Author Archives: bechikson

Street View arrives in 56th country – Greece

Greece is home to many of the world’s great cultural and historical monuments and remarkable landscapes, making it a natural for Street View, which allows web users to take panoramic real-life virtual tours of public roads. That’s why we’re particularly excited to announce the launch of the pathbreaking service this month, making Greece the 56th country added to Street View. From now on unique Greek landmarks, such as the Corfu Old Town, the White Tower in Thessaloniki and the Arch of Hadrian in the center of Athens, will be vividly represented on our computer screens. We’ve gathered some of our favourite scenes in our Views Gallery.

The serene port in Mykonos
Many Greeks long have been keen for us to bring its benefits to their country, seeing Street View as a powerful tool for the promotion of a country. At a launch event in Athens, Andreas Andreadis, President of the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises, said the new service will prove invaluable to tourists coming to Greece — and Greek businesses serving them. Visitors now will be able to check their hotel in advance and preview the areas and sites they are about to visit. Street View benefits everyone from the wheelchair user who can check whether a building has a ramp to the elderly who may check whether there are sufficient parking spots before leaving home. Minister of Culture and Sports Panos Panagiotopoulos welcomed Street View in Greece as nothing less than “a gift from God.”



Many other types of Greece businesses will benefit. Anyone can embed Google Maps directly into their site for free, helping them to promote a chain of hotels, tourist places, points of history and cultural importance or increase awareness of a local library or restaurant. Event organizers will be able to evaluate locations, restaurants, hotels, museums. Real estate agents will save time not only by exploring properties.

The White Tower in Thessaloniki, on a typically sunny Greek day
As always, we’ve build privacy safeguards into Street View — we blur people’s faces and vehicle license plates automatically — and if anyone sees a need for additional blurring, they can let us know by clicking on ‘Report a problem’ in the bottom left corner of the screen.

We're excited to be launching our first Greek imagery, but our journey is far from finished - we are already planning to redrive and refresh the Greek imagery.

Posted by Dionisis Kolokotsas, Public Policy & Government Relations Manager, Athens

Get a front seat to the World Cup

The world's biggest soccer tournament is here. Whether you’re watching from the comfort of your couch or packing your bags for Brazil, Google Maps is your ticket to the games. To kick off the tournament, starting today you can explore all 12 stadiums and the iconic painted streets, one of Brazil’s tournament traditions, in Street View which serves as a digital legacy of the 2014 games for years to come.

Exploring the sights and culture of this year’s football tournament has never been easier with Street View in Google Maps.

Rua Professor Eurico Rabelo - Maracanã, RJ

Rua Padre Agostinho Poncet, São Paulo, Brazil
In addition to the stadiums and painted streets, images from hundreds of sites across Brazil, including Iguaçu National Park and St. Michael of the Missions, are also now available on Google Maps.

And if you’re lucky enough to have a physical ticket to Brazil, don’t forget to pack Google Maps for mobile.
  • Transit: With Google Maps transit available in all 12 host cities, Brazilians and visitors alike can rest assured they can make it to the stadium and other destinations routing the best path by bus or train.
  • Indoor Maps: Make your way through more than 100 venues across Brazil, including airports, shopping malls and, yes, tournament stadiums with Indoor Maps.
  • Turn-by-turn navigation: Zip through Brazil from Point A to Point B with Google Maps for mobile, giving you the most accurate traffic info, including real-time incident reports from Waze, and voice-guided directions.
Even if we can't help your favorite team find their way to victory, Google Maps is ready for the assist. You might be (or get) lost without it!

Post content Posted by Deanna Yick, Google Street View Program Manager

Campus for entrepreneurs opens in Warsaw

Campus is coming to Warsaw! Across Poland and Central Eastern Europe, innovators and entrepreneurs are building exciting new businesses, making the Polish capital a natural choice to launch our next Campus. We currently operate Campuses in London and Tel Aviv.



Campuses are Google's spaces for entrepreneurs to learn, connect, and build companies that will change the world. In them, entrepreneurs get unparalleled access to mentorship and training from their local startup community, experienced entrepreneurs, and Google teams. Campus Warsaw will join the Google for Entrepreneurs network.

Our Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt met with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk for today's inauguration. “Google started as a startup in garage, so supporting startups is part of our DNA," Eric said. "Our hope is that Campus Warsaw will supercharge tech entrepreneurs, strengthen the startup ecosystem and encourage even more innovation in Poland.”

The new Campus represents only part of our ongoing investment throughout the region. In Krakow, we have opened the Google for Entrepreneurs Krakow program. Along with Warsaw University, we have launched the Digital Economy Lab, with the goal of spreading knowledge about the crucial role digital technology plays in powering the economy and about what policies are required to generate maximum digital acceleration. Along with the Visegrad Fund, ResPublica and the Financial Times, we have started New Europe Challengers campaign to identify the next generation of innovators.

We’ll have more news about the details of Campus Warsaw soon, and look forward to filling it with startups in 2015!

Posted by Eze Vidra, Head of Google for Entrepreneurs Europe

Commemorating D-Day’s 70th anniversary

On the 70th day of the momentous D-Day Normandy landings, our Cultural Institute is launching two initiatives to commemorate: a G+ Hangout on Air with veterans and five new online exhibitions.



The Hangout with D-Day veterans will allow anybody, anywhere to hear direct from veterans on their D-Day experiences. It takes place live from the Caen War Memorial at 6 p.m. Central Europe time. French television journalist Gilles Bouleau will host and Caen Memorial historian Christophe Prime will lend his expertise. American, French and British veterans will participate. High school students from both the U.S. and France will join the discussion.



At the same time, we’re publishing online Normandy landings exhibitions from the Caen War Memorial and other Cultural Institute partners, including the U.K’s Imperial War Museum and Bletchley Park code breakers center, the George C Marshall Research Foundation and the US National Archives. The exhibitions include exciting, previously unshown video footage of the landing, letters from soldiers and the original assault plan. All told, 470 new documents and images are included.



Take some time to browse - and reflect on the sacrifices made to secure Europe’s freedom.

Posted by Sixtine Fabre, Associate Program Manager, Google Cultural Institute

Chromebooks come to five more European countries – in verse

Chromebooks are coming to nine more nations
to improve computing for all generations.

So we’d like to say our Hellos
to our new global Chromebook fellows:



Kia ora to our New Zealand mates,
where getting on-line will have shorter waits.

Kumusta to new friends in the Philippines,
a better way of computing is what this means.

Hallo to all the folks in Norway
Speed, simplicity and security are coming your way.

Hej Hej to the people in Denmark
Built-in virus protection will be your new computing benchmark.

To Mexico and Chile, Hola we say
Tons of apps and free automatic updates are starting today.

And in the coming weeks -- very soon, you’ll see --
Chromebooks will be in Belgium, Spain and Italy.

Chromebooks are easy to share, manage and use,
With lots of shapes, colors and sizes to choose.

Stay safe with your data stored in the cloud,
A smart pick like Chromebook will make your mom proud.

When Chromebooks in these countries alight,
We hope our new global friends find some computing delight.

Posted by David Shapiro, Director of Chromebook Marketing and Occasional Versifier

Highlighting the value of the Internet in Turkey

In the global battle for the free and open Internet, Turkey stands in the front lines. Web penetration is fast growing and the country’s young population is one of the world’s biggest per capita users of social networks. At the same time, these are challenging days for Internet freedom. In our view, the best way forward is to empower Turkey’s civil society to promote knowledge of how to manage and benefit from the web.

For the last year, we have supported a program called "Google Academy for NGOs." Our aim is to educate NGOs on web issues, cloud computing and Google tools. In the first phase of the program, the academy has run workshops in Istanbul and Ankara, training a total of 77 NGO representatives from 62 NGOs. Participants came from NGOs concentrating on human rights, environment, education, entrepreneurship and women’s rights.

Scenes for the Google Academy in Turkey

Before entering the Academy, only half of the trainees indicated that they have knowledge regarding Internet and cloud applications for civil society. Although some 70% indicated that they know and have enough knowledge on Google Search and Google Chrome, only 12% stated that they know Google Good to Know content that provides information on web security and fewer than 10% said that they know about Google Trends, which helps analyze search traffic.

Thanks to the program, most of the participants saw how the Internet could benefit their NGO. It will allow them to keep in communication with their volunteers, increase interaction with stakeholders and partners, and facilitate the development of new projects. Instead of having everyone travel for a meeting, many said they plan to use Google Hangouts to meet online.

The NGO Academy’s first “class” recently graduated. Three exemplary NGOs, received scholarships to attend a management program at Harvard Kennedy School of Government. The winning projects came from:
In June, we are completing a new, second phase of the program. Hopefully, the Google Academy will continue strengthening Turkey’s civil society to recognize the value of the Internet.

Posted by Pelin Kuzey, Policy Manager, Istanbul

Driving Europe’s digital road to economic growth

For the past few years, Europe’s financial crisis has dominated economic debate. The Lisbon Council attempted this week to shift the discussion at its Europe 2020 summit to what policies are needed to move beyond the immediate crisis and build the foundation for future prosperity.

Google supports this agenda. We have worked with the Lisbon Council to launch its Innovation Economics Centre of excellence committed to shedding light on and providing scientific evidence of the profound impact of the Internet and digital technologies. At the Europe 2020 summit, our European policy head Nicklas Lundblad explained how the Internet represents a core component of any European growth strategy.

Top European officials participated, including European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and European Commissioner Neelie Kroes. European startups and innovators including Simon Schaefer, founder and CEO of Germany’s leading startup lab Factory, angel investor Sherry Coutu, and Spotify's Head of Product, Tech, IP and Policy Mark Silverstein urged them to end the continent’s present fragmented regulatory regimes, that forces companies must obtain separate permission to access each of the European Union’s 28 national markets.



At the summit, a new Digital Single Market study “Productivity and Digitalisation in Europe: Paving the Road to Faster Growth” was released. Written by Bart van Ark, chief economist of the research association called The Conference Board, it argues that Europe’s productivity, which is key to growth,is falling far behind America because it lags in intangible investments (see chart below) and adoption of digital technology across all sectors of the economy. As van Ark stressed “ the potential of digitisation to accelerate growth will come primarily from the use of these technologies by industries in non-ICT sector.” This should be a vision for the next European Commission.


In the addition, Dirk Pilat of the OECD, presented new evidence on contribution of young companies to the economy. 42% of new jobs come from startups and high-growth firms, which shows that policymakers in Europe should focus on enabling entrepreneurship and experimentation, rather than focusing only on SMEs and incumbents.

The event underlined how Europe enjoys a giant opportunity for the Internet to support economic growth and employment in Europe - as well as the risks of Europe being left behind related to lack of the digital single market and global scale, digital skills gap, excessive regulation or risks of emerging digital protectionism in Europe.

Google is committed to doing its part. We’re supporting a range of initiatives that help Europeans -- entrepreneurs, startups, and youth -- tap the potential of the net to start a business, reach global markets, and learn new skills and become employable. In Germany, we’re helping the country’s famed exporters find new customers, grow their businesses and maximize their online presence through a suite of digital tools. In Italy, we’re bring Italy’s famous artisan producers online. In Spain, we’re working with partners to create a 21st century workforce by helping people of all ages acquire new digital skills including coding and computer science. All the efforts are meant to send a single important message: in order to prosper, Europe needs to embrace the internet.

Posted by Sylwia Giepmans-Stepien, Senior Policy Analyst, Brussels

Tennish champ Federer takes to the court with Glass

Right in time for the French Tennis Open, which opens in Paris on May 25, two of the greatest tennis players of all time, Roger Federer and Stefan Edberg, recently took Glass for a swing. It’s safe to say that their combined 23 Grand Slam titles will be the most that ever step foot on Google’s tennis courts at our headquarters in Mountain View.



"It was really fun shooting this video through Glass,” said Roger. “It's not often you get to explore new angles of watching tennis. I hope fans enjoy this new perspective.”

As our Glass Explorer community has grown, we've heard time and time again that Glass is a great companion for sports. Glass has been a hit with several pro athletes from Indiana Pacer Roy Hibbert and PGA player Billy Horschel. Take a look and swing away.

Posted by Chelsea Maughan, Communications Manager

Challenging journalism’s status quo

The countdown has begun. The Global Editors Network has announced its shortlist of 75 finalists for the Data Journalism Awards, supported by Google and the Knight Foundation. Winners will be named at GEN’s upcoming summit in Barcelona on June 12.

The young field of data journalism--analyzing large datasets to unearth news stories and information--is growing tremendously. The 2014 Data Journalism Awards received a record 520 submissions, 200 more than last year. A total of 65 countries were represented. While some newsrooms around have installed dedicated specialists to focus on reporting based on data, Mirko Lorenz, Director of the 2014 Data Journalism Awards, said solo journalists accounted for the vast majority of submissions. “Journalists are taking it on themselves to use data for projects, for experimentation,” Lorenz said.

GEN champions journalistic innovation, demonstrating how the online world offers great opportunities for the future of journalism. Its summit this year in Barcelona is entitled “Mobile. Video. Data. Challenge the Status Quo.” Sessions and keynotes will revolve around the idea that these three things must be top-of-mind in the modern newsroom. Speakers range from the Guardian’s lead digital strategist Wolfgang Blau to Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersch.

This is GEN’s fourth annual summit - take a look below at highlights from last year’s event in Paris.



This year’s summit promises to be three days of hard work and learning - and also a treat. One of the featured speakers will be Ferran Adria, the famed Catalan chef and founder of the restaurant El Bulli. See you in Barcelona.

Posted by Peter Barron, Director, Communications, Europe, Middle East and Africa

Bringing the Father of the Internet to Finland

Back in the 1970s, Vint Cerf played a decisive role developing what became the backbone of the future Internet - TCP/IP protocol that allowed computers to communicate with each other over an arbitrarily large number of networks. This “father of the Internet” recently visited Finland, home to our EUR850 million data centre in Eastern Finland and addressed an audience of 300 students at the beautiful new Vellamo Museum.



Many of our data centres are located in traditional industrial areas where one might not immediately think of being the home for a Google facility. In Finland, the region around our data center is struggling with the decline of its traditional economic motor - the paper industry. In March 2009, we purchased Summa Mill from Finnish paper company Stora Enso and converted the 60 year old paper mill. The first phase of the facility became operational in September 2011 and serves Google users across Europe and around the world.

During the recent event with Vint, the local data center directors Arni Jonsson and Herman Arsaelsson demystified the data center. They talke about how our investment is about more than just bricks, mortar and servers. Its about jobs. In Hamina, we’re providing work for (at peak) approximately 800 engineering and construction workers. In addition, the data center provides full time jobs for people who come from diverse backgrounds and skills. All of our open positions can be found on Google Jobs page.

Our economic and academic partners in Finland told about how we are helping the region to fly into the flourishing 21rst century digital economy. In the spring of 2013, we announced a new partnership with Aalto University and the regional development agency Cursor. With Google's financial support, Aalto University is strengthening the Venture Gym acceleration program around the growing Playa Game Industry Hub, as well as the region's Kaakko 135 travel and tourism initiative.

Vint continued by wowing everyone with a lecture about the past and future of the net. Take a look above at some of the highlights and enjoy a few minutes of news from the north of Europe.

Posted by William Echikson, Head of Community Relations, Europe