Tag Archives: Google News

Celebrating AMP: A year in review

A lot can happen in a year when people unite around a common cause.  In the case of the open source Accelerated Mobile Pages Project, born out of conversations with European publishers through the Digital News Initiative, that means improving the mobile web for everyone. In a world where we rely on nearly 7 billion small screens that’s a tall order--but we’re toasting the first anniversary of AMP with progress the entire initiative can feel good about.

From day one, a key focus for AMP has been speed.  Slow loading sites are arguably one of the most frustrating things about the mobile web. Recent Google research shows that 53% of people will leave a site that fails to load in three seconds or less. That’s the worst of all worlds for users, businesses, publishers, websites and the mobile web as a whole.

For publishers, who were the first to get on board with AMP, the benefits of fast-loading content are super-tangible. Inthis case study, the Washington Post reported a 23% increase in mobile search users who return within 7 days.

And in this case study, one of Europe’s biggest native advertising platforms, plista, conducted its own experiment among premium publishers like n-tv.de, faz.net, abendzeitung.de, and golem.de to measure AMP’s impact on web app widget speed and profitability. Average click-through rates for publishers improved by 220%, while one saw an increase of 600% after the implementation of AMP.

To date the AMP project has been a story about momentum. This is clear in everything from the pace of releases of the open source code to the number of participants embracing the AMP format. From Pinterest to Reddit to Bing and Ebay, reports of success after adopting AMP have rolled in in recent months.

At Google, we’re doing our part too. In February, we launched AMP in the “Top Stories” section of Google Search, delivering news in a fast and reliable way. In August, we previewed linking to AMPs across the entire mobile search results page. And this month we’re excited to be rolling out that faster experience to mobile users across Europe.

Now when you search on your mobile device, you’ll see a label that indicates a page is AMP’d. This doesn’t change Search results but will show you which sites have pages that are ready to load lightning fast.

AMP gif

Today AMP pages load from Google Search in less than one second on average. Beyond just saving time with fast loading pages, AMP also saves data -- AMP pages on Search use 10 times less data than the equivalent non-AMP page.

To date we have over 600 million AMP documents created by sites all over the world (232 locales and 104 languages). These pages cover news content, retail, travel, recipes, general knowledge and entertainment. That’s a lot of fast-loading pages!

The open source initiative is thriving because there is a strong community behind it getting involved in everything from working groups to contributing to the Github page with suggestions, feedback and code spec.

While the first year of the AMP Project has gotten off to a good start, there still remains a lot of work ahead.  This roadmap is a good way to stay up to date on what is happening next. We look forward to returning in a year’s time with even more awesome progress as we work together to make the web great for everyone.

To find out more about AMP, check out ampproject.org. For more product advancements from the Digital News Initiative, check out digitalnewsinitiative.com.

Introducing Google News Lite mode — faster news for slower networks

Posted by James Morehead, Product Manager, Google News


There are many parts of the world, like India, where slow 2G and 3G mobile networks are the norm. In places like this, when news breaks you’ll likely wait, and wait, and wait for articles to load on your smartphone. That’s why, starting this week, Google News and Weather for Android is introducing a new feature called Lite mode to help many of India’s 200 million smartphone users stay connected with news from around the world and in their local communities. We’ll be rolling this out to other countries in emerging markets in the coming months.


In the full (normal) mode of Google News, as seen below, we aggregate headlines, images and related content, making it fast and easy for people to find articles they care about. In the new Lite mode things look a little different — we keep the headlines and trim the rest of the components down to their essentials so that the app loads more quickly (and uses less than one-third of the data). When people read an article in Lite mode, they’ll also benefit from Google’s previously announced faster and lighter mobile web pages. By default Lite mode triggers automatically when a slower network is detected (users can also choose to control Lite mode directly).


Screen Shot 2016-09-09 at 9.08.53 PM.png


Lite mode is part of our overall goal to provide news that matters to people around the world. A couple of months ago we started providing local news sources to users in all Google News editions globally (71 countries and 38 languages), building on an announcement back in May of a Local Source tag that surfaces local sources for national stories.


We’re also working to bring news to people in their local languages. In India, we embarked on this effort back in 2007 with Hindi and have since expanded to include Malayalam, Tamil, Telegu and English, from more than 1,000 India-based publishers.

We plan to bring Lite mode to users in Brazil and Indonesia later this year, and more places next year.

Introducing Google News Lite mode — faster news for slower networks

There are many parts of the world, like India, where slow 2G and 3G mobile networks are the norm. In places like this, when news breaks you’ll likely wait, and wait, and wait for articles to load on your smartphone. That’s why, starting this week, Google News and Weather for Android is introducing a new feature called Lite mode to help many of India’s 200 million smartphone users stay connected with news from around the world and in their local communities. We’ll be rolling this out to other countries in emerging markets in the coming months.

In the full (normal) mode of Google News, as seen below, we aggregate headlines, images and related content, making it fast and easy for people to find articles they care about. In the new Lite mode things look a little different — we keep the headlines and trim the rest of the components down to their essentials so that the app loads more quickly (and uses less than one-third of the data). When people read an article in Lite mode, they’ll also benefit from Google’s previously announced faster and lighter mobile web pages. By default Lite mode triggers automatically when a slower network is detected (users can also choose to control Lite mode directly).

News lite

Lite mode is part of our overall goal to provide news that matters to people around the world. A couple of months ago we started providing local news sources to users in all Google News editions globally (71 countries and 38 languages), building on an announcement back in May of a Local Source tag that surfaces local sources for national stories.

We’re also working to bring news to people in their local languages. In India, we embarked on this effort back in 2007 with Hindi and have since expanded to include Malayalam, Tamil, Telegu and English, from more than 1,000 India-based publishers.

We plan to bring Lite mode to users in Brazil and Indonesia later this year, and more places next year.

Introducing Google News Lite mode — faster news for slower networks

There are many parts of the world, like India, where slow 2G and 3G mobile networks are the norm. In places like this, when news breaks you’ll likely wait, and wait, and wait for articles to load on your smartphone. That’s why, starting this week, Google News and Weather for Android is introducing a new feature called Lite mode to help many of India’s 200 million smartphone users stay connected with news from around the world and in their local communities. We’ll be rolling this out to other countries in emerging markets in the coming months.

In the full (normal) mode of Google News, as seen below, we aggregate headlines, images and related content, making it fast and easy for people to find articles they care about. In the new Lite mode things look a little different — we keep the headlines and trim the rest of the components down to their essentials so that the app loads more quickly (and uses less than one-third of the data). When people read an article in Lite mode, they’ll also benefit from Google’s previously announced faster and lighter mobile web pages. By default Lite mode triggers automatically when a slower network is detected (users can also choose to control Lite mode directly).

News lite

Lite mode is part of our overall goal to provide news that matters to people around the world. A couple of months ago we started providing local news sources to users in all Google News editions globally (71 countries and 38 languages), building on an announcement back in May of a Local Source tag that surfaces local sources for national stories.

We’re also working to bring news to people in their local languages. In India, we embarked on this effort back in 2007 with Hindi and have since expanded to include Malayalam, Tamil, Telegu and English, from more than 1,000 India-based publishers.

We plan to bring Lite mode to users in Brazil and Indonesia later this year, and more places next year.

Introducing Google News Lite mode — faster news for slower networks

There are many parts of the world, like India, where slow 2G and 3G mobile networks are the norm. In places like this, when news breaks you’ll likely wait, and wait, and wait for articles to load on your smartphone. That’s why, starting this week, Google News and Weather for Android is introducing a new feature called Lite mode to help many of India’s 200 million smartphone users stay connected with news from around the world and in their local communities. We’ll be rolling this out to other countries in emerging markets in the coming months.

In the full (normal) mode of Google News, as seen below, we aggregate headlines, images and related content, making it fast and easy for people to find articles they care about. In the new Lite mode things look a little different — we keep the headlines and trim the rest of the components down to their essentials so that the app loads more quickly (and uses less than one-third of the data). When people read an article in Lite mode, they’ll also benefit from Google’s previously announced faster and lighter mobile web pages. By default Lite mode triggers automatically when a slower network is detected (users can also choose to control Lite mode directly).

News lite

Lite mode is part of our overall goal to provide news that matters to people around the world. A couple of months ago we started providing local news sources to users in all Google News editions globally (71 countries and 38 languages), building on an announcement back in May of a Local Source tag that surfaces local sources for national stories.

We’re also working to bring news to people in their local languages. In India, we embarked on this effort back in 2007 with Hindi and have since expanded to include Malayalam, Tamil, Telegu and English, from more than 1,000 India-based publishers.

We plan to bring Lite mode to users in Brazil and Indonesia later this year, and more places next year.

Google for India: Making our products work better for everyone

The growth of the Internet has been explosive in India. Every second, three more Indians come online for the first time — that’s over 10,000 people every hour. But this latest wave of Internet users still has significant barriers to getting the most out of the Internet: low-powered phones, 2G connections, and very little data.

So today at our second Google for India event, we announced several new Google products, platforms and access programs to deepen India’s participation in the Internet.

YouTube Go: A YouTube app built from the ground up for India

Today we are starting extensive user tests of YouTube Go, a brand new mobile app completely reimagined for the next generation of YouTube users. Our product team spent the last year learning from users in India about their access and affordability challenges. So we designed the app to load and play YouTube videos smoothly across various connectivity situations, and to provide users transparency and control over their data consumption. The app also has a cool new feature that lets users share videos easily with friends and family nearby, without using any data.


YouTube Go will be India-only at first. If you want to an early chance to try it out, sign up at youtubego.com/signup to find out when the app is available.

Google Station: More Wi-Fi in more places

Last September, we announced our partnership with Indian Railways and RailTel to provide Wi-Fi at 400 railway stations in India. Right now, more than 50 stations provide high-quality Internet to 3.5 million people each month. In our research together with IPSOS, we estimate that 15,000 Indians come online each day through these stations.

With these kinds of results, why not expand beyond railway stations, and even beyond India? By getting great Wi-Fi into the world’s malls, bus stops, city centers, and cafes all around the world, millions more people will be able to learn, play, chat, work, and find the information they need.

So today we’re announcing Google Station, which gives partners an easy set of tools to roll-out Wi-Fi hotspots in public places. Google Station will provide software and guidance on hardware to turn fiber connections into fast, reliable and safe Wi-Fi zones. Users will get a fast Wi-Fi experience with a simple and unified login, while making it much easier for venues to manage their networks.

We’re just getting started and are looking for a few strategic, forward-thinking partners to work with on this effort. So if you are interested in learning more about how to work with us to bring high quality WiFi to your venues, please reach out on station.google.com.

Allo: The Assistant and Smart Replies in Hindi

One of the main features of our new messaging app Allo is a preview edition of the Google Assistant, a new way to have a conversation with Google. In the app, you can ask the Assistant questions and let it help you get things done directly right in your chats. This is currently available in English, but later in the year, we will also be rolling out the Assistant in Hindi. And as part of that, the “Smart Replies” feature — where Allo suggests responses to messages so you can respond quickly in English and Hinglish — will also be available in Hindi.

Chrome for mobile and Google Play: Better connectivity for our platforms

Our open, global platforms — like Android, Google Play, and Chrome — let people easily find the content and services they want and give creators and developers a way to share with the entire world. But how useful are these platforms if they stumble every time they meet a low-bandwidth connection? We are hoping to fix this with two updates to Chrome for mobile and Google Play.

For certain countries like India where connectivity is a challenge, Chrome now offers an expanded Data Saver mode, which millions are already using to reduce the amount of data the browser uses on Android mobile devices, computers, and Chromebooks. This new update will support MP4 videos, saving up to 67% of video data. Also, Chrome on Android will automatically optimize pages to their essentials when 2G-like networks are detected. These simplified pages load up to 2X faster, saving more than 90% of user data. On top of that, Chrome for Android adds a new Download feature that lets users save web pages, videos, music, and pictures on their phone. All downloaded contents can be easily accessed in Chrome's new Downloads tab, even when the users are offline. And if they go offline before downloading is complete, the process will automatically resume the next time they’re connected.


Downloads on Chrome for Android

On the Google Play side, Indian users on 2G connections will experience two new experimental features to improve the experience. The Google Play app will now pre-load the most popular parts of the store on Wi-Fi so that browsing is much faster even on a weak signal. And when choosing to install an app, Play will offer the option to “Wait for Wi-Fi” and install the app when the phone connects to Wi-Fi and save data.

Google News: Lite Mode

Starting this week, the Android app Google News and Weather adds a new feature called “Lite mode” for people on low-bandwidth connections that keeps the headlines and trims the rest of the components down to their essentials so that the app loads more quickly. This mode uses less than one-third the data. Slower networks with trigger Lite mode automatically.

——————

Added up, that’s a lot of data saved, speeds accelerated and new connections made. But I want to share a lesson underlying those announcements that extends beyond India.

While most of today’s launches focus on Google users in India, we have learned that building for mobile-first countries ends up helping the world’s first-billion users as well. One example: India inspired us to make Maps Offline — a way to download a map to your phone so you can navigate around town even without a data connection. But now people around the world, especially in the U.S. and Europe, are using offline maps to get seamless navigation in mountainous areas or patches in urban centers where connectivity cuts out. Building for India and other countries where the next billion Internet users are coming online not only improves their experiences, it gives us better ideas that work for everyone.

Posted by Caesar Sengupta, Vice-President, Next Billion Users Team

Digital News Initiative: Introducing the YouTube Player for Publishers

At Google and YouTube, we’re big fans of the news industry and recognise that technology companies and news organisations are truly part of the same information ecosystem — which is why we want to play our part in the fight towards more sustainable models for news in the future.

Today, through a unique partnership between YouTube and a number of leading European news publishers, we’re launching a new video solution specifically tailored to the needs of news industry; with a goal of reducing complexity and increasing reach and revenue potential, so newsrooms can focus on what matters most — creating stories that educate and excite, engage and inspire.

We owe great thanks to the members of the Digital News Initiative who have helped to craft and customise the Player for Publishers; their feedback, questioning, and testing have helped us to build a great solution. We are delighted with the early feedback from the publishers across Europe who are already testing the solution, and we’re excited to be opening access to the tool out for all European news publishers.

"Providing a truly satisfactory video experience on the internet has always been a challenge, and it's getting increasingly complex with new use cases,” says German Frassa, Digital Product Director at Unidad Editorial, the publisher of Spanish newspapers El Mundo, Marca, and Expansión which is increasingly focusing on video and emerging formats. Creating engaging content is the main concern of news publishers everywhere, but in an increasingly complex marketplace, advertising, security, cross-device compatibility and content protection can put creativity on the back-burner.

In addition to Unidad Editorial and Prisa from Spain, the wave of pilot partners currently testing the Player include France’s France24, The Guardian (United Kingdom), ze.tt(Germany), Dagbladet (Norway), and Oe24 (Austria).

“We’re very excited to partner with the brand that is synonymous of digital video worldwide,” says Frassa, “To make sure that along with our content, we will be delivering the best experience to all our users as well."

YouTube powers video hosting, streaming, rights management including the use ofContent ID, user analytics and monetization options for publishers, freeing up precious newsroom assets to focus on content creation, news-dissemination and the critical storytelling that we’ve come to expect from the free press.

Inspired by conversations with newsrooms across Europe, we developed the YouTube Player for Publishers, a new solution to provide a video hosting, streaming and ads management platform for publishers - powered by YouTube. Here’s how it works:

  • Better connecting audiences with news videos: The YouTube Player is available across 1000’s of devices, globally, optimised for the best possible user experience
  • Increasing control and maximising revenue: The new player gives publishers the option to control ad formats and ad load on their videos as well as giving priority sales rights across videos embedded in their own sites and applications.
  • Reducing complexity, enhancing control The Player helps publishers simplify video infrastructure and reduce cost. Over time, we’ll work to help publishers respond in an evolving landscape of user-generated content for news as well.
“The player from YouTube provides us the best of many things: A terrific product for providing video to our audience, lower operating costs, access to continuous technical innovation, ease of distribution on both our own domains and YouTube's network, and flexible monetisation models,” says Stephan Granhaug, Executive Vice President Digital in Aller Media Norway, the owner of Dagbladet.

We’re thrilled that our partners across Europe are finding early success with the Player, and are eager to extend the invitation for additional European publishers to become involved as we’re just getting started. For more information on progress from the Digital News Initiative, please visit digitalnewsinitiative.com. Publishers interested in learning more can contact us via this form.

Digital News Initiative: Introducing the YouTube Player for Publishers

At Google and YouTube, we’re big fans of the news industry and recognise that technology companies and news organisations are truly part of the same information ecosystem — which is why we want to play our part in the fight towards more sustainable models for news in the future.

Today, through a unique partnership between YouTube and a number of leading European news publishers, we’re launching a new video solution specifically tailored to the needs of news industry; with a goal of reducing complexity and increasing reach and revenue potential, so newsrooms can focus on what matters most — creating stories that educate and excite, engage and inspire.

We owe great thanks to the members of the Digital News Initiative who have helped to craft and customise the Player for Publishers; their feedback, questioning, and testing have helped us to build a great solution. We are delighted with the early feedback from the publishers across Europe who are already testing the solution, and we’re excited to be opening access to the tool out for all European news publishers.

"Providing a truly satisfactory video experience on the internet has always been a challenge, and it's getting increasingly complex with new use cases,” says German Frassa, Digital Product Director at Unidad Editorial, the publisher of Spanish newspapers El Mundo, Marca, and Expansión which is increasingly focusing on video and emerging formats. Creating engaging content is the main concern of news publishers everywhere, but in an increasingly complex marketplace, advertising, security, cross-device compatibility and content protection can put creativity on the back-burner.

In addition to Unidad Editorial and Prisa from Spain, the wave of pilot partners currently testing the Player include France’s France24, The Guardian (United Kingdom), ze.tt(Germany), Dagbladet (Norway), and Oe24 (Austria).

“We’re very excited to partner with the brand that is synonymous of digital video worldwide,” says Frassa, “To make sure that along with our content, we will be delivering the best experience to all our users as well."

YouTube powers video hosting, streaming, rights management including the use ofContent ID, user analytics and monetization options for publishers, freeing up precious newsroom assets to focus on content creation, news-dissemination and the critical storytelling that we’ve come to expect from the free press.

Inspired by conversations with newsrooms across Europe, we developed the YouTube Player for Publishers, a new solution to provide a video hosting, streaming and ads management platform for publishers - powered by YouTube. Here’s how it works:

  • Better connecting audiences with news videos: The YouTube Player is available across 1000’s of devices, globally, optimised for the best possible user experience
  • Increasing control and maximising revenue: The new player gives publishers the option to control ad formats and ad load on their videos as well as giving priority sales rights across videos embedded in their own sites and applications.
  • Reducing complexity, enhancing control The Player helps publishers simplify video infrastructure and reduce cost. Over time, we’ll work to help publishers respond in an evolving landscape of user-generated content for news as well.
“The player from YouTube provides us the best of many things: A terrific product for providing video to our audience, lower operating costs, access to continuous technical innovation, ease of distribution on both our own domains and YouTube's network, and flexible monetisation models,” says Stephan Granhaug, Executive Vice President Digital in Aller Media Norway, the owner of Dagbladet.

We’re thrilled that our partners across Europe are finding early success with the Player, and are eager to extend the invitation for additional European publishers to become involved as we’re just getting started. For more information on progress from the Digital News Initiative, please visit digitalnewsinitiative.com. Publishers interested in learning more can contact us via this form.

Digital News Initiative: Introducing the YouTube Player for Publishers

At Google and YouTube, we’re big fans of the news industry and recognise that technology companies and news organisations are truly part of the same information ecosystem — which is why we want to play our part in the fight towards more sustainable models for news in the future.

Today, through a unique partnership between YouTube and a number of leading European news publishers, we’re launching a new video solution specifically tailored to the needs of news industry; with a goal of reducing complexity and increasing reach and revenue potential, so newsrooms can focus on what matters most — creating stories that educate and excite, engage and inspire.

We owe great thanks to the members of the Digital News Initiative who have helped to craft and customise the Player for Publishers; their feedback, questioning, and testing have helped us to build a great solution. We are delighted with the early feedback from the publishers across Europe who are already testing the solution, and we’re excited to be opening access to the tool out for all European news publishers.

"Providing a truly satisfactory video experience on the internet has always been a challenge, and it's getting increasingly complex with new use cases,” says German Frassa, Digital Product Director at Unidad Editorial, the publisher of Spanish newspapers El Mundo, Marca, and Expansión which is increasingly focusing on video and emerging formats. Creating engaging content is the main concern of news publishers everywhere, but in an increasingly complex marketplace, advertising, security, cross-device compatibility and content protection can put creativity on the back-burner.

In addition to Unidad Editorial and Prisa from Spain, the wave of pilot partners currently testing the Player include France’s France24, The Guardian (United Kingdom), ze.tt(Germany), Dagbladet (Norway), and Oe24 (Austria).

“We’re very excited to partner with the brand that is synonymous of digital video worldwide,” says Frassa, “To make sure that along with our content, we will be delivering the best experience to all our users as well."

YouTube powers video hosting, streaming, rights management including the use ofContent ID, user analytics and monetization options for publishers, freeing up precious newsroom assets to focus on content creation, news-dissemination and the critical storytelling that we’ve come to expect from the free press.

Inspired by conversations with newsrooms across Europe, we developed the YouTube Player for Publishers, a new solution to provide a video hosting, streaming and ads management platform for publishers - powered by YouTube. Here’s how it works:

  • Better connecting audiences with news videos: The YouTube Player is available across 1000’s of devices, globally, optimised for the best possible user experience
  • Increasing control and maximising revenue: The new player gives publishers the option to control ad formats and ad load on their videos as well as giving priority sales rights across videos embedded in their own sites and applications.
  • Reducing complexity, enhancing control The Player helps publishers simplify video infrastructure and reduce cost. Over time, we’ll work to help publishers respond in an evolving landscape of user-generated content for news as well.
“The player from YouTube provides us the best of many things: A terrific product for providing video to our audience, lower operating costs, access to continuous technical innovation, ease of distribution on both our own domains and YouTube's network, and flexible monetisation models,” says Stephan Granhaug, Executive Vice President Digital in Aller Media Norway, the owner of Dagbladet.

We’re thrilled that our partners across Europe are finding early success with the Player, and are eager to extend the invitation for additional European publishers to become involved as we’re just getting started. For more information on progress from the Digital News Initiative, please visit digitalnewsinitiative.com. Publishers interested in learning more can contact us via this form.