Building a secure world

The following is adapted from remarks delivered by Royal Hansen, Vice President of Engineering for Privacy, Safety and Security during his keynote United in Cyberpower: The Role of Companies in Building a Cybersecure World at Cybersec Europe 2022 in Katowice, Poland.

I believe cybersecurity is one of the top issues facing the world today and I’d like to share a bit about why it’s so important for companies, countries, and communities of all sizes to work together.

This is particularly true right here in Central and Eastern Europe where the Russian invasion of Ukraine has brought these issues into sharp focus. I’m honored to be here today and to get to meet with so many of you who are working on this day in and day out.

As governments in this region and elsewhere in the world tackle this issue we want to ensure we are doing everything we can to support those efforts. Google’s mission has always been about organizing the world's information and making it universally accessible and useful. The work we’re doing to ensure people can get access to quality information–and do so safely–has never been more important than it is today.

Securing users in Ukraine and the broader region

As the Russian invasion of Ukraine unfolded, Google mobilized to help the people of Ukraine and protect the security of our users and services – an area where we are uniquely positioned to help in this conflict.

We have our own specialized teams dedicated to identifying, tracking, and countering threats from government-backed actors.

Russia-backed hacking and influence operations are not new to us; we’ve been tracking and taking action against them for years. To put this into perspective, we’ve seen and worked to disrupt Russian operations targeting the U.S. elections in 2016 and 2017 and campaigns targeting the 2018 Olympic games. In October, we blocked a Russian campaign targeting 14,000 Google users.

And we’ve seen first hand the targeting of Ukraine by Russia. It has been ongoing for years with both espionage and occasional cyber attacks tracked by our teams. As the war intensified, we also saw Russian threat actors shift focus to targets elsewhere in Eastern Europe.

Our Threat Analysis Group (TAG), regularly publishes details on campaigns it detects, and disrupts these efforts to help governments and private sector companies better defend their systems.

We’ve seen threat actors beyond Russia shift their focus and targeting, including a growing number of threat actors using the war as a lure in phishing and malware campaigns. This includes government-backed actors from China, Iran, North Korea, Belarus and financially-motivated, criminal actors using current events as a means for targeting users.

For example, we’ve seen one cyber crime group impersonating military personnel to extort money for rescuing relatives in Ukraine.

In addition to disrupting threats, we are doing everything we can to increase protections for high risk users and organizations in Ukraine. We’ve redoubled our efforts to offer free tools to help – including protecting hundreds of high risk users on the ground with our Advanced Protection Program, and expanding eligibility of Project Shield to include the Ukraine government. Shield is currently protecting over 200 websites in Ukraine from distributed denial of service attacks.

It is in this spirit of action that we are expanding our partnerships and investment in the broader region on cybersecurity.

In fact, this week a delegation of our top security engineers and leaders are on the ground across Eastern Europe to provide hands-on training to high risk groups, deliver security keys and support local businesses as they look to improve their security posture.

To share what we know about the threat, we are engaging in technical exchanges with governments in the region.

We’re providing free tools and expertise to democratic institutions and civil society, such as the Protect Your Democracy Toolkit - which we launched today in partnership with our Jigsaw team.

We’re also investing in, and shaping, the next generation of cybersecurity professionals. For example, Google has committed to provide scholarships for 150,000 people in Europe, the Middle East and Africa through the new Google Career Certificate training.

We’re also helping governments and businesses stay ahead of the threat, including helping government agencies, companies and utilities who rely on outdated hardware and software to replace old systems with better foundations and we are here to build up businesses and governments’ confidence to embrace digital transformation securely.

Google’s approach to security

We believe we are uniquely positioned to help users, organizations, and governments in this region because of our approach to security.

First, we focus on the basics. We bake in security from the beginning instead of bolting it on as an afterthought and we design helpful products that are secure by default for our users. In fact, we are the first consumer tech company to automatically turn on 2 step verification, our version of multifactor authentication, or MFA, for our users. We recommend businesses and governments focus on these fundamentals as well.

Second, we take an open and interoperable approach to security, and we invest to ensure this model of the Internet as a whole is protected. In today’s interconnected environment, our collective security is only as strong as the weakest link. Our business cannot thrive if people don’t feel safe online. That’s why we design solutions that eliminate entire classes of threats from being effective both on our platforms, and across the Internet as a whole.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly – we are looking at the future of cybersecurity and investing in advanced, state-of-the-art capabilities. We know that cyber threats evolve quickly – as soon as a new technology is introduced or adopted, there are threat actors and cyber criminals looking for ways to exploit it. That’s why it’s not enough to just stay a few steps ahead of the threat.

We need to invest in the future of technology, from cutting-edge artificial intelligence capabilities, to advanced cryptography, to quantum computing – our teams are already working on the future of cybersecurity. And we see it as part of our mission to ensure that we open source and share these findings so that organizations and governments can stay ahead of the latest cyber threats.

Security-proofing our tech policies

Our approach enables us to weather online security threats. But advanced capabilities are not enough if government policies inadvertently undermine our ability to protect users.

I support smart tech regulation, which can fuel the vitality of the Internet and ensure technology is meeting society's needs. Unfortunately, some technology regulation is not adequately considering the impact to safety and security efforts online.

For example, some policies seek to limit sharing of data between different services on platforms’ like ours, but overly-broad bans on cross-platform data sharing also have significant implications for the threat intelligence work I mentioned earlier.

The ability to share intelligence on threat actors and their technical signatures helps identify and stop the work of threat actors and cybercriminals. It protects not just one company or two companies, but the Internet as a whole.

To realize the full benefits of technology to society, society must be able to trust that the technology they are using is safe and secure. By ensuring security has a seat at the table in these policy discussions, we can strike this balance and unlock technology’s full potential. Today’s conflict and challenges point to a need for better cooperation and giving technical experts a seat at the table in these policy discussions.

We applaud the Declaration for the Future of the Internet, which calls on governments and industry to protect a future for the Internet that is open, free, global, interoperable, reliable, and secure.

At our core, Google is an Internet company, and our fate is tied to the Internet remaining true to these principles. The internet itself is a multi-stakeholder system, and protecting users and citizens online requires cooperation among us, governments and businesses.

It’s never been more urgent, and our ability to make a difference is greater than anyone anticipated. We all must work together to protect this future, whether that means combating cyber threats, building safe technologies that unlock society’s full potential, or developing responsible technology policies.

We stand ready to partner with governments, businesses, and individual users to see this future secured.

Office spotlight: Chicago

“It almost feels like the first day back at school,” says Rob Biederman as he waits in line for breakfast at the Fulton Market cafe. It’s April 4, and Chicago Googlers like Rob have just started their first official week of hybrid work.

Opened in 2000 with only two employees, the Google Chicago office in the West Loop neighborhood has now grown to more than 1,800 employees across two buildings. In 2021 alone, more than 500 “Nooglers” — what we call new employees — joined the campus.

Chicago Googlers work on all kinds of products and teams. You’ll meet engineers designing Pixel devices and working on Search, Ads and Cloud projects; salespeople helping businesses across North America grow; and folks working across finance, human resources and product management. “It's amazing to now see all the different organizations and product areas represented in Chicago,” says Britton Picciolini, who was the office’s tenth hire in 2002. “It feels like such a great cross section of what we do at Google.”

  • Three Googlers smiling outside at a table. One of the Googlers is holding a phone and the other has a laptop that’s open. The Chicago skyline is in the background.

    Googlers Lauren Guzman, Daniel Muskovitz and Sonya Garg work from the rooftop of Google Chicago’s Fulton Market building.

  • Amy holds a stuffed toy and a digital camera, taking a photo of a brown dog in a red turtleneck sweater. Behind them is a white chair and wooden office desk with a monitor, mouse and keyboard.

    That’s me, Amy (and my pups Hudson and Finn) celebrating #NationalLoveYourPetDay! As a marketing manager for our Employment Brand team, you’ll find me leading projects for our social media channels — like taking photos of the Chicago campus and Googlers working remotely.

  • A large hallway room with white tables, a kitchen space and a black and white picture of a lion statue.

    The Chicago office’s dedicated event space where Googlers can host meetings and events. It includes a 400-person theater and an outdoor mezzanine space.

Every Google office has its own distinctive decor, and the Chicago campus is no exception. As you explore the Fulton Market building, you’ll see painted murals from local graffiti artists on nearly every floor — including a special installation replicating a Chicago viaduct covered in street art. Meanwhile, in the Carpenter building, you’ll find (and smell) pizzas fresh out of the oven, an outdoor terrace with a firepit and a retro game room with a secret entrance — you’ll have to visit to find out where.

  • A hallway with gray, concrete walls covered in art installations. On the left wall are two, light gray hanging chairs with white basket weaves. To the right of the chairs is a tall, green painted monster holding a telescope next to a yellow sun. On the right side is a window and double doors leading to the escalators.

    The 11th floor art installation is one of 16 murals across the Fulton Market building, all created by local street artists.

  • A large staircase leads to three separate floors. A person on the bottom floor looks up towards a kitchen on the next floor, where three Googlers are sitting at tables. A person on the top floor looks down from the balcony.

    The six-story atrium in our Fulton Market building serves as the heart of the office and a way for Googlers to interact between floors.

  • Three people sit at a table and smile at the camera. From left to right is Daniel, George and Yaseline. Daniel is wearing a gray cardigan with blue jeans, George is wearing a blue and yellow striped shirt and blue jeans, and Yaseline is wearing a light brown cardigan and a black tank top.

    Googlers Daniel Johnson, George Martin and Yaseline Muñoz have breakfast in the Fulton Market cafe during the first week of hybrid work.

  • A large archway with four gray chairs in the center, where two Googlers are sitting. Another Googler is sitting at a chair next to large windows overlooking the city. Another employee walks by three arched windows looking out to a hallway.

    The Carpenter building includes a coffee bar with great views — plus a golf simulator, game rooms and several outdoor terraces.

  • A rooftop overlooking the Chicago skyline with a silver train car. Next to the train are silver and green chairs and two silver tables. Around the rooftop is a balcony wall and a set of stairs that lead down to a second platform.

    The Fulton Market rooftop features an ‘L’ train car with tables and chairs for Googlers to work on warmer days.

Whether at the office or at home, Googlers often connect through clubs, cultural celebrations and employee resource groups (ERGs). Google Chicago has more than 16 ERGs focused on personal and professional development. For example, the “Being a Mom @ Google Chicago” ERG launched Mom2Mom mentorship, a program that pairs experienced moms with new moms to help them ease back into work after maternity leave. Meanwhile, to celebrate Chicago’s vibrant music culture, the Chicago Culture Club runs an annual office-wide concert — including a virtual version in 2020 — featuring local musicians and DJs, plus great eats from local food vendors.

Chicago Googlers are also passionate about giving back to their communities. In 2018, we launched the Chicago Contribution Awards, an annual award recognizing outstanding contributions by Chicago Googlers to our office and the local community. In 2021, for Black History Month, the Chicago chapter of the Black Googler Network ERG spotlighted Black small business owners through a virtual storefront experience. And in 2022, our office partnered with Google.org to award a $1M grant to support job training on Chicago’s South and West sides.

  • Six Googlers smiling at the camera outside on the street. All of them are wearing exercise gear, with some wearing a running number attached to their shirts. Three of the Googlers are wearing red and gold medals with red ribbons.

    The Asian Googler Network, an ERG focused on supporting the Asian community at Google, hosted a series of in-person and virtual events in May 2021 to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. In partnership with Google.org, the Chicago chapter donated $53,000 to local Asian-focused charities.

  • A DJ booth with two hands adjusting multiple buttons and knobs.

    Googler Ross Bessinger shows off his DJ skills in a virtual office-wide musical event.

  • Three large cardboard boxes lined up next to each other, each filled with backpacks of different sizes and colors. On the white wall behind them is the Google logo with four red stars underneath symbolizing the Chicago flag.

    For the last 11 years, Chicago Googlers have partnered with local organizations to donate school supplies and winter holiday gifts, and raise funds towards essential household supplies for children and families in need across the city.

This is just a peek into the incredible culture at Google Chicago. I moved here in 2016 and can’t even count the number of people who welcomed me with open arms and encouraged me to get involved. Now, I participate in all types of ERG-led events and even write the office’s monthly newsletter to help others embrace all the possibilities that Google Chicago — and the community around us — has to offer.

Interested in learning about job opportunities at Google Chicago? Explore open roles on our Careers site.

Announcing the Black Founders Fund 2022

En Français

Access to capital continues to pose a challenge for businesses in Africa, especially for women. For Evelyn Kaingu, CEO of Lupiya, this challenge represented an opportunity to leverage technology to support an underserved market. Lupiya is the first fully online micro-lending business in Zambia, offering online personal and business loans to marginalized communities with a focus on enabling access for women. Lupiya is an alumnus of the inaugural Google for Startups Black Founders Fund in Africa launched in 2021 and like fellow startups on the continent, is contributing to economic growth using digital technologies.


In 2021, African tech startups collectively raised $4.3 billion - a 2.5x increase from 2020 funding. This growth, however encouraging, does not discount the existence of a significant funding gap for locally-founded African startups as 82% of them report difficulties in accessing funding.


Following Google’s commitment to building a more equitable future, Google for startups launched the inaugural Black Founders Fund in Africa program in 2021 - supporting 50 black-led businesses across the continent. Since then those startups have gone on to raise $73M+ in follow-on funding, hired 518 staff members and grown their revenues.


Today we’re pleased to announce that we will be extending our support in Africa, with a second $4 million Black Founders Fund which will provide 60 startups in Africa with up to $100,000 in equity-free cash awards, paired with up to $200,000 per startup in Google Cloud credits as well as mentorship, technical and scaling support from the best of Google .


This announcement follows the success of inaugural Black Founders Funds in the US, Brazil, Europe and Africa. Over the years, Google for Startups through the Google for Startups Accelerator and Partner programs, has supported over 1,500 startups in Africa, and their success speaks for itself as today 20% of all VC funding deployed on the continent is going to the Google for Startups Africa alumni community.


We invite you to visit the program page at goo.gle/BFFAfrica to read more about the program, eligibility criteria and how to apply. Applications are open from today and close May 31st


Folarin Aiyegbusi, Head of Startup Ecosystem, Sub Saharan Africa





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Edition 2022 du programme Black Founders Fund


L’accès au capital reste un problème majeur pour les entreprises en Afrique, en particulier pour les femmes. Evelyn Kaingu, CEO de Lupiya, y a vu une opportunité de tirer parti de la technologie pour venir en aide à un secteur délaissé. Lupiya est la première entreprise de microcrédit entièrement en ligne en Zambie. Elle propose des prêts personnels et commerciaux aux communautés marginalisées, notamment pour les femmes. Lupiya a été créée dans le sillage de Google for Startups Black Africa, lancé en 2021, et comme d’autres start-up du continent, cette société, grâce aux technologies numériques, contribue à la croissance économique de l’Afrique.


En 2021, les startups technologiques africaines ont collectivement levé 4,3 milliards de dollars, soit deux fois et demie plus qu’en 2020. Cette croissance, bien qu’encourageante, ne compense en rien le manque de financement des startups africaines locales, car 82 % d’entre elles font état de difficultés d’accès au capital.


Conformément à l’engagement de Google d’œuvrer pour un avenir plus équitable, Google for startups a lancé le programme Black Founders Fund in Africa en 2021, qui a permis d’accompagner 50 entreprises en Afrique, toutes dirigées par des africains. Depuis, ces entreprises ont levé plus de 73 millions de dollars de financement complémentaire, recruté 518 personnes et développé leur chiffre d’affaires.


Aujourd’hui, nous avons le plaisir d’annoncer que nous allons étendre notre soutien à l’Afrique, avec un deuxième programme Black Founders Fund de 4 millions de dollars, qui permettra à 60 startups africaines de recevoir jusqu’à 100 000 dollars en espèces, sans prise de participation au capital, et jusqu’à 200 000 dollars par startup de crédits Google Cloud . Ces entreprises bénéficieront également d’un mentorat, d’une assistance technique et d’un accompagnement au développement de la part des meilleurs spécialistes de Google .



Cette annonce fait suite au succès des premiers programmes Black Founders Funds lancés aux États-Unis, au Brésil, en Europe et en Afrique. Au fil des ans, Google for Startups, grâce à ses programmes Google for Startups Accelerator et Google Partner, a apporté son soutien à plus de 1 500 startups en Afrique. Pour preuve de leur succès : aujourd’hui, 20 % des fonds de capital-risque déployés sur le continent bénéficient à la communauté des anciens de Google for Startups Africa.


Nous vous invitons à consulter la page du programme sur goo.gle/BFFAfrica pour en savoir plus sur le programme, les critères d’admissibilité et les modalités d’inscription. Les dossiers de candidature peuvent être déposés dès aujourd’hui et jusqu’au 31 mai.



Posté par Folarin Aiyegbusi, Responsable de l’écosystème start-up, Afrique sub-saharienne

Creating new career opportunities with Google Cloud

A year ago, in a forum with chief technology officers from our Google Cloud Partner network, there was one topic on everybody's mind: talent. Or more specifically, a lack of it. All the leaders in the room were finding it incredibly difficult to hire, train and retain top cloud talent. I was hosting this forum and so went away to think how we could best solve this challenge and grow the pool of available cloud-skilled individuals.

In my day job, I lead a team of engineers in the U.K. and Ireland who work with our partners’ technical teams to enable and support them in delivering Google Cloud technologies to our customers. So I was motivated to solve this skills gap. This is not unique to us, either: we know from Gartner that through 2022, insufficient cloud Infrastructure as a service skills will delay half of enterprise IT organisations’ migration to the cloud by two years or more. So this is an industry-wide challenge.

We wanted to do something locally, to help grow the pool of available skilled individuals, ideally tapping into underrepresented groups. This was the genesis of Project Katalyst: to create a programme that would provide equal access to job opportunities for young people who may not have had the chance to go university, giving underrepresented groups a path into a rewarding, well-paid and growing tech sector. Yes, it’s Katalyst with a K, not the traditional C; this is a nod to Kubernetes, a key component of the training. In the recent LinuxFoundation 2021 Jobs Report, cloud and container technologies were ranked as the hottest skill.

To do this quickly at a large scale, we needed to work with a partner with experience in this area. We were introduced to Generation UK, a charity which already does exactly what we are looking to achieve. After our first meeting, it was clear we were completely aligned. Over the following months, as we developed the programme with Generation UK, their drive and expertise has been invaluable in creating the ideal way to prepare, place and support people into careers that would otherwise be inaccessible, all on Google Cloud.

Google already does a lot to make the workplace as inclusive as possible. For me, the Katalyst programme helps us to bring part of that inclusivity to our partners and the wider communities we live in. Growing up, I always thought one day I would be a teacher, following in my mother’s footsteps. While I took a different career path, for me it’s fantastic to have the opportunity, through this programme, to enable life-changing careers, supporting others to learn and hopefully enjoy working with Google Cloud as much as I do, fulfilling, in part, a dream I once had.

The Katalyst programme is 12 weeks long, with the initial pilot running this summer 2022, covering both technical and soft skills training. On the course, participants will go through the Google Cloud Digital Leader certification,and will also do much of the training for the Google Cloud Associate Cloud Engineer certification, which they will be expected to complete in the first six months of their new roles, once they start at our Google Cloud Partners.

Participants will then get to meet and interview for confirmed roles at our Google Cloud Partners with an expected annual salary of up to £30,000 in London. To grow the pool of underrepresented people working on our technology and the workplace in general, the programme is aimed at participants representing a balance of genders, ethnic minority communities, young people who are furthest away from the labour market through no fault of their own, individuals who are not in education, employment or training for more than 6 months, or those with a mental or physical challenge, who've not had a chance to develop their skills. The hope is to then expand this out to other locations in the U.K. and beyond, as well as our customers’ organisations, after we deliver a successful pilot.

If you would like to offer a place to one of our participants at your organisation, you can learn more here or if you are interested in applying for one of the places, or know someone who might, you can apply on Generation UK’s site

Bay View is open — the first campus built by Google

After breaking ground in 2017, our Bay View campus officially opened to Googlers and our Charleston East project is in the final phase of construction. This marks the first time we developed one of our own major campuses, and the process gave us the chance to rethink the very idea of an office.

As we celebrate the opening of Bay View — an all-electric, net water positive campus with the largest geothermal installation in North America — here’s a look at how we applied human-centered and sustainable design to the workplace.

Video touring Bay View campus
10:25

Designing an adaptable and healthy workplace

The design of both projects began with a deep dive into what powers Google: our people. We then designed out from there, prioritizing the experience of the people in the building over the exterior form.

After talking to Googlers about what they need from a workplace, we found that they’re happy, productive and creative when they come together in teams, but need spaces that are buffered from sound and movement to get deep-focus work done. So we designed team spaces on the upper level and gathering spaces below to separate focus and collaboration areas — with easy access between both. The upper floor is broken down into smaller neighborhoods separated by courtyards and connected via ramps that gradually rise as you move to the center of the building. This variation in the floor plate gives teams a designated area that changes with their needs, while keeping them close to their larger work community. The result is a building where you can feel connected to people — whether they’re in your larger organization of 2,000 people, your team of 50 people or your immediate working group of 10 people.

  • An interior image from the top of an office building with room for thousands of workers.

    A bird’s-eye view of the second floor workspace at Bay View shows how thousands of Googlers can be in a connected space with individual team neighborhoods under an inspiring canopy. (Photo: Iwan Baan)

  • A view of a staircase with a large, open volume of space under a canopy.

    Bay View’s mothership stair and the second-floor team neighborhoods. (Photo: Iwan Baan)

  • Employees walk through an outdoor courtyard between two office buildings.

    The outdoor courtyard between Bay View’s two primary buildings shows Google’s focus on connecting employees with nature. (Photo: Iwan Baan)

The focus on people carried into the careful attention we paid to elements you can see and feel — like materials, daylight, air quality, thermal comfort and acoustics. Here’s how this shows up throughout the campus:

  • The campus incorporates biophilic design principles — like greenery, natural daylight and outdoor views from every desk — to improve the health and wellbeing of those inside. Clerestory windows modulate direct light onto desks with automated window shades that open and close throughout the day.
  • The ventilation system uses 100% outside air — a remarkable achievement when you consider that a typical system only uses around 20-30% of outside air.
  • To create the healthiest environment possible, we vetted thousands of building products and materials to remove toxins. Everything from carpet tiles, paints, piping, plywood and furniture were evaluated using the Living Building Challenge Red List as a framework.
  • Artwork from local artists through Google's Artist In Residence program are a part of the courtyards. The artwork relates to Bay Area ecology and helps with wayfinding in the building.

Finally, we designed a building that can evolve as the way we work changes. With a distributed workforce, an office needs to create harmony between those who are in the office and those who are elsewhere. The flexible nature of the focus and collaboration spaces at Bay View is just one way to accommodate these changes. I truly believe these buildings will keep up as we introduce new spaces to improve hybrid work.

Taking green building to a new scale

To deliver on our commitment to operate every hour of every day on carbon-free energy by 2030, we prioritized renewable energy and maximized the solar potential of our buildings. Bay View’s first-of-its-kind dragonscale solar skin and nearby wind farms will power it on carbon-free energy 90% of the time.

The campus is also on track to be the largest project certified by the International Living Future Institute (ILFI) under any of their programs, at any certification level. As part of ILFI’s Living Building Challenge, we’re targeting a Water Petal certification, meaning the site is net-positive with all non-potable water demands being met using the recycled water generated on site. Above-ground ponds that gather rainwater year round and a building wastewater treatment system serve as water sources for cooling towers, flushing toilets and irrigating the landscape. This is a big step toward delivering on our commitment to replenish 120% of the water we consume by 2030.

It doesn’t stop there. Bay View is an example of an all-electric campus and shows what’s possible in regenerative building. Here’s how:

  • The two kitchens that serve seven cafes are equipped with electric equipment rather than gas — a template for fully carbon-free cafes and kitchens.
  • There are 17.3 acres of high-value natural areas — including wet meadows, woodlands and a marsh — that are designed to reestablish native landscapes and rehabilitate Bay Area wetlands. Something that’s especially important as Bay View sits close to the San Francisco Bay.
  • The water retention ponds not only collect water for reuse, but also provide nature restoration, sea level rise protection, and access to the beauty of natural wetlands. New willow groves along the stormwater ponds provide resources for wildlife.
  • The integrated geothermal pile system will help heat and cool the campus. The massive geoexchange field is integrated into the structural system, reducing the amount of water typically used for cooling by 90% — that’s equal to five million gallons of water annually.
  • A view of a large canopy structure with a stormwater pond in the foreground.

    Bay View, as seen from across its stormwater retention pond with a sunburst coming through the clerestory windows of the canopy. (Photo: Iwan Baan)

  • A closeup of a building-integrated photovoltaic solar panel.

    With Bay View, a first-of-its-kind building-integrated solar panel called ‘dragonscale’ was developed to create a seamless design. (Photo: Iwan Baan)

  • A helicopter aerial image shows the Bay View development and baylands.

    Bay View sits in the foreground with parts of Google’s Mountain View campus and the San Francisco Bay in the distance. (Photo: Iwan Baan)

Sharing what we’ve learned

Our goal was to push the limits on what an office building could be — not just for the benefit of Googlers, but for the wider community and industry. The Bay View campus can adapt to changing workplace needs so our offices remain vibrant for decades to come. We even wrote a book about these projects that we hope inspires others to build more sustainable places that can benefit people and the planet. You can learn more about our journey at g.co/realestate/bayview.

Step into the Meroë pyramids with Google

When you think of pyramids does your mind wander to the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt or the Mayan Temples of Guatemala? Great civilizations built each of these pyramids and inscribed their stories onto the walls of them, offering glimpses into their daily life.

The Pyramids of Meroë in Sudan, while lesser known, are no different. Today, you can explore these stunning pyramids, which are a UNESCO World Heritage site, on Google Arts & Culture.

Over 200 pyramids were constructed in Meroë, the third and final capital of the Kushite Kingdom, an ancient African civilization that ruled the lands of Nubia for over 3000 years. Now you can take a virtual walk through the Pyramids of Meroë and explore the inscriptions using Street View’s panoramic imagery. You can also learn more about the Kushite Kingdom, their royalty and the architecture behind the pyramids in an immersive web experience that’s available in a range of languages including Arabic, English, French, German and Spanish.

  • A user searches Google for the pyramids of meroe, then places an Augmented Reality model in front of them

    Search for “pyramids of meroe” to explore a pyramid up close in Augmented Reality

  • A series of pyramids are arranged in two rows

    Uncover the story of Meroë at g.co/meroe

  • A user pans along the outline of a pyramid in Street View

    Explore these remarkable Nubian pyramids on Street View

  • A series of steep pyramids extends across the horizon.

    Sudan’s Pyramids of Meroë

If you want to get even more up close and personal, you can visualize the pyramids using augmented reality — no matter where you are. You can also listen to acclaimed Sudanese-American poet Emi Mahmood share evocative rhymes that are a beautiful ode to her homeland and to this project that shares Sudan’s rich heritage with others.

We’ve also partnered with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (UNESCO) to bring you more information about Meroë, Gebel Barkal and Napatan region and Sudan’s Sanganeb Marine National Park.

Guaranteed reliability for your Business 2 Gig Service

When it comes to internet, speed and bandwidth are important, but without reliability, just having fast internet doesn’t mean much. Reliability has always been core to Google Fiber. We take that commitment to our customers very seriously, which is why we work around the clock to prevent outages and to quickly restore service and credit our customer accounts if there ever is an outage. 

People depend on their internet connection for almost everything these days, and that’s even more true for our Google Fiber Business customers. We launched Google Fiber Business 2 Gig service back in March to meet the growing bandwidth needs of our business customers. 

Along with increased speed, we also want them to have the confidence that their internet is going to be there when they need it. So today we’re sharing our Google Fiber Business 2 Gig Service Level Guarantee, which includes an monthly uptime report, advance notification of planned network maintenance and an automatic credit of 25% of business customers’ monthly bill if their average monthly uptime drops below 99.9% (that’s 2.5 minutes down over a 40 hour work week). All current Business 2 Gig customers will be automatically enrolled into the Service Level Guarantee.

We have a lot of confidence in our network reliability. In fact, our network availability is already over 99.9%. By putting it in writing, we’re making sure that our customers can have that same confidence. Speed and reliability combined makes for internet that can power your business to the next level, and we’re continuing to work to improve every day for both our business and residential customers.

Posted by Nick Saporito, Head of Commercial Strategy



Change in the maximum number of mutate operations per request for BatchJobService.AddBatchJobOperations

On June 30, 2022, we’ll limit the number of mutate operations that can be sent to BatchJobService.AddBatchJobOperations to 5,000 mutate operations per request. After this change rolls out, any AddBatchJobOperations requests that contain more than 5,000 mutate operations will result in a SizeLimitError.REQUEST_SIZE_LIMIT_EXCEEDED error.

Note that this will not change the total number of operations you are allowed to add to a BatchJob. It only changes the number of operations you can add to a BatchJob in a single AddBatchJobOperations request.

What do you need to do?
  • Ensure that your code doesn’t send more than 5,000 mutate operations per AddBatchJobOperations request to the Google Ads API.
  • In rare cases, you may still encounter the SizeLimitError.REQUEST_SIZE_LIMIT_EXCEEDED error due to the total size of the request payload, even when you send a request with fewer than 5,000 mutate operations. Therefore, your code should retry the request with half the number of mutate operations until it succeeds. For instance, if 5,000 mutate operations fail, try 2,500 mutate operations. If 2,500 mutate operations fail, try 1,250 mutate operations, and so on.
If you have any questions or need additional help, contact us through the forum.
- Thanet Knack Praneenararat, Google Ads API Team

Seniors search what they see, using a new Lens

Technology shines when it helps us get things done in our daily lives, and that’s exactly why a group of around 100 very eager seniors gathered in Odense, Denmark. All older than 65, many up to 85, they decided to stay on top of the latest technological tricks and tools. On this March day, the eye-opener was the often overlooked potential in searching for information using visual tools, like Google Lens.

So now the seniors searched their surroundings directly: Scanned trees, plants, animals and buildings, used Translate to get hold of Turkish language menu cards or Japanese sayings, and found product declarations through barcode scanning.

The group was taking part in a training set up by Faglige Seniorer, which organizes 300,000 seniors in total. They first partnered with Google back in 2019 to train seniors in using voice to search, and now the time had come to use live images.

  • A room full of people seated at large tables listening to a woman speak.

    Around 100 seniors gathered in Odense, Denmark to learn more about Google Lens.

  • Two older people looking at cell phones near models of birds.

    Participants used smartphones to scan images of animals like birds.

  • An older person stands next to a model of a bird.

    The group was taking part in a training set up by Faglige Seniorer, which organizes 300,000 seniors in total.

“Often, when I go for a walk, I stumble upon an unknown flower or a tree. Now I can just take a picture to discover what kind of plant I am standing before,” Verner Madsen, one of the participants, remarked. “I don’t need to bring my encyclopedia. It is really smart and helpful.”

Seniors in a country like Denmark are generally very tech savvy, but with digitization constantly advancing — accelerating even faster during two years of COVID-19 — some seniors risk being left behind, creating gaps between generations. During worldwide lockdowns, technological tools have helped seniors stay connected with their family and friends, and smartphone features have helped improve everyday life. One key element of that is delivering accurate and useful information when needed. And for that, typed words on a smartphone keyboard can often be substituted with a visual search, using a single tap on the screen.

Being able to "search what you see" in this way was an eye-opener to many. As the day ended, another avid participant, Henrik Rasmussen, declared he was heading straight home to continue his practice.

“I thought I was up to speed on digital developments, but after today I realize that I still have a lot to learn and discover,” he said.

Migrate your classic Google Sites before December 1, 2022

Quick summary 

We’re extending the previously announced timeline to give Google Workspace customers more time to migrate from classic Google Sites to new Google Sites. The new timeline is: 
  • Starting December 1, 2022 (previously June 1, 2022): You will no longer be able to edit any remaining classic Sites in your domain. 
  • Starting January 1, 2023 (previously July 1, 2022): Classic Sites will no longer be viewable unless they are converted to new Google Sites. 

To ensure a smooth transition and access to new Sites functionalities, end users and admins are encouraged to use the Classic Sites Manager to complete migration and convert individual classic Sites to new Google Sites before December 1, 2022. 


After January 1, 2023, we will replace each remaining classic Site with a Takeout archive and will attempt to convert each classic Site to a new Site. Review your domain’s settings prior to January 1, 2023 to ensure a successful migration. 


You will be notified once all the sites on your domain have been migrated. This may take multiple months for your domain, depending on the number and complexity of your sites. In the meantime, you can check the status of your sites in the Classic Sites Manager. After migration, your classic Sites will no longer be available.

Getting started



  • To ensure a smooth transition, we recommend the following best practices when migrating your sites:
  • Note that the timeline for this transition is different for users with personal Google accounts — see this article in the Help Center for more information. There are no changes to the timeline for users with personal Google accounts.