Europe Blog
Our views on the Internet and society
Creating the Library of the Future in Greece
Thursday, July 25, 2013
The famed
Library at Alexandria
was located in Egypt - but an expression of Greek culture. A student of
Aristotle
created the library and it was designed in the style of Aristotle’s Lyceum and placed adjacent to a Greek temple. Most of its collection came from trips to the book fairs of Rhodes and Athens. So perhaps it is no accident that we’re working in Greece to launch one of the world’s most exciting projects to reinvent the library for the digital age.
The
Stavros Niarchos Foundation
is investing EUR560 million to build a Cultural Center which will host the National Library of Greece and the Greek National Opera. As part of the project, the Foundation is also funding
“Future Library”
, an effort that aims to transform public libraries into media labs and hubs of creativity, innovation and learning, attracting many groups who now spend little time there - entrepreneurs, students, unemployed, and immigrants. So far, nine libraries are participating from all over Greece - including the municipal libraries of Kozani, Trikala, Corinth, Keratsini-Drapetsona, Heliopolis, Chania, Drama,Levadia, and Nafpaktos.
Google is participating, providing design know-how to the architects hired by Future Library to help create innovative and creative spaces. With the help of the Google real estate team, we will review the architect submissions, provide technical comment on all proposals and assist the Foundation in executing the exciting project. In addition, we are holding workshops for participating librarians, helping them acquire skills on effective use of Google tools and including Google search, Google+, YouTube and Docs.
Some might have imagined that the Internet would make libraries superfluous or irrelevant. But the reality looks like quite the opposite - the Internet can help libraries become a center for new digital learning and a point of reference for local communities.
Posted by Dionisis Kolokotsas, Public Policy & Government Relations Manager, Greece
Measuring the UK’s Digital Economy
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
The British mathematician and physicist
Lord Kelvin
famously said “If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it.” In 1948, the post-war British Government badly needed to improve the nation’s economy. To help it draw up the right policies for jobs and growth, the Government took a scientific approach - one of which Lord Kelvin would have been proud. Government statisticians were instructed to count, classify and measure the economic activity of every business in the country. They developed a set of Standard Industrial Classification codes and the data they collected was used to shape policy in every aspect of the British economy.
This week, a
new report
by the
National Institute for Economic and Social Research
, and supported by Google, updates these SIC codes to include the new, fast growing digital sector. After 65 years, the old codes are out of date. One in ten companies in the UK are now classified vaguely as ‘other’. One in five have no classification at all.
This new report is based on pioneering big data techniques. It draws not just from official tables and accounts but instead is gleaned from more than five billion data points, providing us with a level of detail and insight that statisticians in 1948 could scarcely have imagined.
The scale of the UK’s digital economy that emerges from this research is immense. In June 2013, the Government estimated from SIC codes that there were 120,000 businesses in the digital economy. The most conservative estimate from this new report of the number of digital companies is more than double government estimates - 269,695. In addition, the report found that digital companies employ 15% more, grow 25% faster than non-digital companies.
The digital economy has spread into every part of the United Kingdom, not just in London and the South East but throughout the country, with particularly great intensity in places like Manchester, Middlesbrough and Aberdeen. It has spread into every sector, from architecture firms whose activities have become almost entirely digital to machine tool manufacturers who now use huge online data-processing facilities, such as Hadoop, to monitor every aspect of their processes.
This is a groundbreaking work. For the first time in 65 years - it presents us with a new way of measuring the economy that can only help us to take the right steps to support growth and jobs.
Posted by Hal Varian, Chief Economist
Supporting Spanish cinema - and combating piracy
Monday, July 22, 2013
Spanish cinema is famous around the world thanks to the likes of directors such as
Pedro Almodovar
,
Luis Buñuel
and others. Now, thanks to a groundbreaking agreement with Spanish collecting society
Egeda
, these filmmakers could collect royalties from their works on YouTube.
The agreement represents a significant endorsement of our
Content ID
system, which helps combat piracy by allowing video producers to identify their copied content - and make money from it. Whenever copyrighted content is uploaded, the rights owner is asked whether the material should be blocked, allowed to stay up - or whether advertising should be inserted, with the copyright owners receiving revenue as a result.
Once signed up to Content ID, the vast majority of advertising owners choose to insert advertising and generate income from their works. Over recent months, Egeda conducted a pilot study that generated promising results. Advertising was inserted in 65% of a set of videos, increasing revenue from the videos by 87% compared to before the test. “This agreement with YouTube is an example of how the film industry and the technology sector should cooperate: protecting the works of creators and opening the door to new business models,” says
Enrique Cerezo
, Egeda’s president.
In addition to our Content ID cooperation, Egeda also has launched a new YouTube channel featuring trailers, sequences, scenes, selection of actors and other information about Spanish cinema. Take a look below - and enjoy new insights into much of the best of Spanish language filmmaking.
Posted by Maria Ferreras, Director of Strategic Alliances for YouTube, Madrid
Growing our Map Maker community in Europe
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Exploration is at the heart of the summer season, and what better way to take part than sharing your knowledge on the places you love on Google Maps? Today,
Google Map Maker
is diving into summertime by welcoming mappers of Czech Republic, Hungary, Sweden, and Bosnia and Herzegovina to our ever-growing team of citizen cartographers in our quest to map the world.
With Google Map Maker, you can contribute your local knowledge to make a more useful and comprehensive map of the changing world around us. Begin in your neighborhood and try adding the building footprints for local shops and restaurants. Then, embrace your inner traveler and enrich the maps of national parks and historic landmarks. If you’ve got the itch for adventure, try adding campgrounds, beaches or your favorite hiking trails.
View Larger Map
Jajići, Bosnia and Herzegovina was a blank space on the map
before citizen cartographers put it on the map.
Whether it’s a cycling route through Budapest or a cafe alongside Prague’s Vltava River, each improvement to the map will help locals and tourists alike as they navigate your neighborhood this summer. Once approved, your contributions will appear on
Google Maps
,
Google Earth
and
Google Maps for Mobile
.
To get started, join other mappers on the Google Map Maker
community forum
, explore the
Help Centre
for tips and tricks, or watch mapping in real-time with
Map Maker Pulse
. Now, from the
Heart Shaped Land
, through Central Europe, to Swedish Lapland, you can help Google Maps to embody the rich culture and spirit unique to your homeland -
starting today
!
Posted by Kaushik Sridharan, Software Engineer
Scaling the heights of the Eiffel Tower
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Since its construction in 1889, more than 250 million people have visited Paris’ iconic
Eiffel Tower
. The highest monument in the world for more than 40 years (today that title is held by
Burj Khalifa
in Dubai), the Eiffel Tower remains the most visited monument globally. But not everyone has been or can hope to go—until now. If you’ve ever wondered what the view is like from above the City of Light or wanted to learn more about the Tower’s history, now’s your chance to find out.
The
Google Cultural Institute
and the Eiffel Tower Operating Company have teamed up to create three immersive online exhibitions which blend fascinating historical material with a sprinkling of technological magic. In order to capture the imagery, the Street View team followed in the footsteps of 7 million annual visitors and ascended multiple floors of the Tower. Using the Street View
Trolley
(designed especially for monuments and museums) they filmed 360-degree views of the monument’s architecture and its views over Paris.
These
modern-day Street View panoramas
sit alongside nearly
50 archival images, plans, engravings and photos
telling the story of the Eiffel Tower’s development and social impact in the 19th century. Some of the archive material is quite rare and precious such as a
recording of Gustave Eiffel’s voice by Thomas Edison
.
The first exhibition presents
the birth of the Eiffel Tower
from the initial idea until its realization. You can then follow
the construction
of the monument step-by-step through photos and sketches. Details on
the inauguration and the first visitors
lie in the third exhibition, with photos of
people admiring the Paris vista
on the opening day leading into today’s Street View imagery from the top floor. Did you know that during the Tower’s inauguration for the Universal Exhibition of 1889, the elevators were not yet in service but 12,000 people per day rushed to climb the 1710 steps leading to the top?
As a product manager and designer, it’s been awe-inspiring to get to see the spectacular vision and the detailed architectural capabilities exemplified by the plans more than 100 years ago. It required tremendous knowledge of special planning and physics to ensure that 18,000 separately made pieces would come together as one. So if you’ve never visited the Eiffel Tower before, want to get insider knowledge or simply want to re-discover it in a new way, visit our
site
and immerse yourself in one of the most well-known attractions on the planet.
Posted by Mark Yoshitake, Head of Product & User Experience, Google Cultural Institute
You're changing the world. We want to help.
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated the winners of the
Google Global Impact Challenge
in the UK, awarding prizes to nonprofits for some amazing, innovative uses of technology to help their causes. Today we are thrilled to go one step further and launch the
Google for Nonprofits
programme in the UK, starting in England and Wales.
Google for Nonprofits is a one-stop-shop that offers access to our suite of free and discounted products and tools. If you work for a nonprofit, you can
apply to join the program
today. Once your organisation is approved, you get free
Google Apps
to cut IT costs and operate more efficiently; up to $10,000 a month in advertising on
Google Adwords
to reach more donors; and premium features for
YouTube
and our
mapping technologies
to raise awareness of your cause. We’ve also developed other online resources such as
educational videos
,
case studies
and better ways to
connect
with other nonprofits.
Over the years, Google has donated over $1 billon worth of products to nonprofits, and several UK organisations are already using our tools.
BeatBullying
- a charity that fights online bullying - uses Google Apps to enable more sharing and collaboration amongst colleagues. The
Royal National Lifeboat Institution
uses Google AdWords and YouTube to raise awareness and recruit more supporters; and
WaterAid
uses Google mapping technologies to show where their work is making a difference.
We’re inspired and humbled by the amazing ways nonprofits are making the world a better place, and look forward to supporting the work of more UK nonprofits.
Posted by Xiaonan Zhao, Product Manager, Google for Nonprofits
A few easy tools the whole family will love
Thursday, July 11, 2013
This summer we’re
posting regularly
with privacy and security tips. Knowing how to stay safe and secure online is important, which is why we created our Good to Know site with advice and tips for safe and savvy Internet use.
-Ed.
Summer is here, and with kids out of school it is a great time for families to explore the web together—from learning what makes fireflies glow to playing online games together. But while there is a lot of entertaining, educational content online, there are also materials I’d rather not see when I’m surfing the web with my family. Google has built a number of tools that parents can use to help keep content they would rather not see from popping up on the family computer. It takes less than five minutes to turn them on, so follow the steps below to help make your search results more family-friendly this summer.
1. Turn on SafeSearch in Google Search
Turning on
SafeSearch
is an easy way to help you hide images, search results and videos intended just for adults. It’s especially helpful if you’re concerned about the content that might pop up on your family computer, and it’s easy to turn on. Just visit the Google
Search Settings page
, go to the "SafeSearch filters" section, and check the box to filter mature content from Google Search result pages. These preferences will apply for any searches done using that browser on your computer. If you have multiple browsers on your family computer, you might want to turn SafeSearch on for each one.
You can turn SafeSearch on or off from the
Search Settings page
2. Save and lock your preferences
Once you’ve set your preferences, make sure to click the Save button at the bottom of the page. And if you're signed in to your Google Account, you can also lock the SafeSearch filter so others can’t change your preferences—just click “Lock SafeSearch.” Now the setting is protected with your Google Account password. While no filter is 100 percent perfect, with SafeSearch on you can feel more confident browsing the web with your family.
3. Turn on YouTube Safety Mode
YouTube Safety Mode
helps you and your family avoid videos that might be OK with our
Community Guidelines
, but you might not want popping up on your family computer. Turning on Safety Mode in YouTube takes just one step. Scroll down to the bottom of any YouTube page and click on the button that says “Safety” at the bottom of the page—now you can choose your preferences for Safety Mode.
Click the button that says “Safety” at the bottom of any YouTube page, and then choose your preferences
4. Lock your Safety Mode preferences
Just like with Safe Search, you can also log in with your Google Account and
lock YouTube Safety Mode
on each one of your computer’s browsers. It will filter videos with mature content, so they won’t show up in video search results, related videos, playlists, shows or films. YouTube Safety Mode will also help hide objectionable comments.
5. Turn on SafeSearch on mobile
SafeSearch is available on your phone or other mobile device, as well as the web. You can turn on SafeSearch for Google on your mobile device by opening your phone’s browser and visiting
google.com/preferences
. Scroll to the SafeSearch Filters section to select what level of filtering you would like to enable. Be sure to tap “Save Preferences” after you’ve made your selection.
To enable SafeSearch on YouTube’s mobile app, first open your settings, then press “Search.” From there, select “SafeSearch Filtering” and select moderate or strict filtering.
Helping your family have a positive and safe experience with Google is important to you, and it’s important to us, too. That’s why we’ve partnered with parents and experts on free and easy to use tools and resources to help your family stay safe and secure when browsing online. If you’re interested in even more of our tools and tips, please see our
Good to Know
site, and stay tuned for more security tips throughout the summer.
Posted by Matthias Heiler, Staff Software Engineer
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