Europe Blog
Our views on the Internet and society
Teaming up with Oxford University on Artificial Intelligence
Thursday, October 23, 2014
It is a really exciting time for Artificial Intelligence research these days, and progress is being made on many fronts including image recognition and natural language understanding. Today we are delighted to announce a partnership with Oxford University to accelerate Google’s research efforts in these areas.
The Oxford skyline. Credit
Oxford University Images
Google DeepMind
will be working with two of Oxford’s cutting edge Artificial Intelligence research teams. Prof Nando de Freitas, Prof Phil Blunsom, Dr Edward Grefenstette and Dr Karl Moritz Hermann, who teamed up earlier this year to co-found
Dark Blue Labs
, are four world leading experts in the use of deep learning for natural language understanding. They will be spearheading efforts to enable machines to better understand what users are saying to them.
Also joining the DeepMind team will be Dr Karen Simonyan, Max Jaderberg and Prof Andrew Zisserman, one of the world’s foremost experts on computer vision systems, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and the only person to have been awarded the prestigious
Marr Prize
three times. As co-founders of
Vision Factory
, their aim was to improve visual recognition systems using deep learning. Dr Simonyan and Prof Zisserman developed one of the winning systems at the recent 2014 ImageNet competition, which is regarded as the most competitive and prestigious image recognition contest in the world.
Google DeepMind has hired all seven founders of these startups with the three professors holding joint appointments at Oxford University where they will continue to spend part of their time. These exciting partnerships underline how committed Google DeepMind is to supporting the development of UK academia and the growth of strong scientific research labs.
As a part of the collaboration, Google DeepMind will be making a substantial contribution to establish a research partnership with the Computer Science Department and the Engineering Department at Oxford University, which will include a program of student internships and a series of joint lectures and workshops to share knowledge and expertise.
We are thrilled to welcome these extremely talented machine learning researchers to the Google DeepMind team and are excited about the potential impact of the advances their research will bring.
Posted by Demis Hassabis, co-founder of DeepMind and Vice President of Engineering at Google
Launching youtube.com/government 101
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
When the
French Foreign Ministry
wanted to engage with citizens, it chose to launch a special YouTube channel. From live streams of
award ceremonies
, to
press conferences
on important issues and
Hangouts
with constituents, YouTube has become an important platform where citizens engage with their governments around the world and elected officials. The Foreign Ministry uploads on average more than one video each day.
In order to help government officials get a better idea of what YouTube can do, we are launching
youtube.com/government101
, a one-stop shop where government officials can learn how to get the most out of YouTube as a communication tool.
The site offers a broad range of YouTube advice, from the basics of creating a channel to in-depth guidance on features like live streaming, annotations, playlists and more. We’ve also featured case studies from government offices around the world that are using YouTube in innovative ways.
If you're a government official, whether you are looking for an answer to a quick question or need a full training on YouTube best practices, we hope this resource will help you engage in a rich dialogue with your constituents and increase transparency within your community.
Posted by Brandon Feldman, YouTube News & Politics
Promoting social mobility through the Internet
Monday, October 20, 2014
Policymakers often worry that the Internet creates a small number of winners and too many losers in the economy. At the same time, we have heard stories about the rise of self-employment and the creation of fast-growing companies in garages (like Google). In order to investigate the Internet’s impact on social mobility and equality, we asked British economist and former Chief Secretary to the Treasury,
Kitty Ussher
, to investigate.
Her
new research
, published this month, analyzed government data and Google Apps customers, and reached a surprising conclusion. Rather than worsening inequality, the Internet is improving the lot of economically vulnerable people across the United Kingdom. One example: the report shows that parents of young children are more likely to engage in online selling from home than singles. In other words, the Internet allow potentially vulnerable families convenient alternatives to traditional employment.
Interestingly, Internet success no longer requires PhDs. Nearly half of Google Apps customers surveyed whose highest qualification is a GSCE high school diploma, secured incomes of over £45,000. Another 20 percent earned between £30,000 and £45,000. These people achieved above average incomes through online selling, impossible before the Internet.
Success on the Internet can be achieved anywhere, with businesses from more remote parts of the UK taking advantage. As Ms Ussher concludes, “It is not just the uber-professional elite that is exploiting the commercial opportunities that the Internet has to offer.”
The Internet is a leveler. It offers new options to make a living regardless of one’s background or education. This new opportunity is paying dividends for families across the UK.
Posted by Jon Steinberg, Europe Policy Manager, London
Denmark’s "Borgen" goes live on Street View
Friday, October 17, 2014
After
scaling Swiss mountains and roaring along the new Sochi Formula One race track
in recent weeks, StreetView has broken new ground in Europe by launching collection of one of the world’s most interesting political monuments - going inside the
Danish parliament Borgen
. Our cameras combed the Copenhagen icon’s halls and brought its extensive art collection to the world on our
Art Project
.
Since the 15th century, the address in the center of Copenhagen has been home to various castles and palaces which ruled the Danish Kingdom, regardless of whether the power was executed by hereditary kings or elected politicians.
Its most famous occupant, arguably, is the cool modern Prime Minister Birgitte Nyborg. She is not a real politician, but the fictional Prime Minister played by actress
Sidse Babett Knudsen
in the popular Danish political TV series
"Borgen."
All of us now get the possibility to enjoy the same view as the politicians speaking at the podium. Look closely and you might even find the secret stock of the licorice hidden behind the parliament chairman’s desk.
This project required 18 months of hard work. Credit first goes to Liberal
MP Michael Aastrup Jensen
, who suggested to the Parliament that the Parliament itself should open up to the world. Negotiations followed with the local copyright association to secure rights to film the Parliament art collections. Some 89 pieces are showcased in the Art Project exhibition. Talks also were needed with the security services to win their approval.
In the end, everyone saw the benefits of putting Borgen online. Please enjoy and explore.
Posted by Martin Ruby and Christine Sorensen,Communications and Government Affairs, Copenhagen
Google Summer of Code 2015 and Google Code-in 2014 are on!
Thursday, October 16, 2014
A call to all students in Europe: if you have ever thought it would be cool to write code, then please keep reading. We're excited to announce the next editions of two programs designed to introduce students to open source software development,
Google Summer of Code
for university students and
Google Code-in
for 13-17 year old high schoolers.
Google Code-in
Google Code-in is an international, online contest designed to introduce pre-university students to the world of open source development. When you read the term open source, do you think:
What is open source?
What types of work do open source projects do?
I’ve only taken one computer science class, can I contribute to an open source project?
I’m not really into coding, how else can I contribute to open source?
I’ve never participated in open source or an online contest before, can someone help guide me?
Open source sounds fun, how can I get started?
If you’re a high schooler and you've wondered about any of these questions, then we hope you will join in the fun and excitement. Over the past four years, we have had 1,575 students from 78 countries in the contest. This year we hope to surpass 2,000 students.
Visit the
Frequently Asked Questions
page on the
Google Code-in site
for details on how to sign up and participate. We will announce the open source organizations that will be participating in the contest on November 12. The Code-in contest starts on December 1.
Google Summer of Code
Google Summer of Code offers student developers summer stipends to write code for various open source projects. Over the past 10 years, over 8,300 mentors and 8,500 student developers in 101 countries have produced a stunning 55 million lines of code.
If you know of a university student that would be interested in working on open source projects this summer, or if you know of an organization that might want to mentor students to work on their open source projects, please direct them to our Google Summer of Code 2015
website
. Stay tuned for more details!
Posted by Stephanie Taylor and Carol Smith, Open Source Programs
The New Gründergeist
Monday, October 13, 2014
Editor's note: Eric Schmidt, Google's chairman, was in Berlin today and paid a visit to the headquarters of Native Instruments, a leading producer of hardware and software for digital music production and DJ equipment. He gave a speech about innovation, technology, and the future of the Internet in front of around 100 company founders, economists and scientists. We've included the full text of his speech below.
It's wonderful to be here with you all in Berlin.
Every time I’m here, I’m reminded that this city is a symbol for the world. It’s a symbol of progress and unity and the ability to join together in a common cause ... to open up opportunities ... to literally tear down walls. You are celebrating 25 years here since the Wall came down, and we can celebrate together 25 years of strong and growing friendship between our countries.
It’s evident in the depth of our countries’ business relationship. Today, there are more than 3,000 German companies in the United States, employing over 670,000 people; and over 2,500 American companies in Germany employing 800,000 people. In other words, the well-being of 6,000 companies and 1.5 million people depends on the continuing good relations between our two countries.
Google is one of those companies with significant investments on both sides of the Atlantic. We employ over 1,100 people across five offices in Germany, and last year alone invested over €200 million here. Overall, we have 9,000 people working in Europe and we have made capital investments worth €4 billion over the last four years. We’re deeply committed to this country, and we believe in this continent.
After all, we share a common bond: a deep love of innovation … of creativity … of entrepreneurship. I saw it at The Factory, the startup hub we helped open in Berlin this summer. And I see it here today at Native Instruments -- a company that is based on invention and disruption. Your fusion of music and software has revolutionized an industry, and from your incredible ideas, a whole new genre of music has emerged. Electronic music is everywhere today. I even like some of it. I could give another speech about the importance of EDM in modern pop, or we could talk about my favorite Beyonce four-on-the-floor remixes. But we’ll do that another time.
Instead, I want to talk about a different, probably more important subject: invention. I have two broad points to make.
First of all, that the process of invention is never-ending.
The best inventions are never finished. Great inventors don’t just stand there, rub their hands together, and say “My work is done here.” They’re not Damien Hirst, freezing their creativity in formaldehyde. They keep working furiously to create something even better. It’s part love, part necessity. Because if they don’t reinvent their ideas time and again, someone else will -- rendering their life’s work irrelevant, or worse still, extinct!
Which brings me to the second point I want to make --
just as invention is dynamic, so are the industries it creates
. When Karl Benz invented the petrol car, he didn’t just create an engine with three wheels (it really was three wheels to start with!) … he created an entire industry. It was the same with Tim Berners-Lee. He didn’t just build the world’s first website, he paved the way for the World Wide Web.
I see many of you smiling and nodding at this. But invention has its discontents, too -- because it is messy and unpredictable. No one’s ever really ready for a technological revolution. Plato believed writing would make it harder for his students' to remember things. Artists feared that photography would spell the end of painting. Radio and then television portended the end of conversation. My favorite is Mark Twain's hatred of the telephone:
"It is my heart-warmed and world-embracing Christmas hope”, he wrote in a holiday letter “that all of us …may eventually be gathered together in a heaven of everlasting rest and peace and bliss, except the inventor of the telephone."
I’d hope that, despite all his cynicism, Twain would not have said the same thing about the search engine. Google started out as a dream -- literally. One of our founders, Larry Page, woke up in the middle of the night thinking … what if he could download all of the links on Internet? Would that be useful, he wondered. Grabbing a pen, he scribbled down the details in the hope it might be possible. At the time he hadn’t thought about creating a search engine. That came later.
This history matters to me because it’s an important reminder that invention is about chasing dreams: the ability to make the seemingly impossible, possible. As Albert Einstein once said:
“If at first the idea is not absurd ... then there is no hope for it”
. Look at Thomas Edison. The Wright brothers. Karl Benz. Their ideas seemed crazy at the time, absurd. But they lit the night, lifted us into the clouds, and literally put us on the road to the future.
A century later, Google made it possible for people to find out about almost anything by typing just a few words into a computer. At the time people were amazed. They couldn’t believe it. But while technically complicated, the first iteration of Google was actually pretty rough. You got a page of text, broken up by ten blue links. Of course, the results were better than anything else out there. But by today’s standards they weren’t great. There were no images, no videos, no news, no maps … nothing fancy.
Imagine if no one had improved on the Wright Flyer … I would have flown here, across the Atlantic, hanging on for dear life to the back of a canvas wing! And if Benz had not tried to improve on his three-wheel car, then his company would have been relegated to history by the competition. What happens is, others see an opportunity created, and then dive in. People keep thinking and creating, and an original invention gets better.
So Larry and Sergey -- like every other successful inventor -- kept iterating. It started with images. After all, people wanted more than just text. This first became apparent after the 2000 Grammy Awards. Jennifer Lopez wore a green dress that, let’s just say, caught the world’s attention. I mean, the dress itself has its own Wikipedia page:
Green Versace Dress of Jennifer Lopez
. Seriously, it was a sensation.
And it was the most popular search query we had ever seen, but we had no surefire way of getting users exactly what they wanted -- J-Lo wearing that dress. Our results returned links to websites that may or may not have had the right picture. Or might have described it in the site’s text. From that problem, Google Image Search was born.
A more serious challenge led to Google News. After 9/11, one of our engineers realized that results for the query “World Trade Center” returned nothing about the terrorist attacks. And as every web site was a silo, there was no way of comparing news from different providers or different countries. Wouldn’t it be better if people could see all the news headlines in the world, and know in real time who was saying what about each story?
And then there was the small issue of translation. At its inception, the Web was mostly English-language content. So it wasn’t that useful to the vast majority of people in the world. Enter Google Translate, which now provides more than one billion free translations every day for more than 200 million users worldwide, in 80 languages.
As you can see, a lot of our search innovation has come from our own frustration with Google’s results. Maps are a great example. It was always pretty obvious that when people searched on Google for an address -- for example
“Unter den Linden”
-- they didn’t want a link to websites mentioning this street. They most likely wanted to know where it was, and get directions there.
So, we built a map ourselves that was clickable and draggable, making it super easy to explore. Over time we added monuments and other places of interest; businesses; and directions by foot, car, or public transport. And we developed Google Earth because there was no complete satellite-view of our planet and people like to check out their neighborhood, or a hotel where they are going on vacation. Then we created Street View so you could actually see the location when you got there -- you didn’t have to squint to see the street numbers.
Maps now feel like such an integral part of search that most users probably can’t imagine Google without them. It’s the same with many of our changes. Your search just gets better and better over time. Google “Berlin weather” and you’ll no longer get ten blue links that you need to dig through. Instead, you’ll get the weather forecast for the next few days at the top result, saving you time and effort. Or Google “bratwurst” … and at the top will be images, nutrition facts, and a web page with a recipe.
Along the way we had to think about making money too, or else all this innovation would have been unsustainable. Nikola Tesla was an extraordinary inventor -- one of the greats. But his innovations never got beyond the research phase -- they never became available to millions of people because he failed to make them commercially viable. At Google, we started by putting unobtrusive text ads next to our search results. Advertisers bid via auction on different search keywords -- mortgages, flights, tents, shoes, you name it. The beauty of this approach is that the ads are highly relevant to people, and advertisers only pay when users click. In addition, these ads have enabled a whole new generation of entrepreneurs -- small- and medium-sized businesses who could never afford newspaper or TV ads, but can now reach a national or global audience using Google. I like to think of them as micro-nationals. Take Gerhard Schmieder, who makes cuckoo clocks in the Black Forest. Thanks to AdWords, he’s now exporting his beautiful, handmade clocks to the US and Asia.
Technological change has also forced Google’s pace of innovation. Think about mobile. As our screens have gotten smaller, we’ve had to adapt and evolve. Searching on a mobile device is very different from a desktop computer. Speed and simplicity really matter. It’s why the best answer is quite literally ... the answer. If you ask “how do I get to Hamburg by train”, you want the railway timetable right there on the screen -- no extra effort required. And that is what Google provides.
Mobile also helps Google better understand your context, which in turn means better results. For example, if you search for “pizza” while you’re on Torstrasse in Berlin, we can show you pizzerias close to where you are -- not way across town. And of course, mobile is at the forefront of voice search, which makes everything so much easier because talking is less effort than typing. Stand next to a historic monument and ask “how high is the Brandenburg Gate?” And we’ll get you the answer, right there on your screen. In case you are wondering, it’s 26 metres!
As people spend more and more time on mobile -- and desktop usages falls -- getting the user experience right on smaller touchscreens is increasingly important. This year, our industry reached an important milestone as mobile usage exceeded desktop for the first time ever. Time spent on desktop has now fallen to just 40%.
You often hear people talk about search as a solved problem. But we are nowhere near close. Try a query like “show me flights under €300 for places where it’s hot in December and I can snorkel”. That’s kind of complicated: Google needs to know about flights under €300; hot destinations in winter; and what places are near the water, with cool fish to see. That’s basically three separate searches that have to be cross-referenced to get to the right answer.
Sadly, we can’t solve that for you today. But we’re working on it. Flight search is a small step in the right direction. For years Google wasn’t very good at answering queries like “flights from Berlin to London.” We showed a bunch of links to other sites, where users then had to enter their query over again. And we noticed lots of repeat searches, a sure sign of user frustration. People wanted direct answers, with fewer clicks. So we created Flight Search -- and now you can quickly compare prices and times from different airlines right from the results page.
This issue of providing direct answers to questions is at the heart of complaints being made about Google to the European Commission. Companies like Expedia, Yelp, and TripAdvisor argue that it deprives their websites of valuable traffic and disadvantages their businesses. They’d rather go back to 10 blue links. What’s interesting is that the traffic these websites get from Google has increased significantly -- faster in fact than our own traffic -- since we started showing direct answers to questions. That said, the amount of traffic going to other services should not be the main yardstick of success for Google because the goal of a search engine is to deliver relevant results to users as quickly as possible. Put simply, we created search for users, not websites. And that’s the motivation behind all our improvements over the last decade.
Which brings me to my second point,
just as invention is dynamic, so are the industries it creates
. A few years back, a lawyer for one of our competitors drew a picture of a coastline with a little island offshore. He added a dotted line, explaining that this was the only ferry connecting the island to the mainland. His point was that Google was just like the ferry because it was the only way to navigate the Internet. Many of you may instinctively feel that’s correct. You use Google a lot (thank you) and so does the rest of Europe (thank you again)! But while we’re undoubtedly an important part of the Internet -- and the key player in search -- information discovery comes in all shapes and sizes because there are many windows onto the web.
If you want the news, you’ll likely go straight to your favorite news service. Bild, the most widely read newspaper in Europe, gets around 70% of its traffic directly, because people bookmark the site or type
www.bild.de
straight into their browser. A little over 10% of their traffic comes from search and just under 10% comes from social sites like Facebook and Twitter. As The Economist recently said:
“social networks … have become an important navigation system for people looking for content across the Web”.
If you are looking to buy something, perhaps a tent for camping, you might go to Google or Bing or Yahoo or Qwant, the new French search engine. But more likely you’ll go directly to Zalando or Amazon, where you can research models and prices, get reviews, and pay for your purchase all at once. Research by the Forrester group found that last year almost a third of people looking to buy something started on Amazon -- that’s more than twice the number who went straight to Google.
If you are looking for travel information -- flights, somewhere to stay, a car rental, insurance -- there’s a lot of choice. There’s Google, for sure. But you might go to Kayak and Opodo for flights, Booking.com or Airbnb for hotels or apartments to rent, Hertz or Priceline for your rental car, and Money Supermarket for your insurance. In fact, according to the Washington Post, Expedia, Orbitz, Priceline and Travelocity account for 95 per cent of the US online travel market. It’s ironic as many of these companies complained to the US Justice Department four years ago that Google’s Flight Search feature would undermine competition -- a claim that’s clearly not borne out by the facts. Instead, Google Flight Search has become a handy aid to flyers, without displacing the established travel players.
Local information is another really important search category. “Where can I get sushi?”, “What is the best hotel in Munich?”, “Get me a great local plumber”. Of course Google is an option, but so are Yelp and TripAdvisor, Dooyoo, Ciao, or HolidayCheck. In fact Yelp’s CEO says that his site is
“rapidly becoming the de facto local search engine,
” while TripAdvisor’s CEO claims to be the web’s
“largest travel brand”
. And people increasingly look to friends on social sites to get these kinds of recommendations. As Mark Zuckerberg has said, Facebook’s
“trillion pieces of content is more than the index in any web search engine."
And then there is mobile. People use mobile in a very different way from the desktop. To quote The Economist again:
“mobile devices have changed the way people travel the Internet. Users now prefer apps (self-contained programs on smartphones) to websites’ home pages”.
Of course, some of us here this evening are of a certain age. We were brought up using computers -- machines that sat on our desks, and, if we were lucky, on our laps. But when I look at my children and grandson, their world is entirely different. It’s all mobile, and they spend most of their time on one of many apps downloaded on their phone. In fact, seven out of every eight minutes of mobile phone usage is spent within apps. And the most popular app in the world -- including in Europe -- is … Facebook, a company which now describes itself as
“the onramp to the Internet”.
The reality is that people have choices, and they are exercising them all the time. Google operates in a competitive landscape, which is changing constantly. As Axel Springer, a new investor in this area, has said
"there's a lot of innovation in the search market."
And the barriers to entry are negligible, because competition is just one click away.
I hear the term “network effects” thrown around a lot. It has become something of a dirty word, even though it describes the process that makes many services useful. A single telephone isn’t useful. You need other people to have telephones so you have someone to call. And a social network without your friends and family isn’t much of a network, and it won’t be very social. So true networks can be useful. But search is not a network that relies on connecting to other people. You don’t use Google because your friends do. Put another way: Google isn’t useful because it’s popular; we’re
popular
because we’re
useful
. Of course, the more people use our search engine, the more useful we are to advertisers -- but just as users have choice when it comes to information discovery, advertisers have options when it comes to online marketing. You can use Google AND the competition. These relationships are not mutually exclusive.
We hear similar network-effect arguments being made about data. Our experience is that you don’t need data to compete online. When Google started, Yahoo was the biggest player in search by a long way. We used just a little bit of data to figure out how to answer queries in a far better way. Or look at social. We had the most popular social network in Brazil. It was called Orkut, and it had many millions of very active users. But in just a few years, Orkut was overtaken by Facebook, just as Facebook overtook MySpace. It’s the recipe that matters the most, not the ingredients.
The reality is that Google works very differently from other companies that have been called gatekeepers, and regulated as such. We aren’t a ferry. We aren’t a railroad. We aren’t a telecommunications network or an electricity grid, with only one line going to your home, and no competitors allowed. No one is stuck using Google.
We’ve spent the best part of nearly two decades earning your trust and proving our worth to you. And we still do that every day. Because we know that if we cease to be useful, you’ll leave. Constant invention and re-invention is at the heart of a process that keeps Google useful and relevant. If we stop innovating, someone else will innovate around us -- leaving us obsolete over time.
History has proven that size and past success are no guarantee for the future. Great companies can be surpassed swiftly. Look at Yahoo, Nokia, Microsoft, Blackberry and others who seemed unrivaled just a few years ago, but were disrupted by a new wave of tech companies, Google among them. Many of you are skeptical. I get that. You look at Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon and say there’s no way competitors can beat them. I’m less certain.
For one thing, these companies are each others’ biggest competitors, because in tech competition isn’t always like-for-like. Many people think our main competition is Bing or Yahoo. But, really, our biggest search competitor is Amazon. People don’t think of Amazon as search, but if you are looking for something to buy, you are more often than not looking for it on Amazon. They are obviously more focused on the commerce side of the equation, but, at their roots, they are answering users’ questions and searches, just as we are.
But more important, someone, somewhere in a garage is gunning for us. I know, because not long ago we were in that garage. Change comes from where you least expect it. The telegraph disrupted the postal service. Radio and television shook up the news industry. Airplanes ended the age of ocean liners. The next Google won’t do what Google does, just as Google didn’t do what AOL did. Inventions are always dynamic and the resulting upheavals should make us confident that the future won’t be static. This is the process of innovation.
And it’s a process that has been going on since time immemorial, from when someone first had an idea to build something, and someone else thought they could do it better. It’s a process filled with dreamers and doers in equal measure -- people who saw a problem somewhere, and decided to fix it.
Innovation is not just about the next whiz-bang gadget, much though people love them. It’s about our quest for knowledge and our humanity. From the vaccines and medicines that have saved countless lives to the invention of the lowly clothes washing machine, which helped emancipate women.
It’s about economic opportunity too -- a growing workforce and rising living standards, both key to human dignity. Young, fast-growing companies -- the innovators -- are the drivers of growth and employment. And they create a virtuous cycle, as these people are more likely to go on to start their own companies, with their own ideas, generating more economic activity. We have a duty to future generations to keep that cycle going, which in turn means continued encouragement for risk taking and the creative process.
I should be fair to Mark Twain, in closing. He was good friends with the great inventor Nikola Tesla. And while he might not have cared much for the telephone, he had a deep respect for the world of science and technology. He even patented three inventions of his own. One of my favorite pictures is of Twain in Tesla’s laboratory. The great cynic and satirist is standing there, staring at a ball of light emanating from a coil in his hands. He is looking to the future. And he is amazed.
Thank you very much.
Eric Schmidt, Chairman, Google
Sharing spectrum at the ZSL London Zoo
Friday, October 10, 2014
Live video of meerkats, Asian otters and giant Galapagos tortoises from the world’s oldest zoo are coming to
YouTube
. The world loves to watch cute
animal videos
. This time, it’s also worth looking at the technology behind the videos.
Today, Google and
ZSL London Zoo
, opened on April 28, 1827, are launching a trial to test an innovative way of sharing spectrum to power these live video feeds. MediaTek and 6Harmonics are supplying the Wi-Fi equipment and devices being using during the trial.
Radio spectrum is a scarce resource. It is required every time we make a mobile phone call, use Wi-Fi, or listen to the radio. Spectrum is divided into different frequency bands to avoid interference between, say, a radio station and a mobile phone call. As more people go online and the number of wireless devices grows, so does the demand for spectrum.
Within the spectrum used for broadcast TV, there are unused parts which are commonly known as
‘TV White Spaces’
(or TVWS for short). This spectrum is helpful because it can travel longer distances and through physical barriers, providing wireless connectivity in places where other technology can’t — including the centre of one of the busiest cities in the world, in spots where the zoo would have normally needed a wired connection.
Because spectrum is scarce, policymakers and technology companies have been working on guidelines to help allow the shared use of White Spaces. Sharing spectrum in this way could open up many new opportunities for wireless innovation.
The UK is quickly becoming a pioneer of spectrum sharing, thanks to favorable regulation from Ofcom, which is responsible for managing spectrum. This is the first time that Google’s spectrum database is being used in the UK after being certified last year in the US. The database ensures that TVWS can be shared by multiple users without interference — one of the top goals of this trial. These contributions, in addition to the use of new devices that use standard Wi-Fi protocols, show that TVWS technology is gaining momentum around the world.
After testing the technology, the London Zoo is exploring other ways it can use TVWS to help monitor and protect endangered animals in the wild. Last year, the zoo won a
Google Global Impact Award
to help develop the
Instant Wild system,
which uses satellite cameras to provide instant alerts to rangers to help tackle the poaching of rhinos and elephants. We’re delighted that this trial can help power such innovations, bringing wireless connectivity to places where other options won’t work.
Posted by Theo Bertram, European Policy Strategy Team
Transparency and accountability for the “right to be forgotten”
Friday, October 10, 2014
Since the Court of Justice of the European Union
ruling
on May 13, which established a “right to be forgotten” in search results, we’ve received a significant number of requests from Europeans to remove information about them from search results. Today, we’re releasing statistics about these removals in our
Transparency Report
.
We believe it’s important to be transparent about how much information we’re removing from search results while being respectful of individuals who have made requests. Releasing this information to the public helps hold us accountable for our process and implementation.
You can dig into the details on the
Transparency Report
, but we wanted to share some highlights from the stats here. Since our request form went live on May 29, we’ve received more than 142,000 requests to remove links to more than 490,000 web pages from Google Search results.
We’ve received the most removal requests from France, Germany, the UK, Spain, and Italy respectively. We’re also providing some data about the domains that appear most frequently in URLs that individuals ask us to remove. Among these top 10 domains are Facebook, Badoo, and two Google-owned and operated sites, YouTube and Google Groups — both of which have their own mechanisms to request removal of content directly from the platform.
To give you an idea of the range of requests we’ve received and the kinds of decisions we’ve had to make, we’ve included some examples of real requests we’ve received from individuals. These are anonymised so that they don’t include information that would identify individuals.
We hope to find ways to share even more information about about the impact of “the right to be forgotten” in the near future, and continue to work on updating other sections to make them easier to use and more interesting to explore.
Posted by Jess Hemerly, Public Policy Manager, Google
Supporting Europe Code Week
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
The European Commission estimates that more than 900,000 high tech jobs will go unfilled in 2020. While digital competency is one of the most important prerequisites for getting a job, too few students are studying computing. We want to help fill this gap. In order to encourage more school age students to learn about computing, we’re participating in the European Commission initiative,
Europe Code Week
, which takes place Oct 11-17.
We’re providing small grants to organizations who are running events in nearly a dozen countries, from Spain to Slovenia. In Sevilla,
Programamos
is going to teach 100 students to code. In Athens, we’re supporting coding workshops for underprivileged girls with
Greek Geekettes
. Other innovative projects range from
Atelier-Gouter du Code
, which is bringing coding workshops to students in underprivileged areas of Marseilles, France, to
Python for Everyone
through the University of Ljubljana.
An important priority in this year’s event is encouraging girls to explore computer science. We are coordinating Hangouts on Air interviews, hosting female Google engineers from across the continent to show children, especially girls, role models in the tech field. Tune in to
+Europe Code Week’s Google+ Page
.
Click on
Code Week’s events page
to see all the different opportunities to participate in this celebration of computer science.
Posted by Marielena Ivory, Pre-university Education Specialist, Europe
Join the European Health Parliament
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Want to help reinvent health care? Join us in a new European Health Parliament. Together with
Janssen
pharmaceutical company,
the European Voice
, and the
College of Europe
e, we will bring together 80 young professionals in Brussels between November 2014 and June 2015 to look at the opportunities offered by the new digital world to improve medical care and policy. Apply now at
http://www.healthparliament.eu/
,
The Internet promises to bring exciting change to medicine and fitness. At Google, for example, we’re working on cutting edge projects such as a “smart” contact glass, complete with a minaturized wireless chip connected to the Internet, to measure glucose levels for diabetics. While such innovations offer the tantalizing prospect of improving care and building longer, healthier lives, they often also raise difficult questions about privacy and other public policy matters.
Over the course of the next six months, members of the European Health Parliament will meet in Brussels with politicians, experts and opinion leaders. At the end of the process, they will co-author a prestigious publication on the future of healthcare in the Internet era.
Eligibility
AGE: below 35 (Born after 1/1/1979)
EDUCATION: University graduate
AVAILABILITY: Participation will be required in four plenary sessions and several committee meetings in Brussels. Unfortunately, transportation costs will not be reimbursed.
WORKING LANGUAGE: Fluent spoken and written English.
ATTITUDE: Enthusiastic, creative, pro-active, curious and eager to improve the face of future healthcare;
No prior expertise in healthcare is required.
Application Process
The application deadline is October 20, 2014. A jury of professionals from the College of Europe, Janssen, European Voice and Google will choose the successful "parliamentarians."
Before applying, please be sure that you can attend the plenary sessions:
November 21, 2014 (Opening Session)
February 27, 2015
April 5, 2015
June 17, 2015 (Closing Session)
Apply. You can change the face of European health care.
Posted by Catherine Williams, Public Policy analyst, Brussels
Right to be Forgotten Advisory Council in Berlin and London
Monday, October 6, 2014
Over the last two weeks,
the Advisory Council to Google on the Right to be Forgotten
held public meetings in Paris and Warsaw, where they heard from national experts and members of the public. The next two public meetings take place on 14th October in Berlin and on 16th October in London.
A limited number of seats are available for members of the public at each Council meeting, and online registration is now open. Registration will remain open until the day before the event. There is no charge to attend.
Berlin:
register here
to attend the public meeting in Berlin.
Members of the press can register here
.
London:
register here
to attend the public meeting in London.
Members of the press can register here
.
At each meeting, the Council will listen to statements from invited experts, ask questions of the experts and discuss matters of law, technology, and ethics. The public portion of each Advisory Council meeting will last around four hours, with a short intermission. The whole meeting will also be live-streamed on the
Advisory Council’s website
.
During the event, members of the audience can submit questions to the Council and invited experts. The Council also invites members of the public to share their thoughts on the Right to be Forgotten via the form at
google.com/advisorycouncil
- all contributions will be read and discussed. Individuals or organizations with subject matter expertise can submit attachments such as research papers at
google.com/advisorycouncil/comments
on an ongoing basis.
After Berlin and London, the Council will make one final stop in Brussels (4th November), before starting work on its report, which will be published in early 2015. Registration for the Brussels meeting will start approximately ten days beforehand, and we’ll post details on this blog and on the Advisory Council website in due course.
We look forward to seeing you at one of the meetings.
Posted by Betsy Masiello, Google Secretariat to the Advisory Council
Google Campus is coming to Spain!
Monday, October 6, 2014
Google began as a startup in garage, and supporting startups remains a very important part of our DNA. We continually see that when people are empowered to dream big and are empowered to take action, that entrepreneurs turn those ideas into growing companies, creating a powerful startup community, solving big problems, and supporting a thriving economy.
So today we're thrilled to announce Campus Madrid, a new home for innovation in Spain.
Campuses
are Google's spaces for entrepreneurs to learn, connect, and build companies that will change the world. At Campus, entrepreneurs get unparalleled access to mentorship and trainings led by their local startup community, experienced entrepreneurs, and teams from Google.
Two years ago we opened our first Campuses,
Campus London
and
Campus Tel Aviv
. We've seen incredible momentum in these two spaces. In 2013, startups at Campus London raised more 34M GBP, and created more than 570 jobs. We recently announced new Campus locations coming to Warsaw, Poland, Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Seoul, South Korea. Entrepreneurs at Campus Madrid will benefit from this global network of Campuses, including our Campus Exchange program, giving entrepreneurs access to other workspaces around the world.
Google Campus London
Google Campus Tel Aviv
In addition to global opportunities, we will run many new programs in our Madrid location, including
Campus for Moms
,
CampusEDU
and Office Hours with Googler mentors.
We decided to open a Campus in Madrid because of the thriving entrepreneurial spirit in Spain.
We have seen the booming entrepreneurial community in Spain and are excited to join the local community in making it even stronger. Our hope is that Campus Madrid will supercharge tech entrepreneurs, strengthen the startup ecosystem and encourage even more innovation in Spain, Europe, and beyond.
We look forward to opening our doors next year and filling Campus Madrid with startups!
Posted by Mary Grove, Director of Google for Entrepreneurs
Street View reaches new heights
Friday, October 3, 2014
Street View cars, Trekkers and trikes are always striving to unveil new informative and entertaining views of the world, making
Google Maps
more useful and comprehensive. In recent weeks, we have launched two exciting European projects — one in Switzerland, the other in Russia — which literally take the images to a new velocity and a new height!
StreetView Trekker climbs the Swiss Alps
Together with the
Swiss Alpine Club
(SAC) and the Swiss Tourism Board
(MySwitzerland.com)
, we launched a contest called “Queen of the Alps.” High in the Swiss Alps, far from any road or other buildings, are picturesque huts used to spend a night by farmers and vacationers.
It often takes a full day hike to reach these out of the way huts. We ran online vote to find the favorite Swiss hut, promising to film the choice for Street View. The Swiss Alpine Club’s
Lauteraarhütte-SAC
in the canton of Berne (region “Grimselgebiet”) won. It took our Trekkers a five hour hike up the Grimsels Hospiz to capture this exciting imagery.
The interior of the winning alpine hut
In Russia, the site of our Street View shoot was much more accessible but just as exciting - the Winter Olympic venues in Sochi. Stroll around the Fischt stadium which hosted the opening and closing ceremonies. Walk on the Ice Palace "Iceberg" and visit the Olympic Village, where your favorite team stayed.
In particular, take a look at the new Formula 1 track in Sochi. It is located in the city’s Olympic Park and is the only Formula 1 track in Russia. From October 10-12, Russia will host its first World Championship race.
The new Sochi Formula 1 Track on StreetView
Before the event, we thought it would be cool for racing fans to test out the new track. The new Street View imagery allows anyone, anywhere to preview the route. Take a spin.
Posted by Marta Nowak-Przygodzka, Street View team
Seizing the digital opportunity in France
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
All too often, fast-moving, disruptive digital innovation is presented as the enemy of Europe’s enviable social system. The reality, according to a
new study
published this week in Paris by consultants Roland Berger, is that digital companies not only boost economic growth - they also increase worker satisfaction.
Launching the new Roland Berger Internet report
Berger studied 505 companies, all with more than 50 employees, classifying them in four categories by how much they use the Internet. Its study focused not on sexy Internet startups, but on traditional industries such as chemistry, energy or manufacturing. The conclusion was striking: new digital technologies are just as important in these traditional sectors as for high tech startups. The most “digital” grow six times faster than the “least digital”.
Given this finding, it is unsurprising that French companies sense the opportunity: some 57% interviewed put digital transformation as one of their medium term strategic priorities. Unfortunately, actions do not follow these intentions. Only 36% of French companies have a formal digital strategy and French corporate Internet engagement lags far behind French consumer use. While nearly six in 10 French people shopped online in 2013, only one French company in 10 sold online.
If more French companies embarked on the digital journey, Berger argues they would not only improve their performance - they also would please workers. Employees of the most digitally mature companies feel at least 50 percent more involved and happier in their professional life than those of the least matures ones. In a country famed for its quality of life, this is indeed an impressive finding!
Posted by Elisabeth Bargès, Senior Manager, Public Policy and Government Affairs, France
Encouraging Online Video Content in Israel
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Many countries, particularly small ones, face a similar dilemma - how to encourage local production in their own languages. Governments might suggest that the best response is regulation, to artificially require local language video content production. We believe this is neither justified nor effective.
The Internet encourages local content creation. In Israel, the creators of
Tu-Ti-Tu
, an Israeli animation studio specializing in shows for toddlers, tried to make it on TV for years without much success. Today, Tu-Ti-Tu is among the 100 most viewed channels globally on YouTube, and one of the 10 leading channels for family entertainment.
All told, YouTube captures more than a billion views each day. For content creators in a small country like Israel, the internet connects them to a global audience, overcoming physical barriers.
Here, we’ve partnered with the Israeli Film and TV Producers Association and with the Ministry of Economy to run
Made for Web
- a celebration of Israeli content online.
It’s a competition for online video content. Winners are rewarded with cash prizes and a trip to the YouTube Space in London. Last year, there were more than 150 innovative, funny and serious submissions, ranging from travel advice by a three year old child, to an action series for gamers. Winners took a
visit
to the YouTube
space
in London, which they later described as “heaven for video creators.”
This year, we’re going to be running a
workshop
on October 29 in Tel Aviv, where Israeli creators can meet international and local speakers and share best practices.
Matthew Clarke
of Maker Studio and Jake Roper from
Vsauce
will be there. Most important, Made for Web II is now open for submissions.
Apply
by October 31st - and create some more great Hebrew language video.
Posted by Noa Elefant Loffler, Policy and Government Relations Senior Manager, Israel
Spurring Greek tourism
Monday, September 29, 2014
For the past five years, an economic meltdown has plunged Greece into crisis. Amid the the rubble, the country’s economic motor more than ever has become tourism. It now accounts 17% of GDP, and powered by the Internet, is demonstrating, a high potential for growth. Our
"Grow Greek Tourism Online”
program, launched, in partnership with the Minister of Tourism, the National Tourism Board and the Federation of Tourism Enterprises, allows B&Bs, neighborhood restaurants and even specialty ice cream shops and bars to use the Internet and reach new customers.
The program provides tourism entrepreneurs with digital skills and tools to grow their business during and beyond Greece’s short summer tourism season. About 70 percent of the country's tourism arrivals take place between June and September. Although Greece's islands and beaches are delightful in spring and autumn, only about 17 percent of tourists come in May, October and November. “Now, more than ever, it is possible to gradually extend the tourist season. Through web partnerships and the use of innovative tools, we make a further step in this direction," said
Olga Kefalogianni
, the Minister of Tourism.
The opportunity is significant: According to recent
research
by Oxford Economics, an increase in the online activities of the Greek tourism industry can grow Greece’s GDP by 3% and create 100K new jobs.
As a first step, we kicked off the program in Crete (which accounts for 15 percent of the country’s tourism business), hosting events for small and medium sized businesses in the island’s two largest cities, Chania and Heraklion. More than 600 companies participated. Greece’s National Tourism Board EOT launched a campaign for Crete as an autumn tourism destination on their
+Page
with over 1.4 million followers. “Everyone involved in tourism must take advantage of the web." said EOT’s General Secretary, Panos Livadas. The President of the Federation of Tourism Enterprises Andreas Andreadis summed up the project best: "That’s a strong bright light which should help power Greece out of its long economic gloom.”
Posted by Dionisis Kolokotsas, Public Policy & Government Relations Manager, Athens
Dear Rupert
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Last week, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp sent an open letter to the European Commission complaining about Google. We wanted to share our perspective so you can judge the arguments on their merits.
News Corp:
“The Internet should be a canvas for freedom of expression and for high quality content of enduring value.”
Google:
We agree about free expression and the importance of high quality content. Access to information in any given country, particularly news content, used to be controlled by a relatively small number of media organizations. Today, people have far greater choice. That has had a profound impact on newspapers, who face much stiffer competition for people’s attention and for advertising Euros.
Google has worked hard to help publishers succeed online -- both in terms of generating new audiences and also increasing their digital revenues. Our search products drive over 10 billion clicks a month to 60,000 publishers’ websites, and we share billions of dollars annually with advertising publishing partners. We’ve also created a digital store on Android -- Google Play -- that lets news publishers offer their publications for purchase or subscription. We hope this will also increase their audience and digital revenues. In addition, we invest in initiatives like
Google’s Journalism Fellowships
, and help train thousands of journalists through our
Google for Media
program.
News Corp:
Google is a “platform for piracy and the spread of malicious networks” and “a company that boasts about its ability to track traffic [but] chooses to ignore the unlawful and unsavoury content that surfaces after the simplest of searches”
Google:
Google has done more than almost any other company to help
tackle
online piracy.
Search:
In 2013 we removed 222 million web pages from Google Search due to copyright infringement. The average take-down time is now just six hours. And we
downgrade
websites that regularly violate copyright in our search rankings.
Video:
We’ve invested tens of millions of dollars in innovative technology -- called ContentID -- to tackle piracy on YouTube.
Google is also an industry leader in
combating
child sexual abuse imagery online. We use hashing technology to remove illegal imagery from all our products and from the search index. We have safe modes for both Search and YouTube that filter out inappropriate content. And we are committed to protecting our users’ security. It’s why we remove malware from our search results and other products, and protect more than 1 billion users every day from phishing and malware with our Safe Browsing warnings.
News Corp:
Google’s “power” makes it hard for people to “access information independently and meaningfully.” Google is “willing to exploit [its] dominant market position to stifle competition.
”
Google:
With the Internet, people enjoy greater choice than ever before -- and because the competition is just one click away online, barriers to switching are very, very low. Google is of course very popular in Europe, but we are not the gatekeeper to the web, as some claim.
Direct traffic:
Huge numbers of readers go direct to news sites such as the
wsj.com
or
thesun.co.uk
.
New ways to access information:
As
The Economist
reported last week “mobile devices have changed the way people travel the Internet. Users now prefer apps (self contained programmes on smartphones) to websites’ home pages”. In this world Google Search is an app alongside many others. The same article adds “the rise of social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest … have become an important navigation system for people looking for content across the Web”. It’s why many newspapers get an increasing number of referrals from Facebook and Twitter.
Search competition:
Within search Google faces a lot of competition: including Amazon for product search; Kayak and Expedia for flights; and Yelp and TripAdvisor for local information. While companies like Expedia and Yelp object to us providing direct answers to users' questions, their revenues, profit and traffic from Google continue to grow.
And when it comes to our answers versus other websites, Larry Page, our co-founder, has always believed that the perfect search engine would "understand exactly what you mean and give you back exactly what you want." Initially, ten blue links were the best answer we could give. But now we have the ability to provide direct answers to users' queries, which is much quicker and easier for them. If you are searching for the weather, you want the weather where you are, on the results page, not just links to weather sites. Or directions: if your query is "where is the nearest pharmacy?", you want a map with directions, not just links to other sites. This is especially important on mobile where screens are smaller and typing is harder.
News Corp:
“Sudden changes are made to the ranking and display of Google search results, which inevitably maximise income for Google and yet punish small companies that have become dependent on Google for their livelihood.”
Google:
Of course we regularly change our algorithms -- we make over 500 changes a year. But these changes are all about improving the user experience, not punishing small companies. Indeed, it's well documented that the highest-profile change to our search ranking, called “Panda”, actually reduced our advertising revenue. As Yelp, another complainant to the EC,
said
on a recent earnings call:
“Where we have the largest communities in the U.S., we’ve seen actually an uptick as a result of the recent Google algorithmic change. They’re constantly making changes and alterations ... and most of that really, on a day-to-day basis, doesn’t have a material effect”
.
News Corp:
“Google has developed a "certification" process for Android-related products which allows it to delay or deny content companies and other businesses access to the mobile operating system, while giving itseIf the freedom to develop competing products.”
Google:
Android is an open-source operating system that can be used free-of-charge by anyone. You don’t need Google’s permission. If hardware manufacturers want to offer applications via Google Play, our digital apps store, we simply ask that they meet a minimum technical standard to ensure these apps run smoothly and securely across a range of Android-powered devices. This is good for users and for app developers. Many manufacturers, including Amazon and Nokia, choose to install their own apps stores on their Android-based devices.
News Corp:
“Google is commodifying the audience of specialist publishers and limiting their ability to generate advertising revenue. Data aggregators attempt to sell audiences at a steep discount to the original source, for example, access to 75 per cent of The Wall Street Journal demographic at 25 per cent of the price, thus undermining the business model of the content creator.”
Google:
When selling their ad space, publishers can decide which partners they work with, who can buy ads on their website, and who can reach their audiences. Indeed, in a
recent press release to investors
, News Corp explained that it had created a private advertising exchange to limit the partners it works with to prevent exactly this kind of commoditization. Robert Thomson, News Corp’s CEO, said at the time:
“The only way to reach the world’s greatest content and the most prestigious and lucrative audiences is directly through our digital properties. Third parties are no longer invited to the party”
. Google works with publishers to protect their content and maximize their advertising revenues.
News Corp:
“Google routinely displays YouTube results at the top of its search pages, even if YouTube is not the original source of that content.”
Google:
A simple Google search for “videos of Robert Thomson News Corp” shows content from the BBC, the Wall Street Journal, and Nasdaq ranked above anything from YouTube. We only show YouTube results when they’re relevant to a search query.
News Corp:
"The shining vision of Google's founders has been replaced by a cynical management..."
Google:
Larry Page and Sergey Brin are still very much at the helm of Google -- Larry is CEO and both remain the inspiration behind our next generation of big bets... self-driving cars, Loon, Fiber and more.
News Corp:
“Undermining the basic business model of professional content creators will lead to a less informed, more vexatious level of dialogue in our society … the intemperate trends we are already seeing in much of Europe will proliferate.”
Google:
People probably have
enough evidence
to judge that one for themselves :)
Posted by Rachel Whetstone, SVP Global Communications
Expanding our data centres in Europe
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
The Internet is growing fast and so is demand for our services, from search to Gmail and YouTube. In order to keep up with this growth, we are announcing a new EUR600 million investment over the next four years to build a new
data centre
in Eemshaven, the Netherlands.
Groundbreaking at our new data centre site in the Eemshaven with, on the right, Dutch Economics Minister Henk Kamp
At a time of high unemployment throughout Europe, the project promises a welcome infusion of jobs. Construction will provide work for more than 1000 workers. We expect to start initial operations in the first half of 2016 and to be fully operational by the end of 2017. By then, the centre will create employment for more than 150 people in a range of full-time and contractor roles. The jobs do not require phds in computer science; they include IT technicians, electrical and mechanical engineers, catering, facilities and security staff.
The new Dutch data centre will benefit from the latest designs in cooling and electrical technology. It will be free-cooled - taking advantage of natural assets like cool air and grey water to keep our servers cool. Our data centers use 50% less energy than a typical datacenter - and our intention is to run this new facility on renewable energy.
This will be Google’s fourth hyper efficient facility in Europe. Importantly, demand for Internet services remains so strong that the new building does not mean a reduction in expansion elsewhere. Our expansion will continue in Dublin in
Ireland
, in Hamina in
Finland
, and in St. Ghislain in
Belgium
. Our existing rented datacenter facility in Eemshaven also will continue to operate.
Since our investment in our first European datacenter back in 2007, we have been on the lookout for supportive communities with the necessary resources to support large data centers. The required ingredients are land, workforce, networking, a choice of power and other utilities including renewable energy supplies.
It’s much more efficient to build a few large facilities than many small ones. Eemshaven enjoys a direct cable connection to two major European Internet hubs, London and Amsterdam. In the Eemshaven, we've found a great community in a great location that meets the needs to become a backbone for the expanding Internet.
Posted by William Echikson, Head of Data Centre Community Relations, Europe
Irish students win the 2014 Google Science Fair
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Ciara Judge, Émer Hickey and Sophie Healy-Thow became interested in addressing the global food crisis after learning about the Horn of Africa famine in 2011. When a gardening project went awry, they discovered a naturally occurring bacteria in soil called Diazotroph. The girls determined that the bacteria could be used to speed up the the germination process of certain crops, like barley and oats, by 50 percent, potentially helping fulfill the rising demand for food worldwide. Oh—and they’re 16 years old.
Today, Ciara, Émer and Sophie were named the Grand Prize Winner and the 15-16 age category winners of our fourth annual
Google Science Fair
. They are some of thousands of students ages 13-18 who
dared to ask tough questions like
: How can we stop cyberbullying? How can I help my grandfather who has Alzheimer's from wandering out of bed at night? How can we protect the environment? And then they actually went out and answered them.
From thousands of submissions from 90+ countries, our
panel of esteemed judges
selected 18 finalists representing nine countries—Australia, Canada, France, India, Russia, U.K., Ukraine and the U.S.—who spent today impressing Googlers and local school students at our Mountain View, Calif. headquarters. In addition to our Grand Prize Winners, the winners of the 2014 Google Science Fair are:
13-14 age category: Mihir Garimella (Pennsylvania, USA)
for his project
FlyBot: Mimicking Fruit Fly Response Patterns for Threat Evasion
. Like many boys his age, Mihir is fascinated with robots. But he took it to the next level and actually built a flying robot, much like the ones used in search and rescue missions, that was inspired by the way fruit flies detect and respond to threats. Mihir is also the winner of the very first Computer Science award, sponsored by Google.
17-18 age category: Hayley Todesco (Alberta, Canada)
for her project
Waste to Water: Biodegrading Naphthenic Acids using Novel Sand Bioreactors
. Hayley became deeply interested in the environment after watching Al Gore’s documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.” Her project uses a sustainable and efficient method to break down pollutant substances and toxins found in
tailing
ponds water in her hometown, a hub of the oil sands industry.
The Scientific American
Science in Action award
: Kenneth Shinozuka (Brooklyn, New York)
for his wearable sensors project. Kenneth was inspired by his grandfather and hopes to help others around the world dealing with Alzheimer's. The
Scientific American
award is given to a project that addresses a health, resource or environmental challenge.
Voter’s Choice award: Arsh Dilbagi (India)
for his project
Talk
, which enables people with speech difficulties to communicate by simply exhaling.
As the Grand Prize winners, Ciara, Émer and Sophie
receive
a 10-day trip to the Galapagos Islands provided by
National Geographic
, a $50,000 scholarship from Google, a personalized LEGO prize provided by
LEGO Education
and the chance to participate in astronaut training at the
Virgin Galactic
Spaceport in the Mojave desert.
Thanks to all of our young finalists and to everyone who participated in this year’s Google Science Fair. We started the Science Fair to inspire scientific exploration among young people and celebrate the next generation of scientist and engineers. And every year we end up amazed by how much you inspire us. So, keep dreaming, creating and asking questions. We look forward to hearing the answers.
Posted by Clare Conway, on behalf of the Google Science Fair team
Creating value from data
Thursday, September 18, 2014
At Google, we like to experiment. Today we are experimenting with a guest blogpost from the UK innovation charity Nesta. Although we had no involvement in this study of how companies best can benefit from the information age, we think it offers a valuable contribution on Europe’s skills debate and wanted to share the conclusions.
We are living in the middle of a data explosion – a rich opportunity, but also a much
misunderstood one. In previous
research
, we showed that businesses which analyse their data intensively become 10% more productive than their average competitor. By contrast, collecting data on its own has little impact on performance.
Our newly published research,
ModelWorkers
, the first report in a project in collaboration with Creative Skillset and The Royal Statistical Society, looks at the data skills that businesses need to produce these impacts.
Model Workers
Interviews with 45 experts in UK data-driven companies reveal that all types of companies are converging into the ‘big data’ space. from pharmaceutical giants to small retailers and manufacturers. All are all experimenting with bigger, messier and faster data, and catching up with leading players in software, advertising, games and finance.
As a result, everyone is looking for the same ‘perfect data analyst’, or ‘data scientist’: a creative worker with analytical, coding and business skills, team working and charisma. These people are hard to find. Four out of five of the companies we interviewed say they struggle to find data scientists.
In Model Workers we identify interventions to remove these shortages. They include up-skilling established professionals such as statisticians, programmers and social scientists, developing vocational training in universities and encouraging more crossover between computer science, statistics and business disciplines. We also need to build up communities of data practice, and develop training and professional standards. Policymakers should make it easier for foreign students to work in Europe after completing data analysis courses.
In the longer term we need to improve the teaching of maths at schools, and change false perceptions of data work as boring and dull. Some of the most exciting and creative jobs across the economy today – from developing new games to discovering new drugs – are based on data, and we need to make sure everyone is aware of this crucial trend.
Posted by Hasan Bakhshi and Juan Mateos-Garcia, Nesta
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