Europe Blog
Our views on the Internet and society
Enjoy the best of Slovakia with the Google Cultural Institute
Friday, July 4, 2014
Slovakia enjoys a rich, vibrant culture, full of beautiful music, famous painters, and both natural and manmade wonders. Last week at the beautiful Cafe Berlinka at the Slovak National Gallery, the Google Cultural Institute welcomed its first ever partners from the Central European nation. Eight museums and galleries from across the country have made available their content so that it can be explored in more detail by people around the world.
The
exhibitions
features works by famous Slovak painters; Ladislav Mednyánszky, Ľudovít Fulla, Martin Benka and sculptors such as Štefan Siváň and Jozef Jankovič. A super high resolution image of Mednyánszky's
"Bank of a river in bloom
" contraststhe botanical details on the river bank in bloom with the hazy river. Zoom into the barely there image of grazing cattle in the distance. We also have published Indoor Street View imagery of the Chateau Strážky and Bratislava City Gallery.
Another exhibition features the jewels of
Slovakia's Natural History Museum
including an ancient Egyptian mummy, a skull of Homo sapiens from the late Upper Palaeolithic and a Palaeontological collection with traces of dinosaurs.
Posted by Martina Ondrusova, Communications Manager, Prague
Searching for World Cup trends
Monday, June 30, 2014
The World Cup continues to inspire feverish discussion around the globe. Here are some highlights from our search results from the second week of action.
Dutchman Robin Van Persie's flying header won honors for the best goal.
Brazilian striker Neymar won for the most searched hairdo.
Englishman Howard Webb lost out for the most searched referee to a Japanese rival.
Find out more about World Cup by tuning into this
special trends edition
.
Posted by William Echikson, Google Europe Blog editor
Commemorating World War I
Friday, June 27, 2014
A century ago, a Serb nationalist assassinated Austrian Archduke
Franz Ferdinand
, sparking World War I. Today, we are launching a new
channel
dedicated to commemorate the war’s centenary. It brings together World War I content, paintings, photographs, letters, documents, soldiers’ poems and more, from a range of Museum partners, ranging from the German Federal Archives to the Belgian Mundaneum to the Imperial War Museum.
A search for Franz Ferdinand brings up
photos
relating to the Archeduke’s assassination. They show the Franz and his wife Sophie arriving in Sarajevo. Outfitted in regal dress, treated with the pomp and circumstance of royalty, they stroll through the streets. A final image shows police arresting Serb assassin
Gavrilo Princip
.
Other exhibits explore the art around the conflict and personal impact of the conflict. Belgium’s Mundaneum has collected postcards sent from POW camps. The Imperial War Museum’s features
Christopher Nevinson's bleak landscapes
. The British authorities censored some of the paintings for being too “negative.” At the same time, the museum also features
John Nash’s patriotic paintings
.
The German side of the war is well represented, with more than
200 new items in 13 new exhibits
. Items include photographs, newspapers, letters, army documents, ration cards, and unusual items like the anti war poem written by a German soldier which lead to his detention. Exhibits range from German policy around the Sarajevo assassination to the rise of German airships to problems of nutrition due to the conflict.
The exhibits are designed for for a wide audience and full of exciting details for specialists. More content will be added over the coming months and years as commemorations around the Great War continue.
Posted by James Davis, Google Culture Institute, Paris
Helping Europe's youth find work
Monday, June 23, 2014
All across Europe, far too many young people struggle to find a job and starting their careers. That is why we are joining a coalition of businesses and governments called the
Alliance for Youth
, which will support European youth to gain new skills and work experience.
At an event today in Lisbon attended by European Commission President Jose-Manuel Barroso and Portuguese Prime Minister Passos Coelho, we committed to a range of initiatives to increase access to digital skills training and education in science, technology, engineering and maths. We're also extending our support for entrepreneurs in Europe.
At Google, we’ve taken on nearly 3500 new employees in Europe over the last three years - net growth of 60% since 2011. Of those 3500, nearly 650 are newly-minted graduates of European universities. They work in a wide range of technical and non-technical roles based in our offices across Europe. More jobs are available. We still have entry level positions open in engineering, advertising support, and product management.
Another priority is helping university students develop professional skills via
internships
. This summer alone, we’ll play host to more than 600 technical and non-technical interns in Europe. We have strong partnerships with universities and organizations.
Across Europe, we are working with partners to help meet some of the specific challenges facing young people. In Spain, where youth unemployment has reached an alarming 57%, we launched
Activate
, a platform to train the young generation in digital skills. Through a suite of offline and massive open online courses (MOOCs) on digital marketing, data analytics, cloud computing, e-commerce, we hope to reach more than 100,000 Europeans by early next year.
Our
RISE
(Roots in Science & Engineering) and
CS4HS
(Computer Science for High School) programs target younger high students. These programs nurture coding skills, use robotics to teach engineering and maths and help teachers with STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) education tools. Through our partnerships with education organizations, we’ll reach 500,000 students and teachers in 20 European countries, up from 100,000 in 2013.
Finally, Google continues to supports entrepreneurship in Europe. We plan to reach thousands of entrepreneurs through
Google for Entrepreneurs
, including
Startup Weekend
,
Startup Grind
or publicly available online learning resources tailored to early-stage entrepreneurs. We also support a growing number of startup hubs and co-working spaces: in London (
Campus London
), Berlin (
The Factory
) and Paris (
Numa
), and a recently announced Campus in Warsaw.
We're delighted to contribute to the new Alliance for Youth. All of us need to support young Europeans to develop the skills and experience allowing them to find meaningful careers in the 21st century economy.
Posted by Matt Brittin, President, Business and Operations, Northern and Central Europe
After a week in Brazil, here are the hot trends on the field
Friday, June 20, 2014
The 2014 FIFA World Cup™ is heating up, and it’s capturing the imagination of Europeans.
Google Trends
gives your real-time guide to the players, teams and moments that football lovers are interested in. Here’s a flavour of what Europeans have been searching for during the first week of action in Brazil.
During a match without national anthems due to a technical glitch, France searches for anthem La Marseillaise increased more than 3x
In a game that went all Germany’s way, Müller’s hat-trick scored 3x more local searches than Pepe’s head-butt.
We can show you what questions fans are most asking Google about the tournament, and we can give you a flavour of the national sentiment before or after a match, by analysing posts on Google+. Compare how Costa Rica and Italy are feeling before today’s game:
At
google.com/worldcup
you can explore these moments throughout the tournament, whether it’s insight on how a country is feeling ahead of a big match, or where fans stand on a controversial match-winning refereeing decision.
Posted by Gareth Evans, Communications, London
Street View arrives in 56th country - Greece
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Greece is home to many of the world’s great cultural and historical monuments and remarkable landscapes, making it a natural for Street View, which allows web users to take panoramic real-life virtual tours of public roads. That’s why we’re particularly excited to announce the launch of the pathbreaking service this month, making Greece the 56th country added to Street View. From now on unique Greek landmarks, such as the
Corfu Old Town
, the
White Tower in Thessaloniki
and the
Arch of Hadrian
in the center of Athens, will be vividly represented on our computer screens. We’ve gathered some of our favourite scenes in our
Views Gallery
.
The serene port in Mykonos
Many Greeks long have been keen for us to bring its benefits to their country, seeing Street View as a powerful tool for the promotion of a country. At a launch event in Athens, Andreas Andreadis, President of the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises, said the new service will prove invaluable to tourists coming to Greece — and Greek businesses serving them. Visitors now will be able to check their hotel in advance and preview places they want to visit. Street View benefits everyone from the wheelchair user who can check whether a building has a ramp to the elderly who may check whether there are sufficient parking spots before leaving home. Minister of Culture and Sports Panos Panagiotopoulos welcomed Street View in Greece as nothing less than “a gift from God.”
Many other types of Greece businesses will benefit. Anyone can embed Google Maps into their site for free, helping them to promote a chain of hotels, tourist places, points of history and cultural importance or increase awareness of a local library or restaurant. Event organizers will be able to evaluate locations, restaurants, hotels, museums. Real estate agents and customers will save time by exploring properties online before visiting.
The White Tower in Thessaloniki, on a typically sunny Greek day
As always, we’ve built privacy safeguards into Street View — we blur people’s faces and vehicle license plates automatically — and if anyone sees a need for additional blurring, they can let us know by clicking on ‘Report a problem’ in the bottom left corner of the screen.
We're excited to be launching our first Greek imagery, but our journey is far from finished - we are already planning to redrive and refresh the Greek imagery.
Posted by Dionisis Kolokotsas, Public Policy & Government Relations Manager, Athens
The world is a canvas: introducing the street art project
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Here today, gone tomorrow. The transient nature of street art means it can be at risk of being scrubbed out and lost forever to its legions of fans. But long after the paint has faded from the walls, technology can help preserve street art, so people can discover it wherever and whenever they like. In a new project launching today, we’ve partnered with street art experts to bring you 5,000+ images and around 100 exhibitions in the Google Art Project—telling a story of street art around the world.
Starting today, you can immerse yourself in a world of
prowling foxes frogs on lonely walls
,
supernatural symbolism
,
murals
on a grand scale,
tiny hard-to-spot icons
, or
trompe l’oeil
techniques that use physical details of the wall itself to trick the eye.
From Poland to Portugal; London to Vienna, the styles of work vary considerably. There are
stickers in France
,
sculptures in London
and
portraits of rappers on the streets of Malaga
. It’s not just about spraypaint either—other exhibits demonstrate the signature style of the artist, like
JR’s large-scale and evocative photo-portraits
,
Roa’s animals
,
Vhils’ acid etching
or
Os Gemeos' surrealism
.
Regg and Violant,
Centro Comercial Alegro, Setúbal,
Galeria de Arte Urbana
Vhils using the texture of the wall as a canvas
Using Street View, you can also explore buildings with street art that are closed to the public, or that have already been demolished - such as the famed Paris 13 tower.
Agrandir le plan
Explore all nine floors and 450 square meters of painted ceilings and walls of the now-demolished Tour Paris 13 building, immortalized with Street View.
In a series of fascinating exhibitions by our partners, you can also learn about the
origins of the street art movement
or see how Street Art is being used
in Poland to revitalize its cities
. Take a tour through the work of artists from the infamous
Bristol graffiti scene
and
get wild about nature in Portugal.
Street art may be temporary on our walls and sidewalks, but its beauty and vibrancy live on, on the web. Take a look— you’re sure to be bowled over by the variety of the urban canvas.
Posted by Lucy Schwartz, Programme Manager, Google Cultural Institute & Julie Pottier, Marketing Manager, Google Cultural Institute
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