On the west coast of Australia is an ocean paradise home to 300 species of coral, 500 fish species and megafauna such as whale sharks. It’s the Ningaloo Coast, and this is where the Google Street View team has spent the last 10 days capturing imagery -- adding to the more than 170 billion images from 87 countries already collected.

The Ningaloo Coast is World Heritage listed and was named a Hope Spot by Mission Blue this year, meaning it’s critical to the health of the ocean. The good news is much of the reef is currently still healthy. This Street View capture is a chance to document its current condition and keep track of how it's evolving. And by raising awareness and making sure that as many people as possible see this natural wonder, and get to understand its significance, we hope to do our bit to help protect this incredible place.
Street View imagery is gathered in a number of ways: some places are captured by the Street View car, others by the Trekker, or we can dive beneath the waves with 360-degree cameras. Partnering with Parks and Wildlife Service WA and not-for-profit Underwater Earth, we captured Ningaloo from every angle, collecting imagery above, below and along the coast.
We trekked hundreds of kilometres of National Park lands and beaches. On the water, we watched for whale sharks, humpback whales, turtles, and more. Then, we swam in the pristine waters of the Indian Ocean to capture images and learn about this unique part of the world.
Whether you’re in Newcastle, Naples, Napa or Nairobi, in the coming months you’ll be able to experience and explore the magic of the Ningaloo Coast on Google Street View and Google Earth, without getting your feet wet.

Posted by Kristine Arnott, Communications Manager, Google Australia

Photo credit: Sam Venn Photography

On Wednesday, September 25, 1,500 people gathered at Fox Studios in Sydney for our YouTube Festival -- an immersive showcase of the most loved content on YouTube. It was an evening of live performances, featuring a selection of Australia’s favourite creators and musicians, as well as some fun announcements.

YouTube Festival explored the major shifts that online video is causing in entertainment and culture at large. Right now, we’re at the centre of the biggest change happening in how people around the world watch video content.

The rise of online video means viewers now demand the freedom to watch whatever they want, whenever they want, wherever they are, on any device. This means primetime is no longer a single time of day, it is now personal -- tailored to people’s unique needs, schedules and curiosities.

Ashley Chang is a Culture and Trends Manager at YouTube, and has spent hundreds of hours watching videos on YouTube. On the night, he explained what we’re seeing as ‘primetime’ shifts and shared some of the things he’s learned about culture from all those hours of watching videos. This is an abridged version of his speech.

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I must have everyone’s dream job. I get to watch YouTube videos for a living. But I do this to try to understand popular culture, by understanding what's popular on YouTube.
Online video helps us learn more about the world around us. It helps us connect with others who share our experiences and interests, no matter how niche. It entertains us and feeds our curiosity.

But before I talk about trends or the future, let’s chat about the past. 
Do you know what the Voyager Golden Records are? They are two phonograph records that were launched into space aboard both Voyager spacecraft in 1977 -- and they’re a kind of time capsule designed to communicate the breadth and diversity of human civilization to any alien who might find it. To do that, these records were encoded with 115 images chosen by NASA, covering science, nature, sport, music and family.

Now, I only mention this because if aliens came down to earth right this very second and asked us to communicate the entire story of human civilization, there's only one place I'd take them. This place, obviously. A place where people from every corner of the world share their passions, their stories and their interests every single day. Be it science, nature, sport, music or family.

What I hope this illustrates, is that it’s not our stories that have changed. It’s our storytelling. The way that we tell and consume stories is getting more and more personalised for all of us. As I mentioned earlier, primetime is now personal. More personal than ever, and in the interest of getting personal myself I wanted to share with you my primetime.

If you look at my subscriptions feed, I’m interested in the NBA, tech, philosophy, film and television. But if you look closely you’ll notice that I’m particularly interested in one topic -- and that’s dancing.

I love to watch dance class videos. In fact, I love this content so much that I got off the couch, out of the house and into a dance class. I now go to dance classes five days a week because of YouTube. First it helped me find my passion, then it helped me amplify it. And now it’s come full circle with a dance class I was a part of earlier this year, now on YouTube.

I’m telling you this because I think it illustrates a good point. The beauty of YouTube is that whatever dancing is for you, whatever it is you are personally passionate about, it exists here.

Niche is the new mainstream 
A platform like ours creates the conditions under which diversity can flourish. And that’s a good thing because that means that the niche can now become mainstream.

This is a place where a creator like Tourettes Teen can in her own words “spread awareness about Tourettes as well as joy and laughter.” I think you’ll agree she does both in TOURETTES vs EGG.

It’s a place where a creator like Primitive Technology, who wordlessly builds structures in nature, can gain almost 10 million subscribers with zero promotion. This is what happens when your addressable audience shifts from 25 million Australians to two billion global monthly active users. Think about it, no media executive in the world would ever commission this as a TV show and yet, it is one of the most popular channels on YouTube -- and that’s because on this platform value isn’t decided by any one person. It’s decided by all of us.

It’s a place where ASMR -- Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response or whisper videos -- seemingly the most fringe thing on the internet can explode in popularity. From 2017 to 2018, uploads and views of videos related to ASMR more than doubled. And it keeps getting bigger.

Earlier this year, ASMR appeared in what is perhaps the most mainstream thing there is -- a Super Bowl ad. But then again that shouldn’t surprise us at all because Captain Morgan has made ASMR videos, and so has Louis Vuitton and Vice Magazine -- all for YouTube.

But YouTube isn’t just a place for content that’s seemingly fringe, mainstream culture lives here too, and it is deeper and it is richer than you could ever imagine.

In its final season run, Game of Thrones related content netted 1.2 billion views across YouTube throughout April, including episode breakdowns, cast interviews, video essays and reaction videos. Content that went wider AND deeper on the tentpole cultural moments that audiences care about.

Authenticity Rules 
But content consumption isn’t just getting personal for audiences it’s also getting personal for creators.

One of the most viewed videos of last year was the breakup announcement of two of the platform’s biggest stars -- Liza Koshy and David Dobrik.

During Pride Month this year we saw creators redefine the coming out video with content that was artistic, and moving and deeply, deeply personal. Eugene Yang, best known as a member of The Try Guys, came out by directing, choreographing and starring in this achingly vulnerable music video.

And Korean beauty blogger Dawn Lee uploads makeup tutorials alongside vlogs detailing her battle with cancer. This video -- which shows her shaving her head after chemotherapy -- is the most viewed video on her channel.

These are unvarnished, unarmored, unfiltered representations of self. Not only can that be incredibly moving for those watching it, it can be revolutionary for those revealing it.

What YouTube is is an empathy machine. It allows the lived experience of others to be known. What the audience is saying is ‘don’t show us your perfect life, show us your actual life’. Increasingly, our culture is moving away from perfectionism in favour of authenticity, accessibility and relatability, and perhaps no creator embodies those ideals more than Joana Ceddia -- a young Canadian vlogger who is part of a growing wave of creators who aren’t trying to be anything but themselves. She’s smart, funny and kind of dorky, but most of all she’s authentic. She’s amassed over 2.8 million subscribers in just over a year and it’s really not hard to see why.

So think of fame as we used to know it. Old school Hollywood, right? Stars pretty much exist in magazines or movies, or in their mansions, that's it. There's this distance between us and this is how we used to define celebrity -- through this otherness and exclusiveness.

But now, on YouTube at least, it's the exact opposite. Stardom is defined by proximity. In so many ways -- for one the camera is literally closer to their faces, but we're also closer in the sense that they’re not emotionally distant. We see them cry. We see what they look like when they've just woken up. We meet their parents. We watch them eat food. We know what their bedrooms look like.

Old school stars spent a lot of time shielding their private lives from the public. New school stars do the opposite -- they invite us in.

Traditional Genre Constructs are Outdated 
We’re seeing stars from traditional media show less filtered versions of themselves through these new forms of storytelling. One of the most popular shows on YouTube involves celebrities eating increasingly spicy chicken wings. It’s called Hot Ones and it’s an interview series that’s not so much about the interview as it is about seeing celebrities in genuine discomfort.

In this new climate Rihanna makes beauty tutorials. Will Smith vlogs. And Ryan Reynolds gets involved in viral challenges -- this one is called the bottle cap challenge and basically involves trying to unscrew a bottle cap with your foot.

But this isn’t just a place where the niche becomes mainstream. Here, the mainstream can also become niche. Let me show you what I mean.

Billie Eilish, a 17 year old singer songwriter from Los Angeles, is one of the biggest pop stars in the world today. This is the music video for Billie’s hit song ‘bad guy’, which has over 550 million views on YouTube.

Now, this is a dance video to that song. This is the film clip but remade with no budget. This is the film clip but remade with no music. This is the ASMR version. Here’s a cover using Google Translate. And here’s one using a rubber chicken.

The Rapidly Evolving Content Proposition 
Clearly, what content is, that is, how we categorise it, is far less important than what it does. That is, how it makes us feel. What value does it provide to its audience?

On YouTube, value can manifest in really interesting ways. For example, here’s how Margot Robbie uses YouTube for her own unique purposes. Then there’s more typical usefulness like recipe videos, workout videos and guided meditation. Content that functions as legitimate tools for self care and betterment.

We’ve seen an explosion in ‘study with me’ videos -- designed to help motivate people to study. Or ‘clean with me’ videos to motivate people to tidy up.

Meet an amazing young woman, Macinley Butson. She’s a teenage scientist who invented a shield to help reduce radiation exposure for breast cancer patients. And to help her do that, she did what any young person would do -- she turned to YouTube.

It’s not enough to say YouTube democratises education, it actually democratises knowledge. As Macinley proves, the right vision combined with the right sound, received at the right time, can be transformative. It can help lives. It can change lives. It can even change the course of history.

Ultimately, what I want you to take away is that in culture right now: niche is the new mainstream, authenticity rules, traditional genre constructs are outdated and the value proposition of content is rapidly evolving. Put another way this is the what, who, how and why of cultural value.

So then, what is YouTube? Is it entertainment? Is it education? Is it inspiration? It’s kind of everything. It’s this continuous time capsule, this living, breathing artefact of humanity. To my mind, it’s no less than modern history unfurling in real time.

It’s the new Golden Records. The record of who we were, who we are and who we want to be. The record of everything that makes us special. Our ingenuity, curiosity, spirit, creativity, our love.

YouTube’s mission is to give everyone a voice and show them the world, but YouTube isn’t a world. It’s a universe. And the beauty of that is that for every single person, your very own universe awaits.

Posted by the YouTube Australia team

We Aussies are devoted to sport – so much that our search interest in sport surpasses our search interest in the weather every year.*

With this passion in mind, we’ve been on a mission to help Aussies connect with the sports they love – whether you’re learning about our rich sport heritage, following live footy scores and fixtures, or even voting for your favourite AFL players directly in Search.

As another epic AFL season comes to a close, we’re looking back at the moments that made Aussies search, cheer and come together. It was the season we discovered Sydney Stack, saw the rise of the Brisbane Lions– and Tayla Harris taught us that sometimes a kick is #morethanakick. To rediscover the highs and lows, check out this video round-up – inspired by a combination of Google Trends data, collated over the 2019 AFL season:**


Whether we were elated, deflated or on the edge of our seats, we turned to Search to stay on the ball and back our teams. Here are a few more trends that give a glimpse into our curiosities this AFL season:**

1. AFLW is on the rise: 

Search interest in AFL Women was the highest on record this season in Australia – up +70% compared to last year according to Google Trends. And Tayla Harris was the most searched player this season across both Women and Men’s leagues.

Here’s the list of most searched female AFLW players this season in Australia:

1. Tayla Harris
2. Erin Phillips
3. Moana Hope
4. Daisy Pearce
5. Sharni Layton

2. The most searched male AFL players were…

Players from Richmond, North Melbourne and Geelong topped the list of our most searched AFL players in Australia:

1. Dustin Martin
2. Majak Daw
3. Gary Ablett
4. Eddie Betts
5. Toby Greene
6. 3. We rallied for a cause

3. We rallied for a cause 

Over the past five years, Search interest in Motor Neurone Disease has been Trending – and spiked sharply during The Big Freeze, a fundraising campaign led by former Demons coach, Neil Daniher.

4. The Magpie Army leads the pack

Collingwood conquered Searches for AFL teams overall! Here’s the list of the most Searched AFL teams over the season:

1. Collingwood Magpies
2. Essendon
3. Carlton
4. West Coast Eagles
5. Geelong Cats

5. Tassie, SA and VIC are the biggest AFL aficionados (when it comes to Search)

Aussies showed their dedication this season and were full of questions – looking up who is playing, who is winning, how to vote for AFL players, and even how to bounce an AFL ball. Who Searched the hardest? Here are the top ranked states by search interest in AFL this season:***

1. Tasmania
2. South Australia
3. Victoria
4. Western Australia
5. Northern Territory
6. Australian Capital Territory
7. Queensland
8. New South Wales

Whether you’re tuning into live games, learning how to kick or looking up the archives, Search is here to help at every stage of the game.

Posted by Aisling Finch, Director of Marketing, Google Australia and New Zealand

*Data is based on a comparison of total searches for sports-related and weather-related terms, geo-located to Australia and aggregated by year. 
 **Search trends mentioned or featured are based on Google Trends data and include a range of “top” and “trending” search queries on AFL. The data is limited to searches within Australia over the course of the 2019 AFL season. Top or Most Searched: The "top searched" queries are those that rank highest by search volume for a given timeframe and location. Trending Searches: "Trending" queries are the search terms that had the highest spike in traffic over a given period of time as compared with the previous equivalent period. 
 ***Search data by state or region: Search interest by region reflects search interest in a particular topic in a given region as a proportion of all searches on all topics on Google in that same place and time. 

What is Trends data? Trends data is an unbiased sample of our Google search data. It’s anonymised (no one is personally identified), categorised (determining the topic for a search query) and aggregated (grouped together). This allows us to measure interest in a particular topic across search, from around the globe, right down to city-level geography. 

 For more information on Trends data and how it works, read about it here!

Technology has provided significant opportunities for Australian consumers and businesses. And the potential upside is huge - research suggests that Australia stands to gain $1.2 trillion in economic benefit between 2015 and 2030 if it can successfully drive investment in productivity-enhancing technology.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s Digital Platforms Inquiry (DPI) explored the pace of digital transformation within the media sector and across the Australian economy. Last week we provided a submission as part of the Treasury consultation process on the DPI Final Report.

This process provides an opportunity for Australia to consider its place in the global digital economy and to review the rules of engagement between Australian consumers, businesses, and technology providers.

In Australia, Alphabeta estimated that to date in 2019, Google Search, grants from Google to the non-profit sector, and Google advertising tools have helped connect more than 1.1 million businesses, website publishers, and non-profits to consumers globally. The benefits realised by businesses using Google’s platforms enabled them to support up to 116,200 jobs in Australia, two-thirds in small and medium-sized businesses.

Google’s technology helps Australians find information and create content. More than one hour of Australian content is uploaded to YouTube every minute and, on an average night, Google Search and other Google tools like YouTube help Australian students research answers to 25 million homework questions.

Our ability to create products that are useful and successful relies on carefully balancing the interests of our users, publishers, and advertisers.

For consumers, we need to ensure that we provide the most relevant results and also ensure we keep their information safe and private - over the last 10 years Google has developed innovative privacy tools like Google Account and Google Takeout, which give consumers greater transparency and control over their data.

For publishers, large and small, we provide the ability to monetise their content with advertising and send over 24 billion visits (or clicks) to news publishers every month globally - that adds up to 9,000 visits (clicks) a second.

For advertisers, again, large and small - we need to ensure that we deliver effective advertising solutions across Search, YouTube and the Google Display Network. For Google to succeed - all three stakeholders need to succeed.

Google supports the DPI’s objectives to promote public interest journalism and digital media literacy, foster a dynamic and competitive digital ecosystem, protect consumer privacy, and drive greater understanding of data collection, but notes these should be balanced with the interests of consumers and wider social and economic objectives.

Google is broadly supportive of many of the Final Report's 23 recommendations, but some require further analysis on the associated costs and benefits. Two recommendations are of particular concern, specifically changes to Android defaults and aspects of the proposed publisher code.

Firstly, the recommendation to directly intervene in the Android operating system does not take into account Australian market conditions and competition laws, and provides no justification for focusing on Android when Apple’s iOS is the most-used mobile operating system in Australia (as noted in the Final Report) and Microsoft’s Windows remains the most-used PC-based operating system.

Secondly, the proposal for regulator-sanctioned negotiation of revenue sharing between platforms and news publishers - as part of the code contemplated by Recommendation 7 - overlooks existing commercial arrangements between Google and Australian news publishers and the broader value that Google provides through referred web traffic and technology.

In total in 2018, Google sent more than 2 billion clicks to Australian news publishers from Australian users, and more than 1 billion additional clicks to Australian news publishers from users globally. Our Google News Initiative supports news publishers of all sizes to develop, test and implement innovative approaches to drive revenue for publishers and support greater media literacy among consumers. Recently we made ranking updates and published changes to our search rater guidelines to help better recognise original reporting and surface it more prominently in Search.

Google welcomes the opportunity for further consultation. We look forward to continuing to engage with all interested parties, including Government and industry, in the coming weeks.

Posted by Melanie Silva, Managing Director, Google Australia

Just how much do digital tools like Google Search and Maps save Aussie businesses in time and money? And what is Google doing for job creation, whether it’s employing people directly - or helping others to do so by using Google’s business tools to grow their own businesses?

With the release of new research by economists AlphaBeta, we now have updated answers to these questions - and more!

Caption: Google Maps helps transport businesses get from place to place more efficiently. 

In fact, AlphaBeta found that Google’s advertising and productivity platforms are helping more than a million Aussie businesses and have helped deliver business benefits in the order of $35 billion so far this year — in a big boost to small business growth, job creation and national productivity. This is more than double the 2015 estimate, reflecting the continued growth of Australia’s digital economy.

The report also found that digital tools like Google Search and Maps have saved Aussie businesses 97 million hours - a saving valued at $2.9 billion - by helping businesses find information faster, and get from A to B more quickly. Check out the infographic below for more on the economic contributions identified in the research:



The report is a reminder that digital tools can be a big driver for job creation, productivity gains, and small business growth in Australia. Of course it’s important we have the right settings in place to allow Australia to realise the full potential of our growing tech sector and digital economy.

This new research follows the recent release of report for industry group DIGI that found the tech sector could contribute up to $207 billion a year to the economy by 2030 (a 70% increase on the 2018 figure of $122 billion).

Posted by Michael Cooley, Senior Policy Manager, Google Australia

Canberrans had the chance to pick up vital new digital skills as free Grow with Google workshops were held in the nation’s capital.

It was great to join more than 500 Canberra businesses, not-for-profit organisations, educators, students, locals who turned out at the Eastlake Football Club to hear from experts on digital tools and tips.



Grow with Google aims to give Australians access to digital skills training, both online and in-person, to help them make the most of the Internet. Since 2014, Google has trained more than half a million people across Australia through online and in-person digital skills training, as well as curriculum integrated through school and partner programs.

At today’s event, local Canberra businesses learned how to grow their presence online and engage customers, educators learned how they could find valuable information and engage students in learning opportunities, and individuals at all stages of the digital journey picked up new skills and tips.



We know there are enormous opportunities for those who take advantage of digital tools, but there’s also a skills gap with many people unsure how to go about it. Grow with Google aims to help business owners, students, teachers, and not-for-profits build their skills, with lessons for people at all stages of the digital journey.

And it seems Canberrans are hungrier than most to learn about small business topics — according to Google Search Trends, Canberrans are more interested in small business as a topic on Google Search than any other state or territory in Australia.



Many Canberra businesses are already doing great things online like Little Sprout, a sustainable toy store that has built a strong digital presence and loyal following with customers.

Grow with Google was launched in March 2019 and includes an online learning hub accessible from anywhere, on any device, with hundreds of handy training modules. The next Grow with Google event will be held in Wagga Wagga on Friday 27 September. Find out more at: g.co/GrowWagga

Posted by Mel Silva, Country Director, Google Australia

Nest Hub Max, the newest member of the Google Nest family, is available from September 10 at retailers and on the Google Store in Australia. Designed to be the hub for any home, Hub Max is your kitchen TV, home (video) phone, bulletin board, kitchen timer, photo frame, home monitoring camera and more—all in one display.

My family has been using our Nest Hub Max in the kitchen, and it’s been especially fun to see how it helps keep all of us entertained, connected and in sync. Since we’ve had some time to get to know the product, I wanted to share some of the ways we’ve been using Hub Max in our busy household:

Starting my day on the right track

My experience with Hub Max starts when I come downstairs each morning – and I kick off my day with personalised help with a feature called Face Match. For each person in your family who chooses to turn it on, the Assistant guides you through the process of creating a face model, which is encrypted and stored on the device. This means my Assistant greets me with personalised information to start my day: the weather in my suburb, how my commute is looking, and even a news briefing that I can watch while I finish up the dishes that I couldn’t resist leaving undone the previous night. In Australia, you can enjoy news briefings from ABC NEWS, Fox Sports, CommSec and more.

Keeping an eye on home from work

My husband and I both love Hub Max’s built-in Nest Cam, especially when we have to work late and want to check in via the Home app. We can easily get alerts from the Nest app when someone enters the room, and we can view the live stream from our phones to see how dinnertime is going. I can even use Talk and Listen to chat via the Nest Cam, even when I’m away from home. Or if I want to say a bit more, I can use the Google Duo app on my phone to send a video message to my husband that he’ll receive when he walks up to the Hub Max.

Peace of mind

Nest Hub Max has been designed with your privacy in mind and has multiple features to control its built-in Nest Cam. Per our privacy commitments, there’s a green light on the front of Hub Max that indicates when the camera is streaming, and nothing is streamed or recorded unless you explicitly enable it. When a verified member of our household views the stream remotely via the Nest app, the light blinks green. In addition, there are multiple controls to disable the camera and mics, including a hardware switch that lets you physically disable both (and this can’t be overridden via the Home app remotely). Of course, you can always access, review and delete your footage and queries at any time via the Nest app and My Activity.

Dinnertime is family time

From guided recipes to how-to videos, Nest Hub Max is our digital sous chef that helps us whip up family dinners. There are millions of inspiring recipes from leading publishers (in Australia, you can enjoy recipes from Woolworths, Gourmet Traveller, Genius Kitchen, Food Network and more). We eat dinner as a family in the kitchen, and we’ve realised this is also the perfect time for our sons to catch up with their grandparents every evening. Thanks to Duo on our Hub Max, it’s easy to stay connected—they just lets us know which grandma he’s in the mood to chat with, and with a quick “Hey Google, video call Mum,” either of us can invite our parents to join the fun. And with the auto framing feature, the camera automatically adjusts to keep us in view, even as we move around the kitchen to prep the evening’s meal.

After dinner is party time

The premium stereo speakers on Hub Max have made family dance parties a regular tradition in the Morgenroth household. And whenever we’re starting to get tired (or just tired of hearing “Gangnam Style” for the eighth time in a row — yes, really!), the Quick Gestures feature lets us simply just look at the device and raise a hand to pause the music.

Winding down

Finally, Hub Max is the perfect companion as we’re tidying up after putting our sons to bed. For some evening entertainment, we enjoy our favourite TV shows and YouTube content right on Nest Hub Max (and in Australia, you can stream shows with a Stan subscription). And just before I turn off the lights for the night, I always find myself reliving a favourite family memory, thanks to our shared Google Photos album that we’ve displayed using Hub Max’s photo frame feature. Whether it’s a wedding photo, our son’s first steps or our last vacation, Hub Max never fails to bring a smile to my face.

Nest Hub Max is available in chalk and charcoal for RRP $349 starting September 10 at Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi, The Good Guys, Officeworks and the Google Store – as well as Optus in the coming months.

Posted by Katie Morgenroth, Nest Industrial Design Manager