News Brief: August updates from the Google News Initiative

Last month, we focused on a number of strategies to empower journalists. Our projects included increasing access to technology, enabling press freedom, supporting prospective and emerging digital journalism founders and sustaining learning opportunities. Read on for August updates.

Supporting journalists in Afghanistan

Google and Googlers are providing more than $4 million in support to front line organizations aiding those who are particularly impacted by the crisis in Afghanistan. As part of these efforts, the Google News Initiative has donated $250,000 to the Committee to Protect Journalists to aid Afghan journalists.

Training aspiring journalists through the GNI Fellowship in Europe


The Google News Initiative Fellowship logo, along with the Google News Initiative and European Journalism Centre logos, on an abstract colored background.

Illustration by Roselyne Min

In partnership with the European Journalism Centre, we announced the 2021 class of the Google News Initiative Fellowship in Europe. Through the fellowship, 30 aspiring journalists from diverse backgrounds will be placed at participating newsrooms across 14 countries. During a period of eight weeks, these young professionals will develop skills in areas ranging from technology, multimedia and design to data, audience development and fact-checking.

Teaching small news organizations about artificial intelligence

Twenty journalists and media professionals from Africa, Europe and the Middle East have been selected for JournalismAI’s first-everAI academy for small newsrooms. Selected participants come from 16 different countries, including Nigeria, Lebanon, Denmark, Kenya, Turkey and Spain. They work for investigative journalism organizations, newspapers, news podcasts, financial news outlets and more. The academy was developed in partnership with POLIS, the journalism think tank at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Celebrating innovation in journalism around the world

Building on the Digital News Innovation Fund in Europe, Google News Initiative Innovation Challenges have supported more than 180 projects that bring new ideas to the news industry. Around the world, we’re learning from former Innovation Challenge recipients who are using their funding to drive innovation in news.


A screenshot of Tiempo Argentino's open-source membership platform, which gives readers the option to become members through different contributions amounts.

Innovation Challenge recipient Tiempo Argentino, the biggest cooperative media outlet in Argentina, has launched an open-source membership platform. It is also sharing instructions so that any nonprofit news organization can take the tools and do the same. Each component of their GitHub repository includes a tutorial with screenshots, pictures and FAQ guide for developers on how to use the tools. 


Lighthouse Journalism: Shine a light on stories that matter! www.lighthousejournalism.com

TheIndian Express has launched Lighthouse Journalism, a crowdfunding platform to showcase and bring to light stories that are otherwise ignored or under-reported in mainstream media. Users can suggest topics for a journalist to cover and can raise money and support by campaigning through social media. The launch was coordinated to mark India’s 75th Independence Day.

Breaking down the basics for news entrepreneurs


a screenshot of an online Startups Workshop. Three women are talking
10:25

We launched a live and on-demand video workshop series in North America to support prospective and emerging digital journalism founders. The Startups Workshop series demystifies the process of launching a startup, breaks down the business basics of running an organization and showcases available resources from the GNI, like the Startups Playbook, GNI Startups Boot Camp and News Entrepreneur Slack Community. More than 500 publishers have tuned in so far for presentations led by founders like Candice Fortman ofOutlier Media, Kara Meyburg Guzman ofSanta Cruz Local and Megan Raposa ofSioux Falls Simplified.

Enabling the development of news products

We launched a series of product development through the Google News Initiative Digital Growth Program. More than 500 news organizations joined the first week of workshops across North America and Latin America. The workshops will expand to other regions and continue through October, covering topics such as “Executing your Product Vision” and “Best Practices in Product Thinking.” News organizations can also apply to participate in our Product Labs, which provide hands-on guidance over several months on developing new products, with support from the Google News Initiative and industry experts.

Backing the next generation of journalists on YouTube

In April, we opened applications for two new YouTube programs focused on supporting the next generation of reporters and newsrooms: a creator program for independent journalists, which aims to help independent reporters succeed on YouTube, and the Sustainability Lab for digital-first newsrooms, which provides support for digital native news organizations to start and expand their video operations. Last month, we announced the selection of nearly 50 independent journalists and 40 digital-first newsrooms across both programs.

That’s a wrap for August. For more updates, stay in touch on social and through our newsletter.


Today’s press on temporary staff

I joined Google late last year to oversee compliance activities across the company. I want to provide some additional information about an issue that I was made aware of this week, now reported in the press, relating to the “comparator rates” for a subset of our temporary staffers. 

Temporary staffers at Google

Around the world, we have about 6,000 temporary staffers who come to us from staffing partners and who work for a short period (up to two years) on short-term projects, such as covering leaves. They’re a hugely important part of our workforce and work in a wide range of areas, ranging from program managers to technical writers to lawyers to administrative roles. We strive to ensure they’re paid very competitively.

What are “comparator rates,” and why were we reviewing them?

As the number of roles at Google has expanded, the Extended Workforce Solutions (xWS) team has been working to update our mapping of each temporary staff role to its equivalent employee role, and then calculating the employee’s hourly rate. That benchmark is the “comparator rate”. There are thousands of comparator rates — one for each combination of role type, level and location.

Having a set of updated comparator rates helps us compete more effectively for talent, and helps us and our staffing partners comply with laws governing pay parity between temporary staff and employees.  

The team discovered that some of these comparator rate benchmarks hadn’t been updated for a number of years.

How do comparator rates relate to actual pay rates?

Comparator rates are an internal benchmark only. They don't reflect what our staffing partners actually pay temporary staff. After all, our staffing partners need to pay well to attract candidates to apply for these roles.

Our review to date shows that most temporary staff are paid significantly more than the “comparator rate” benchmark. For example,

  • For a Technical Writer II in Canada, a current temporary staff member is making 50% more than the 2021 comparator rate.

  • For a Business Analyst II in India, a current temporary staff member is making 80% more than the 2021 comparator rate. 

  • For a UX Engineer II in the U.S., a current temporary staff member is making 35% more than the 2021 comparator rate. 

  • For a Hardware Engineer III in the U.S., a current temporary staff member is making 60% more than the 2021 comparator rate. 

These are just a few examples.

And even though the team hasn’t increased the comparator rates for some years, actual pay rates for temporary staff have increased numerous times in that period.

What are we doing next?

Updating comparator rates across the board has been an ongoing project in xWS and for the past two years, that team has been actively working on it, including discussing how to update them for current and new temporary staff.  

But it’s clear to me the pace has been unacceptably slow and, in recent months, the team has begun taking steps to speed it up. We have replaced the outside firm working on it and have updated comparator rates in a number of countries. 

It’s clear that this process has not been handled consistent with the high standards to which we hold ourselves as a company. We’re doing a thorough review, and we’re committed to identifying and addressing any pay discrepancies that the team has not already addressed. And we’ll be conducting a review of our compliance practices in this area. In short, we’re going to figure out what went wrong here, why it happened, and we’re going to make it right.

New “End meeting for all” action in the security investigation tool

Quick launch summary 

Admins can now remove all users and end selected meetings from the security investigation tool using the new “end meeting for all” action. You can use this feature to: 
  • End multiple meetings within your organization, 
  • Search for and end old meetings that are being used inappropriately, 
  • Set up a rule to end meetings based on certain user actions. For example: admins can create a rule to automatically end a meeting where a user submits an abuse report 

Important note: While all Google Meet users can end a meeting while inside a meeting, this feature allows Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Education Standard, and Education Plus admins to end meetings from the security investigation tool. 


Additional details 

Once the “end meeting for all” action is selected, the meeting will end for all users, including those in breakout rooms. Further, this will ensure that users cannot attend future instances of that meeting without the host being present. Users who are not on the Calendar invite for the meeting will have to knock to re-enter the meeting. Those users on the Calendar invite or invited in-meeting by the host will not have to knock. 


Additionally, when an Admin ends a meeting, it will also turn off quick access for future instances of that meeting ID, however meeting hosts are able to turn the Quick access setting back on. 


Getting started 


Rollout pace 


Availability 

  • Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Education Standard, and Education Plus customers 
  • Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Education Fundamentals, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers 

Resources 

A Matter of Impact: August updates from Google.org

Jacquelline’s Corner

It’s back to school season again, and the pandemic continues to affect teachers, families and students — especially those already lacking educational resources. Despite the challenges and unknowns, nonprofits working in education continue to push forward and innovate to support learning. It’s clear that the ability to pivot is a common strength necessary for these times, and as funders and supporters we must ensure organizations have the space to adapt priorities and meet learners where they are. 

Over the course of the pandemic, through our Distance Learning Fund, we’ve supported organizations — like INCO and TalkingPoints which you’ll read more about below — that pivoted to provide training and support to teachers learning how to educate remotely, delivered high-quality digital learning opportunities for students, and also created the resources needed to keep learning happening in an equitable way.

In the face of ongoing and overlapping challenges — the pandemic, climate change, racial injustices — I’m continually inspired by the new approaches that our grantees like these, and others, take to help the world’s young learners as they enter another year of education. 


In case you missed it 

Our hearts go out to all those affected by the crisis in Afghanistan. To help, Google and Googlers are providing more than $4M in support to organizations on the front lines aiding those who are particularly impacted — women, refugees and journalists. 


Hear from one of our grantees: INCO

Hei-Yue Pang is the APAC Lead at INCO, a global organization working to build a more inclusive and sustainable economy through forward-looking education and support to entrepreneurs.

With millions of children across the world kept out of school due to the COVID-19 pandemic, INCO launched the INCO Education Accelerator in April 2020 — with the support of a $2.5M grant from Google.org and our Distance Learning Fund. The accelerator supports education nonprofits across Europe and Asia and creates equitable access to education for children, especially those from under-resourced families. With technical assistance from distance learning experts and Google volunteers, the nonprofits multiplied their impact and collectively provided uninterrupted access to education for over 360,000 students — nearly 28 times more students than before their accelerator program. 

Photo of woman in black clothes and a necklace sitting against a bright yellow back drop.

Hei-Yue Pang is the APAC Lead at INCO. 

“Implementing this intensive program across 9 different countries reinforced our belief that the benefits of distance learning extend beyond a stop-gap solution during the pandemic. When it comes to uncovering distance learning opportunities, understanding the needs of students, families and educators is crucial. For example, one of our partners in Indonesia learned through research that parent engagement was key to successfully onboarding learners in remote areas. They tweaked their e-learning platform features to be more parent-oriented, which resulted in higher learner engagement rates. Ultimately, not only did we provide an emergency response program, but we also empowered grantees to become more resilient for the future of education.”

A few words with a Google.org Fellow: TalkingPoints

Fiona Yeung is UX Designer at Google who is participating in a Google.org Fellowship with TalkingPoints, an AI-powered multilingual platform that helps teachers and families stay connected via text message and an easy-to-use-mobile app.

Woman with long hair smiling in front of a gallery wall.

Fiona Yeung, a Google UX Designer and Google.org Fellow. 


"As a first-generation Canadian with Asian parents, I grew up speaking Chinese at home and English in school. And although I’ve become somewhat of a language fanatic — learning Japanese and French in addition to Cantonese, Mandarin and English — I strongly empathize with families who regularly face challenges due to language and cultural barriers. That’s why I found TalkingPoints’ mission to connect teachers and families across languages and socioeconomic divides so compelling.

Working with TalkingPoints full time reminded me that giving back even a relatively small time can create enormous impact when your team is driving toward a shared mission that is empowering and rewarding. Last spring, at the height of the pandemic, the volume of communication on TalkingPoints multiplied by 20 — ballooning to more than 100M messages exchanged, approximately half of which were in languages other than English."

Review presentations more quickly with new viewing interface on Google Slides iOS app

Quick launch summary 

We’re improving the mobile viewing experience for Google Slides on iOS. To allow you to view more information at once, you can now: 
  • Scroll through a vertical stream of slides, 
  • Pinch to zoom to get a closer look, 
  • Easily switch between editing, presenting, or casting content. 



We hope these updates make it easier for you to read through, consume, and add or view comments in Slides while using a mobile device. This update is already available on Android. 

Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
  • End users: To use this feature, open any presentation on the Slides app on iOS. Visit the Help Center to learn more about how to use Google Slides on iOS. 

Rollout pace 


Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal accounts. 


Resources 

Beta Channel Update Chrome OS

The Beta channel has been updated to 94.0.4606.38 (Platform version: 14150.23.0) for most Chrome OS devices. This build contains a number of bug fixes, security updates and feature enhancements.  The changes can be viewed here.



If you find 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

Dev Channel Update for Desktop

The Dev channel has been updated to 95.0.4636.4 for Windows, Linux and Mac

A partial list of changes is available in the log. Interested in switching release channels? Find out how. If you find a new issue, please let us know by filing a bug. The community help forum is also a great place to reach out for help or learn about common issues.



Prudhvikumar Bommana

Google Chrome

Material You, a new look and feel for Google Workspace apps, is rolling out now for Android

What’s changing

Beginning today, we’re rolling out Material You: a new design system for Google Workspace apps on Android devices. Material You features an updated, fresh look and feel for your apps, along with additional options for personalization. 

Some changes you’ll notice are:

  • updated navigation bars,
  • improved floating action buttons, and
  • use of Google Sans text for better readability in smaller font sizes



Who’s impacted

End users



Additional details

On Pixel devices with Android 12 or newer, you’ll have the option to match the colors of your apps to your device wallpaper for a more dynamic, personalized look.


To expand upon our existing accessibility support, Material You will automatically adjust contrast, size, and line width based on user preferences and app context. Pre-existing  color schemes, for example color-coded file types, folder colors, or for in-app warnings, will remain unchanged.



Availability across Google Workspace apps:

Gmail
These changes are available on Gmail version 2021.08.24 and newer.





Google Meet
These changes will be available on Meet version 2021.09.19 and newer starting September 19.




Google Drive
These changes are available on Drive version 2.21.330 and newer starting September 9.






Google Docs, Sheets, Slides
These changes are available on Docs, Sheets and Slides version 1.21.342 and newer starting September 1.




Google Calendar
These changes are available on Google Calendar version 2021.37 and newer starting September 20.



Getting started

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
  • End users: On Android 12 and Pixel devices, you can view and select themes based on wallpaper colors applied by going to Settings > Wallpaper & style.

Rollout pace

  • Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility). 


Availability

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers
  • Available to users with personal Google accounts


New effects settings panel in Google Meet

 

Quick launch summary 
We’re introducing a new settings panel in Google Meet for quick access to effects such as background blur, background images and styles during Meet calls. This panel will also be available before joining a call in the green room self-check. In the green room, you can try out various effects to see how they work before joining a call with others. 


Open the panel from the [three dot overflow] menu by selecting "Apply visual effects



Selecting effects in a Meet call
Selecting effects in a Meet call



Selecting effects in the green room before a Meet call
Selecting effects in the green room before a Meet call

Getting started 
Rollout pace
Availability 
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers
Resources 

Search Terms Report Improvements

With the updates listed below, we're improving the search term reports returned from both the Google Ads API and the AdWords API across all active versions.

Starting Sep 9, 2021, you'll be able to see more queries that meet our privacy standards in the search terms report for Search and Dynamic Search Ads campaigns. This new data will return for all searches on or after February 1st, 2021 when using the following reports and resources:

This update can help you identify more relevant keyword themes, making it easier to optimize your ads, landing pages, and more. Metric totals from search terms reports will now be consistent with other reports, such as campaign, ad group, and ad reports in Google Ads.

As part of our ongoing commitment to privacy, we’re working to make our privacy thresholds consistent across Google. Over the next few months, you’ll see more changes across our other tools–including how we handle historical data. In Google Ads, this means that historical query data in your account that was collected prior to September 1st, 2020 will be available until February 1st, 2022. At that point, any historical queries that no longer meet our current privacy thresholds will be removed from your search terms report.

If you have any questions about this change or any other API feature, please contact us via the forum.


- Cory Liseno, Google Ads API Team