Make the Palace of Versailles yours on Google Arts & Culture

One of the first things I saw when I arrived at the Palace of Versailles in 2011 was a construction site. In partnership with Google, we were building the History Gallery, an exhibit that brought together our art collections and digital reconstructions of the palace in 3D. The History Gallery gave people a better understanding of Versailles, and eight years later, the partnership between the Palace of Versailles and Google Arts & Culture continues to give everyone access to this cultural treasure through technology. Today, we’re launching a new online exhibition for everyone who can’t make it to Paris or who wants to explore this majestic place in a new way: Versailles: The Palace is Yours.

Our new app VersaillesVR—a technological first in the cultural world—takes visitors on a virtual reality tour of the Royal Grand Apartments, the Chapel and the Opera. To capture the imagery, we used photogrammetry—a technology that reconstructs three-dimensional models of objects and landmarks from two-dimensional photographs. It’s an invitation to discover the secrets of Versailles, and a magnificent sneak peek for those who might plan to visit in person. Though nothing will ever replace the emotion of actually stepping into the Palace, we hope this visual immersion might inspire you to do just that.

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  View of the Palace of Versailles ©THOMAS GARNIER

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  Explore 24 rooms and 150 objects in the Palace of Versailles  through a new VR app available on HTC vive and Oculus Rift

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  Inside the VR experience (here the famous Hall of Mirrors)

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  3D model of the Royal Opera House

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  Behind the scene of a high resolution Art Camera capture

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  Portrait of Marie Antoinette by Elisabeth Vigée Lebrun
  

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  Come and take a seat at the King’s table and learn about delicacies served in the royal dining room

There are also 18 new online exhibitions featuring 340 artworks—including portraits of the royal family digitized in ultra high resolution and archival photos of Versailles dating from the 19th century—as well as 18 never-before-seen 3D models of iconic rooms and objects. Explore the 73-meter long Hall of Mirrors,  the King’s Bed or Marie-Antoinette’s jewelry cabinet.

Versailles has always been an incredible place to visit. Today, opening the doors of Versailles to the world means opening them virtually, too.

by via The Keyword

How a psychiatry pioneer helped me understand my mother

Editor’s note: To help families dealing with addiction, Google has given over $1 million worth of contributions to Partnership for Drug-Free Kids (PDFK) this year and worked with PDFK to show up for people who are seeking support. When someone searches for relevant queries such as "teen drug addiction" on Google or YouTube, they get the number to call an experienced parent coach who works with caregivers to develop individualized plans for helping loved ones with substance use. You can also find local and national helplines on our Recover Together site.

I can still vividly remember confronting my mother when I was in my late teens. After a lifetime of dealing with her unreliability, I had just had it. In a blowup conversation, I told her that she had chosen drugs over me. 

At the time, I looked at her years of being incarcerated or held up in halfway homes as abandonment. But I now know that there was no other place she would have rather been than to be home with me—clean and sober. While my mother ultimately died of an opioid overdose, truthfully the drug had been slowly taking her over the years. I’ve come to understand that she only chose drugs once. She started using at 13 years old, and that was the one and only time it was her decision. After that, the drugs had her and never let go.

Today’s global Google Doodle honors the late Dr. Herbert D. Kleber, who followed a calling in his life to study patients with addictions, like my mother. It was a direction he didn’t plan for in his professional career as a psychiatrist. However, his pioneering work on understanding and treating addiction brought the scientific community to the understanding that drug addictions are physiological shortcomings, and not moral ones. I’m grateful for Dr. Kleber’s work, because it has certainly helped me better understand my mother’s plight. 

An excerpt from Jarrett’s memoir, “Hey, Kiddo.”

Like Dr. Kleber, I also followed a calling. I didn’t expect to write a memoir about my relationship with my mother and her drug use. But after meeting so many young readers who also walked a similar path in life to the one I had, I truly felt the need to tell my story. It’s why I was also moved to work on this Google Doodle honoring Dr. Kleber. I hope that both offer people, especially young readers, the opportunity to see their experiences reflected in media that is visible to all.

I hear from my readers often as they recount their own complicated relationships with a parent suffering from opioid addiction disorder. When they ask what it was like to write and draw a book that recounts so many traumatic moments, I let them know that it helped me come to an important conclusion: My mother wasn’t the antagonist in the story of my life. The drugs were.

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First-ever summit connects hundreds of Latina Googlers

At the end of a two-day summit in Sunnyvale, California, keynote speaker Dolores Huerta led a chant with the audience. She asked the crowd, “Who’s got the power?” And we responded, “We’ve got the power!” She continued: “What kind of power?” We responded: “Latina power!” 

We were at the first-ever Latinas at Google Summit, which took place earlier this month. The summit, called “Building for the Future,” aimed to create community and discuss the unique U.S. experience of being a Latina at Google. Five hundred Googlers attended the summit, which featured guest speakers Huerta and “Orange Is the New Black” actress Jackie Cruz, as well as conversations with senior leaders at Google. 

A group of Google volunteers, myself included, took seven months to carefully plan workshops, music, art exhibits and food inspired by our heritage. The size of the group was awe-inspiring, and so was their response after the event. When they gave us feedback, they told us they found community in the personal stories they shared and left the summit feeling more connected. At the event, they said, they learned new ways to amplify the work they do at Google—and in turn, reach people beyond our walls.

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  Dolores Huerta and Laura Marquez speak on stage.

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  Jackie Cruz addresses the crowd.

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  The author, along with other event organizers, kicks off the summit.

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  Ana Corrales, Chief Operating Officer, Hardware, sits for a fireside chat with Lisa Martinez, Global Head of Android Security and Privacy.

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  Attendees pose for a group photo outside the event space in Sunnyvale.

One of the most inspirational moments involved Huerta, who is widely known for her advocacy, especially around farmworker rights, and her foundation, which focuses on civic engagement for young people and families. She delivered a keynote speech and later sat down for an interview with Laura Marquez, Google’s head of Latino community engagement. 

Huerta urged the crowd to use their voice to reach out to their own families and communities to educate and get involved in issues that affect our everyday lives. With one of her 11 children in the audience, Huerta shared her experience and insights that continue to guide her through her 90th birthday, and the work she’ll continue doing in the future. 

Here are a few key lessons Huerta shared with the crowd:

Own your power. 

“As women, sometimes we’re afraid of that word, power. We see it in a negative connotation. A lot of times, we as women kind of hold ourselves back a little bit from the positions we aspire to. And we think, well, maybe I’m not experienced enough, not qualified enough. And I just say: Do it like the guys do. Pretend! Think of yourselves as being the decision makers.  It takes courage to do the things we need to do. And the biggest courage of all is to stand up for ourselves.”

Don’t discount people without formal education. 

“In our organization, many of our women never had a chance to go to high school or college. But does that mean they’re not educated? You know, in Spanish, the word educado has a whole different meaning than it does in English. It means if you’re educated, you’re civil, you have a conscience, you have compassion for other people, you have good manners. That means what educado means in Spanish. It doesn’t mean you have to have a formal education. So that means that many of our parents or our grandparents who never had a chance to go to school, that doesn’t mean they’re not educated. They are educated!”

Research your history. 

“My family has been here for many generations. My great-grandfather was in the Civil War on the Union side. But when I went to Mexico, it was such a revelation to me, even though both of my parents were born in the United States of America. When I saw how many people there were who were so proud of being Mexicans, that really saved me. Because in high school, there was so much racial discrimination, I thought I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. That really saved me in terms of my identity. I want to make sure that [Latino history] is introduced into our school books so people are proud of who they are and can stand up to racial discrimination. If we don’t know our own history, we don’t know our own identity.”

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Beyond the ad: Conversion Optimization

Today, using data for driving business decisions has become common practice for most companies, with many having a dedicated analytics team checking the impact of marketing investments, which channels to invest in and effect. But the majority of these activities are focused on optimizing parameters before the audience click the ad. The question is: are you taking the same data driven approach to your website design?

If you don’t use data to optimize your site’s user experience, you risk low conversion rates and lost revenue. A well-designed user interface could increase your website’s conversion rate by up to 200 percent, and a better UX design could yield conversion rates up to 400 percent. 

Now take your revenue, check your conversion rate, and calculate what it would be if the conversion rate would increase +200%. The number right there is why the companies that will thrive in the future most likely will be the ones that are data driven in, and focus as much on, both crucial moments during the user journey—before and beyond the ad.

The solution

Building this strength comes down to working with the research methods within conversion optimization and step by step A/B testing your way to a website your customers will love using.

Here are three steps on how to get started:

1. Find the weak spots on the site. Combine quantitative research in Google Analytics, qualitative research such as user testing (in the Optimize Resource Hub you can find easy instructions) and inspiration from best practices. The Optimize Resource Hub gives you best practice suggestions from Google and a library of test results from other companies. 

2. Prioritize the most impactful tests. Give each test idea a score of one to ten according to the uplift you think it will generate, and subtract a score of one to ten depending on the effort the test will require. 

3. Start testing. You can get started today by setting up Google Optimize—the tool that uses the full power of Google Analytics. A free version is available so you can have a test up and running within a few minutes. 

For more in-depth knowledge around the process of conversion optimization, check out the CRO tips in the Optimize Resource Hub.

Learn from experts

We have one more treat for you, in the form of a new series of articles that will be published here on the blog: The Optimize CRO Series—Experts share their secrets. In this series, CRO experts from all over the world will give their best advice around these topics:

• Research methods

• Prioritizing tests

• Favorite frameworks for analyzing sites

• How to do a QA (quality assurance) of an A/B test 

• The experts’ best tests

• Learn from the failing tests

Eager to know more? Make sure you start following the Google Analytics products blog through the channel that fits you to get the upcoming guides.

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Putting your heart first on World Heart Day

World Heart Day is this Sunday, and it raises awareness around the cause and prevention of cardiovascular diseases around the world. As part of these efforts, the World Heart Federation recognizes “people from all walks of life who have shown commitment, courage, empathy and care in relation to heart health” as heart heroes. It’s an honor to have been included this year for my focus on using technology to promote lifestyle interventions such as increasing physical activity to help people lead healthier lives.

Heart disease continues to be the number one cause of death in the U.S., so it’s more important than ever to identify and share simple ways to keep your heart healthy. I have two kids under the age of five and life can get really busy. When juggling between patients, children, work and errands, it’s easy to feel active when in reality, I’ve lost track of healthy habits.

With Google Fit’s smart activity goals and Heart Point tracking, I realized I wasn’t reaching American Heart Association and World Health Organization’s recommended amount of weekly physical activity and I needed to make changes to earn more Heart Points throughout the week.

Meeting weekly Heart Point goals improve overall wellness and health

On busy days, I’ve started to use a 7-minute workout app every evening that provides video overviews and audio descriptions of each exercise. It’s quick, easy and fun. And to top it off, my kids will often join in on a wall sit or climb on me for some extra weight during a plank. I’ve found these exercises to be a quick and efficient way to earn 14 Heart Points, which quickly adds up to help me reach my weekly goal.

Using a workout app may not be for everyone—there are many ways to incorporate incremental changes throughout your week that will help you be more active. Here are a few other things to try out: 

• Get your body moving and rake the leaves outside or mow the lawn.
• Pick up the pace when you’re on a walk, with yourself, your friends or your dog.
• Wear sneakers and make it a walking meeting—this way you and your co-workers get health benefits. 
• Sign up for a workout class! A 45-minute indoor cycling class earns you 90 Heart Points.
• Before you shower, take a few minutes to do simple exercises like jumping jacks, squats, wall sits, push ups or planks.

The beauty of it all is that you don’t have to go to a gym or buy special equipment. Just getting moving can have health benefits that add up. For World Heart Day, I challenge you to find opportunities that work with your schedule to earn more Heart Points.

by via The Keyword

5 memories to celebrate Google Classroom’s 5th birthday

Five years ago, the world watched feats of human strength and spirit at the Olympics in Socci and the World Cup in Rio. A robot made the first-ever landing on a comet. Citizens of the internet dumped buckets of ice on their heads to raise awareness and funds for ALS research. And while millions of teachers and students headed back to school in 2014, a team of passionate engineers, former teachers and ed tech experts at Google launched a new program—Google Classroom. 

Since then, the community of educators and students using Classroom has grown to over 40 million worldwide. Thoughtful feedback from teachers has helped us build new features to meet the ever-changing needs of today’s schools.

Here are five stories of how Google Classroom has evolved over the years.

1. Building a mission control center designed to save teachers time 

When talking with educators, we learned that their biggest need was a tool that allowed them to spend less time on administrative tasks and spend more time teaching. The first iteration of Google Classroom helped them create and organize assignments quickly, provide feedback efficiently, and communicate with students easily.

Classroom was launched in the fall of 2014.

2. Listening to educators and incorporating their feedback

As Google Classroom spread to more schools, we heard lots of inspiring success stories. We also listened for ways to make improvements and launched hundreds of new features based on educator feedback. And in year four, it was time for a refresh. This led to the Classwork page which organizes assignments and questions by grouping them into customizable modules and units.

In 2018, we added the Classwork page to help educators organize assignments, materials and more.

Teachers needed more ways to quickly find resources in Classroom, especially when juggling multiple classes. So we changed the Stream page into a conversation hub and improved the Settings page to allow teachers to turn off notifications. We also built a way for educators to copy and reuse classwork. The result? A more streamlined way to set up and manage classes, coursework and student rosters. 

After hearing that educators were spending too much time giving actionable feedback, we built a comment bank, which gives them a place to easily save, reuse and modify common feedback. Earlier this year, Classroom was refreshed further when it was redesigned with the intuitive look and feel that’s used across Google tools.  

In 2018, we added a comment bank to save and reuse commonly used feedback when grading.

3. Enhancing Classroom by integrating partner apps

We know there are lots of A+ education apps out there. It’s easy to feel bogged down by all the separate logins and applications to access your favorite tools. By partnering with some of the top EdTech companies—including Classcraft, GoGuardian, Pearson and others—we’ve helped integrate popular education apps with Classroom. Today, these partnerships allow teachers to share information between Classroom and other tools they love, without switching platforms.

4. Better feedback with rubrics, Gradebook, and syncing grades to your SIS

Earlier this year we introduced rubrics, a tool currently in beta that helps students clearly understand how their assignments will be evaluated, while also giving educators a standardized way to grade. This feature works alongside other feedback tools to help teachers personalize instruction and improve learning.

In 2019, we introduced rubrics.

Other new developments include the ability to sync grades between a Student Information System (SIS) and Classroom, and Gradebook, a tool that keeps assignments and grades organized. Gradebook allows teachers to see a holistic view of their students’ grades across assignments, and offers quick ways to grade and return work. Teachers can also choose how grades are calculated (either by weighted average or total points) and set up grade categories for easier organization. 

Earlier this year, we launched an early access beta program that allows educators to sync grades from Classroom to their school information system (SIS) of record.

5. Help students keep their ideas authentic

Originality reports in Google Docs help students balance outside inspiration with authenticity in their own work. This beta feature is designed to allow both teachers and students to compare coursework against hundreds of billions of web pages and tens of millions of books. To use originality reports with Classroom, apply to join the testing program by filling out our form. 

In 2019, we added a beta for originality reports in Google Classroom.

Bring Google to your Classroom

Ready to try some of the new features mentioned? Syncing grades with your SIS, rubrics, and originality reports are available in beta. Sign up to test these tools today at g.co/classroom/betas.

Don’t have access to Google Classroom, but still want the benefits of collaborative teaching tools? Check out our new tool, Assignments. 

by via The Keyword

Game on: Your Xbox One now works with the Google Assistant

When you’re in the zone playing a video game, multitasking becomes difficult. You might miss capturing a fun in-game moment to share with friends, or forget to turn down the volume late at night.  

We think the Assistant can be a great teammate to help you stay focused on playing while still getting things done. Available in beta starting today, your Xbox One now works with the Google Assistant, letting you control your gaming experience by voice with any Google Assistant-enabled smart speaker or smart display, like the Google Nest Hub Max, or any Android mobile device.

With the new Xbox Action for the Google Assistant, you can ask the Assistant to launch a game and your console will automatically turn on and load the game so it’s ready for you to start playing. To save you even more time, you can also easily search for games by voice, so there’s no more need to use the on-screen keyboard. 

After you save humanity from the Swarm or finish a match with your friends in “Gears 5” co-op multiplayer, the Assistant is able to take a screenshot or record video of your gameplay. Just say “Hey Google, take a screenshot on Xbox,” and your favorite moment will be captured to share with friends. 

Your Assistant is also the ideal companion to help you launch media apps from your console, in case you want to finish a show or pull up some music in between games. Just try saying, “Hey Google, open Netflix on Xbox.”

The beta will be available only in English, wherever Google Assistant is supported. We hope to expand to more languages this fall with the full roll out of the experience. For a full list of commands, setup instructions, or for troubleshooting, please visit the Xbox Insider subreddit.

With Google Assistant on Xbox, we’re excited to offer an extra companion for you while gaming. We will also work with Xbox to continue to improve the experience over time, offering even more ways for you to use the Assistant while gaming on Xbox in the future.

by via The Keyword

A new tool to help Italian companies grow with AI

Saccheria Franceschetti, a family business based in Brescia, Italy, has seen a lot of change in the 80 years since it was founded. Originally set up to produce bags from old fabric, it has now adopted 21st-century solutions like artificial intelligence to keep its competitive edge. As the third largest distributor of flexible packaging in Europe today, the 50-employee business uses AI to optimize its warehouses and logistics, and to monitor business processes in real time.

At Google, we’re inspired by the tech savvy of companies like Saccheria Franceschetti, and we think there are thousands of small- and medium-sized businesses in Italy that could benefit from the same knowledge. That’s why Google has collaborated with the School of Management of the Politecnico University of Milan to develop Machine Learning Checkup, a free tool that enables companies to evaluate their readiness for artificial intelligence, and to understand how to make the most of the solutions offered by this technology.

For Saccheria Franceschetti, adopting AI solutions has been well worth the effort. Its revenues have grown from €16 million in 2015 to almost €20 million in 2019, and its profit margins have doubled. And, as an unexpected bonus, it’s getting substantially fewer customer complaints.

Artificial intelligence is also an important tool for Agrintesa, a farming cooperative in Faenza serving 4,000 small- and medium-sized farms. AI-powered image recognition helps the business sort part of their 440,000 tons of produce a year, quickly categorizing fruits by size, quality, shape and imperfections. In the two years since introducing AI, Agrintesa has sped up its processes and improved product quality. People at the company say the changes have made customers happier, and Agrintesa expects to see a 10 percent increase in profit margins within two years.

Agrintesa uses visual recognition to sort its fruit production.

Companies that use the new Machine Learning Checkup will receive a customized report laying out the potential benefits and best applications of AI. The tool also helps businesses take practical next steps toward implementation: Along with the report, it points them to free dedicated consultant services through their local chambers of commerce, and financial incentives to invest in their businesses from the Ministry of Economic Development.

We’ve focused on the industries with the greatest potential for AI in Italy: agriculture, livestock farming, textiles, furniture, mechanics and iron and steel. The most effective applications come from the areas of sound and image recognition—like what Agrintesa is doing to sort produce—and predictive analytics, which can help with things like optimizing planting and harvesting times. For some areas of agriculture and farming, the research we commissioned has identified potential savings of up to 80 percent.

There are many areas of business where AI can bring important benefits—from packaging logistics to produce selection—and we’re proud to be able to partner with Italian companies to help figure out what works for them. It’s part of our commitment to developing tools to ensure that everyone can access artificial intelligence.

by via The Keyword

More improvements for Android on entry-level phones

In many places in the world, entry-level smartphones are often the first and only way people get access to the internet. As we build Android for everyone, making sure that these devices are affordable and high quality is a top priority. That’s why we launched Android (Go edition) in 2018—a platform tailored for smartphones with 1.5GB of memory or less. As we release Android 10 (Go edition), here's a look at how we're making experiences for entry-level device owners better, across the platform and apps.

Android 10 (Go edition)

With Android 10 (Go edition), we've made Android faster and more secure. 

First, this new release helps you switch between apps faster and in a memory-efficient way. Speed and reliability are also enhanced—apps now launch 10 percent faster than they did on Android 9 (Go edition). 

Encryption underpins our digital security, as it protects your data even if your device falls into the wrong hands. That’s why Android 10 (Go edition) includes a new form of encryption, built by Google for entry-level smartphones, called Adiantum. Up until now, not all entry-level smartphones were able to encrypt data without affecting device performance. 

Adiantum is built to run efficiently without specialized hardware, meaning all Go edition users will have the same level of data security as any Android device, without compromising performance. This will make the next generation of devices more secure than their predecessors, and allow the next billion people coming online for the first time to do so safely.

Keep an eye out for the new phones with Android 10 (Go edition) launching later this fall.

New app experiences

Apps designed for Go edition phones are also improving to better serve the needs of first-time smartphone owners.

For example, we’ve introduced a number of updates to Google Go. With the AI-powered read-out-loud feature that makes consuming long-form text as easy as listening to the radio, people feel more comfortable using the web in their daily lives. Lens in Google Go helps people who struggle to read things in real life by reading out and translating the text that you point with your camera. Since the launch, people have told us that it helps them read and understand important things like bus schedules and bank forms.

YouTube Go, which helps people watch videos on low-speed connections, is also receiving positive responses. People tell us they encounter less buffering while streaming videos, and are now saving on their data consumption.

The new Gallery Go by Google Photos makes it easier to find photos on your entry-level phone. Just 10MB in size and powered by on-device machine learning, it automatically organizes your photos by the people and things you take photos of—and it works offline, too. 

• Google Go

  Caption: Google Go's read-out-aloud feature

• Lens in Go

  Caption: Lens in Google Go

• Gallery Go

  Caption: Gallery Go by Google Photos

Across the ecosystem, more Android developers are now enhancing their apps to work well on Android (Go edition) devices. In the past year, popular apps like Uber, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, and Spotify have been redesigned to be Go-ready. If you’re a developer, visit our developer site to learn how to build for the next billion.

Go for everyone

In the last 18 months, over 500 manufacturers have launched more than 1,600 Android (Go edition) device models to 180+ countries including India, South Africa, Nigeria, Brazil, and the United States. These devices, including the Samsung A2, Xiaomi Redmi Go, Tecno Spark 2, and Mobicel Astro, make up over 80 percent of entry-level Android phones activating today.

In some countries, devices are now available for as low as $27. Whether it comes with a high-definition or regular display, 4GB or 16GB of storage, or 3G or 4G support, there’s a Go edition device for everyone. 

With the new platform release and more app choices, Android (Go edition) brings a broader range of options and better performing phones to more people coming online for the first time. 

by via The Keyword

Follow the journey of 13 Latino Trailblazers

Fondly referred to as “El Barrio,” East Harlem is home to one of the largest Latino communities in New York City. It was here that I grew up learning about and celebrating my Puerto Rican and Dominican heritage. From the vibrant murals depicting Latino legends to the salsa music playing from apartment windows, a walk through the neighborhood was a constant reminder of the pride my community felt for our culture. 

At my bilingual elementary school, our teachers taught us about Latino artists, scientists, athletes and other cultural icons. We learned about how Roberto Clemente, an Afro-Boricua who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates, was not only one of the most accomplished baseball players of all time, but was also well known for his philanthropic and humanitarian efforts. And how Celia Cruz, whose music was often played at my family gatherings, brought Latin music to the mainstream with her powerful voice and Afro-Latino rhythms.

The societal contributions of Latinos reach far beyond East Harlem. To celebrate this diversity during Hispanic Heritage Month, members and allies of HOLA, the Hispanic Googler Network, partnered with Google Earth to show the impact Latinos have made around the world. Get a glimpse of how Roberto Clemente, Celia Cruz and 11 other Trailblazing Latinos have broken barriers and paved the way in industries from fashion to medicine. 

by via The Keyword

How Google invests in news

Every time you search on Google, there are thousands, sometimes millions, of webpages with helpful information. When you’re looking for news, those pages could be from a large traditional news publisher or a new digital outlet. They could be from a local news site, or a small publisher specializing in health or fitness or food or fashion. Our job is to sort through those and connect you with the most relevant information. 

At the same time, we recognize that the internet has changed the way we find and access information, and that publishers are facing challenging business environments as a result. So I’d like to talk about how we connect people with news and how we support news publishers around the world. 

Our approach to search 

People trust Google to help them find useful and authoritative information, from a diverse range of sources. To uphold that trust, search results must be determined by relevance—not by commercial partnerships. 

That’s why we don’t accept payment from anyone to be included in search results. We sell ads, not search results, and every ad on Google is clearly marked. That’s also why we don’t pay publishers when people click on their links in a search result. 

To operate in any other way would reduce the choice and relevance to our users—and would ultimately result in the loss of their trust in our services.

At the same time, we work closely with the news industry to provide value to publishers and journalists around the world. We do this in many ways—through Google Search and Google News, which help people find and access news content and enables us to send large amounts of traffic to publishers. We’ve also created advertising and subscription tools that help publishers grow new revenue, and our funding of programs and training as part of the Google News Initiative provides benefits to the news industry.

The changing news industry

When I was growing up in the 1960’s and 70’s, my local newspaper was, in a sense, the internet of my community. It was where I kept up with local events but also where my dad found my first car, where I found my first job, where my mom found recipes for Sunday dinner and discount coupons for the ingredients. Today the internet has dramatically changed how we do all of those things through the vast array of information and services found there.

This shift has affected the revenue streams that publishers have traditionally relied on. Readers no longer go to newspapers for classified listings of jobs, apartments, or used cars. Instead, they go online to access a new world of options, whether that’s apartment listings, or for the latest food and fashion tips, movie reviews and recipes. Advertisers have followed suit, increasing spending on the websites of thousands of online publishers and service providers; they now have enormous choice in how they reach people online. 

How Google provides value to publishers

Advertising remains a key revenue stream for publishers (along with subscriptions)—but they have also shifted their focus to digital. Publishers want to be found by users so they can then grow revenue through ads or by converting readers into loyal subscribers. And Google helps publishers and journalists by helping people find news content and sending them to news sites.

In the world of print, publishers pay newsstands to display their newspapers and magazines so readers can discover them. Google provides this benefit to publishers at no cost. This creates real value: In Europe alone, people click on the news content Google links to more than 8 billion times a month—that’s 3,000 clicks per second we drive to publishers’ own websites. For large news publishers, a study byDeloitte puts the value of each click between 4-6 euro cents. 

Beyond the traffic we send to publishers, we continue to invest in and provide value to the news industry in other ways. Google’s advertising technologies are used by many websites, including news publishers, where publishers retain the vast majority of the ad revenue. In 2018, Google sent more than 14 billion dollars to publishers around the world. 

Our Google News Initiative is investing $300 million to help news publishers around the world develop new products and business models that fit the different publishing marketplace the Internet has enabled. And we continue to make improvements to connect people with news from our products. 

Giving everyone better access to relevant and authoritative news, from a range of diverse sources, helps them stay informed about the news that matters to them. The news industry is fundamental to the health of our open societies and we’re committed to playing our part in ensuring a successful and sustainable future for news.

by via The Keyword

Neha Palmer keeps Google's data centers green

When Neha Palmer was a kid, she idolized Marie Curie. Reading a book about the pioneering scientist inspired her to pursue the field herself. “I think of it as the geek’s princess story,” she says. And now, both in and out of her role at Google, she’s working to inspire others who want to find a way to translate their passion for science and the environment into a career. 

Neha leads the team responsible for purchasing clean energy to fuel Google’s data centers. She's helping to reach our goal of remaining carbon neutral, which we have been since 2007, and matching all of Google’s energy consumption with 100 percent renewable energy, which we have achieved for two years in a row. Thanks to the work of Neha’s team, Google recently announced our largest ever purchase of renewable energy and was recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency with its Green Power Leadership Partner of the Year award.

For this installment of The She Word, Neha explains why renewable energy is so important, how Google has inspired companies to take action themselves and the one trick that keeps her productive, even on the busiest days. 

How do you describe your job at a dinner party?

When you use Search, YouTube and Gmail, all of that sits on a computer somewhere, and that somewhere is our network of data centers around the world. My job is to buy as much clean energy in the locations we have data centers as we can. Data centers are the largest portion of our carbon footprint as a company, driven by the amount of electricity they consume.

How does Google define clean energy? 

We define 100 percent renewable as: For every year, across the globe, we match every single kilowatt hour of electricity we use with a kilowatt hour of renewable energy. So far, that has meant wind and solar. But now we’re thinking: How do we get beyond that? If you have a solar farm, for example, it’s going to produce energy during the day, but when it’s dark, we still have to use the power that’s on the grid, which often includes carbon-emitting resources. Our next big goal is to buy 100 percent clean, carbon-free energy 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year. That would mean resources that don’t emit carbon. 

I feel lucky that I have a job where I feel like I can make a difference.

Why is it so important to focus on clean energy? 

The production of electricity results in around 30 percent of all the emissions in the world. From my perspective, it’s the most important thing that we can do as a company to make sure we’re operating in an environmentally sustainable way. What we’ve seen is that a lot of companies from all sectors have followed. We see the automotive industry, consumer products, even candy bar companies moving toward clean energy. Corporations have realized that this is something that is not only beneficial for their environment, but also for their business. 

Climate is top of mind for many people right now, but a lot of people are confused about what they can do as individuals. I feel lucky that I have a job where I feel like I can make a difference. Seeing the impact of the work is really satisfying. 

What do you do in a typical day? 

I try to get big projects out of the way in the morning. If there’s something I need to sit down and think about critically, I try to block out at least an hour to focus on that. If I do have a bunch of things that are top of mind, but I know I’ll only have that one hour, I usually start the day by writing exactly one thing, and only one thing, on a sticky note. I stick it on my computer, and I won’t leave for the day until it is done. I spend a lot of time in meetings, since I’m on a very large team. And I try to sit down and have an actual lunch and be technology-free, to let my mind clear and re-energize. In the afternoons it’s a scramble—I’ve got two small children, so I get home and spend time with them before they go to bed and end the day. 

What’s one habit that makes you successful?

There’s so much discussion right now about work-life balance. One thing I’ve learned is that it's going to be seasonal. There are plenty of times where you feel stressed and you’re not going to have that balance, but there are  plenty of times where you feel like you are in control. Knowing that you can get back to that place gives me enough mental stability to get through the hectic times. 

You spent most of your career in the utilities industry, which is historically male-dominated. How have you navigated that?

I’ve always sought out strong female leaders, whether it’s within my company or outside the company, I’ve also tried to think about how I can help pull people up. It might be talking to a group of high schoolers about STEM and engineering careers, or it might be talking to an MBA class about how you convert your passion for the environment into a job. There are plenty of people who are interested in the energy industry, it’s just making sure that we find them, engage them and then hire them. 

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6 Chromebook keyboard shortcuts that save time

Chrome Browser keyboard shortcuts (which also work on Chromebook) can be major timesavers. Keyboard shortcuts, also called “hot keys,”  help you speed up a wide variety of tasks, including taking a screenshot, locking your screen, and even (fittingly) viewing all keyboard shortcuts—just click Ctrl + Alt + /.

These six Chromebook keyboard shortcuts are among the most popular shortcuts that can help you do more in less time. While these tips are especially helpful for those of you who use Chromebooks at work, you might find they help you get things done faster, regardless of whether you're at work or home.

1. Dock browser windows.
Digging into projects often requires opening more than one browser window—also called a “browser instance”—at a time. This can be an effective way to organize work. You can open one browser instance for dashboards, one for apps, another for Gmail, a third for Google Docs you’re working on, and, perhaps, one for music.

If you find yourself going back and forth between two browser instances, it’s a good idea to “dock” your screens, or anchor them in place on your screen so they don’t move around. This way, you can access two screens side-by-side. Hit Alt + ] to dock one browser instance to the left and Alt + [ to dock the other browser instance to the right.

2. Switch between browser instances or browser tabs.
Docking browser instances is one way to work more efficiently when you’re juggling projects. Another strategy is to quickly switch between what you have open. Within each browser instance, it’s not uncommon to have multiple tabs open on your screen. People do this often when they’re searching the web or working in different apps, like Gmail or Drive. You can use keyboard shortcuts to switch between browser instances and between tabs.

Click Alt + tab to switch between the two most recent browser instances. Continue to hold Alt after pressing tab and you’ll get a tiled view of all of your open browser instances. Click Ctrl + tab (no point and click necessary) to navigate between browser tabs.

3. Recover closed tabs.
If you accidentally close Chrome, there’s no need to worry. Simply hit Ctrl + Shift + T and your most recently closed tab (or browser instance) comes right back. If you closed more than one, just hit that combination of keys again, and Chrome will keep restoring. 

4. Use Caps Lock.
One of the first things you might notice when you switch to Chrome OS is that there’s no Caps Lock key. But let’s face it, sometimes you need to shout your enthusiasm (COOKIES IN THE BREAKROOM!). In such instances, Caps Lock is just a keyboard shortcut away.

Use Alt + search to activate and deactivate Caps Lock. The search key typically features a magnifying glass and is located on the far left side of your keyboard where Caps Lock is on other laptops. On some Chromebooks, you want to press Alt + Assistant , which is the key that resembles bubbles and is located between the Ctrl and Alt keys on the bottom left side of the keyboard. A notification will pop up and  let you know when you’ve activated Caps Lock and again when you deactivate it.

If you use Caps Lock frequently, you can also enable the search key to be a permanent Caps Lock button in Settings. Here’s how:

1. Click the time in the bottom right corner of your screen. It will pull up different tools for you to use. 

2. Click the gear/settings icon in the top right.

3. Scroll to Device and click Keyboard.

4. Use the drop-down menu to the right of Search to select Caps Lock.

5. Switch between work and personal accounts.

Setting up a personal account on your Chromebook to coincide with your work account makes it easy to switch between personal and work email on one device. This post explains how to set up a personal account on a Chromebook. Once you’ve set that up, use Alt + Ctrl + > or Alt + Ctrl + < to quickly switch between accounts. 

6.  Launch applications located on Chrome OS’s “shelf,” or taskbar.

At the bottom of the screen of your Chromebook, you’ll see a row of icons representing applications. We call this bottom part of the screen the “app shelf.” Keyboard shortcuts let you launch a specific application on the app shelf. Alt + 1 will launch the first app from the left on your shelf, Alt + 2 will open the second app from the left on your shelf, and so on.

For more help on how to work efficiently on Chromebooks, check out our posts on how to set up a new Chromebook, 6 common questions for former Mac users who are new to Chromebook, how to use a Chromebook if you’ve switched from a PC, and (for IT admins) 5 Google IT tips for driving and sustaining Chromebook adoption. Whether you’re new to Chromebooks or have used them for a while, these tips can help you—and your company—complete your work faster.

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What's new in Chrome OS: Google Assistant comes to more Chromebooks

The latest version of Chrome OS brings the Google Assistant to more Chromebooks. It’s starting to roll out now to more non-managed, consumer devices.  The Assistant on Chromebook helps you stay productive, control your smart devices, and have a little fun along the way. To get started, enable the Assistant in your Chromebook’s settings and then try asking or typing some of these queries: 

“Hey Google, create a new document”

Quickly create new Docs, Sheets and Slides in your Google Drive. Or open a pre-existing file by specifying its title in your query. With your Assistant, access files in Drive even faster than before.  

“Hey Google, what’s next on my calendar?”

Your Assistant can help you stay on top of your busy schedule. You can ask it when your next meeting starts, find out when your next flight is scheduled, or add an event to your calendar. 

“Hey Google, remind me to buy a cake for Ciara’s birthday”

Set helpful reminders with the Assistant. If you’re working on a project and remember something you need to do later, set a quick reminder. That way, you can stay focused on your current task without dropping the ball on your to-do list. 

“Hey Google, play some party music” 

Use your Assistant to help set the mood.  Now you can use your Chromebook to play music through speakers like the Google Nest Hub Max or control other devices like smart lights. You can even type a query into your Chromebook to control devices in different parts of your home—without using your voice. 

Enable your Assistant on Chromebook

On Chromebook, you can communicate with the Assistant by using your voice or typing.  Here’s how to enable the Assistant and access it with your voice: 

1. On your Chromebook, go to Settings > Search and Assistant > Google Assistant

2. Enable voice input and train your Assistant to recognize your voice.

3. Just say “Hey Google” and your Assistant will respond.

After enabling the Assistant in Settings, you can also access it by using your keyboard:

1. Use the keyboard shortcut: “Search”+ “a”

2. Type a query. You can even skip writing, “Hey Google.”

There are thousands of actions that you can do on your Assistant, and it’s always learning and getting better. Try saying or typing, “Hey Google, what can you do?” to explore more.

We’ll be back in around six weeks to let you know more about what’s new in Chrome OS. 

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Doing more to protect your privacy with the Assistant

We believe you should be able to easily understand how your data is used and why, so you can make choices that are right for you. Recently we’ve heard concerns about our process in which language experts can listen to and transcribe audio data from the Google Assistant to help improve speech technology for different languages. It's clear that we fell short of our high standards in making it easy for you to understand how your data is used, and we apologize.

When we learned about these concerns, we immediately paused this process of human transcription globally to investigate, and conducted a full review of our systems and controls. Now we want to share more about how audio recordings work, and some changes we’re making: 

Your audio data isn’t stored by default

By default, we don’t retain your audio recordings. This has been the case, and will remain unchanged. You can still use the Assistant to help you throughout the day, and have access to helpful features like Voice Match. 

To store your audio data, you can opt in to the Voice & Audio Activity (VAA) setting when you set up your Assistant. Opting in to VAA helps the Assistant better recognize your voice over time, and also helps improve the Assistant for everyone by allowing us to use small samples of audio to understand more languages and accents. You can view your past interactions with the Assistant, and delete any of these interactions at any time. 

Updating our audio setting 

We’re updating our settings to highlight that when you turn on VAA, human reviewers may listen to your audio snippets to help improve speech technology. If you’re an existing Assistant user, you’ll have the option to review your VAA setting and confirm your preference before any human review process resumes. We won’t include your audio in the human review process unless you’ve re-confirmed your VAA setting as on. 

More privacy protections for our transcription process

We take a number of precautions to protect data during the human review process—audio snippets are never associated with any user accounts and language experts only listen to a small set of queries (around 0.2 percent of all user audio snippets), only from users with VAA turned on. Going forward, we’re adding greater security protections to this process, including an extra layer of privacy filters. 

Automatically deleting more audio data

The Assistant already immediately deletes any audio data when it realizes it was activated unintentionally—e.g., by a noise that sounds like “Hey Google.” We understand it’s important to get this right, and will continue to focus on this area, including implementing additional measures to help us better identify unintentional activations and exclude them from the human review process. Soon we’ll also add a way to adjust how sensitive your Google Assistant devices are to prompts like “Hey Google,” giving you more control to reduce unintentional activations, or if you’d prefer, make it easier for you to get help in especially noisy environments.

One of the principles we strive toward is minimizing the amount of data we store, and we’re applying this to the Google Assistant as well. We’re also updating our policy to vastly reduce the amount of audio data we store. For those of you who have opted in to VAA, we will soon automatically delete the vast majority of audio data associated with your account that’s older than a few months. This new policy will be coming to VAA later this year. 

We believe in putting you in control of your data, and we always work to keep it safe. We’re committed to being transparent about how our settings work so you can decide what works best for you. To check your current settings and learn more about the controls available, visit the “Your data in the Assistant” page.

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Google.org helps Nesta bring skills training to trade unions

Throughout history, technology has changed the nature of work. This has created new opportunities and jobs, but there are also concerns about technology’s impact on job security and displacement. Google.org’s $2 million grant to Nesta, a global innovation foundation, will set up partnerships with trade unions in Sweden, Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium. The program will provide training to workers whose jobs are changing rapidly as a result of automation or digitalization—for example, people working in administrative roles, manufacturing and the service industry. 

Nesta will deliver training through a new program called FutureFit, which will help workers get the skills they need to adapt to changes in their workplace. Using training methods such as nano learning—where trainings are broken down into small chunks—and gamification, the program will shed light on learner behavior and motivation. This evidence will be used to inform future training.

While research from McKinsey shows that automation can actually increase the total number of jobs in the countries covered by this project, a recent poll showed that 40 percent of the Swedish workforce worries about not getting access to the training they need to compete in the future job market. And the OECD found that people in jobs most at risk from automation do less training than workers in jobs at low risk. 

The Nordics and Benelux countries are the perfect places to try Nesta’s techniques and build on Google.org’s engagement with nonprofits to equip people with the skills needed for the future labor market. The countries in the region are digital frontrunners, and have a tradition of investing in lifelong learning. We know this from Google initiatives we’ve introduced to the region: In Sweden, we toured the country with the national Swedish Public Employment Service to train thousands of people in digital skills. In the Netherlands, we worked with the trade union CNV to re-skill workers in transport and logistics. And in Denmark, we teamed up with the major trade union HK to educate administrative workers as “digital change agents.” Across Europe, we’ve now trained five million people in new skills. Since May 2018, we’ve also been building on the Digital Frontrunners program from Nesta, a collaborative program to help senior policymakers create a more inclusive digital economy.

In Finland, Nesta will run a pilot program with The Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK), Finland’s largest labour confederation. The program will focus on helping workers whose professions are undergoing high rates of change due to technology, such as administrative roles or manufacturing. SAK President Jarkko Eloranta put it this way: “A third of employees in Finland find modern technology a source of anxiety at work, so learning opportunities of this kind should be part of regular duties at all workplaces. Employees need new digital skills to embrace smart technology at work.”

We’re committed to providing one hundred million EUR in grants in Europe, the Middle East and Africa in the next five years to better understand the changing nature of work, and to support nonprofits that help people navigate a changing labour market. The Nesta program will be a great addition to that effort, and we hope the grant will help to ensure that workers are equipped with the skills needed to support them in changes to their everyday work lives.

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Unleashing digital opportunities in Europe

Today I am in Helsinki, Finland, to meet with Finnish Prime Minister Rinne to discuss his priorities for the European Union Presidency, from building sustainable economic growth to achieving a carbon-free future. 

The Nordic countries are great examples of how the internet can help drive economic growth. As part of our vision to build a more helpful Google for everyone, we are supporting Europe’s digital ambitions in two ways. 

First, by continuing to invest in sustainable digital infrastructure across Europe. Today, I announced that we plan to invest 3 billion euros to expand our data centers across Europe over the next two years. That will bring our total investment in Europe’s internet infrastructure to 15 billion euros since 2007. Our investments generate economic activity for the region and support more than 13,000 full-time jobs in the EU every year, according to a study published today by Copenhagen Economics.

As part of this new investment, we plan to invest another 600 million euros in 2020 to expand our data centre presence in Hamina, Finland, bringing the total investment by Google to 2 billion euros since 2009. Our investments will support approximately 4,300 jobs in Finland per year on average, over the next two years and beyond.

Our Hamina data center is a significant driver of economic growth and opportunity. It also serves as a model of sustainability and energy efficiency for all of our data centers. 

This week we took another big step in our commitment to sustainability globally, by making the biggest corporate purchase of renewable energy in history. 

Today I’m announcing that nearly half of the megawatts produced will be here in Europe, through the launch of 10 renewable energy projects. These agreements will spur the construction of more than 1 billion euros in new energy infrastructure in the EU, ranging from a new offshore wind project in Belgium, to five solar energy projects in Denmark, and two wind energy projects in Sweden. In Finland, we are committing to two new wind energy projects that will more than double our renewable energy capacity in the country, and ensure we continue to match almost all of the electricity consumption at our Finnish data center with local carbon-free sources, even as we grow our operations.

If infrastructure is the backbone of a strong digital economy, people are at its heart. The second way we can help Europe harness its opportunities is through investments to reskill the workforce for the new digital economy. 

The Nordics have already shown strong leadership. For example, Finland is educating 1 percent of its population on artificial intelligence. But AI is only one area where more education is needed—in the next 10 to 15 years, 90 percent of all jobs will require some level of digital skills. That’s why we launched Grow with Google, a global effort to provide free trainings designed to help people find a job, advance their career or grow their business. In Europe, we’ve already trained more than 5 million people in digital skills, both online and in physical classrooms.  

A couple weeks ago, we opened a Grow with Google skills hub, called a Digital Garage, in Helsinki. Today, I’ll have the chance to meet with several students who have already attended courses there. I look forward to discussing the challenges facing job-seekers today and the importance of digital skills in the fast-changing job market.

To help even more people prepare for future jobs, Google.org, our philanthropy arm, is making a grant worth $2 million to Nesta, a foundation focused on innovation. With this grant, Nesta will organize training partnerships with trade unions in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium. 

At Google, we feel a deep responsibility to ensure that everyone can benefit from the opportunities that technology creates. That applies not just to job training but the development of responsible innovation, as well. For example, last year, we announced a set of AI principles that guide our work and the types of projects we’ll pursue.

This isn’t a job for one company, or one region, alone. Today, I’ll be joining a roundtable with stakeholders from across the Nordic countries, hosted by the Finnish government in our Google skills hub, to discuss how we can work together to advance these priorities. We will also discuss the role of smart regulation and global frameworks to guide the development of AI and other emerging technologies. 

We look forward to partnering with governments and other stakeholders in the months and years ahead. Together, we can make sure every European benefits from a strong and sustainable digital economy.

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