The path to Malaysia’s digital potential

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Mohd Zaid, from Kajang, Malaysia, felt the pressure of providing for his family in an uncertain environment. To bring in some extra income, he turned first to one of his personal passions — making soy wax candles infused with scented oils — and then he turned to the internet. After learning digital marketing skills through a Grow with Google course, Zaid was able to go beyond word-of-mouth sales and promote his candles online through Google Ads and Search. His revenue jumped 70%.

Zaid is one of a growing number of Malaysian entrepreneurs embracing a more digital economy. Technology has helped Malaysians through the economic effects of the pandemic, enabling people across the country to work, learn and run their businesses in new ways. According to the latest eConomy Southeast Asia report, 81% of all Malaysian internet users now use digital services — including three million people who’ve become new ‘digital consumers’ since the pandemic began. And business owners are adopting technology at a faster pace, using digital tools to serve their customers better. Over 40% of digital merchants in Malaysia believe their businesses wouldn’t have survived the pandemic without digital platforms (the highest proportion anywhere in the region).

Technology is equally important to Malaysia’s long-term future. According to a new report released by AlphaBeta, making the most of digital opportunities could create $61.3 billion in annual economic value for Malaysia by 2030. That’s the equivalent of about 17% of Malaysia’s GDP in 2020.

So the possibilities are enormous — but right now, Malaysia has some catching up to do. Only one-third of Malaysian businesses have a website, compared with 44% globally. The digital economy is also uneven. Some industries, like manufacturing, use technology far more intensively than others, like agriculture, while small businesses face a shortage of workers with the right skills.

Malaysia’s government has developed a Digital Economy Blueprint, aiming to position Malaysia as a regional technology leader by the end of the decade, and the AlphaBeta report sets out three priorities for getting there: digitalizing the public and private sectors, building the nation’s digital talent and promoting digital trade opportunities.

To help, Google Malaysia will continue to expand programs like Mahir Digital Bersama Google, which has already trained more than 36,000 Malaysian small businesses. We’ll keep working to close digital skills gaps through initiatives like Go Digital ASEAN (supported by Google.org and focused on marginalized communities) and AirAsia academy, which provides free digital courses for local small businesses. Through YouTube, we’ll expand our efforts to help Malaysian creators find global audiences and grow revenue for their businesses. And we’ll deepen our efforts with the Ministry of Education to improve digital learning in schools, laying the ground for the next generation of talent.

After a challenging period, I know we can look to the future with confidence — and technology is at the heart of the ambitions we share for our economy and society. We’re looking forward to playing our part in advancing Malaysia’s exciting digital potential together.

by Marc Woo via The Keyword

Machine learning to make sign language more accessible

Google has spent over twenty years helping to make information accessible and useful in more than 150 languages. And our work is definitely not done, because the internet changes so quickly. About 15% of searches we see are entirely new every day. And when it comes to other types of information beyond words, in many ways, technology hasn’t even begun to scratch the surface of what’s possible. Take one example: sign language.

The task is daunting. There are as many sign languages as there are spoken languages around the world. That’s why, when we started exploring how we could better support sign language, we started small by researching and experimenting with what machine learning models could recognize. We also spoke with members of the Deaf community, as well as linguistic experts. We began combining several ML models to recognize sign language as a sum of its parts — going beyond just hands to include body gestures and facial expressions.

After 14 months of testing with a database of videos for Japanese Sign Language and Hong Kong Sign Language, we launched SignTown: an interactive desktop application that works with a web browser and camera.

SignTown is an interactive web game built to help people to learn about sign language and Deaf culture. It uses machine learning to detect the user's ability to perform signs learned from the game.

Project Shuwa

SignTown is only one component of a broader effort to push the boundaries of technology for sign language and Deaf culture, named “Project Shuwa” after the Japanese word for sign language (“手話”). Future areas of development we’re exploring include building a more comprehensive dictionary across more sign and written languages, as well as collaborating with the Google Search team on surfacing these results to improve search quality for sign languages.

Advances in AI and ML now allow us to reliably detect hands, body poses and facial expressions using any camera inside a laptop or mobile phone. SignTown uses the MediaPipe Holistic model to identify keypoints from raw video frames, which we then feed into a classifier model to determine which sign is the closest match. This all runs inside of the user's browser, powered by Tensorflow.js.

We open-sourced the core models and tools for developers and researchers to build their own custom models at Google IO 2021. That means anyone who wants to train and deploy their own sign language model has the ability to do so.

At Google, we strive to help build a more accessible world for people with disabilities through technology. Our progress depends on collaborating with the right partners and developers to shape experiments that may one day become stand-alone tools. But it’s equally important that we raise awareness in the wider community to foster diversity and inclusivity. We hope our work in this area with SignTown gets us a little closer to that goal.

by Kemal El Moujahid via The Keyword

Do even more with your Chromebook camera

This summer, we shared an update about how we’re continuing to improve video calling on Chromebooks, thanks to performance improvements across Google Meet, Zoom and more. And the camera on your Chromebook is good for more than just video chatting. Hundreds of millions of images and videos have been captured using the Chromebook Camera app so far this year.

Today, we’re sharing a few features that make your Chromebook’s camera even more useful.

Scan documents and more

Have you ever wanted to use your Chromebook to share a physical document or image, but weren’t sure how without the help of a scanner? You can now use your Chromebook’s built-in camera to scan any document and turn it into a PDF or JPEG file. If your Chromebook comes with a front and back facing camera, you can use either of these to scan.

Open the Camera app and select “Scan” mode. When you hold out the document you want to scan in front of the camera, the edges will be automatically detected. Once it’s done, it’s easy to share through Gmail, to social media or to nearby Android phones or Chromebooks using Nearby Share.

You can now scan files using your Chromebook’s built-in camera.

Personalize your camera angle

If you use an external camera with your Chromebook, you can use the Pan-Tilt-Zoom feature to have more control over what your camera captures. You can now crop and angle your camera view exactly how you want it. Whether you want to show your furry friend napping in the background or just want to zoom in on yourself, your Chromebook’s got you covered.

With your external camera plugged in and configured, open the Camera app to adjust the angle you want to capture. Your selections will automatically save so when you jump from a Google Meet work call to making a video with your new puppy, your camera angle preferences will stay the same.

With Pan-Tilt-Zoom you can adjust your camera angle to capture only what you want.

Try other Camera app features

In addition to taking pictures or scanning documents with your Chromebook’s camera, here are a few other features to test out:

• Video mode. If you want to send a quick message to a loved one for their birthday, record a video by clicking on the “Video” mode.
• Self timer. You don’t need to be within arm’s length of your laptop to take a picture. Set the timer, and you can take a few steps back to get the perfect shot.
• QR Code. In addition to new document scanning, you can also use the “Scan” option to scan QR codes. It works just like document scanning, so use your front or back facing camera to scan a QR code.
• Save for later. All your pictures and videos will automatically save to the “Camera” folder in your Files app for easy access later.

And coming soon…

Starting early next year, you’ll be able to create GIFs on the Camera app. Just record a five-second video dancing around with friends, hugging your loved ones, or playing with your favorite pet, and it will automatically turn into a shareable GIF.

If you’re interested in getting a sneak peak and providing feedback on Chromebook features before they launch, join our Chrome OS Beta Community. Sign-up here to be a Chrome OS Beta Tester Product Expert. Currently in Beta is a feature that integrates the Camera app with the Google Assistant. Just say “take a photo,” “record video” or “take a selfie” – you can even use Google Assistant to open the Camera app, so you don’t have to lift a finger.

We’ll be back in the new year to share more new Chromebook features.

by Alexander Kuscher via The Keyword

More accessible web images arrive in 10 new languages

Images can be an integral part of many people’s online experiences. We rely on them to help bring news stories to life, see what our family and friends are up to, or help us decide which couch to buy. However, for 338 million people who are blind or have moderate to severe vision impairment, knowing what's in a web image that isn’t properly labeled can be a challenge. Screen reader technology relies on the efforts of content creators and developers who manually label images in order to make them accessible through spoken feedback or braille. Yet, billions of web images remain unlabelled, rendering them inaccessible for these users.

To help close this gap, the Chrome Accessibility and Google Research teams collaborated on developing a feature that automatically describes unlabelled images using AI. This feature was first released in 2019 supporting English only and was subsequently extended to five new languages in 2020 – French, German, Hindi, Italian and Spanish.

Today, we are expanding this feature to support ten additional languages: Croatian, Czech, Dutch, Finnish, Indonesian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish and Turkish.

The major innovation behind this launch is the development of a single machine learning model that generates descriptions in each of the supported languages. This enables a more equitable user experience across languages in the sense that the generated image descriptions in any two languages can often be regarded as translations that respect the image details (Thapliyal and Soricut (2020)).

Auto-generated image descriptions can be incredibly helpful and their quality has come a long way, but it’s important to note they still can’t caption all images as well as a human. Our system was built to describe natural images and is unlikely to generate a description for other types of images, such as sketches, cartoons, memes or screenshots. We considered fairness, safety and quality when developing this feature and implemented a process to evaluate the images and captions along these dimensions before they're eligible to be shown to users.

We are excited to take this next step towards improving accessibility for more people around the world and look forward to expanding support to more languages in the future.

To activate this feature, you first need to turn on your screen reader (here's how to do that in Chrome). From there, you can activate the “Get image descriptions from Google” feature either by opening the context menu when browsing a web page or under your browser’s Accessibility settings. Chrome will then automatically generate descriptions for unlabelled web images in your preferred language.

by Tomer LevinboimGoogle Research via The Keyword

Why content bundling is the secret sauce for creators

If you make online video content, you’ve probably heard of VidCon, an event where creators, brands, industry experts and fans from around the world converge to celebrate the latest and greatest in digital media. The next VidCon takes place December 3-6 in Abu Dhabi featuring panel discussions, meet and greets and performances with some of the world’s most influential video content creators.

Google for Creators will speak at two sessions at VidCon Abu Dhabi, both of which will focus on helping creators build their brands and monetize their content. On December 3, Head of Creator Relations at Google Paul Bakaus and cosplay designer Yaya Han will discuss how creators can have more control over their futures and businesses. Later that day, Google for Creators writer Crystal Lambert and creator Kaya Marriott will speak at Get the Most from Your Post — How to Create Powerful and Efficient Content Bundles.

On the Google for Creators team, Crystal writes the educational guides for Creators.google. A liaison between the creator community and Google’s expert sources, Crystal researches, compiles and organizes vast troves of information into digestible, easy-to-follow and fun-to-read guides.

We spoke with Crystal to hear more about her upcoming VidCon appearance, and why content bundling is such an important strategy for creators.

Why focus on content bundling at VidCon?

We’re giving two talks at VidCon, and we wanted to focus both of them on the biggest needs in the creator economy. What we’ve learned from creators is that many want to know how to continuously make content without burning out. Content bundling — creating multiple pieces of content on one topic for different formats and platforms — is about tackling content creation in a holistic way. It’s not about approaching all these platforms as individual entities, but grouping what you’re doing together and building on it. It’s one of the easiest and most effective things a creator can do. It’s about content strategy, cross promotion and dealing with brands. Content bundles give you more visibility as a business and credibility when you reach out to brands, or when brands reach out to you.

Who is your VidCon co-presenter?

Kaya Marriott is the founder and content creator behind lifestyle and beauty blog Comfy Girl with Curls. I was super excited to connect with her because she’s on her way to becoming a successful, full-time content creator, and her journey has been so inspiring. She started Comfy Girl with Curls as a natural hair blog, but because so many other creators have come to her for advice, she also shares tips about creating content.

Kaya’s built her own business and she’s been very proficient and proactive about it. She brings a lot of credibility and first-hand knowledge about how and why content bundles work. We’re both excited to speak together.

What else are you excited to see at VidCon?

VidSummit was the first creator-geared conference I went to, and it was inspiring to see how helpful the video creator community is and how enthusiastic they are about what they do. They’re willing to help other creators by teaching them what they’ve learned. I’m excited to see that community at VidCon.

I’m also excited to experience VidCon in another country. I’ve never been to Abu Dhabi, and I’m looking forward to seeing who will be there and what the Abu Dhabi creator community is like.

If you won’t be in Abu Dhabi for VidCon, learn more about content bundles and cross promotion on Creators.google and the Google for Creators YouTube channel.

by Sarah Han via The Keyword

How we're testing Project Starline at Google

This May at Google I/O 2021, we shared our vision for Project Starline, a technology project that combines advances in hardware and software to enable friends, families and coworkers to feel together, even when they're cities (or countries) apart.

Project Starline is the culmination of advances we've made across 3D imaging, real-time compression, spatial audio and our breakthrough light field display system that, when combined, enables a sense of depth and realism that feels like in-person communication. We recently described some of these advancements in a technical paper, Project Starline: A high-fidelity telepresence system, which we're honored to have had accepted for publication at SIGGRAPH Asia.

As we’ve started expanding Project Starline’s availability in more Google offices around the United States, we’ve been encouraged by the promising feedback. Google employees have spent thousands of hours using Project Starline to onboard, interview and meet new teammates, pitch ideas to colleagues and engage in one-on-one collaboration. Many users noted how powerful the ability to make eye contact was, and how much more engaged and connected they felt. One user compared their experience to a coffee chat - a genuine interaction that makes you want to lean in and focus on the other person.

We measured the impact of hundreds of Google employees' experiences with Project Starline, and the results showed that it feels much closer to being in the same room with someone than traditional video calls. We saw an increase in some of the most important signals that are often lost in video calls, such as attentiveness, memory recall and overall sense of presence. Here’s what we found when comparing Project Starline to traditional video calls:

• People displayed more non-verbal behaviors such as ~40% more hand gestures, ~25% more head nods and ~50% more eyebrow movements.
• People had much better memory recall when using Project Starline, tracking nearly ~30% better when being asked to recall details of their conversation or the content of a meeting.
• People focused ~15% more on their meeting partner in an eye-tracking experiment, suggesting that visual attentiveness is enhanced when using Project Starline.

• People displayed up to 50% more non-verbal behaviors

• People performed appropriately 30% better in a memory recall task

• People focused on average 15% more on their meeting partner

These early results show promise for Project Starline's ability to facilitate more personal connections from afar. As Google and more companies navigate the future of work, we are optimistic about the potential to deepen connection and collaboration among employees in the modern-day workplace. We look forward to continuing to expand Project Starline and sharing more on our progress.

by Andrew Nartker via The Keyword

Training the next generation of Android developers

^{Pictured left to right: Natalia Villalobos, Omoju Miller, Laura Markell and Kat Kuan}

In 2015, Developer Advocate Kat Kuan and I took a walk around the marshlands of Google’s Mountain View campus. We asked ourselves, “Why aren’t there more people of diverse backgrounds building apps for Android?” We noticed that the Android training content offered at the time assumed an intermediate level of programming experience, and decided to challenge that assumption. Was it possible to learn Android without any programming experience? We set out to create a learning path that would enable anyone to become an Android developer, and this remains one of the main priorities for Android’s training content.

As a team of four women at Google with different backgrounds and experiences, we envisioned what this learning process could entail and conducted early user testing to make sure student needs were met. In partnership with Udacity, we co-developed a curriculum for Android beginners. We focused on not only delivering technical content, but also on crafting supplemental materials like app case studies, an easy-to-understand vocabulary glossary and inspiring video content to reduce imposter syndrome. In 2015 the Android for Beginners course launched, and we saw tremendous reception. Soon students were asking, “What’s next?” We expanded the curriculum into a series of courses to help people without programming experience build a collection of Android apps. This was a major step towards building a more inclusive, equitable Android developer ecosystem.

In the six years since, Google continues to grow its investment with a larger dedicated training team. We’re seeing even more demand for beginner Android training, particularly as there are now over 3 billion active Android devices in the world. With a platform that evolves as quickly as Android, making sure learners have access to up-to-date materials that reflect development best practices is a major priority.

The latest course is Android Basics in Kotlin, available now for people with no programming experience who want to build basic Android apps within the flexibility of their own schedule. Beyond this online curriculum, we created materials for different learning styles so everyone can learn these critical Android concepts. To support students who learn best with others, we have facilitator materials that are useful for a group setting. To support more traditional classroom learning, we offer a university classroom curriculum that educators can adapt for their teaching environments. Next up, we are working on a training course in Compose, which is Android’s latest toolkit for building user interfaces.

Since that very first conversation that sparked the idea for this initiative, it was always about wanting to empower people. To date, hundreds of thousands of students have started their Android training. It has been incredible to witness their growth — both in the skills they acquire and the confidence they gain.

But we’re not done asking the hard questions. We're still challenging our assumptions, and we’re as committed as ever to enabling more people to build products that reflect their diverse experiences. This not only unlocks new career paths for people, but it results in a better app ecosystem — one that serves more people, and creates new opportunities.

To stay up-to-date on the latest news in Android training, check out the Android Developers blog.

by Natalia Villalobos via The Keyword

Ask a Techspert: What exactly is a time crystal?

Quantum computers will allow us to do hard computations and help us rethink our understanding of the fundamentals of science. That’s because quantum computers harness the power of quantum mechanics — a subfield in physics that explains how the natural world around us works at the subatomic level. While we are a long ways off from building a useful quantum computer, our team at Google Quantum AI is already running novel experiments on the quantum processors we have today. One particular experiment that was just published in the science journal Nature is our work on a new phase of matter called a time crystal.

For years, scientists have theorized about the possibility of a time crystal and wondered whether one could ever be observed. By using our quantum processor, Sycamore, we now know it’s possible. To answer some common questions about this phenomenon, Google Quantum AI research scientists Pedram Roushan and Kostyantyn Kechedzhi answer the frequently asked questions.

What is a time crystal?

A time crystal may sound like it's from the pages of a science fiction novel, but it’s something that we’ve demonstrated is possible to observe, even though it may appear to go against the basic laws of nature. You might be familiar with crystals like emerald, diamond and salt. At the microscopic level, they’re made up of repeating patterns — many layers of atoms that ultimately form a physical structure. For example, a grain of salt is made up of sodium and chlorine atoms. A time crystal is similar, but instead of forming a repetitive pattern in space, an oscillating pattern is formed in time.

Time crystals show an oscillating pattern in time.

Can you give an example of a time crystal?

Let’s say you took pictures of a planet and its orbiting moon every time it finishes its orbit over a period of time with the Hubble Telescope. These pictures would all look the same with the moon repeating its orbit over and over again. Now hypothetically, let’s say there were hundreds of new moons added to the planet’s orbit. Each new moon introduced would exert gravitational pull on the orbits of the others. Over time, the moons would start to deviate from their orbits without ever coming back to their starting point. This increase in disorder or entropy is unavoidable due to the second law of thermodynamics, a fundamental law of physics. What if there was a system of a planet and many moons where the moons could periodically repeat their orbits, without ever increasing entropy? This configuration — evidently hard to achieve — would be considered a time crystal.

How do you use a quantum processor to observe a time crystal?

Quantum objects behave like waves, similar to how sonar uses sound waves reflected from solid objects on the ocean floor to detect them. If the medium that the quantum wave travels through contains multiple objects at random locations in space, then the wave could be confined and come to a complete stop. This key insight about quantum waves is what puts a cap on the spread of entropy and allows the production of a stable time crystal, even though it appears to be at odds with the second law of thermodynamics. This is where our quantum processor comes in. In our paper, we describe how we used our Sycamore processor as a quantum system to observe these oscillatory wave patterns of stable time crystals.

We observed a time crystal using Sycamore, our quantum processor.

Now that time crystals have been observed for the first time, what’s next?

Observing a time crystal shows how quantum processors can be used to study novel physical phenomena that have puzzled scientists for years. Moving from theory to actual observation is a critical leap and is the foundation for any scientific discovery. Research like this opens the door to many more experiments, not only in physics, but hopefully inspiring future quantum applications in many other fields.

by The Google Quantum AI Team via The Keyword

News Showcase is launching in Portugal

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

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

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

Logos of our News Showcase partners

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

by Bernardo Correia via The Keyword

Google Play’s Best of 2021

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

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

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

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

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

Users’ Choice 2021

• App: Paramount+
• Game: Garena Free Fire MAX

Best App

• Balance

Best Game

• Pokémon UNITE

Best of app winners

Best Apps for Good

• Empathy
• Mentor Spaces
• Speechify

Best Everyday Essentials

• Blossom
• PhotoRoom
• Rabit

Best for Fun

• Clubhouse
• Noobly
• Whatifi

Best Hidden Gems

• Laughscape
• Moonbeam
• Moonly

Best for Personal Growth

• Balance
• Clementine
• Uptime

Best for Tablets

• Canva
• Concepts
• Houzz

Best for Wear

• Calm
• MyFitnessPal
• Sleep Cycle

Popular on Google TV

• Disney+
• ESPN
• Tubi

Best of game winners

Best Competitive

• League of Legends: Wild Rift
• MARVEL Future Revolution
• Pokémon UNITE
• Rogue Land
• Suspects: Mystery Mansion

Best Game Changers

• Inked
• JanKenUP!
• Knights of San Francisco
• Overboard!
• Tears of Themis

Best Indies

• 7 Billion Humans
• Bird Alone
• Donut County
• My Friend Pedro: Ripe for Revenge
• Puzzling Peaks EXE

Best Pick Up & Play

• Cats in Time
• Crash Bandicoot: On the Run!
• Disney POP TOWN
• Switchcraft
• Towers

Best for Tablets

• Chicken Police — Paint it RED!
• League of Legends: Wild Rift
• My Friend Pedro: Ripe for Revenge
• Overboard!
• The Procession to Calvary

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

by Brett BouchardGoogle Play via The Keyword

An update on our Privacy Sandbox commitments

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

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

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

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

The revised commitments incorporate a number of changes including:

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

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

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

by William Malcolm via The Keyword

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

by Matt BrittinGoogle Europe, Middle East and Africa via The Keyword

PubCast Season 2: turning passions into profits

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

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

Check out our Season 2 episodes:

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

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

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

by Gigi Grimes via The Keyword

How making lists became this entrepreneur’s brand

The day Saya Hillman got fired from her last full-time job in 2004, she made two lists. One was of all the things she wished she could get paid to do, no matter how ridiculous. The other was a list of names, ones that gave her a “warm and fuzzy” feeling, for the company she decided she would start. And so Mac & Cheese Productions℠ was born — and lists would become a big part of its success.

Saya had always made lists as a way to connect with people. She’d been sending emails to friends for a while, “really random lists of ‘here are things that I have found interesting,’” such as articles, tech gadgets and books. The feedback was great, and Saya realized it could be a great sales tactic for her new business. “I don’t have that used-car salesman, ‘buy me buy me’ feeling,” she says. “I’m just doing what I already love to do.’”

Today Mac & Cheese Productions℠ offers a wide range of resources, events and content designed to connect people and help them live aLife of Yes℠, a concept Saya created and defines as “making life easy and more fulfilling.” Her lists — which she sends out in newsletters and posts on her website — continue to serve as a gateway to attract more “Cheese-Its,” as she calls her followers.

While some lists are humorous and lighthearted, like Saya’s boyfriend criteria, she also offers practical ones — including her popularservice provider list. Even that one abides by Saya’s community-minded credo: She only includes providers who she has worked with directly or have been recommended by someone she knows and trusts.

Saya shared some tips on how lists can help attract attention to a website, and why they’re so integral to her brand.

One of Saya’s lists captures her “Life of Yes℠” philosophy.

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel

“I don't think any of us are coming up with anything new — it's all how you put your own personal spin on the thing,” says Saya. So while her list concepts might not be a novel idea, her whimsical approach — where lists for home office equipment recommendations and her own pet peeves are on the same page — is.

Lists also help busy people make sense of an overwhelming amount of information. “People are hungry for curators,” she points out. “That’s why lists are so popular. They’re easy to share, they’re easy to consume.”

Lists also align with her overall ethos for Mac & Cheese Productions℠. “One of my favorite things is helping people to be more efficient and create systems,” she says. “The list format lends itself to be productive and efficient and good at time management.”

Be authentic — but it’s OK to make money too

Trustworthy referrals and recommendations have been a huge part of Saya’s success. “People know you’re doing it because you actually love the product or the person,” she says, explaining she has never received money from anyone that she’s put on her service provider list or other recommendation lists. Instead, it’s a “win-win” that spreads goodwill and website traffic all around, and can eventually result in opportunities and income, if not always directly or immediately.

That said, she’s unapologetic about taking a piece of the pie through affiliate marketing and her paid marketing services, as long as the products and services meet her requirements. “You just have to share that upfront,” she says.

Use lists to expand your network and draw visitors

Saya uses lists strategically to grow her network and draw more visitors to her site. “I’m spending all this time curating and creating for free, but to get that information, you need to go to my website, instead of me just giving you the information,” she points out.

Tying lists to holidays, seasons or other events can also forge connections and drive engagement. For example, while most of her lists are evergreen, Saya also offers an annual gift guide where she tags the businesses’ or individuals’ Instagram accounts — which helps expand her reach. “I’m always thinking, how can you make what you create easy to share?” she says.

by Heather Kenny via The Keyword

Designing a new local product for French urban readers

Editor’s Note from Ludovic Blecher, Head of Google News Initiative Innovation:The GNI Innovation Challengeprogram is designed to stimulate forward-thinking ideas for the news industry. The story below by Pascal Brouet, EBRA COO and Local Pulse Project Director, is part of an innovator seriessharing inspiring stories and lessons from funded projects.

When I took on the job of leading digital transformation for the French local daily newspaper group EBRA in 2018, print circulation was falling. The challenge for our future was revealed in our data — while circulation in the countryside was holding up, there was a sizable opportunity for expansion in metropolitan areas. And so our three-pronged internal project (at that time code-named “Local Pulse”) was conceived.

Working with Google

We applied for the Google News Initiative's DNI Fund, spelling out how we wanted to: (1) win back urban readers with a new editorial offering for each of the main cities covered by EBRA brands, (2) deliver that news through a mobile platform more attractive to urbanites and (3) ensure its sustainability with a subscriber-led business model.

The starting point for the work was a survey of more than 1,200 urban readers to get a better understanding of their consumption of local information, their main topics of interest, and most pressing concerns in their day-to-day life. We used their input and feedback to define an editorial mix and value proposition with some key principles:

• Dedicated journalists on the project
• A limited number of useful, essential and deeper-dive articles covering city life, without an information overload
• A brand refresh and new style guide for the design and reading experience within a mobile app

Our editorial purpose required us to define a new revenue model mainly based on subscription and native advertising, breaking with the old advertising models which could only deliver results with mass audiences. Marketing this model — without any previous experience of this type of model — continues to be one of the biggest challenges for commercial teams and was exacerbated further by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It also posed a challenge for our core editorial teams. During the beta phase in spring 2021, we did not completely succeed in delivering our editorial promise and value proposition. Over two weeks, we exposed our daily editorial mix to more than 200 beta-testers and as a result of the insights, refocused the editorial team on original local news rather than lifestyle content.

Launching ASAPP

In the Fall of 2021, after two years of work with the support of the DNI Fund, Local Pulse gave birth to ASAPP — a mobile app designed for younger, urban readers — and launched in Lyon and Strasbourg. The first results of ASAPP seem positive: 2,000 registered users and high engagement with an increased number of page views per visit (about 10 page views per visit),and high engagement rates with social communities (especially on Instagram, with 150,000 page views in the first month). Over the next three months, we will continue to improve user experience and specific benefits for subscribers before launching ASAPP in more metropolitan areas.

by Pascal Brouet via The Keyword

A Chilean startup helps newsrooms grow their audiences

Editor’s note from Ludovic Blecher, Head of Google News Initiative Innovation: The GNI Innovation Challengeprogram is designed to stimulate forward-thinking ideas for the news industry. The story below by Miguel Paz, CEO and Founder of Reveniu, is part of an innovator seriessharing inspiring stories and learnings from funded projects.

“Do you believe me now?” is my favorite question. It’s the one I ask news organizations after they launch recurring payment programs for their audiences using Reveniu. When we look at the numbers from their first month using our tools, they see their revenues have doubled or sometimes even increased up to five times what they expected. These kinds of results drive our team’s work.

And it’s personal for me. As a former journalist and newsroom editor, I know how difficult it can be to develop technical solutions. When you are a small organization focused on producing good journalism, you don’t have the time or resources to develop advanced tools or platforms to drive audience revenue. I learned this firsthand when my last newsroom tried to develop a membership platform. We were discouraged by the sheer amount of work required — writing code, setting up payment gateways, fixing bugs, the list went on.

So I decided to build and launch Reveniu, a 5-minute-setup subscriptions and membership management platform for news organizations and small businesses with little to no tech experience or support. These businesses now have an easy-to-use platform with 24/7 support, including growth advice. These are the kinds of tools that would have helped me when I was in the newsroom myself.

The Google News Initiative’s support was crucial to jumpstart our work. The financial support we received from the Innovation Challenge, plus the help from the Global Partnerships team at Google Chile, gave our startup the necessary runway to conduct audience research for news organizations and overall research for product development. Since our launch, we’ve grown by an average of 20% month over month and raised over $300,000 in pre-seed money from venture capital funds and local angel investors. And our Software-as-a-Service is the one most widely used by newsrooms, newsletters and podcasts in Chile, a country with over 19 million people — and it’s having a concrete impact.

For example, Interferencia.cl now manages over 4,000 subscribers through Reveniu, representing an important part of their revenue stream. “El Semanal,” the country’s most influential business and finance newsletter, launched using Reveniu and has grown its subscription base three times beyond its original goals. The award-winning investigative reporter Alejandra Matus has funded the monthly operations for her website using Reveniu and was able to launch La Neta, which is partly funded by supporters paying through our platform. National broadcaster and podcaster Paula Molina and the podcast Relato Nacional are also growing their audience bases using our tools without having to spend any money upfront. 

At Reveniu, our goal is to help our customers build audiences and focus on delivering high-quality journalism, without worrying about cost. And as we expand to more Latin American countries in 2022, we look forward to supporting even more news creators and helping them grow their businesses.

by Miguel PazReveniu via The Keyword

How this Googler celebrates Native American Heritage Month all year

When I was growing up, my Misho (my grandfather) was the chief of our tribe (Prairie Band Potawatomi) and would often tell my brother and me stories and tales sacred to our Indigenous history. When I was in second grade, I asked my Misho to come into my class to tell his stories for show and tell. I was immensely proud of him, and grateful for the opportunity to share my culture with my classmates. But after he left, my classmates started calling me names like “Pocahontas,” and war-whooping at me on the playground. After that, I didn’t mention my tribe or Native affiliation to classmates or colleagues again until I was in my 20s.

Cheryl and her Misho

When I got pregnant, I realized I wanted to reconnect with my culture. I wanted my son to know about the powerful, strong history of the Prairie Band Potawatomi, and about his family and my Misho. I threw myself into trying to learn the language, the history and our stories again. I bought my son children’s books written by Indigenous authors, and watched every film and movie I could about Indigenous culture — even if it wasn’t about the Potawatomi.

As part of reconnecting with my heritage, I also joined Google’s Aboriginal and Indigenous Network (GAIN) to stay up to date on any native-focused events at work. I’d been a member of other employee resource groups at Google before, like Women@ and Pride@, but I wanted to find a group of other Native and Indigenous people. I was thrilled to discover GAIN and see that there were not only other Indigenous Googlers like me, but that there were enough of them to organize their own group.

During this time reconnecting to my heritage, I watched a film about the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women (MMIW) movement. According to the United States Department of Justice’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) Initiative, “American Indian and Alaska Native people suffer from unacceptable and disproportionately high levels of violence, which can have lasting impacts on families and communities.” In Australia and Canada, Aboriginal and First National Australian women are six times more likely to be victims of homicide than non-Native women. In the U.S., a Task Force was recently created with the purpose of working with tribal governments and developing protocols for the cases of missing and murdered Indigenous peoples, among other things. I remember feeling completely gutted after listening to the stories of Indigenous women disappearing from their Indian reservation, never to be seen again. This is particularly traumatic for many Indigenous tribes as funeral drum and burial ceremonies are critical for the spirit to move on to the afterlife, and for those of us behind to mourn.

After seeing that film, I reached out to GAIN leadership and asked what we could do to raise awareness for MMIW. The next thing I knew, we had a working group of more than a dozen people raising awareness and resources for MMIW organizations. We’ve even held 10 events with Googlers, including panels with Black and Indigenous women to discuss the intersectionality of murdered and missing women of color, began a podcast listening group, held a 5K run and hosted other fundraising and awareness events. This experience has made me feel more connected to my tribe and my culture. It’s empowered me to share more of my whole self at work — I’ve introduced colleagues to my language, for instance, and I’ve felt like I have a space to identify as Native American. I’m proud to be a member of GAIN, and appreciate how much they help to raise awareness not only about Indigenous culture but also MMIW.

There is a saying in the Indigenous community about MMIW: “When an Indigenous woman goes missing, she goes missing twice — first her body vanishes and then her story.” With help from Googlers and GAIN, and through the work of MMIW organizations and their volunteers, I hope these Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit peoples do not go missing forever. You don’t have to be a Googler to take part: You can educate yourself about MMIW, look into policies meant to address this issue, or find ways to support organizations that advocate for MMIW. These missing people are not just faces on missing posters. They’re family — and we are all connected.

by Cheryl Marriot via The Keyword

A Matter of Impact: November updates from Google.org

COP26 wrapped up last week, and world leaders and industry experts headed home with commitments made to work together to further reduce emissions. You can learn more about Google’s commitments in this blog post.

Even for climate negotiators, transparent and trustworthy data around emissions can be hard to come by. Historically, there has been a limited push to build the kind of data sets and models needed to create a shared fact base for everyone. So we asked ourselves: How can we help advocates, citizens, governments and businesses take action on climate, faster?

We believe philanthropic dollars can play a critical role in creating important public goods, like transparent data sets and accessible digital tools, that might not otherwise exist. The world urgently needs a solid foundation of data and tools to monitor and verify our progress to make better decisions. That’s why much of our sustainability-related philanthropy is now focused on funding the creation and organization of data and the tools to make this data easily usable.

Three of our grantees launched tools around COP26 that are examples of this in action. Climate TRACE, the world’s first independent, comprehensive, near-real time greenhouse gas (GHG) monitoring platform uses large-scale data and AI models to provide neutral, accurate data for everyone. On the small business side, the work of Normative is hugely promising. They’re building out emissions estimates for SMBs and helping companies automatically compile detailed carbon reports so that they have actionable data to make better decisions around reducing their footprint. And for consumers, there’s Open Food Facts, an open-access food products database where users can see the eco-score of food products with a simple scan of the barcode from a mobile device.

We’re proud to support these organizations and look forward to more opportunities to combine philanthropic funding with technology to help everyone take action on climate change.

In case you missed it 

Here’s recent progress our grantees have made to close these data gaps.

• BlueConduit is mapping out lead pipes across the U.S, for remediation.
• Open Food Facts expanded to 50 countries — you’ll hear more on that from their co-founder Pierre Slamich below.
• Normative debuted their Industry CO2 Insights carbon emissions accounting engine for small businesses at COP26.
• Restor launched an open data platform built on Google Earth Engine that allows anyone to select an area around the world and analyze its restoration potential.
• Dark Matter Labs launched their first version of TreesAI (Trees As Infrastructure), an open source platform to make it easy to map, monitor and forecast ecosystem services. The tool helps local authorities attract funds to develop and maintain urban nature-focused tools to fight climate change.
• Climate TRACE, supported by $8 million in funding from Google.org and a team of Google.org Fellows, talked about their emissions tracking project in this video.
  

10:25

Hear from one of our grantees: Open Food Facts

Pierre Slamich is the co-founder of Open Food Facts, a collaborative effort to create a worldwide database of food products, thanks to mobile apps that also empower citizens to make more informed food choices. Last spring, Open Food Facts received a $1.3 million Google.org grant and support from a team of 11 Google.org Fellows.

A few words with a Google.org Fellow: Astrid Weber

Astrid Weber is a UX Manager on the Google Assistant team and currently working with Normative for a six month Fellowship.

by Jacquelline Fuller via The Keyword

Women of color creators share their journeys to success

Women of color are doing incredible things online. They are creating educational and inspiring content, and making their marks as influencers in fashion and beauty, health and wellness, business, and more. They’re making a living building their brands and presenting their authentic selves . And they’re creating strong communities around their shared experiences.

Today, on Women’s Entrepreneurship Day, we’re launching The Conversation — a new YouTube series to share and celebrate the experiences of women of color creators. Each interview will feature a new woman of color creator talking about her background and journey, including her struggles and successes. Guests will share how they’ve built brands that resonate with others, and how they’ve turned their passions into full-time careers. They’ll also discuss how gender, race and culture have influenced their paths, the ups and downs of getting to where they are today, and what they hope to share with the world. No topic is off the table, including how to handle haters and overcome creator burnout.

Our first episode features creator Tyla-Lauren Gilmore. In 2015, after many years of straightening her hair, Tyla-Lauren decided to embrace her natural curls. She began documenting her personal transformation on Instagram and YouTube, and almost immediately, other women took notice. Today, more than 150,000 subscribers follow her beauty and lifestyle posts across her social media channels. Tyla-Lauren continues to share her personal stories in the hopes of inspiring other women to embrace their natural beauty and feel comfortable in their own skin.

Tyla-Lauren Gilmore is the first creator featured in The Conversation.

Next month, we’ll hear from beauty and style influencer, fashion model and creative director Hannah Mussette. Hannah started creating content at the age of 12. Now, at 21, she’s a popular social media personality sharing modeling, fashion, makeup and hair care tips on YouTube and Instagram, and inviting candid discussions on topics such as self-care and social justice. She also co-founded a line of hair care products for natural Black hair called JuMu. The youngest creator interviewed in our series, Hannah shares what it’s been like to grow up online in front of an audience that supports and occasionally scrutinizes her content, which has evolved over the nine years she's been posting.

Hannah Musette is a fashion model and influencer who started creating YouTube videos in high school

The goal of The Conversation is to pull back the curtain on creators like Tyla-Lauren and Hannah so you can get to know the women behind the brands. Visit the Google for Creators YouTube channel to watch the first episode of The Conversation, and share what you thought in the comments.

by Chanelle Garcia via The Keyword