom House's rankings
and has become the poster-child for post-communist freedom fighters. Despite some initiatives supporting an open internet, Poland remains ranked at a distant 17th place.
Why? Our meetings with bloggers and NGOs in both Warsaw and Gdansk illustrated how the power of the Internet to revolutionise free expression is not yet full understood. Many complain about a worrying rise of hate speech. Many politicians are angry about comments posted on the free Internet, and libel and defamation suits proliferate. Some Polish court rulings seem to interpret liability laws in a restrictive way detrimental to Internet platforms, threatening to limit freedom of expression for users.
Our appearance at the Blog Forum Gdansk is just a first step in an effort to encourage change. Over the coming months, we will continue our activities to demonstrate how the Internet provides positive new possibilities for Poles to express themselves.
Posted by William Echikson, Head of Free Expression, Europe, Middle East and Africa
Watch the Hajj from the Grand Mosque of Mecca
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Cross-posted with the Official Google Blog
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Tomorrow marks the start of the observance of Eid El Adha, celebrated by the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims. As part of this holiday, nearly 2.5 million Muslims will participate in the world’s largest pilgrimage to perform the ritual of
Hajj
. This year, millions more from around the world will be able to experience the ritual via the Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information's Y
ouTube channel’s live stream
from
Mecca, Saudi Arabia
.
The Hajj represents one of the five pillars of Islam; it requires all Muslims around the world who are able-bodied and can afford it to perform the pilgrimage once in their lifetime. The pilgrimage occurs from the 8th to 12th day of
Dhu al-Hijjah
, the 12th and last month of the
Islamic calendar
.
This live stream was made possible by our cooperation with the Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information, which also
broadcast Islamic prayers live
from the
Grand Mosque in Mecca
during this year’s Ramadan.
Watch on
www.youtube.com/makkahlive
.
Posted by Abdulrahman Tarabzouni, Head of Emerging Arabia, Google
Sharpening Hungary’s strong math talents
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
As a 15 year old, I entered a math contest run by the math journal
KöMaL
. One problem kept me working through the night, even prompting me to dream about it. Unfortunately, I dreamed up the wrong solution. But the challenge excited me so much that I kept on studying math. Now, I work on search quality for Google, optimizing the functions and algorithms that make our search results as fresh as possible.
My own experience makes me happy to announce that Google is supporting this year’s KöMaL contest. Over the next nine months, students will be tested to solve tough mathematical problems. Winners of the different age categories and difficulty levels will be crowned towards September 2013.
For more than a century, KöMaL has been exciting Hungary’s aspiring mathematicians. A high school teacher called
Dániel Arany
, founded the mathematical journal, aiming aimed to educate high school students by challenging them to solve a series of complex mathematical problems. Almost all most eminent Hungarian mathematicians and physicists were participants in the competition as youngsters, including Pál Erdős, Pál Turán, László Lovász, János Pintz, Imre Bárány, and Vilmos Totik.
I’m looking forward to seeing whose name might be up there next and will report back next year to announce the winner! In the meantime, why not have a go at October’s problem:
Prove that the sum of the squares of seven consecutive integers cannot be a perfect square.*
Find the solution to this and other month’s mathematical problems
here.
Posted by Gábor Fehér, Search Quality Engineer
The facts about our position on French copyright proposals
Thursday, October 18, 2012
There has been some interest around an extract from a note we have prepared about a proposal by French news publishers associations to require search engines to license all of the content that they help users to find across the web.
The web has led to an explosion of content creation, by both professional and citizen journalists. So it's not a secret that we think a law like the one proposed in France and Germany would be very damaging to the internet. We have said so publicly for three years.
In order to shed light on the reasons that lead us to believe that this law is detrimental to French users, innovation on the Internet and ultimately to the news publishers themselves, we decided to post the note in its entirety. We have always been and remain committed to collaborate with French Publishers associations as they experiment and develop sustainable economic models on the Internet.
Posted by Olivier Esper, Director, Public Policy, France
Forging a coalition to protect children
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Across Europe, NGOs, Governments and industry are working together to make the internet a safer place for kids. Together we are raising awareness of the key challenges and building innovative tools to help ensure that parents have control over the content that they - and their families - see online. Signs of our progress were visible when 25 child safety organisations from across 14 European countries recently visited our London office for Google’s first ever European Youth and Tech Summit.
The day’s agenda ranged from product deep-dives, such as a detailed look at YouTube’s reporting mechanisms, to practical tips on how Google can help NGOs improve their online presence. We examined Google’s work in education such as
YouTube for Schools
and the
YouTube Curriculum.
NGOs informed about innovative and inspiring new projects, including
Net Ecoute
and Second Friend, and leading experts such as Janice Richardson (
In Safe
) and Dave Miles (
FOSI
) shared their insights.
We know there’s no easy solution to the question of child safety. All of us are committed to strengthening our safety tools and educational resources. The only chance of reaching our common goal - a safer internet for all - is if we work together. With initiatives such as this Summit, Google is committed to playing our part
Posted by Naomi Gummer, Policy Analyst
Google's data centres: an inside look
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Very few people have stepped inside Google’s data centers, and for good reason: our first priority is the privacy and security of your data, and we go to great lengths to protect it, keeping our sites under close guard. While we’ve shared many of our
designs and best practices
, and we’ve been
publishing our efficiency data since 2008
, only a small set of employees have access to the server floor itself.
Today, for the first time, you can see inside our data centers and pay them a virtual visit. On
Where the Internet lives
, our new site featuring beautiful photographs by
Connie Zhou
, you’ll get a never-before-seen look at the technology, the people and the places that keep Google running. The site is available in
English
,
Italian
,
Spanish
,
French
,
Finnish
, and
Dutch
.
In addition, you can now explore our Lenoir, NC data center at your own pace in Street View. Walk in the
front door
, head up the stairs, turn right at the ping-pong table and head down the hall to the
data center floor
. Or take a stroll around the
exterior
of the facility to see our energy-efficient cooling infrastructure. You can also watch a video tour to learn more about what you're viewing in Street View and see some of our equipment in action.
Finally, we invited author and
WIRED
reporter
Steven Levy
to talk to the architects of our infrastructure and get an unprecedented look at its inner workings. His
new story
is an exploration of the history and evolution of our infrastructure, with a first-time-ever report from the floor of a Google data center.
Fourteen years ago, back when Google was a student research project, Larry and Sergey powered their new search engine using a few cheap, off-the-shelf servers stacked in
creative ways
. We’ve grown a bit since then, and we hope you enjoy this glimpse at what we’ve built. In the coming days we’ll share a series of posts on the
Google Green Blog
that explore some of the photographs in more detail, so stay tuned for more!
Posted by Urs Hölzle, Senior Vice President, Technical Infrastructure
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
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