Category Archives: Official Google Blog

Insights from Googlers into our topics, technology, and the Google culture

Working with news partners in Asia Pacific

Wake up, check the news … according to this year’s Reuters Institute Digital News Report, smartphones have become the main way people access news first thing in the morning. This is just one small example of how consumer behavior continues to change and things that seemed radical when I started working in media more than two decades ago — like instant access to always-on news sources — are now the minimum of what we expect as readers.

As we mark 20 years since Google News launched, I’ve been reflecting on the work our team does with news publishers of all sizes in Asia Pacific to support their focus on reaching audiences with the news content that matters to them. Here are some highlights of this recent work and a look at what's coming up.

1. Local solutions for local needs

We work closely with the news industry across the region to develop solutions that work locally. In response to feedback from partners, we’ve developed bespoke programs such as Build New Local in Japan. This program is led by local newspapers to help them use technology to connect and digitally transform so they can become more sustainable and reach new audiences. We provided skills training on design and product thinking, facilitated an idea hackathon and brought local newspapers together to work on common challenges and new business ideas.

In Malaysia, we worked with The Star to conduct design thinking workshops to help determine the best way to maintain online readership and drive revenue, while in Indonesia we’ve worked with publishers like MalukuTerkini.com through the Local News Foundry to address their challenges. And in Australia, we partnered with five regional publishers as part of Project Kookaburra to experiment with new business models and strategies to thrive in the digital age.

2. Broader and deeper publisher engagement

In recent years, we’ve expanded our relationships with news partners and strengthened the way we work together, from conducting business training to providing support for publishers through activities such as the Google News Initiative (GNI) Digital Growth Program. In India, we identified more than 300 small-to-medium news publishers producing original news for local and regional communities and provided technical and product training for teams through the GNI Advertising Lab to help them grow digital ad revenues. The program also helps publishers optimize their content management systems, websites and ads.

We announced the GNI Journalism Emergency Relief Fund in 2020 to deliver urgent aid to thousands of small, medium and local news publishers globally as the news industry dealt with the economic downturn prompted by COVID-19. Many news partners in Asia Pacific benefited from this program — for example in South Korea, Jeonnam Ilbo used these funds to highlight the resilience of businesses affected by COVID-19 and connect them with support.

3. Tackling misinformation and supporting fact checking

The impact of misinformation has been top of mind during the pandemic, as people seek out reliable data, health information and updates. In this context we have worked to support local fact-checking efforts, for example investing in CekFakta, the collaborative fact-checking and verification project with the Indonesian Cyber Media Association, the Indonesian Anti-Slander Society (Mafindo) and the Alliance of Independent Journalists. The GNI was a founding supporter of CekFakta and earlier this year we announced additional investment to expand the fact-checking network.

Ahead of the Philippines’ presidential election, we supported #FactsFirstPH, a coalition of more than 100 news, civil society and business organizations to counter disinformation. They authored and amplified more than 800 fact checks and produced several studies on the nature of disinformation during the election period. We’ve also worked closely with DataLeads in India through the GNI India Training Network to train more than 35,000 journalists, media, educators, fact checkers and journalism students in fact-checking and verification skills.

A collaboration between the GNI and DataLEADS, the India Training Network has trained more than 35,000 Indian journalists, media educators, fact checkers and journalism students in fact-checking and verification skills.
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4. Supporting innovation through products and programs

We work closely with news publishers across the Asia Pacific region to provide financial, technical and training support. More than 340 news publications in Asia Pacific have joined Google News Showcase since it launched in 2020, and we're continuing discussions with even more publishers across the region. This builds upon our proud history of partnering with news businesses around the world to strengthen quality journalism, and is the basis of our continuing efforts to create a thriving news ecosystem in Asia Pacific.

Beyond products, the Google News Initiative works to encourage diversity and innovation in news. This includes partnering on innovation through programs such as the GNI Innovation Challenge, which started in APAC back in 2018. Since the launch, GNI Innovation Challenges have supported more than 200 news organizations around the world, including outlets like Busan Ilbo in Korea and Khabar Lahariya in India.

5. Supporting a diverse news community

Through all our work with the news industry, we aim to help build diversity, fairness and inclusion standards into every program that we deliver and every partnership that we create. In Australia, we partnered with Media Diversity Australia to examine diversity in the local broadcast news industry and in Japan, we launched a news-specific track of the Women Will Leadership Program to help women working in news to advance their careers and support companies seeking to drive change in the work environment. In Korea and Australia, we will welcome new cohorts to leadership programs for journalists returning to work after parental leave.

Looking forward

To further support a diverse news ecosystem, we’re opening applications for the new Global News Equity Fund, which supports news organizations that serve or are owned by members of underrepresented communities. The GNI Global News Equity Fund will provide cash awards to independent journalists and small and medium-sized news organizations producing original news for minority and underrepresented audiences. Applications are open now until July 21 and available in Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Bahasa Indonesia and Thai.

Through these and other programs we work with news partners across the region to support their goals and strengthen quality journalism. I look forward to continuing these partnerships and will have more to share on new initiatives in the coming months.

#WeArePlay: Meet the people behind your apps and games

Every month, over 2.5 billion people visit Google Play to discover millions of apps and games. Behind each of these apps is an entrepreneur (or two… or three) with a unique story to tell. Some have been programming since childhood, others just learned how to code. Some live in busy cities, others in smaller towns. No matter how different their backgrounds are, these creators all have one thing in common — the passion to turn an idea into a growing business.

#WeArePlay celebrates and shares their stories. Over the next few months, you’ll hear from the people and businesses behind Google Play apps and games, and how they’re making an impact around the world.

Video featuring people behind four apps and games businesses on Google Play: Melissa, an entrepreneur for many years; Yvonne and Alyssa, who created a game with no prior experience; Anica and Kristijan, who run a family business; and Sam, who creates medical games.
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Our series kicks off spotlighting Yvonne and Alyssa, the London-based mother and daughter duo who created Frobelles — a dress-up game that helps increase representation of African and Caribbean hair styles in the game industry.

Video featuring the story of Yvonne and Alyssa from London, a mother and daughter duo who created the dress up game Frobelles. The video shows their life in London, their family, activities they do together and their personal journey creating the game.
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You’ll also meet Hand Talk Translator’s Ronaldo, Carlos and Theadeu from Brazil, DailyArt’s Zuzanna from Poland, and TravelSpend’s world-trotting couple Ina and Jonas from Germany.

Gif swipes between photos of Ronaldo, Carlos and Thadeu, Zuzanna, and Ina and Jonas with their respective app names and the #WeArePlay logo.

A big thank you to all the apps and games businesses that are part of our Google Play community. Dive into some of their stories today and stay tuned for more.

How AI creates photorealistic images from text

Pictures of puppy in a nest emerging from a cracked egg. Photos overlooking a steampunk city with airships. Picture of two robots having a romantic evening at the movies.

Have you ever seen a puppy in a nest emerging from a cracked egg? What about a photo that’s overlooking a steampunk city with airships? Or a picture of two robots having a romantic evening at the movies? These might sound far-fetched, but a novel type of machine learning technology called text-to-image generation makes them possible. These models can generate high-quality, photorealistic images from a simple text prompt.

Within Google Research, our scientists and engineers have been exploring text-to-image generation using a variety of AI techniques. After a lot of testing we recently announced two new text-to-image models — Imagen and Parti. Both have the ability to generate photorealistic images but use different approaches. We want to share a little more about how these models work and their potential.

How text-to-image models work

With text-to-image models, people provide a text description and the models produce images matching the description as closely as possible. This can be something as simple as “an apple” or “a cat sitting on a couch” to more complex details, interactions and descriptive indicators like “a cute sloth holding a small treasure chest. A bright golden glow is coming from the chest.”

A picture of a cute sloth holding a small treasure chest. A bright golden glow is coming from the chest

In the past few years, ML models have been trained on large image datasets with corresponding textual descriptions, resulting in higher quality images and a broader range of descriptions. This has sparked major breakthroughs in this area, including Open AI’s DALL-E 2.

How Imagen and Parti work

Imagen and Parti build on previous models. Transformer models are able to process words in relationship to one another in a sentence. They are foundational to how we represent text in our text-to-image models. Both models also use a new technique that helps generate images that more closely match the text description. While Imagen and Parti use similar technology, they pursue different, but complementary strategies.

Imagen is a Diffusion model, which learns to convert a pattern of random dots to images. These images first start as low resolution and then progressively increase in resolution. Recently, Diffusion models have seen success in both image and audio tasks like enhancing image resolution, recoloring black and white photos, editing regions of an image, uncropping images, and text-to-speech synthesis.

Parti’s approach first converts a collection of images into a sequence of code entries, similar to puzzle pieces. A given text prompt is then translated into these code entries and a new image is created. This approach takes advantage of existing research and infrastructure for large language models such as PaLM and is critical for handling long, complex text prompts and producing high-quality images.

These models have many limitations. For example, neither can reliably produce specific counts of objects (e.g. “ten apples”), nor place them correctly based on specific spatial descriptions (e.g. “a red sphere to the left of a blue block with a yellow triangle on it”). Also, as prompts become more complex, the models begin to falter, either missing details or introducing details that were not provided in the prompt. These behaviors are a result of several shortcomings, including lack of explicit training material, limited data representation, and lack of 3D awareness. We hope to address these gaps through broader representations and more effective integration into the text-to-image generation process.

Taking a responsible approach to Imagen and Parti

Text-to-image models are exciting tools for inspiration and creativity. They also come with risks related to disinformation, bias and safety. We’re having discussions around Responsible AI practices and the necessary steps to safely pursue this technology. As an initial step, we’re using easily identifiable watermarks to ensure people can always recognize an Imagen- or Parti-generated image. We’re also conducting experiments to better understand biases of the models, like how they represent people and cultures, while exploring possible mitigations. The Imagen and Parti papers provide extensive discussion of these issues.

What’s next for text-to-image models at Google

We will push on new ideas that combine the best of both models, and expand to related tasks such as adding the ability to interactively generate and edit images through text. We’re also continuing to conduct in-depth comparisons and evaluations to align with our Responsible AI Principles. Our goal is to bring user experiences based on these models to the world in a safe, responsible way that will inspire creativity.

Taking pride in our businesses

A couple of years ago, my partner and I moved to Kentucky, not knowing anyone in the state. Before moving, I extensively researched local websites and online magazines, trying to understand the neighborhoods and get a sense of the community. Somewhere along the way I found Lussi Brown Coffee Bar, a local business run by by a queer woman. Not knowing whether I’d get a response, I eagerly reached out through email, asking questions to get a sense of the community. To my delight, the owner, Sarah Brown (she/they), quickly responded and provided an overview of the rich history of the LGBTQ+ community in Lexington. And of course, she shared recommendations of some of their favorite LGBTQ+ owned businesses in the state too!

As we moved into town, Sarah and their girlfriend welcomed us with open arms, very much making the community immediately feel like home. And our physical home brought that same love, too. Unintentionally, we rented an apartment on a short street filled with LGBTQ+ folks from their 20s through their 70s — in fact, our neighbors called it Kentucky’s “Barbary Lane,” a nod to the tight knit, beloved street of LGBTQ+ folks in Armistead Maupin’s novel “Tales of the City.”

A person in a black shirt and shorts sits at a wooden table outside a coffee shop with a rainbow Pride flag hanging in the window

Owner Sarah Brown (she/they) outside of their coffee shop, Lussi Brown

With that same spirit, we want to make it easier for others to find LGBTQ+ owned businesses in their own community. Starting today, merchants in the U.S. with a verified Business Profile on Google can add an LGBTQ+ owned attribute to their profile, making it easier for customers to find and support them through Search and Maps. This new offering joins the Black-owned, Latino-owned, veteran-owned and women-owned business attributes we already offer, and is yet another way people can support diverse businesses.

An attendee of an event co-hosted by NGLCC and Google, sitting in a yellow chair looking forward

As we celebrate Pride, it’s important to remember visibility and representation are critical, all year round. A flag in the window of a small business has the power to bring queer folks together, to celebrate our joy, honor our history, and fight for our diverse community. It’s our hope that this attribute will allow business owners to celebrate their identity and community with the world.

Improve your ZZZs with Fitbit Premium Sleep Profile

A good night’s sleep can help you feel rested and recharged, while also playing a critical role in your overall health and well-being. Since the introduction of Fitbit’s sleep features in 2009, sleep tracking has been incredibly popular – making information previously only available through a sleep lab accessible to users via their wrist. To date, we’ve analyzed 22 billion hours of sleep data, equivalent to the lifespan of over 5,000 tortoises. (Fun facts: a tortoise lives for up to 500 years and there are 60,000 giant tortoises in the world.)

We know our users are motivated to gather even more insight into their sleep, which is why today we’re introducing Sleep Profile. This new Fitbit Premium feature offers a new longitudinal analysis of your sleep patterns. It also makes your sleep data even easier to interpret with fun animal characters, so you can take steps to improve your sleep quality and, in turn, your overall health.

Monthly sleep metrics graphic showcasing each of your month-long metrics like sleep schedule variability, sleep start time, time before sound sleep, sleep duration and deep sleep, with how you compare with others like you.

Fitbit Sleep Profile users will receive a monthly sleep analysis where they can see ideal ranges for someone of a similar age and gender, and where they fall within each – so they see where they could focus on improving.

What sleeper type are you?

These critical data points gathered from your sleep analysis inform your designated Sleep Animal, providing a fun way to understand your sleeping style. Our extensive research and testing found six animal archetypes, each chosen for their distinct trends that correlate each animal's behavior with common user sleeping behaviors and patterns.

The following graphics highlight top traits and habits of each sleeper type, and how yours can impact your day-to-day:

  • Fitbit premium in-app screen picturing a sleeping giraffe with explanations of the sleeper type

    Giraffe: Your sleep tends to be shorter, and you are more likely to sleep later and wake up earlier. You have a relatively good proportion of deep and REM sleep despite a shorter overall duration.

  • Fitbit premium in-app screen picturing a sleeping bear with explanations of the sleeper type.

    Bear: You tend to have a consistent sleep schedule, regularly falling asleep around the same time. You go to bed earlier than most, and you tend to reach a sound sleep quickly. Your sleep tends to be long and restful, with a relatively high proportion of deep and REM sleep.

  • Fitbit premium in-app screen picturing a sleeping dolphin with explanations of the sleeper type.

    Dolphin: You tend to fall asleep later than most and sleep for less time overall—maybe due to an inconsistent sleep schedule. Compared to others, you tend to be a lighter sleeper and might take naps to catch up.

  • Fitbit premium in-app screen picturing a sleeping hedgehog with explanations of the sleeper type.

    Hedgehog: You usually fall asleep later and wake up earlier. You are a lighter sleeper—typically taking longer to reach sound sleep and may get less deep and REM.

  • Fitbit premium in-app screen picturing a sleeping parrot with explanations of the sleeper type.

    Parrot: You tend to keep a consistent bedtime and don’t sleep too early or late. You typically reach sound sleep quickly and usually get a good amount of sleep each night. You likely sleep deeply once you drift off but can be light on REM due to waking up briefly throughout the night.

  • Fitbit premium in-app screen picturing a sleeping tortoise with explanations of the sleeper type.

    Tortoise: You tend to fall asleep at different times each night, but often earlier than most. Paired with slightly later average wake times, you tend to spend more time in bed overall but may find it takes longer to reach a sound sleep, impacting your lower than average deep and REM sleep.

How does it work?

Wear your Fitbit device to sleep for at least 14 nights per calendar month to receive an assessment. The more you wear the device to sleep, the more precise the evaluation. Sleep can vary significantly from night to night, so it’s helpful to analyze your sleep data over a longer period from your own sleep environment to uncover more insights into your habits and how you can improve.

As a Premium member you will see your Sleep Profile, including your sleep animal and monthly sleep analysis, on the first day of every month. Animals can change from month to month, and data collected throughout the month will inform the next animal you receive the following month. There is no “ideal” animal – each one can be used to better understand your sleep patterns and how you can improve your sleep quality.

Based on your sleeper type’s behavior, you will see where your sleep patterns compare to others like you – whether it’s setting a more consistent sleep schedule or creating a bedtime routine like trying the mindfulness content found within the Fitbit app to help you fall asleep faster. Getting quality sleep can play a critical role in your overall health and well-being, with poor sleep being correlated to increased potential health risks including diabetes, cardiovascular problems, obesity, poor cognitive functioning and more. Premium uplevels your Fitbit experience by helping you better understand your sleep patterns, your readiness to exercise and how your body responds to stressors, all with additional guidance and insights to help you achieve your health, fitness and wellness goals.

Sleep Profile is rolling out in the Fitbit app to Premium users with Sense, Versa 3, Versa 2, Charge 5, Luxe or Inspire 2 devices upon launch. Users will receive their first profile during the week of July 4, followed by monthly profiles delivered in the Fitbit app on the 1st of each month. (Note: Sleep Profiles aren't intended for medical purposes and users should consult their health professionals for questions about their health.)

Supporting journalism in Europe

When people searched for the “Twin Towers” in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, access to online news was unreliable. Websites crashed as people tried to keep up with the rapidly-developing story and breaking news couldn’t immediately be found. To make it easier for people to find multiple points of view about the same story, Google News was built to better display, group and sort links to news stories from publishers from around the world. Today, Google News turns 20.

The world has changed a lot in the past 20 years — now anyone with an internet connection has the same access to information as professors and PhD students. The way people learn and seek information has changed as a result. This has led to huge debate about the relationship between platforms like Google and publishers who are navigating this changing world.

With the growth of the internet changing how newspapers are funded, and how people find news, publishers have transformed their business models. Both legacy newspapers and new digital-first companies aresucceeding online by turning to new ways for distribution, analytics, advertising andsubscriptions. Some publishers arereporting record revenues and hiring new journalists. New types of publishers are also emerging, increasing the diversity of information online. Traditional newspaper funding from classified adverts hasshifted online, mainly to so-called "pure plays" that are, or were, formerly owned by newspaper groups.

This commercial success is a result, primarily, of innovation from publishers. Google in turn has sought to partner with publishers by building products like Google News that help people better understand and find news and send valuable traffic to publishers. Each month, people click through from Google Search and Google News to publishers' websites more than 24 billion times around the world. This traffic increases publishers’ readership, builds trust with readers and earns them money through advertising and subscriptions. European publishers are making millions of Euros a year from using our advertising tools.

Beyond Search and advertising, we’re investing in other ways to support journalism - whether it’s funding innovation, training newsrooms in digital skills or developing products like subscription tools, as part of the Google News Initiative. We are also directly paying for content from more than 750 publications in Europe through our licensing product, Google News Showcase.

Alongside these efforts, we have been negotiating with news publishers to license content under the European Copyright Directive, which EU countries are in the process of implementing into national law. So far we have agreements which cover more than 650 publications and we look forward to concluding many more.

And where there have been disputes with publishers in the past, we are making progress to find solutions. This week, after many months of complex negotiations, the French Competition Authority approved our commitments, which will govern the way our negotiations with publishers will work. In Spain, after an almost eight-year hiatus, we are bringing Google News back to Spain. This is thanks to an updated copyright law allowing Spanish media outlets – big and small – to make their own decisions about how their content can be discovered. The removal of Google News in 2014 led to a reduction in both news consumption in Spain and traffic to news sites, especially impacting smaller publishers, so we hope this will do even more to support the Spanish ecosystem.

Creating the right framework for platforms and publishers to work together is fundamental to the future success and sustainability of journalism. Without innovation, publishers will miss the opportunity to reach their readers who are using digital tools to find the information they need.

After all, access to information should not be restricted to PhD students or those in privileged positions. And that’s where technology and policymakers can help journalism reach people wherever they are.

Google News is now available in Spain

When the initial reports of the war in Ukraine emerged, I turned to news reports to better understand the rapidly evolving situation: from international media outlets reporting on the impact of the war in Europe, to my local community newspapers reporting on the resulting increase of fuel and food prices in Spain. But with so much news and information out there, it can be overwhelming to know where to start, or what to believe.

Today, on the global 20th anniversary of Google News, and after an almost eight-year hiatus, Google News is returning to Spain. This is thanks to an updated copyright law allowing Spanish media outlets – big and small – to make their own decisions about how their content can be discovered and how they want to monetise that content.

This illustration shows different colored graphics and headlines depicting the sections of Google News on desktop in Spain, including topic, Your Briefing, local news and more.

An illustration of some of the features for Google News on desktop in Spain

Through a dedicated website and app, soon available on Android and iOS, Google News helps readers find news from authoritative sources, from the world's biggest news websites to small, local and specialty publications. And by identifying and organizing links to stories from a wide range of news sources – a key tool in the fight against misinformation – we’re helping readers more easily discover the bigger picture of what’s going on around them. That includes finding more local stories from their communities, understanding the breaking news topics of the day nationally and globally, and seeing which stories have been fact checked by independent organizations.

Making it easier for readers to find the news they’re looking for doesn’t just benefit readers, it also helps publishers. Google News directs readers to publishers’ websites when they click on links – helping drive traffic to their content, where they can show ads and incentivize readers to subscribe. Research showed news consumption in Spain fell when we had to shut down Google News in 2014, and this led to a 10% reduction in traffic to Spanish publishers’ websites — with the greatest impact on smaller publishers.

On top of bringing Google News back to Spain, we’ll be working with publishers to reach agreements and bring Google News Showcase to the country as soon as possible. Google News Showcase is a licensing program and new product experience that pays publishers to curate content for story panels on Google News and Discover. Alongside this, we’ll continue to invest in products, programs and funding via the Google News Initiative.

Journalists play an important role in helping us understand important events as they unfold. They helped us sift through the huge amounts of information around COVID-19 and how it impacted our community. They follow national issues, help bring context to stories that will impact our lives, and they keep us informed about what’s happening in other countries and continents. We hope the return of Google News to Spain helps more people find the news they’re looking for, from diverse, authoritative publishers of all sizes from Spain and beyond, and provides even more support to the journalists and publishers who work tirelessly to deliver the news.

Read all about it: A new look for Google News

The rise of social media, mobile devices, notifications, apps and news sites around the world means people have more ways to get news than ever before. Google News gives people a simple way to cut through the noise and easily find out what’s important in their local community and around the world. From local and regional news outlets to national and global perspectives, Google News brings together diverse journalism to help us better understand our world.

Our vision for Google News is focused on strengthening access to local news, providing access to a diverse range of sources, and addressing misinformation while protecting the open web.

Today we're announcing a number of ways we're working to help people around the world find a broad array of authoritative news, through global support to news organizations and product innovation.

The new Google News

Google News is available in over 125 countries and 40 languages. Each month, people click through from Google Search and Google News results to publishers’ websites more than 24 billion times. Google’s algorithms use machine learning to analyze hundreds of different factors to identify and organize the stories being covered around the world.

To help people dive deeper into important stories and more easily find local news from around the world, today we’re launching a redesigned, more customizable Google News experience for desktop.

Our new look for Google News on desktop was inspired by feedback we received from readers. We’ve made it easier for you to catch up on the most important news by bringing Top stories, Local news and personalized picks for you to the top of the page.

This image shows an example of how the Google News desktop page will look like in its new redesign. We've brought local news up to the top of the page and made it easier for you to customize the topics you want to follow

The newly redesigned Google News on desktop, with local news now easier to find.

As an example, we’ve moved our local news section to the top of the page, so it’s easier to find. You can now use the filter button to add multiple locations to your local news section, so you’ll never miss important news about the cities and towns you care about. This change is just the latest way we’re bringing local news to users around the world. Last year, we expanded a feature on Google Search so readers around the world can now see a carousel of local news stories when Google finds local news coverage relevant to their query. This helps them easily find stories from local news publishers.

To make sure this Google News desktop homepage feels truly yours, you now have the ability to customize the topics that appear. This new feature makes it simple to scroll and click through to the stories that most interest you. You can add, remove or reorder topics – just click the blue customize button in the top right of the Your Topics section to get started.

This image shows Your Topics on the Google News desktop redesign

Your Topics now makes it easy to customize the subjects you’d like to follow.

This image shows a zoomed in example of the customization box you may get if you wan to customize the Your Topics section of Google News. You can select what you want to follow (Business, for example) and reorder them on the page.

An example of the customization options for Topics in the new Google News desktop.

To help you make more informed judgments about the information you come across online, we’ve expanded our Fact Check section in Google News on desktop to provide more context. In addition to headlines, you’ll now see the original claim made along with the fact-checked assessment from independent organizations.

This is one of the many ways Google is helping support media literacy. You can also find more information about sources right on Google Search, called About This Result. Next to related Search results, you’ll see three dots that you can tap to learn more about the result and where the information is coming from. With this extra context, you can follow expert recommendations to check the source and see what others say about a topic, helping you make more informed decisions about the sites you may want to visit and what results will be most useful for you.

As part of our announcements today to bring a redesigned Google News to people globally, we’re also announcing that after an eight-year hiatus, Google News is returning to Spain. This is a result of a new copyright law and we hope that the return of Google News to Spain helps more people find more news, from more places, and helps publishers find new readers

How we’re helping journalists

Having access to news goes beyond individuals’ experiences day to day – it's also about finding ways to help the news industry stay successful. Through the Google News Initiative, we partner with news publishers around the world to build a long-lasting, diverse and innovative news industry. We do this by offering training, programs, funding and products to journalists and newsrooms to help strengthen their work in the digital age.

One of the GNI’s goals is to elevate the work of diverse publications around the world. As part of that effort, we’re officially opening the applications for our Global News Equity Fund, our multi-million dollar commitment to help bring more diversity and equity to the news industry. Independent journalists and small and medium-sized news organizations producing original news for minority and underrepresented audiences are eligible to apply by July 21 for funding to support and expand their news operations.

We’re also announcing the first round of recipients of The Data-Driven Reporting Project, a partnership between the GNI and the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University. The first round of funding awards around $1 million to help journalists serving local and underrepresented communities, supporting their work to publish document-based or data driven investigative stories. The 22 winners are from the U.S. and Canada. Medill will provide specialized training, expertise and resources to award recipients. Google played no role in the selection of jurors or individual projects. Applications for a second round will open later this year.

As another part of our continued commitment to supporting local news in the U.S., we’ll invest in a local news advertising campaign placed with local outlets. We’ll also continue to partner with local news associations to offer programs that will support long-term digital transformation and sustainability.

20 years of Google News

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Google News. When it launched, Google News broke new ground in news aggregation by gathering links in real time, grouping articles by story and ranking stories from publishers worldwide.

This image shows how Google News on desktop looked in 2002 versus how it looks now in 2022.

How Google News on desktop looked in 2002 versus how it looks now in 2022.

The world has changed a lot in the past 20 years – and the way people learn and seek information, and how news organizations cover the news, have changed with it. At Google, we’re committed to work with publishers, governments and civil society to build a future of news that meets the new ways people look for and consume news.

Here’s to the next 20 years.

Open call: introducing Google’s Image Equity Fellowship

When you’re telling stories and building products for a community, it’s best to do that work alongside that community. That's the ethos behind Real Tone, our efforts to more accurately and beautifully represent people of color on Google Pixel 6 and in Google Photos. A key part of our work on Real Tone was our deep partnerships with image experts — including renowned photographers, cinematographers, colorists and directors — whose artistry has expanded our collective understanding of whose stories need to be told. This emphasis on community-driven storytelling is the foundation of our first Image Equity Fellowship, launching today.

The Image Equity Fellowship aims to support the next generation of image makers of color. This six-month, application-based program will award $20,000 in unrestricted funds, intimate mentorship and dedicated workshops with industry experts to each of the 20 selected early-career creators in the U.S. The creators will develop visual bodies of work that share urgent, untold stories of their communities with dignity and nuance. Fellows will also receive support from Google and our partners in exhibiting their completed projects in-person and online.

Our partners

We are partnering with three nonprofits which contribute to a more representatively diverse world of artists. Through print, online media and in-person events, Aperture connects the photo community and its audiences with the most inspiring work, the sharpest ideas and with each other. For Freedoms is an artist collective that centers art and creativity as a catalyst for transformative connection and collective liberation. And FREE THE WORK’s global talent discovery community bridges the gap between opportunities and underrepresented emerging artists.

Our partners curated a selection of industry-celebrated mentors to guide the fellows: Lebanese filmmaker and photographer Ahmed Klink, American artist and 2016 Guggenheim Fellow Lyle Ashton Harris, photographer and documentarian Bee Walker and multi-hyphenate creative Mahaneela.

How to apply

Applications for the Image Equity Fellowship are now open through 11:59 pm Eastern on Friday, July 18 to all early-career artists who self-identify as a person of color, are based in the U.S. and are at least 18 years old. To learn more about the Fellowship and to apply, visit the website.

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Image equity: Making image tools more fair for everyone

As part of Google’s Product Inclusion efforts, our teams are building more equitable camera and imaging products for people of color.

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Improving skin tone representation across Google

We're introducing a next step in our commitment to image equity and improving representation across our products.

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Join Kick Start, a coding competition for all levels

Kick Start, one of Google’s Coding Competitions, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this season! Open to all skill levels, Kick Start gives beginner to advanced coders the chance to develop their skills and learn more about competitive programming through algorithmic and mathematical challenges designed by Google engineers.

Kick Start’s 2022 season is officially underway. Rounds take place throughout the year, so you can join in on the fun whenever it’s convenient for you. Check out the full schedule and register today.

Hone your skills with Coding Practice with Kick Start

In addition to Kick Start’s eight online rounds, we’re also hosting several Coding Practice with Kick Start rounds this season. These four-day sessions remove the time constraints and scoreboard, so you can take your time working through problems and get some extra practice without pressure. You’ll receive dedicated Googler support and detailed walkthrough videos to help you level up and prepare for the next Kick Start round. Our next Coding Practice with Kick Start round takes place from June 27 to July 1 — add the session to your calendar so you don’t miss out.

Still deciding if Kick Start is the right fit for you? We sat down with a few members of the team behind Coding Practice with Kick Start to learn more about the competition and why it’s valuable for coders of all levels.

And here’s what some of our participants had to say about their experiences:

“Coding Practice with Kick Start helped me learn about the different types of competitive programming problems. And since we had more time, I could work on fixing my common mistakes, like not reading the problem statement carefully on the first pass. The problem walkthroughs were also very helpful, and I’m glad I can revisit them when I have a little more time.”

“I really liked that Coding Practice with Kick Start gave me an entire week to complete problems at my own pace. It helped lower the barrier of entry for me, since I've never participated in an online coding competition before and I was hesitant to sign up at first. Theintroduction session also clearly explained the format of the official Kick Start rounds, giving me a good sense of what I was walking into and the types of problems I would need to solve.”

You can participate in any Coding Practice with Kick Start session and official Kick Start round — so why not give them all a try? Head to g.co/kickstart and register today. We hope you’ll join us June 27 - July 1 to kick start your coding competition journey!