Europe Blog
Our views on the Internet and society
A step forward for free expression
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
This morning, the Advocate General at the EU’s Central Court of Justice issued an
important opinion
supporting freedom of expression. In a
case
between Google and the Spanish Data Protection Agency, the Advocate General agreed with us that data protection authorities cannot force search engines to block search results linking to legal content. “Requesting search engine service providers to suppress legitimate and legal information that has entered the public domain would entail an interference with the freedom of expression,” the Advocate General said. “It would amount to censorship.”
This is just an opinion. The full court still has to make a final ruling. Even so, we’re encouraged because the case is key to free expression online. Advocate General Niilo Jääskinen argues publishers are responsible for the information they put online. Search engines have no control over the information posted by others. They just point to it.
Let us be clear: we think it’s important for people to be able to control the information that they post online themselves. If you post something online about yourself, you should have the right to remove it or take it somewhere else. If someone else posts illegal defamatory content about you, we’ll remove it from our index with a legal order.
In this case we’re simply challenging the notion that information that is demonstrably legal - and that continues to be publicly available on the web - can be censored. 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 Internet has allowed unprecedented access to information. In order to achieve all the social, cultural and economic benefits of the Internet, it must be kept free and open.
Posted by William Echikson, Head of Free Expression, Europe, Middle East and Africa
From Sutton Hoo to the soccer pitch: culture with a click
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Museums, libraries and galleries are a tourist staple of the summer holiday season. Often they’re the first place we head to when visiting a new city or town in order to learn about the heritage of that country. Though only a lucky few have the chance to travel to see these treasures first-hand, the Internet is helping to bring access to culture even when you can’t visit in person.
At the
Google Cultural Institute
, we’ve been busy working with our
partners
to add a range of new online exhibitions to our existing collection. With more than 6 million photos, videos and documents, the diversity and range of subject matter is large—a reflection of the fact that culture means different things to different people. What the exhibitions have in common is that they tell stories; objects are one thing but it’s the people and places they link to that make them fascinating.
The British Museum
is the U.K.’s most popular visitor attraction and the 4th most visited museum in the world. It’s well known for housing one of the most spectacular archaeological discoveries ever made—the 1,400 year old Anglo-Saxon burial from Sutton Hoo, untouched until its discovery in 1939. Their online exhibition “
Sutton Hoo: Anglo-Saxon ship burial
” explores the discovery of the ship, featuring videos of the excavation and photos of the
iconic helmet
and a solid gold
belt buckle
. All this tells the story of how the burial and its contents changed our understanding of what Anglo-Saxon society was like.
From archaeology we take you to sport, which is integral to the culture of many nations, including Brazil. In the lead-up to Brazil's hosting of the 2014 World Cup, the
Museu do Futebol
has told the story of how the “beautiful game” came to Brazil. The photos, videos and posters in “
The Game and the People
” track the social impact of the sport and its transition from a past time for the wealthy (with their pleated pants and satin belts) to the modern game.
Science remains a perennially fascinating topic and the
Museo Galileo
in Italy has put together a series of three exhibitions looking at the link between art and science.
The Medici Collections
,
the Lorraine Collections
and the
Library Collections
examine the beginnings of science and technology 500 years ago and chart developments from the discovery of the sun dial to the Google Maps of today. As well as being informative, the exhibitions include beautiful objects such as the
Jovilabe
, which was used to calculate the periods of Jupiter’s moons.
So if broadening your cultural horizons through travel isn’t in the cards this summer, settle down in your armchair and browse through through some of the world’s heritage and history online. Keep up to date with new material on the
Cultural Institute Google+ page
.
Posted by James Davis, program manager, Google Cultural Institute
Answers people want
Monday, June 24, 2013
You expect Google to give you the very best search results. Just the right information, at just the right time, without hassle or cost. We started out by showing you ten blue links. Advances in computer science now let us provide richer and better answers, saving a lot of time and effort. If you search for the “height of the Eiffel Tower”, that’s probably what you want - right there on your screen or mobile phone, not several clicks away. So that’s what we give you. Ask Google for places to eat in New York and we aim to show pictures of restaurants, plus reviews, prices, hours, location, directions, and more. All right there, with no extra effort required.
We’ve been discussing these innovations with the European Commission as they have reviewed our search and advertising business. We know that scrutiny comes along with success, and we have worked hard to answer their questions thoroughly and thoughtfully. When the Commission outlined
four areas
of "preliminary" concern last summer, we submitted
proposals
to address each point in a constructive way. Our proposals are meaningful and comprehensive, providing additional choice and information while also leaving room for future innovation. As we’ve always said, we build Google for users, not websites. And we don’t want to hamper the very innovations that people like best about Google’s services. That’s why we focused on addressing the Commission’s specific concerns, and we think we did a pretty good job.
The Internet is the greatest level playing field ever. More and more, people are voting with their feet (or at least their cursors), getting information from apps, general and specialised search engines, social networks, and a multitude of websites. That free flow of information means that millions of websites (including ours) now compete directly for business, bringing you more information, lower prices, and more choice. We very much appreciate the Commission’s professionalism and integrity throughout this process, and look forward to reaching a sensible solution.
Posted by Kent Walker, Senior Vice President and General Counsel
The Internet and news: disruption or opportunity?
Friday, June 21, 2013
A great deal of debate has erupted about the Internet’s impact on news journalism - will it destroy quality journalism or will new business models emerge to save the industry? We long have argued that experimentation and innovation will help news thrive in the Internet era.
A
report
published this week by the
Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism
shows that consumers are increasingly engaging with news across a range of formats; and that the growth of tablet and mobile devices are having a positive effect on both news consumption and revenues. Google part funded the research.
The report surveyed consumption of news across nine countries. Points of interest include:
The growth of devices. The number of people using tablets to access news has doubled in the last 10 months in the countries covered in both last year’s and this year’s report. As people acquire more devices, they are spending more total time consuming news and accessing news more often throughout the day.
Consumer willingness to pay. In most countries, willingness to pay for news is increasing. In the U.S., smartphone and tablet users are more likely to pay than other online news users. Across countries, 25–34 year olds are the most willing to pay for online news.
The strength of trusted news brands. While behaviour is not uniform across countries, there is strong indication that in the online world, consumers are moving towards brands they trust.
The rise of social media. For younger people, the survey found that social media had become the most prominent method of discovering news content.
The results provide welcome insight into the way access to and consumption of news is changing in the digital era. Google supports the industry’s efforts to experiment and innovate. Through products like
Google Currents
,
Editors’ Picks
, and our range of
advertising tools
, we are working with publishers to increase traffic, engagement and monetization on their sites. We look forward to doing even more to enable the digital transition.
Posted by Simon Morrison, Public Policy and Government Relations Manager, London
“You’ve come a long way, Baby”: recalling a special computer
Friday, June 21, 2013
Sixty-five years ago today, the
Manchester Small Scale Experimental Machine
—nicknamed “Baby”—became the earliest computer in the world to run a program electronically stored in its memory. This was a flagship moment: the first implementation of the
stored program concept
that underpins modern computing.
Earlier computers had their instructions hardwired into their physical design or held externally on
punched paper tape
or
cards
. Reprogramming them to do a different task entailed internal rewiring or altering the physical storage media. The Baby marked a new computing era, described by some as the “
birth of software
,” in which swapping programs was far simpler—requiring only an update to the electronic memory. Both instructions and data were held in the Baby’s memory and the contents could be altered automatically at electronic speeds during the course of computation.
Developed at Manchester University by
“Freddie” Williams
,
Tom Kilburn
and
Geoff Tootill
, in size the Baby was anything but:
more than 5m long and weighing a tonne
(PDF). Its moniker was due to its role as a testbed for the experimental
Williams-Kilburn tube
, a means of storing binary digits (“bits”) using a cathode ray tube. This was a big deal because up until this point, computers had no cost-effective means of storing and flexibly accessing information in electronic form.
In technical terms, the Williams-Kilburn tube was the earliest form of
random access memory
, or RAM. The Baby’s memory consisted of one of these tubes, able to store up to
1,024 bits
—equivalent to just 128 bytes. In contrast, the average computer today has RAM in multiples of gigabytes, more than a billion times bigger.
The Baby was only ever intended to be a proof-of-concept rather than to serve as a useful calculation tool. So once it had shown the new memory was reliable, attention shifted to building a more powerful and practical machine using the same concepts. This resulted in the
Manchester Mark 1
, which in turn was the model for the Ferranti Mark 1, the world’s
first computer to be sold commercially
, in February 1951.
While today nothing remains of the original Baby, a
working replica is on display
at the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in Manchester. It’s well worth a visit to reflect on just how far computing has come.
Posted by Lynette Webb, Senior Manager, External Relations
Boosting Africa’s small businesses
Thursday, June 20, 2013
When Naa Oyoo Quartey used to go to Accra Central Market to get her fill of handmade craft jewellery, she was upset to see the stalls stacked with cheap imported items. She started
Roots by Naa
, a Ghanaian company creating fashion products such as headbands, brooches, and necklaces from handworked African fashion textiles.
What began as a side business is now a successful company supporting local crafts and promoting Ghanaian culture to the world - thanks to the Internet. Naa uses online dashboards to track visitors to the website and gain insight into the number of people and countries visiting, including clients from the US, UK, and France. She now plans to expand and train immigrant porter girls in Ghana - kayayee - to make handmade accessories, giving them a better standard of living and equipping them with an income-generating skill.
As one of the
world’s fastest growing economies
, with an entrepreneurial culture, diverse resources and political stability, Ghana aims to continue on its upward path by leveraging the Internet to reach regional and international markets. Google Ghana has partnered with the
Ministry of Trade and Industry
to launch
Innovation Ghana
, an initiative celebrating Naa and other
Innovation Heroes
.
Innovation Ghana highlights the recommendations of the
Dalberg study
, which equips African policy makers with data about the socio-economic benefits of the Internet, and how to capitalize on this potential. At the recent
launch
, Ghana's Minister of Trade and Industry,
Honourable Haruna Iddrisu
, stressed the importance of the Internet for Ghana’s economy and job creation.
As part of this effort, Google Ghana also supported the
Ghana Google Developer Group
and
Accra Google Business Group
to bring together over 300 developers and businesses to connect, inform and inspire them around the theme of the internet and its potential to unleash innovation. Leading Ghanaian developers shared their knowledge of Javascript, HTML5, Google Drive API and Android. The business sessions featured stories of how SMEs have successfully used the internet to market their products and services, manage customers, and build their brands - all of which are key common challenges in Ghana.
Another initiative is called Social Day for the creative industry. The country’s leading bloggers discussed how the blogging community can further promote the use of internet tools. The grand finale hosted over 60 Ghanaian personalities who were thrilled with a songwriting collaboration between award winning musicians
M.anifest
and
E.L,
MC’d by
Sister Deborah
. The evening showcased how Google+, Hangouts and YouTube are being used, both internationally and locally, to reach new audiences, create new content and strengthen an existing creative culture.
We look forward to supporting the country’s growing online entrepreneurial spirit.
Posted Estelle Akofio-Sowah, Country Manager, Ghana
Big Tent Tunisia: Free Expression in the Arab World
Friday, June 14, 2013
The Internet has spawned an explosion of online communication, allowing those who were silenced to finally speak up. During the Arab Spring, the Web became as a tool for expressing dissent and organizing demonstrations. Signs of a backlash are now emerging and the
Big Tent Tunis
will explore the threat of growing government censorship
Our event is taking place in Tunis as the Freedom Online coalition gathers there for the first time in an Arab country. The coalition was launched in The Hague in November, 2011 when Former
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
launched the coalition at our
Big Tent
. Fourteen countries including Canada, Estonia, Sweden and the USA joined to promote Internet freedom.
Since the launch, Freedom Online has grown into a promising project. It has expanded into Latin America, to include Costa Rica as well as Mexico, and to Africa, to include Kenya and Ghana. Google has continued to support Freedom Online including at its second conference in Nairobi in 2012. Tunisia is not only the first Arab country to join the coalition but it is also the first to in the region to host its members. We thought it only fitting that we hold our first-ever Big Tent in the region at the same time.
Google’s Global Head for Free Expression
Ross LaJeunesse
will outline our goal to discuss the limits of free expression online around the globe, and in particular, in the Arab world. We’ll host a debate on the state of free expression in Tunisia with
Ahmed Gaaloul,
member of the Shoura Council of the Ennahdha Party and
Slim Amamou,
a Tunisian blogger and the former Secretary of State for Sport and Youth. We’ll also hear about the perspective from other parts of the region from Reem Al-Masri, Digital Education Director of 7iber inc, which develops training material for teachers to encourage the use of digital storytelling and social networking. The event will culminate in a debate between filmmaker
Nadim Lahoud
and feminist writer
Joumana Haddad
about art, feminism and censorship in the Arab world.
Although we at Google are biased towards people’s right to free expression, we also realize that this freedom has limits. Our goal in Tunis is encourage the Freedom Online coalition to continue fighting for online freedom - and to jump-start a debate about the state of online freedom in the Arab world.
Posted by William Echikson, Head of Free Expression, Europe, Middle East and Africa
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