Europe Blog
Our views on the Internet and society
Follow the user - digital news in a digital world
Thursday, October 22, 2015
Carlo d’Asaro Biondo, President, EMEA Strategic Relationships at Google, gave a speech today at the
Munich Media Days Conference
, outlining the progress made by the Digital News Initiative made since April 2015, including
the launch, today, of an €150m Innovation Fund for the European news sector
. The full text of his speech is included here.
Thanks for that introduction and for having me to speak today.
It’s an honour to be here at the Munich Media Days. The theme of this conference is how the media can find success in this era of digital disruption. And the theme of this talk suggests the answer: “follow the user”.
A lot has already been said at this conference about how today’s users interact with news.
What do we know? They are moving very fast to mobile - two thirds of smartphone users are consuming news on mobile devices. They love video, they love speed. They follow the news through social channels and apps. They really dislike intrusive ads (more on that later!)
That’s a snapshot, but it illustrates the scale of the challenge that you face in imagining the future of news - and that we face too.
News is - and will remain - a hugely important part of the information eco-system. At Google we recognise that. And we want to play our part in building a successful and sustainable relationship between publishers, technology and the user. We want high quality journalism to thrive for the long term.
Today I want to update you on the progress we are making in that three-way relationship.
It was just nine months ago - not too far from here in Davos - that we met with a group of European publishers and agreed to form the Digital News Initiative, or DNI.
The goal was simple: to encourage a more sustainable news ecosystem -- and promote innovation in digital journalism -- by promoting ongoing collaboration and dialogue between the tech and news sectors.
And we agreed at the outset that this would be an open collaboration - everyone involved in Europe’s digital news industry - large or small, established or newcomer - would be welcome to participate.
I’m delighted to say that today we are working together with more than 120 European partners across the news and tech sectors, including many of the most important names in global journalism. Die Zeit, FAZ and Der Spiegel here in Germany, the Guardian, Financial Times, the BBC, The Economist, La Stampa, El Pais, Les Echos, Euronews and many, many others.
But I want to make one thing very clear. Getting involved in the Digital News Initiative is not about buying into Google’s worldview or selling your soul. There are no contracts or conditions. You can choose to get involved in any or all of the elements of the DNI. It’s open to everyone, and it is all about working together.
So, what are we working on together?
Product Development
The DNI has three pillars. The first concerns Product Development. When we asked news publishers what Google could do to help build a more sustainable future for digital journalism, three words dominated their answers. Engineering and Mountain View!
When I announced the Digital News Initiative back in April, the publishers were cautious - perhaps rightly so. They wanted to see commitment to the project from the highest levels at Google. Let me quote from an article that Tony Danker, Chief Strategy Officer at the Guardian, wrote at the time:
“Can today’s initiative be a genuine partnership between Google and journalism, and thereby a tide to lift all boats? This would require Google’s leadership to see both mission and method here and to realise the real benefits for users. It would see them deploy their best engineering brains to want to fix the problem. It would result in fresh thinking within the product and engineering organisation at Google...It would see this thinking and this partnership spread globally. In short, it would mean more work in Mountain View than Brussels.”
Quite a challenge. But I firmly believe we are delivering upon it.
Over the past 6 months we have engaged in detailed discussions between publishers and Google’s best engineering and product minds to rethink the way users consume and interact with news and technology in this mobile age. The commitment goes right to the very top of Google - our new chief executive Sundar Pichai is closely involved in the project.
Two weeks ago we saw the first fruits of this collaboration when we announced a new initiative called
Accelerated Mobile Pages
, which aims to dramatically improve the performance of the mobile web.
The essence of this project is speed and openness. Today, users are increasingly consuming their news on the mobile web. But every time a mobile web page takes too long to load, potential readers will abandon it and publishers lose the opportunity to earn revenue through advertising or subscriptions.
The AMP project aims to make loading lightning fast. Under its open source framework, publishers will be able to build light-weight web pages which will still include rich content like video, graphics and ads, but will load instantly. The same code will work across multiple platforms and devices so that content can appear everywhere in an instant, no matter what type of phone or tablet you’re using.
And publishers will remain in control of their content and advertising. Publishers will continue to host their own web pages and will be able keep their choice of ad networks. It’s also a key aim of the project to support subscriptions and paywalls.
Although the conversations that led to this project started in Europe, we are pleased to have started this open-source initiative with more than 30 partners globally - including publishers like the New York Times and NewsCorp, technology platforms like Twitter and Pinterest, analytics partners like Adobe and Chartbeat, and pure digital players like Vox and Buzzfeed.
We’re just at the beginning of an exciting journey, but we expect AMPs to be live in Google Search in early 2016, and you can try out a demo right now on your phone or tablet.
Just type
g.co/ampdemo
into your mobile browser
You’ll see a Google Search page and then type in a popular news query like Syria or the name of one of the publications involved in the trial, for example the FAZ. You’ll see it’s very fast, that means more traffic and more opportunities for monetisation. Most importantly, it offers a great experience for the user.
The
AMP project
is about ensuring that the World Wide Web remains fast, vibrant and compelling. And in doing so, to ensure that publishers - large and small - can have their content presented Instantly Everywhere, without having to pursue a deal with proprietary platforms.
We’ve been thrilled at the reaction we’ve had so far - we’ve had expressions of interest from hundreds of publishers and platforms around the world - and we invite others to get involved.
But don’t get too engrossed in the demo - I’ve got plenty more to tell you about!
The AMP project is just one element of a much broader conversation with publishers across a range of areas - mobile, video, monetisation and data. Some developments will be small and incremental, others we hope can be transformative. The point is that these decisions are no longer being made in a vacuum, but as a result of consultation and collaboration with news publishers.
We’re excited about the opportunities and we’ll have more to announce very soon.
Training and research
The second pillar of the DNI relates to training and research. A phrase we use very often at Google is: focus on the user and all else will follow. And of course news editors put great emphasis on a similar phrase - know your reader.
But today, simply understanding - either through gut instinct or metrics - what your readers or viewers are interested in is only half the battle. The evolution of the technology means that the way users consume, interact with and share news content has become central to the process. Journalism - and the technology that delivers the journalism to users - are two sides of the same coin.
In our conversations with publishers we’ve heard there is a great appetite in newsrooms to learn how to make the most of digital tools for journalism. And through our newly established
News Lab
team we have already run training sessions for more than two thousand journalists across Europe, with newsroom visits, conferences, workshops and more.
In the course of those sessions we got great feedback from newsrooms on how we can make our tools for journalists more useful. One example is
Google Search Trends
, which allows journalists to see what readers in their country or region are searching for. The feedback we had from newsrooms was: “that’s great, but for the purpose of journalism it really needs to be up to the minute.”
So, after consultation with dozens of journalists, in June we launched real time Search Trends - and many newsrooms are now using those insights to shape and inform their journalism.
And because we’d like this kind of collaboration to go deeper, we have for the first time hired a dedicated team to work with newsrooms in Europe.
Allow me to introduce our newest News Lab recruit - Isa Sonnenfeld - who many of you will already know from her work with Twitter. Stand up Isa!
Isa will be based here in Germany in Berlin, partnering with journalism organisations such as the European Journalism Centre, the Global Editors Network and the International News Media Association to create training programmes and tools tailored to the needs of newsrooms.
Isa will be here throughout the day and would love to catch up with you in one of the breaks.
We also believe that research and measurement are vital to the future of the European news ecosystem. In order to follow the user it is very important to know what the user is doing, how his and her habits are changing. So we have been supporting the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism in its effort to produce the Digital News Report, which has quickly become the most authoritative guide to the fast changing patterns of news consumption.
Before the Reuters Institute launched the first Digital News report in 2012, much of this essential data simply didn’t exist. I’m delighted that as a result of our support the Reuters Institute has today added a further six countries to their survey - Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Turkey, Poland and Portugal - bringing the number of countries covered to twenty.
Innovation Fund launching today
The third pillar of the Digital News Initiative is the Innovation Fund. Earlier this year we announced that Google will make 150 million euros available over the next three years to support innovation in digital journalism in Europe. I’m pleased to announce that the fund OPENS TODAY for applications.
News organisations innovate every day - they start with a blank canvas and they fill it with compelling content. News is by definition innovation.
But because the machinery of getting your product out every day is complicated, it’s very hard to find the time and resources to experiment with new approaches to journalism and production.
The DNI Innovation Fund aims to tackle that problem by providing non-refundable support for projects that demonstrate new thinking in the practice of digital journalism, that promote the development of new business models or maybe even change the way users consume digital news.
The Fund is open to established publishers, online-only players, news start-ups, collaborative partnerships and individuals based in Europe. We’re looking for applications for both large and small projects. There is a Prototype track, which is open to everyone, including individuals established in the EU or EFTA, which will offer funding of up to €50.000 per project. And companies and organizations can also submit larger projects, requiring up to €1 million of funding. Projects can focus on your organisation specifically, or be collaborative with other industry players.
If you want to apply to the Innovation Fund, you can find all the details on our website
digitalnewsinitiave.com
. We will make the first funds available early in the new year.
The process will be inclusive and transparent, overseen by a Council including leading players in European journalism. And let me add that there is no tie-in with any of Google’s products.
Why are we launching an Innovation Fund? It comes back to the feedback we’ve had in our many conversations with publishers. The DNI is all about collaboration and engagement - and as I have described, we think there is much that Google can do to help build a more sustainable future for journalism. But no--one has all the answers, and maybe there are solutions out there that no-one has thought of yet. The fund aims to stimulate that new thinking.
Adblockers
Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t say a word about the issue that every publisher is currently talking about - Ad blockers.
Ads are important - they have funded the news media for centuries and they fund the majority of the web today. The EU online advertising market grew to 30 billion euros in 2014. That is money that funds journalism, provides jobs and keeps internet services diverse and accessible.
But ad blockers are growing because consumers are having a bad experience with ads - people hate bad ads: ads that are intrusive, video ads that interrupt, ads that won’t get out of the way and block the content you are trying to enjoy.
We agree - consumers deserve a better ad experience. We - like many other good actors - work to remove the worst offenders. And we work on better alternatives - seamless and useful search ads and skippable ads on YouTube.
The problem is that Ad blockers that block all ads are throwing the baby out with the bathwater, threatening the livelihood of good content creators who are trying to do the right thing.
We need to find a solution -- and fast. We need to work together to create a standard for better ads online. A standard that addresses the bad ad experience that consumers are exposed to. A standard that in time will persuade consumers that they no longer need to use ad blockers.
We are committed to finding a solution that aligns the interests of advertisers, content creators and consumers, and allows readers to continue enjoying great content.
Partnership is better than dispute
The experience of the past year makes me optimistic we can do it. If you had told me twelve months ago that Google would be working together with more than 100 publishers in Europe to build a better web and a more sustainable future for the news industry I think I would have said you were dreaming.
We still have a long way to go, but I am convinced we have proven to each other - and to everyone else - that working together is much more effective than the alternatives.
Partnership is better than dispute. In a fast changing world, technology solutions are better than regulation. Making friends is so much better than making enemies.
Let’s keep going!
Thank you.
Posted by Al Verney, Head of Corporate Communications
Digital News Initiative: €150m Innovation Fund now open
Thursday, October 22, 2015
In April, we launched the
Digital News Initiative
, a partnership with eleven European news organisations to support high quality journalism through technology and innovation. The initiative is open to anyone involved in Europe’s digital news industry, large or small, established or newcomer, and since launch, more than 120 organisations have signed up to participate. Today, we’re excited to open up the
DNI Innovation Fund
for applications, and we hope that many more people will get involved.
The ambition and intent of the Fund is bold: to spark new thinking, which could come from anywhere in the news ecosystem, to give news organisations - of all sizes - the space to try some new things. We’ve set aside up to €150 million for that purpose, which we’ll make available in the form of no-strings-attached awards over the next three years.
There will be at least two application rounds per year. The first one starts today, and finishes on December 4th. The next one will begin in Spring 2016 and details will be announced via the Digital News Initiative website.
Here’s a quick rundown of how the Fund works.
Projects
We’re looking for projects that demonstrate new thinking in the practice of digital journalism; that support the development of new business models, or maybe even change the way users consume digital news. Projects can be highly experimental, but must have well-defined goals and have a significant digital component. There is no requirement to use any Google products. Successful projects will show innovation and have a positive impact on the production of original digital journalism and on the future sustainability of the news business.
Eligibility
The Fund is open to established publishers, online-only players, news start-ups, collaborative partnerships and individuals based in the EU and EFTA countries.
Funding
There are three categories of funding available:
Prototype projects
: open to organisations - and to individuals - that meet the eligibility criteria, and require up to €50k of funding. These projects should be very early stage, with ideas yet to be designed and assumptions yet to be tested. We will fast-track such projects and will fund 100% of the total cost.
Medium projects
: open to organisations that meet the eligibility criteria and require up to €300k of funding. We will accept funding requests up to 70% of the total cost of the project.
Large projects
: open to organisations that meet the eligibility criteria and require more than €300k of funding. We will accept funding requests up to 70% of the total cost of the project. Funding is capped at €1 million.
Exceptions to the €1 million cap are possible for large projects that are collaborative (e.g., international, sector-wide, involving multiple organisations) or that significantly benefit the broad news ecosystem.
How to apply
Visit the
Digital News Initiative website
for full details, including eligibility criteria, terms and conditions, and application forms. Applications must be made in English and the submission deadline for the first round of funding is 4th December 2015.
Governance
We’ve consulted widely to ensure that the Fund has inclusive and transparent application and selection processes. Confidentiality is critical; applicants should not share business-sensitive or highly confidential information. Full details can be found on the DNI website.
Initial selection of projects will be done by a Project team, composed of a mix of experienced industry figures and Google staff, who will review all applications for eligibility, innovation and impact. They’ll make recommendations on funding for Prototype and Medium projects to the Fund’s Council, which will have oversight of the Fund’s selection process. The Council will vote on Large projects.
Council members:
Joao Palmeiro, President of the Portuguese publishers association and Chair of the DNI Innovation Fund Council
Alexander Asseily, Founder & CEO of State, Founder of Jawbone
Arianna Ciccone, Co-Founder and Director of the Perugia International Journalism Festival
Bartosz Hojka, CEO of Agora S.A.
Katharina Borchert, CEO Spiegel Online
Veit Dengler, CEO, Neue Zürcher Zeitung
Rosalia Lloret, Head of Institutional Relations, Online Publishers’ Association Europe
Bruno Patino, Dean of Sciences-Po Journalism School
Murdoch MacLennan, CEO of the Telegraph Media Group
Madhav Chinnappa, Head of Strategic Relations, News and Publishers, Google
Torsten Schuppe, Director of Marketing EMEA, Google
Ronan Harris, Vice President, Google
We will make our first awards early in 2016. We look forward to receiving your
applications
!
Posted by Ludovic Blecher, DNI Innovation Fund Manager, Google
Investing in Africa’s largest wind project
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
We’ve come a long way since we first started investing in renewable energy, committing more than $2 billion to 22 clean energy projects, and broadening our portfolio to include new regions like Africa. Since investing in
the continent’s largest solar project
, we’ve continued to see a big opportunity in fast-growing markets with rich renewable energy resources, where both the need and the potential are great. In fact, many countries are turning to renewables to help connect the nearly two-thirds of Africans that don’t have power today.
Today, we’re committing to invest in the
Lake Turkana Wind Power Project
in Northern Kenya, our second clean energy investment in Africa. When complete, Lake Turkana will bring 310 megawatts of clean energy onto Kenya’s grid—enough to power more than two million households across the country. Lake Turkana will help bring much needed capacity and stability to Kenya’s energy supply, reducing reliance on fossil fuels and emergency diesel generation while providing some of the most cost effective power in the country.
Google will join a diverse group of international investors in Lake Turkana,
including
the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the U.S. government’s development finance institution,
and
Vestas
, which is also supplying the turbines for the wind farm. We will purchase Vestas’ 12.5% stake in Lake Turkana once it comes online, becoming the first U.S. private investor to support the project.
Lake Turkana will use wind turbines like these, supplied by Vestas (photo courtesy of Vestas)
Kenya ranks among the world’s fastest-growing economies and has goals of universal energy access and increasing capacity of the grid by 5GW by the end of the decade. Lake Turkana can help meet these goals. It offers one of the best wind resources in the world in terms of speed and consistency, and once operational, will deliver capacity equivalent to about 15% of Kenya’s current grid. It will also spur additional energy development in the region through a 266 mile transmission line that is being constructed to support the project. This transmission line will act as a backbone for the Kenyan grid and enable further geothermal capacity to be developed in the country’s Rift Valley.
As an investor in both the largest solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind farm projects in Africa, w
e are as optimistic as ever about the potential for these investments to accelerate progress toward a
future of clean energy
.
These efforts not only make business sense, they can help accelerate the deployment of renewable energy globally— including in emerging markets like Kenya, where there is an opportunity to have a transformative impact on the energy grid.
Posted by Rick Needham, Energy & Sustainability Director
Google’s Growth Engine goes local to get Belgian businesses online
Friday, October 9, 2015
Back in February, we invited entrepreneurs from across Europe to celebrate their online success stories in Brussels. We also announced our plans to
train 1 million Europeans in crucial digital skills by 2016
. This week we're back, to focus on bringing the project to Belgium.
Belgium has a strong backbone of small businesses (SMEs); the country's creative flair is renowned worldwide. But not enough of those companies are online. Their
internet economy
represents 2.5% of GDP, less than next-door neighbour The Netherlands. But this isn't about Benelux rivalry: SMEs that embrace the opportunity to grow online generate new jobs twice as quickly and are 50% more likely to sell products and services abroad.
The government knows this, and Minister for the Digital Agenda Alexander De Croo is on a nationwide
Tournée Digitale
to get companies online. The Flemish and Walloon governments have similar projects. We’re keen to play our part,, so we're launching the
Google Growth Engine
programme in Belgium. It's simple: SMEs throughout the country get training in the essential digital skills they need to grow online. We'll work with small business associations
Voka
,
Unizo
and educational institute
Syntra
to deliver the courses, starting next month. The ultimate goal is to train 10,000 people in 2015 and 2016.
Last night in Kortrijk at the start of his digital tour, minister De Croo said: “It’s absolutely necessary to go the extra mile so that our SMEs can become European digital champions. I’m satisfied that Google shares that ambition with its Growth Engine programme.”
There are plenty of Belgian entrepreneurs who have already achieved growth through their smart use of the Internet, and we want to add more. The companies don't have to be techy, either -- two of our favourite examples are Maxime Verhulst with her fitness centre
NewFit
offering Zumba dance fitness classes in Zaventem, and
Jules & Juliette
, which sells baby clothes. Their actual shop may be in chic Knokke-Heist, the St.Tropez of the North Sea, but online, their customer base knows no borders. See
here
for more Belgian success stories.
According to Belgian retail body Comeos,
60% of Belgians
shopped online last year, so the opportunity for Belgian businesses is huge. Our Growth Engine programme gives SMEs practical training that will allow them to take advantage of that opportunity.
Posted by:
Thierry Geerts, country director Google Belgium
Introducing the Accelerated Mobile Pages Project, for a faster, open mobile web
Wednesday, October 7, 2015
Smartphones and tablets have revolutionized the way we access information, and today people consume a tremendous amount of news on their phones. Publishers around the world use the mobile web to reach these readers, but the experience can often leave a lot to be desired. Every time a webpage takes too long to load, they lose a reader—and the opportunity to earn revenue through advertising or subscriptions. That's because advertisers on these websites have a hard time getting consumers to pay attention to their ads when the pages load so slowly that people abandon them entirely.
In April, we announced the
Digital News Initiative
(DNI) together with a group of European publishers, aimed at working together to build a more sustainable future for digital news.
Today, after discussions with our DNI partners in Europe and publishers and technology companies around the world, we’re announcing a new open source initiative called Accelerated Mobile Pages, which aims to dramatically improve the performance of the mobile web. We want webpages with rich content like video, animations and graphics to work alongside smart ads and to load instantaneously. We also want the same code to work across multiple platforms and devices so that content can appear everywhere in an instant -- no matter what type of phone, tablet or mobile device you are using.
The project relies on AMP HTML, a new open framework built entirely out of existing web technologies, which allows websites to build light-weight webpages. To give a you sense of what a faster mobile web might look like, we’ve developed this demo on
Google Search
:
Over time we anticipate that other Google products such as Google News will also integrate AMP HTML pages. And today we’re announcing that
more than 30 publishers from around the world
are taking part too.
This is the start of an exciting collaboration with publishers and technology companies, who have all come together to make the mobile web work better for everyone.
Twitter
,
Pinterest
,
WordPress.com
,
Chartbeat
,
Parse.ly
,
Adobe Analytics
and
LinkedIn
are among the first group of technology partners planning to integrate AMP HTML pages.
In the coming months we’ll work with other participants in the project to build more features and functionality focused on some key areas:
Content
: Publishers increasingly rely on rich content like image carousels, maps, social plug-ins, data visualizations and videos to make their stories more interactive and stand out. They also need to implement ads and analytics in order to monetize the content and to understand what their readers like and dislike. The Accelerated Mobile Pages Project provides an open source approach, allowing publishers to focus on producing great content, while relying on the shared components for high performance and great user experience. The initial technical specification—developed with input and code from our partners in the publishing and technology sectors—is being released today on
Github
.
Distribution
: Publishers want people to enjoy the great journalism they create anywhere and everywhere, so stories or content produced in Spain can be served in an instant across the globe in say Chile. That means that distribution across all kinds of devices and platforms is crucial. So as part of this effort we’ve designed a new approach to caching that allows the publisher to continue to host their content while allowing for efficient distribution through Google's high performance global cache. We intend to open our cache servers to be used by anyone free of charge.
Advertising
: Ads help fund free services and content on the web. With Accelerated Mobile Pages, we want to support a comprehensive range of ad formats, ad networks and technologies. Any sites using AMP HTML will retain their choice of ad networks, as well as any formats that don’t detract from the user experience. It’s also a core goal of the project to support subscriptions and paywalls. We’ll work with publishers and those in the industry to help define the parameters of an ad experience that still provides the speed we’re striving for with AMP.
We hope the open nature of Accelerated Mobile Pages will protect the free flow of information by ensuring the mobile web works better and faster for everyone, everywhere.
Posted by David Besbris, Vice President Engineering, Search
View the “Chopin Olympics” on YouTube and the Google Cultural Institute
Friday, October 2, 2015
If you’re a piano afficionado, then you’re quite possibly also a fan of the great Polish piano virtuoso and composer Fryderyk Chopin. And if that’s you, you’re in luck: starting today, 78 of the world’s greatest pianists and new talents from 29 countries are gathering in Poland for the “Chopin Olympics”, more properly known as the
International Fryderyk Chopin Competition
.
This year, Google is the official partner of the competition, which runs throughout October. For the first time, you can
watch all the performances on YouTube
, including livestreaming of some of the concerts. And you can delve deep into the history of the competition and into Fryderyk Chopin’s history via
two new online exhibitions
on the Google Cultural Institute.
The Chopin Piano Competition started in 1927 and is one of few competitions in the world devoted entirely to the works of a single composer. Winners of the past editions became one of the greatest pianists in the world like Argentinian Martha Argerich or Polish Rafal Blechacz. Visit the Institute’s YouTube channel,
youtube.com/chopin2015
, to watch more than 120 hours of performances, interviews with pianists, behind the scenes footage, and the Grand Finale concerts held from 18th to 20th October.
And on the Google Cultural Institute you can also view two new exhibitions, curated by the
Polish National Fryderyk Chopin Institute
. The first exhibition draws on an archive of more than 200 rare documents to guide you through the
fascinating life
of the child prodigy who developed into one of the Romantic era’s truly international superstars, before meeting an untimely death at the age of 39.
The Institute’s second exhibition provides an
immersive, multimedia overview
of Chopin’s piano music and the historic competition from 1927 to the present day. It unveils hidden stories, personal letters, original manuscript compositions, and great background footage about the early competition performances and the jury’s secret decisions.
The cherry on the cake for serious music lovers is a unique gigapixel image of a rare original composition penned by Chopin in 1833, entitled
Fantasy-Impromptu in C sharp minor
. The imagery is so sharp that you can examine every handwritten note, annotation and correction in minute detail:
Detail of gigapixel image of Fantaisie-Impromptu cis-moll [Opus 66] (1833 - 1834), Fryderyk Chopin’s autograph composition dated 1835 (collection: Narodowy Instytut Fryderyka Chopina)
We hope you’ll tune in to the Chopin Institute YouTube channel for some awe-inspiring performances - and that you’ll be inspired by the exhibits. Oh, and… best of luck to all the competitors!
Posted by Agata Wacławik-Wejman, Head of Public Policy, Central & Eastern Europe
YouTube Space Paris: a new home for French creators
Friday, October 2, 2015
In France, just like in other cultural centres in Europe, the YouTube creative community is booming. French creators like
Poisson Fecond
(a psychology student who delights and educates 700,000 fans every week) and
Cyprien
(a comedian whose videos have been viewed nearly a 1 billion times) are building global audiences on YouTube. And well-established cultural organisations like the
Institut National de l'Audiovisuel
are using YouTube to share French history and culture with viewers around the world.
With all the creativity coming out of the French capital, it was obvious that we should open a YouTube Space -- a collaborative space with state-of-the-art equipment that can be used for free by anyone with a growing YouTube channel -- to help the local YouTube community find even more success.
The Paris YouTube Space is our third in Europe - the others are in London and Berlin. Since 2012, more than 25,000 creators, from emerging comedians to established TV stations, have visited London and Berlin Spaces to produce over 1,500 high quality, highly original videos. Collectively, they’ve garnered over 225 million views and 16 million hours of watchtime from their fans.
We’re happy to invest in our European YouTube Spaces because European creators are… well… talented and prolific! A quarter of videos watched on YouTube worldwide are created by Europeans, helping propel European culture onto the global stage.
At the same time, YouTube has become a vehicle for Europeans to build businesses—more than 3 million creators and partners in Europe make money on YouTube from advertising and we’re looking at new ways to send even more revenue to our creators.
Back at the YouTube Space Paris, as we officially open the doors for the first time, the first month of workshops are already fully booked, and the excitment is palpable. It’s impossible to predict what the French
communauté de créateurs
are going to create here, but I can’t wait to see. And nor can the billion people out there on YouTube, waiting to press play.
Posted by Sebastien Missoffe, Vice President of Content and Operations at YouTube
Celebrating Europe’s rich festival culture
Monday, September 28, 2015
The
European Festivals Association
(EFA) has been uniting distinguished music, dance, theatre and multidisciplinary arts festivals from Europe and beyond for more than 60 years. EFA’s new platform
EFFE
– Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe, celebrates Europe’s festival landscape. This week, our
Google Cultural Institute
announced a new collaboration with EFFE that increases access to Europe’s diverse and exciting festivals through the use of digital tools.
It’s a partnership that makes sense. We both work towards the same goal: maximising access to arts and culture. As Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport Tibor Navracsics earlier said about EFFE’s initiatives: “Festivals are one of the most visible and accessible means we have at our disposal to bring Europe’s rich and diverse culture to its citizens. I want Europe to promote its cultural diversity by helping festivals, artists and creators to reach new audiences and to make the most of the new technologies and of the enormous talent we have on our continent. EFFE makes it easy for citizens to find a festival that interests them – whether in their region or in another part of Europe.”
The Google Cultural Institute offered EFFE to help increase festivals’ exposure and their use of digital tools. 40 representatives of European festivals gathered at the Google Cultural Institute’s Lab in Paris for a workshop with engineers to talk about partnerships and technological developments in the cultural sector.
Today, we’ve also launched the online exhibition
Festivals at the Heart of Europe
, curated by theatre and opera director
Tom Creed
on the Google Cultural Institute platform. This exhibition takes users through an interactive tour of the development of festivals in Europe from a post-war peace building effort to the multi-disciplinary and experimental festivals of today.
At an award ceremony in Paris, an international jury
rewarded
12 of the most innovative European festivals of this year from a pool of 760 festivals from 31 countries. The 12 winners are all featured on the online exhibition, giving audiences a more in-depth and experiential look at what festivals are doing in Europe today.
Posted by Pierre Caessa, Program Manager at the Google Cultural Institute
Frisians Rally To Bring Native Tongue To Google Translate
Monday, September 28, 2015
It’s estimated that up to 7,000 different languages are spoken around the world--the vast majority of them used by less than 100,000 people. But for those native speakers, the web--roughly a third of which is in English--is pretty inaccessible.
The Google Translate Community is an effort to bring the web to more global communities… and more global communities to the web. Over the past week, thousands of proud Frisians from the Dutch province of Friesland--including school children at
CSG Liudger Burgum
--
have rallied
to contribute over 200,000 thousands of translations to the database in an effort to make their culture and traditions more accessible. That’s an impressive feat for a language spoken by just 400,000!
School kids at the CSG Liudger added translations last week
Translation is part of our ongoing effort to make the world’s information universally accessible and useful, and this is as true today as more and more parts of the world come online as it was in 2006 when we first launched Google Translate. By improving the quality of translations on the web we can give people access to useful, relevant content and reduce barriers to understanding on both sides.
If it weren't for the
Translate Community
, we wouldn't be able to bring many small languages that now include Basque, Catalan and Welsh and even lesser-known tongues like Sinhala in Sri Lanka or Sesotho in South Africa. While our translation algorithm learns from language found on the web, we’re grateful for the contributions from the global community that make our systems even smarter.
With the help of the Frisian people, as more Frisian is added to Google Translate, we hope to be able to translate Friese passages--including on websites and even street signs-- into dozens of other languages for people from around the world to understand and appreciate. We value all the support we've received over the last week and we hope that together with our communities, we can improve translation quality for Frisian and even more languages in the future.
Quality translations help bring cultures and languages online, preserving them for their own people through the web, and promoting them to the world.
While we’re incredibly impressed by the progress made in just a single week, we’re just getting started and have a long way to go. So far, more than 100 similar translate-a-thons--including those in Nepal and Myanmar--have added more than 10 million words to the Community. That’s 17 times more words than Tolstoy used for War & Peace!
But as more than 500 million people use Google Translate every month, the more than 1 billion translations a day are even more important than ever to help people communicate and access information across languages. You can help us to make the experience even better by suggesting your corrections using "Improve this translation" functionality on Translate and contributing your own lingua franca to the
Translate Community
.
Posted by: Meghan Casserly, Communications Manager Google Netherlands
Spending time backstage with Europe’s digital creators
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
We’re huge fans of the amazing creative Europeans who make a living entertaining, educating and informing people around the world via YouTube. So we were delighted to be asked by EU40, a group of 106 members of the European Parliament aged 40 or less, to help them celebrate creativity across Europe at an event in Brussels last night.
MEP Victor Negrescu, board member of EU40, invited Matt Brittin, President of Google Europe to speak at the European Parliament -- and asked him to gather together YouTube stars from across Europe who are creating businesses, driving social change and telling the world about what's happening in Europe's vibrant cultural scene.
YouTube creators from across the continent gathered at the European Parliament
At the event, attended by citizen journalist
Eliot Higgins, YouTube make-up guru
Tricia Cusden
and
Spanish teacher
David Calle
, M
a
t
t
a
n
n
o
u
n
c
e
d
that
there are now more than 3 million YouTube partners
across the European Union, all of t
hem making money on YouTube.
And there are hundreds of channels across the continent earning six-figure sums annually.
Our partners are using YouTube in all kinds of different ways. For some of them, it’s a vehicle to build a business.
Take
Patry Jordan
from Spain. Patry is a beauty expert, image consultant and personal trainer with a legion of followers on YouTube. Her channel, 'Girls’ Secrets,' has turned her into a household name: she's become a L'Oreal beauty ambassador and has recently published her own book.
YouTube is also a platform for social change, creating new sources of information and news for citizens.
Tilo Jung uses his channel
Jung+Naiv
(meaning young and naive -- see what he did there?) to cover German politics in a way which is entertaining, engaging and relevant especially for young voters. His irreverent videos show him being a rare millennial voice in the government’s press conferences.
If European history and culture are your thing, you can find that on YouTube has too. Centuries-old European institutions like the
Berlin Philharmonic
, Madrid’s
Prado Museum
and the
Vienna Film Festival
are all finding new, vibrant audiences online. Tobias Moller from the Berlin Philharmonic told us all about how YouTube helps one of the most classic names in classical music broaden its online repertoire.
Food is a huge part of European culture, and a major global export too, so we roped in
‘French Guy Cooking
, part of
Jamie Oliver’s Food Network
, to whip up some snacks together with
Jamila Cuisine
from Romania. Delicieux!
We’re glad to say that these YouTube stars proved inspirational for MEP Victor Negrescu and his colleagues:
“People involved in politics can learn from these digital creators and think of new ways of using the internet to engage with citizens in an open and transparent way, for instance by using video. When I see the amazingly successful European creators we have here today, I realise that we can do so much more. And I want to make sure we can prepare a European environment where digital creativity can truly flourish.”
We couldn’t agree more. And thanks for the invitation, EU40!
Posted by: Tobias Mckenney, Public Policy Manager
Dutch wind for a Dutch data centre
Friday, September 18, 2015
This week, our infrastructure and energy team visited Delfzijl, a blustery coastal town in the far north of the Netherlands. They were there to inaugurate a brand new windfarm built by Dutch power utility Eneco, which will provide renewable energy for the new 600m euro data centre that we’re building just 30 kilometers away at the Eemshaven.
The inauguration comes just ten months after we signed a power purchase agreement with Eneco, which commits us to buying the entire output of the windfarm for the next ten years. It ensures that our new data centre will be powered 100% by locally generated, renewable energy from day one of operation, scheduled for the first half of 2016.
The Dutch agreement is one of four such power purchase agreements (PPA) that we have signed in Europe. Three are in Northern Sweden, where we’ve
bought enough wind power
to ensure that our data centre in Hamina, Finland runs 100% on renewables. The most recent of these deals was signed in March 2015, buying the output of a new windfarm located at Maevaara, whose construction was financed by Allianz Capital.
We continue to look for more opportunities in this space because we believe that power purchase agreements make great sense for our business and our commitment to being a carbon neutral company. Long-term purchasing gives us energy price stability. Purchasing wind power guarantees a long term source of clean energy for our data centres. And purchasing only from new renewable energy generation facilities increases the amount of renewable energy available in the grid, which is great for the environment too.
Posted by Francois Sterin, Director, Global Infrastructure Team
Vote now open in France’s Google Impact Challenge
Thursday, September 17, 2015
In April we launched the
Google Impact Challenge
in France, inviting all French non-profits and foundations to share their ideas for how they would use technology and grant funding from
Google.org
to make a better world, faster.
We received hundreds of ideas from non-profits across France and were blown away by the creativity, passion, and innovation we saw in the submissions. It was tough to narrow the field, but today we’re happy to share the 10 finalists and ask for your help in choosing which non-profit should receive a €500,000 grant and mentoring from Google to help bring their project to life. Cast your vote now at
g.co/impactchallengefrance
.
The 10 finalists are:
1001fontaines
is developing an entrepreneur-driven network of water purification stations in rural areas to give people access to clean water.
Agence du Don en Nature
is enabling consumer product donations directly on e-commerce sites and redistributing them to populations in need.
Banque Alimentaire du Rhône is building a matching platform for retailers to share unsold food directly with nonprofits to fight against hunger and food waste.
Libraries without Borders
is rolling out the Ideas Box, a portable media center that provides access to information, education and culture for refugees emerging from humanitarian crisis situations.
My Human Kit
is enabling people in need of prosthetics to have access to low-cost, open-source 3D printed models.
Jaccede.com
is crowdsourcing accessibility ratings of public places to empower people living with a physical disability.
MakeSense
is building a platform to enable social entrepreneurs to tap into the skills and talent of the community to help them scale their ideas.
Ticket For Change
is developing a unique online curriculum to help social entrepreneurs more quickly realise their ideas.
Voxe.org
is developing an app that will reengage citizens in politics by providing tailored political information.
Y Generation Education
is creating a unique online vocational education training curriculum for underprivileged youth.
Your votes will help decide which of these projects gets up and running in a big way. Vote now for the ideas that most inspire you, and stay tuned for the announcement of the winners on October 8th. Good luck to all of the finalists!
Posted by Jacquelline Fuller, Director, Google.org
Matching your donation to humanitarian relief for refugees and migrants
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Cross-posted from the
Official Google Blog
My name is Rita Masoud and I am a refugee. I was born in war-torn Kabul, Afghanistan. When I was seven, my family and I fled to Europe with our belongings in a single suitcase, hoping for a safer and better future. Our journey involved many dark train and bus rides, as well as hunger, thirst, cold and fear. Fortunately, we received asylum in The Netherlands, where I grew up in a safe environment and was able to find my way in life. Today, I work for Google in California.
I was lucky. But as the refugee and migrant crisis has grown, many people like my family are desperate for help. Last week, Google announced a €1 million (~$1.1 million) donation to organizations who are providing front-line humanitarian relief to refugees and migrants around the world. Today, we're inviting you to
join us
. To double the impact of your contribution, we’ll match the first €5 million (~$5.5 million) in donations globally, until together we raise €10 million (~$11 million) for relief efforts.
Your donation will be distributed to four nonprofits providing aid to refugees and migrants:
Doctors Without Borders
,
International Rescue Committee
,
Save the Children
and
UN High Commissioner for Refugees
. These nonprofits are helping deliver essential assistance—including shelter, food and water, and medical care—and looking after the security and rights of people in need.
Visit
g.co/refugeerelief
to make your donation. Thank you for giving.
En route from Afghanistan, with my family and some belongings. You can read more about my journey
on my blog
.
Posted by Rita Masoud, Product Marketing Manager, Google.org
What makes us Human?
Monday, September 14, 2015
Cross-posted from the
Official Google Blog
Over the past three years, filmmaker and artist Yann Arthus-Bertrand travelled to 60 countries, interviewing more than 2,000 people in dozens of languages, in an attempt to answer the question: What is it that makes us human? The result is
HUMAN
, a documentary film that weaves together a rich collection of stories from freedom fighters in Ukraine, farmers in Mali, death row inmates in the United States, and more—on topics that unite us all: love, justice, family, and the future of our planet.
Now we’re partnering with Arthus-Bertrand, the Goodplanet Foundation and Bettencourt Schueller Foundation, to bring HUMAN to you on Google Play, YouTube and the Google Cultural Institute so we can share this project with the widest audience throughout the world.
Watch an extended version of the film on YouTube and Google Play
We’re making HUMAN available on YouTube starting September 12, and later on Google Play. This “director’s cut”of three 90-minute films will be available in Arabic, English, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. On YouTube, you can also watch extra footage including interviews with figures like United Nations Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon, animal rights activist Jane Goodall and actress Cameron Diaz, all of whom participated in the film.
Explore HUMAN with the Google Cultural Institute
Over at the
Google Cultural Institute
, you can learn about the origin of the film and listen to anecdotes from the people who brought it to life. You can also meet the characters in and around the movie in their daily lives, with six exhibits of behind the scenes photos and videos that let you explore how HUMAN was made over three years. This includes a collection highlighting how the director shot the aerial views that are a signature of Arthus-Bertrand’s filmmaking.
Exhibitions on Google the Cultural Institute platform
Learn more about this project at
g.co/humanthemovie
or on the
HUMAN Behind The Scenes mobile app
, available on Google Play. With HUMAN, we want to help citizens around the world connect together. So we’d like to hear your answer to the question of what makes us human. Add your voice to the conversation with #WhatMakesUsHUMAN.
Posted by Raphael Goumain, Head of Consumer Marketing, France
Helping the next generation prepare for the jobs of the future
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Our lives are being transformed by technology, and so too are the jobs of the future, across a whole range of industries - from design to medicine to music and more. That’s why we’ve teamed up with the
BBC’s Make It Digital
team and
The Tech Partnership
to launch the
Make It Digital Matchr
, a new tool to help young people explore a wide range of digital career opportunities.
Aimed primarily at 16-19 year olds, the interactive tool uses the the latest research from The Tech Partnership to match users with the right resources, either from the BBC or one of many partners like Teen Tech, Raspberry Pi, Code Club, Khan Academy and more, to help them develop their skills.
Young people using the tool are asked how they would handle a range of situations involved in developing a fictional game. Their answers reveal their natural strengths and inclinations, helping Matchr find suitable digital careers they may be interested in, and presenting them with resources to help set them on their way.
The opportunity for young people is huge. The Tech Partnership today released a study which found that the number of tech specialists in the UK is forecast to grow at almost four times that of the workforce as a whole between 2014 and 2024. And the European Commission
estimates
that there will be more than 800,000 unfilled digital job vacancies across Europe by 2020 if we don’t close the skills gap - which is something else we’re working on, via our commitment earlier this year to
train 1 million Europeans
in crucial digital skills by 2016.
We hope that the
Digital Matchr
and the Make it Digital campaign inspires the next generation about to start coding and get creative with technology.
Posted by Eileen Naughton, UK Managing Director, Google
A little Street View-style greeting to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Today, Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II becomes the longest reigning monarch in the UK.
To mark this momentous occasion, we'd like to welcome a new character to Google Maps at Buckingham Palace Street View - introducing PegMa'am.
PegMa'am can be found to guide you through Street View at any of the royal properties in the UK. Visit
Google Maps
to become acquainted.
Congratulations, Your Majesty.
Posted by: Laurian Clemence, Communications Manager, Google UK
A donation to humanitarian relief for refugees and migrants
Saturday, September 5, 2015
Europe, the Middle East and Northern Africa are facing a refugee and migrant crisis - the world’s biggest since the Second World War. According to the
UNHCR
, thirty-eight European countries recorded 264,000 asylum applications, an increase of 24% compared to the same period of 2013. Given the severity of this crisis, we want to play our part in helping relieve the plight of refugees and migrants around the world.
[Photo credit: UNHCR]
Google.org
is donating €1M to organisations who are providing front-line humanitarian relief to migrants and refugees, such as
International Rescue Committee
,
Médecins Sans Frontières
,
UNHCR
and
Aktion Deutschland Hilft
. These organisations are providing essential assistance, including shelter, food and water, and medical care, to people in dire need.
In addition, we are creating a public site to help people make their own donations and are matching Googler donations as well.
Posted by Jacqueline Fuller, Director, Google.org
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