News Showcase is launching in Portugal

Google News Showcase, a product and licensing program for news publishers, will begin rolling out in Portugal today as “Destaques Jornalísticos no Google” in Portuguese. Participating publishers from local, national and independent Portuguese outlets can give readers more insight into the topics they choose to highlight, through curated story panels which can appear on Google News and Discover.

This is part of our global investment in news and reinforces our commitment to Portugal and journalism. With News Showcase (Destaques Jornalísticos), publishers can provide additional context about stories via curated panels, and add related articles, timelines and more. Publishers get more control of their presentation and branding, helping them be more visible to their dedicated readers and to those who are just discovering them.

Google has signed partnerships with 28 Portuguese publications, including O Jornal Económico, Jornal de Notícias, Observador, O MIRANTE and Jornal do Fundão. News Showcase (Destaques Jornalísticos) panels can appear on Google products, currently on News and Discover, and direct readers to the full articles on publishers’ websites, helping them deepen their relationships with readers. In addition to the revenue that comes directly from these more-engaged readers, participating publishers will receive monthly licensing payments from Google.

This image shows the logos of: 4gNews, A Bola, A Voz de Trás-os-Montes, Açoriano Oriental, Diário As Beiras, Diário de Notícias, Diário de Notícias da Madeira, Diário do Minho, Dinheiro Vivo, ECO, IOL, Jornal da Madeira, Jornal de Notícias, Jornal do Centro, Jornal do Fundão, Mais Futebol, Mensageiro de Bragança, Notícias ao Minuto, O Jogo, O Jornal Económico, O MIRANTE, Observador, Público, Região de Leiria, The Portugal News, TSF, TVI24, Visão

Logos of our News Showcase partners

“Quality journalism has a paramount importance in a free and democratic world. It gives everyone the knowledge to play an active role in society as the world evolves, beyond witnessing history,” says Marco Galinha, CEO of Global Media Group, who owns several titles in Portugal, including Dinheiro Vivo, Jornal de Notícias and TSF. “Sharing our quality information, strengthening our audience and connecting even more people is what we expect from Google News Showcase (Destaques Jornalísticos no Google).”

Since News Showcase (Destaques Jornalísticos) launched in October 2020, we’ve signed deals with more than 1,000 news publications around the world and have launched in more than a dozen countries: India, Japan, Germany, Brazil, Austria, the U.K., Australia, Czechia, Italy, Colombia, Argentina, Canada and Ireland. More than 90% of the publications that are part of News Showcase (Destaques Jornalísticos) represent local or community news. Local news is an essential way for readers to connect to their communities and ensure they get the news that impacts their day-to-day lives.

This image shows four different News Showcase panels (including timeline and related articles) with just some of our news partners in Portugal

An example of how News Showcase panels will look with some of our partners in Portugal

“A Voz de Trás-os-Montes is a local newspaper, seeking, over time, to reinvent itself in the production of content and the formats in which it is presented, whether on paper or digital.” says João Vilela, Director at A Voz de Trás-os-Montes. “Google News Showcase (Destaques Jornalísticos no Google) assumes itself as a product that will enhance the presence of this title in the digital world, also promoting the practice of quality, reliable and independent journalism, and providing readers with a good experience in accessing regional information.”

To further strengthen these relationships, we offer News Showcase (Destaques Jornalísticos) readers the ability to read select paywalled content from publishers. This feature means readers will have the opportunity to read more of a publisher’s articles, encouraging them to learn more about the publication — and potentially subscribe.

“Earlier this year, we challenged Google and the Portuguese Press Association to work together to find solutions to support a sustainable Portuguese media ecosystem, and in particular the local and regional media, in order to respond to the digital challenges, based on a framework that respects individual rights and copyright and ensures that the Portuguese citizens continue to have access to credible and relevant information”, says André de Aragão Azevedo, Secretary of State for the Digital Transition. “We are proud to see such great progress and we are in full support of initiatives like this.”

Google News Showcase (Destaques Jornalísticos no Google) is our latest effort to support publishers of all sizes and the news ecosystem in the country. Through the Digital News Initiative (DNI) Fund, Google has invested nearly eight million euros to support 32 Portuguese projects, tackling major challenges such as boosting digital revenues to telling local stories and exploring new technologies. In 2020, with the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Google News Initiative offered financial support to 71 Portuguese newsrooms through its global Journalism Emergency Relief Fund. Around the world, the GNI, alongside a $300 million investment, has supported more than7,000 news partners in over 120 countries and territories.

Google also sends eight billion visits each month to European news websites from products like Search and News, which publishers can monetize with online advertising and subscriptions on their websites and apps. Our ad technologies enable news organizations to sell their ad space to millions of advertisers globally — including advertisers they wouldn’t have access to without these services.

Beyond working with publishers on their digital transformation, it’s vital we also support access to accurate and reliable information. Since 2015, the Google News Lab has trained 2,550 Portuguese journalists and journalism students on a range of digital tools to help them research, verify and visualize their stories. We’ve also supported a number of Portuguese specialists including Media Veritas, a project by the Portuguese Press Association to promote media literacy and combat misinformation, and we contributed 25 million euros to the European Media and Information Fund, managed by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, European University Institute and the European Digital Media Observatory to strengthen media literacy skills.

“Rather than a threat, digital can be an opportunity for publishers. This is why APImprensa is supporting its members (regional and local) to deploy all the advantages of participating in the Google Showcase project,” says João Palmeiro, President of thePortuguese Publishers Association. “The advantages are a unique opportunity to understand how to compete in the digital world using tools that can bring more information, knowledge and skills to newsrooms and to the digital business.

Google News Showcase (Destaques Jornalísticos no Google) helps readers discover even more news and provides publishers with a new online experience to deepen their engagement and relationship with their audience. We are happy to contribute to the news ecosystem, support the open web and continue to provide access to information in Portugal and elsewhere.

Dev Channel Update for Chrome OS

The Dev channel is being updated to 98.0.4723.0 (Platform version: 14359.0.0) for most Chrome OS devices.

If you find new issues, please let us know by visiting our forum or filing a bug. Interested in switching channels Find out how. You can submit feedback using ‘Report an issue...’ in the Chrome menu (3 vertical dots in the upper right corner of the browser). 

Matt Nelson,
Google Chrome OS

AI Fest in Spain: Exploring the Potential of Artificial Intelligence in Careers, Communities, and Commerce

Posted by Alessandro Palmieri, Regional Lead for Spain Developer Communities

Google Developer Groups (GDGs) around the world are in a unique position to organize events on technology topics that community members are passionate about. That’s what happened in Spain in July 2021, where two GDG chapters decided to put on an event called AI Fest after noticing a lack of conferences dedicated exclusively to artificial intelligence. “Artificial intelligence is everywhere, although many people do not know it,” says Irene Ruiz Pozo, the organizer of GDG Murcia and GDG Cartagena. While AI has the potential to transform industries from retail to real estate with products like Dialogflow and Lending DocAI, “there are still companies falling behind,” she notes.

Image of Irene standing on stage at AI Fest Spain

Irene and her GDG team members recognized that creating a space for a diverse mix of people—students, academics, professional developers, and more—would not only enable them to share valuable knowledge about AI and its applications across sectors and industries, but it could also serve as a potential path for skill development and post-pandemic economic recovery in Spain. In addition, AI Fest would showcase GDGs in Spain as communities offering developer expertise, education, networking, and support.

Using the GDG network to find sponsors, partners, and speakers

The GDGs immediately got to work calling friends and contacts with experience in AI. “We started calling friends who were great developers and worked at various companies, we told them who we are, what we wanted to do, and what we wanted to achieve,” Irene says.

The GDG team found plenty of organizations eager to help: universities, nonprofit organizations, government entities, and private companies. The final roster included the Instituto de Fomento, the economic development agency of Spain’s Murcia region; the city council of Cartagena; Biyectiva Technology, which develops AI tools used in medicine, retail, and interactive marketing; and the Polytechnic University of Cartagena, where Irene founded and led the Google Developer Student Club in 2019 and 2020. Some partners also helped with swag and merchandising and even provided speakers. “The CEOs and different executives and developers of the companies who were speakers trusted this event from the beginning,” Irene says.

A celebration of AI and its potential

The event organizers lined up a total of 55 local and international speakers over the two-day event. Due to the ongoing COVID-10 pandemic, in-person attendance was limited to 50 people in a room at El Batel Auditorium and Conference Center in Cartagena, but sessions—speakers, roundtables, and workshops—were also live-streamed on YouTube on three channels to a thousand viewers.

Some of the most popular sessions included economics professor and technology lab co-founder Andrés Pedreño on "Competing in the era of Artificial Intelligence," a roundtable on women in technology; Intelequa software developer Elena Salcedo on "Happy plants with IoT''; and Google Developer Expert and technology firm CEO Juantomás García on "Vertex AI and AutoML: Democratizing access to AI." The sessions were also recorded for later viewing, and in less than a week after the event, there were more than 1500 views in room A, over 1100 in room B and nearly 350 views in the Workshops room.

The event made a huge impact on the developer community in Spain, setting an example of what tech-focused gatherings can look like in the COVID-19 era and how they can support more education, collaboration, and innovation across a wide range of organizations, ultimately accelerating the adoption of AI. Irene also notes that it has helped generate more interest in GDGs and GDSCs in Spain and their value as a place to learn, teach, and grow. “We’re really happy that new developers have joined the communities and entrepreneurs have decided to learn how to use Google technologies,” she says.

The effect on the GDG team was profound as well. “I have remembered why I started creating events--for people: to discover the magic of technology,” Irene says.

Taking AI Fest into the future—and more

Irene and her fellow GDG members are already planning for a second installment of AI Fest in early 2022, where they hope to be able to expect more in-person attendance. The team would also like to organize events focused on topics such as Android, Cloud, AR /VR, startups, the needs of local communities, and inclusion. Irene, who serves as a Women Techmakers Ambassador, is particularly interested in using her newly expanded network to host events that encourage women to choose technology and other STEM areas as a career.

Finally, Irene hopes that AI Fest will become an inspiration for GDGs around the world to showcase the potential of AI and other technologies. It’s a lot of work, she admits, but the result is well worth it. “My advice is to choose the area of technology that interests you the most, get organized, relax, and have a good team,” she advises.

Google Play’s Best of 2021

Today, we announced the winners of Google Play’s Best of 2021, a celebration of apps and games that made positive contributions to culture this year. And to encourage innovation across Google Play, we’ve expanded this year’s awards to apps and games on tablets, plus apps on Wear OS and Google TV. By challenging the norm, introducing unique gameplay features and giving users never-before-seen experiences, Google Play’s Best of winners represent what’s next in app and game development.

Similar to our Best of 2020 winners, apps focused on personal growth were in high demand in 2021. This year’s winners found creative, and often meditative, ways to help users get to know themselves on a deeper level. Balance, which earned our Best App of 2021 award, encourages people to find their center through personalized meditations; Moonly provides tips and guidance based on the lunar calendar; and Laughscape helps people reach a meditative state through laughter.

"We are deeply honored that Google chose Balance as its Best App of 2021,” says Jesse Pickard, Founder and CEO at Elevate Labs. “We built Balance with the individual in mind. No two people are the same, and we wanted to create a personalized mental wellness program that could reflect and support those special differences. I also want to thank our customers for their help in our journey. Your engagement and feedback has allowed us to build a truly wonderful product together."

Meanwhile, in gaming, Pokémon UNITE won Best Game for its dynamic gameplay and cross-platform experience. We also saw a surge of independent developers creating imaginative and personal gaming experiences. Indie developer George Batchelor brought us Bird Alone, a game that challenges you to become friends with the “loneliest bird in the world.” And in Donut County, developed by Annapurna Interactive, you play as a growing hole in a physics-based puzzle game.

Check out the full list of this year’s U.S. winners below, ranging from large developers to up-and-coming indies. You can also find your specific country’s winners in the Best of 2021 section of the Play Store.

Users’ Choice 2021

Best App

Best Game

Best of app winners

Best Apps for Good

Best Everyday Essentials

Best for Fun

Best Hidden Gems

Best for Personal Growth

Best for Tablets

Best for Wear

Popular on Google TV

Best of game winners

Best Competitive

Best Game Changers

Best Indies

Best Pick Up & Play

Best for Tablets

Congratulations again to all of our Best of winners, and a special thanks to our Google Play community for their participation and support. We look forward to seeing what you build next year.

An update on our Privacy Sandbox commitments

For further background on this topic, please see our blog from June.

Since we announced our Privacy Sandbox commitments earlier this year, we have continued to work with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to address feedback that was raised as part of its public consultation process. We have also continued to update and seek feedback from the market and the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) on our proposals.

We are determined to ensure that the Privacy Sandbox is developed in a way that works for the entire ecosystem and, as part of this process, we have now offered revised commitments, which can be found in full on the CMA’s website.

These revisions underline our commitment to ensuring that the changes we make in Chrome will apply in the same way to Google’s ad tech products as to any third party, and that the Privacy Sandbox APIs will be designed, developed and implemented with regulatory oversight and input from the CMA and the ICO. We also support the objectives set out yesterday in the ICO’s Opinion on Data protection and privacy expectations for online advertising proposals, including the importance of supporting and developing privacy-safe advertising tools that protect people’s privacy and prevent covert tracking.

The revised commitments incorporate a number of changes including:

  1. Monitoring and reporting. We have offered to appoint an independent Monitoring Trustee who will have the access and technical expertise needed to ensure compliance.
  2. Testing and consultation. We have offered the CMA more extensive testing commitments, along with a more transparent process to take market feedback on the Privacy Sandbox proposals.
  3. Further clarity on our use of data. We are underscoring our commitment not to use Google first-party personal data to track users for targeting and measurement of ads shown on non-Google websites. Our commitments would also restrict the use of Chrome browsing history and Analytics data to do this on Google or non-Google websites.

If the CMA accepts these commitments, we will apply them globally.

We continue to appreciate the thoughtful approach and engagement from the CMA and ICO as we develop our Privacy Sandbox proposals. We welcome, and will carefully consider, any comments that people provide during the consultation process.

Read Article

Our commitments for the Privacy Sandbox

Google proposes a set of commitments for Privacy Sandbox to the U.K.’s competition regulator

Read Article

An update on our Privacy Sandbox commitments

For further background on this topic, please see our blog from June.

Since we announced our Privacy Sandbox commitments earlier this year, we have continued to work with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to address feedback that was raised as part of its public consultation process. We have also continued to update and seek feedback from the market and the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) on our proposals.

We are determined to ensure that the Privacy Sandbox is developed in a way that works for the entire ecosystem and, as part of this process, we have now offered revised commitments, which can be found in full on the CMA’s website.

These revisions underline our commitment to ensuring that the changes we make in Chrome will apply in the same way to Google’s ad tech products as to any third party, and that the Privacy Sandbox APIs will be designed, developed and implemented with regulatory oversight and input from the CMA and the ICO. We also support the objectives set out yesterday in the ICO’s Opinion on Data protection and privacy expectations for online advertising proposals, including the importance of supporting and developing privacy-safe advertising tools that protect people’s privacy and prevent covert tracking.

The revised commitments incorporate a number of changes including:

  1. Monitoring and reporting. We have offered to appoint an independent Monitoring Trustee who will have the access and technical expertise needed to ensure compliance.
  2. Testing and consultation. We have offered the CMA more extensive testing commitments, along with a more transparent process to take market feedback on the Privacy Sandbox proposals.
  3. Further clarity on our use of data. We are underscoring our commitment not to use Google first-party personal data to track users for targeting and measurement of ads shown on non-Google websites. Our commitments would also restrict the use of Chrome browsing history and Analytics data to do this on Google or non-Google websites.

If the CMA accepts these commitments, we will apply them globally.

We continue to appreciate the thoughtful approach and engagement from the CMA and ICO as we develop our Privacy Sandbox proposals. We welcome, and will carefully consider, any comments that people provide during the consultation process.

A 2021 update on mobile indexing

We first started working on mobile-first indexing a number of years ago. Since then, we switched to indexing the majority of web pages with Googlebot-Smartphone. We've now determined that some sites are still not ready to be shifted over due to various, unexpected challenges. Because of this, we're now leaving the timeline open for the last steps of mobile-first indexing.

New EU political ads law is a step in the right direction

Having access to the right information matters. During a democratic election, it matters more than ever. High-quality information helps people make informed decisions when voting and counteracts abuse by bad actors. Through programs like security training for campaigns, information about polling places and transparency for political ads, Google is committed to helping support the integrity of democratic processes around the world.

Political advertising is an important component of democratic elections — candidates use ads to raise awareness, share information and engage potential voters. Over the last few years, Google has proactively increased transparency around election advertising: we updated our ads policies to require election advertisers to verify their identities and show who’s paying for an ad. We also introduced transparency reporting for online election ads in Europe as well as in the US and other countries around the world, providing a range of data that goes well beyond what’s typically available for TV, radio or print ads.

We have also made real changes to how election advertising works. In 2020, we implemented industry-leading restrictions to limit election ads’ audience targeting to age, gender and general location (at the postal code level), similar to categories candidates would use in deciding where to run ads on TV shows or in print. That same year, we started rolling out identity verification and disclosures for all advertisers, providing even wider transparency about ad sponsors. These improvements, and more, are part of a larger focus on political advertising that helped us navigate elections in the European Union, the United States, India (the largest democratic election in history) and other leading countries.

Google was one of the original signatories of the EU Code of Practice on Disinformation, which has led to constructive actions and change between the industry, policymakers and the expert community on the challenges of addressing disinformation. The Code laid out a model for voluntary action, facilitating work with policymakers on new transparency reporting on political advertising and helping users, governments and academics better understand how online election ads work.

We share the Commission's goal of increasing the harmonization of Europe’s transparency rules for political advertising and we support today’s introduction of legislation. As we expand our own efforts, we look forward to engaging with the Commission on how best to meet the goals laid out by the Democracy Action Plan and Digital Services Act. This is a complex field, requiring a balance between minimizing misinformation while protecting legitimate political expression. The Commission’s proposal is an important and welcome step and as the European Council and Parliament review it, we offer a few observations based on our experiences over recent election cycles.

  • Clear definitions for ‘political’ ads: It’s critical that the law clarifies which actors and what types of content are subject to the obligations regarding political advertising, giving clear examples of what would or would not be in scope. Without clear definitions, different companies will adopt inconsistent and conflicting policies, making for confusion for advertisers and undermining transparency for citizens. The current text could also inadvertently impact a wider range of ads than intended — for example, sweeping in ads from NGOs on issues of public concern or from private citizens speaking out about social questions.
  • Clear responsibilities for platforms and advertisers: Protecting elections is a shared responsibility and we all need to play our part to be more transparent. Advertisers are in the best position to validate their identity and best understand the nature and context of their ads. They play a critical role in providing accurate information and (as they do with other media like television) ensuring that their content complies with applicable laws. Advertiser “self-declaration” — whereby political advertisers verify their identities and declare when they are running political ads — would have advertisers due their share to contribute to transparency, making the law work better in practice.
  • Flexibility and dialogue: This is a dynamic and fast moving environment and we have seen a lot of changes to both political ads and governing regulations. Continuing discussions with stakeholders will help regulation react to changing contexts or emerging trends that might affect definitions, regulatory provisions or enforcement.

Elections are a fundamental part of democracy, and new regulations can help keep elections open, transparent and accountable. Legal certainty in those regulations will help candidates, campaigns, advertisers, publishers and platforms understand the precise scope of covered advertising and the specific obligations of each actor. In the coming months we look forward to sharing our experiences with the different institutions and bodies working to advance these important topics.

Beta Channel Promotion for Chrome OS

The Beta channel is being updated to 97.0.4692.27 (Platform version: 14324.19.0) for most Chrome OS devices.

If you find new issues, please let us know by visiting our forum or filing a bug. Interested in switching channels Find out how. You can submit feedback using ‘Report an issue...’ in the Chrome menu (3 vertical dots in the upper right corner of the browser). 

Daniel Gagnon,

Google Chrome OS 

PubCast Season 2: turning passions into profits

PubCast is a podcast featuring the stories of website creators and app developers who turned their passions into profit with help from Google. In our second season of the series, you’ll hear from small business founders across the globe sharing how they launched their digital businesses and navigated challenges like the pandemic. Using AdSense, Ad Manager and AdMob to earn ad revenue, these businesses create free content, tools and resources that contribute to a thriving, open internet.

You can listen to the miniseries on the Talks@Google podcast channel — just look for PubCast in the episode title — or anywhere you find podcasts.

Check out our Season 2 episodes:

  1. Jessica Rovello | Building your favorite games and a thriving digital business: Jessica Rovello is the CEO and Co-Founder of Arkadium, a game development company that has built hundreds of games enjoyed on over 800 million devices worldwide. Arkadium has been voted one of Inc. Magazine's best places to work and takes an employee-centric approach to growth.
  2. Dennis Littley | Helping the world create restaurant-quality food at home: Chef Dennis Littley got his start as a classically trained chef, and kindled his passion for teaching by creating a culinary program at the high school he worked at. Now, Chef Dennis works full time on his food and travel site, Ask Chef Dennis, helping people create restaurant-quality meals at home.
  3. Christeen Skinner | Bringing astrology online and building an audience from zero: Christeen Skinner is the Director of City Scopes, an astrology-focused company founded in 1998 in London. The company has grown to offer a variety of resources, like astrology sites, training courses, books and more. Christeen now focuses her time on expanding into other areas, such as using astrology to try to predict financial outcomes.
  4. Paul Husbands | Amplifying Caribbean artists on the world stage: Paul Husbands is the CEO and Founder of Selecta Charts, a first-of-its-kind music streaming platform for Caribbean artists. Since its launch, Selecta Charts has drawn thousands of listeners and propelled hundreds of artists to new heights.
  5. Horatiu Boeriu | From zero to millions: How BMW Blog drove to journalistic success: Horatiu Boeriu is the CEO and Founder of BMW Blog, a Chicago-based website dedicated to automotive journalism with a focus on the BMW brand. Horatiu transformed his website from a passion project into a respected media outlet in the car industry, and has grown his audience to several million car enthusiasts.

Are you a digital business owner who uses AdSense, AdMob or Ad Manager, and want to be featured on PubCast? Fill out our feedback form, including your contact information and a few sentences about your business.

And if you’re interested in learning how to earn money from your site or app, check out how Google AdSense, AdMob and Ad Manager can help.