For regular readers of this blog, you will have seen we announced two features to give publishers more control over their content and how it's displayed online. First, we announced improvements to our First Click Free feature, which puts publishers in greater control of their content, and how much of it they wish to let users consult for free. Secondly, we announced anew crawler specifically for Google News. It gives publishers the ability to give Google News one set of instructions on whether to crawl their content and another set to Google Search.
This is not the end of the story, just the beginning. We look forward to working with publishers in coming months and years to help insure the survival of a vigorous news industry.
Posted by Peter Barron, Director of Communications and Public Affairs - Northern Europe
At the Forum, we also took the opportunity to remind delegates of just what makes the Internet such a unique platform - its openness, low barriers to entry, and a decentralised structure that allows innovation and great ideas to come from any place at any time and for any user to discover these. Fantastic examples of great grassroots projects came from all corners of the Internet globe. One, dubbed mobile micro-volunteering, encouraged computers to spend the empty hours in transit using a smart phone to sending text and images to support small NGO projects. The Personal Democracy Forum just has posted its own interesting post-mortem. We look forward to learning about more success stories at the next Forum meeting in Europe.
Posted by Susan Pointer, Director, Public Policy & Government Relations,
We are longtime partners with Calysto, an agency specialising in Internet safety. Over the past five years, Google has participated in Calypso's "Tour de France" of schools. This initiative has allowed to more than one million children and 300 000 parents to benefit from an educational session about a safe use of the internet.
In a similar spirit, more than 25 000 students participated this year to the second edition of the "ChercheNet". Fifth and six grade students participated in a competition learned to develop to protect themselves and respect others on the Internet. They have solved puzzles around the theme of sustainable development and become the responsible authors of a collective blog. The third edition of ChercheNet will be launched in January 2010.
Internet is central to the life of our children. Let's accompany them in the discovery, use, and practise of this extraordinary tool, an open door to the world and its cultural diversity in order to contribute to a "sustainable development" of the Internet.
Accompagnons nos enfants dans l'apprentissage d'Internet
A l’occasion du 20e anniversaire de la Convention internationale des droits de l’enfant, Google, Calysto et la Voix De l’Enfant se sont mobilisés pour sensibiliser et conseiller le grand public sur les pratiques Internet des jeunes générations. Pour accompagner parents et enfants à un usage responsable et averti d’Internet, nous avons réalisé une video riche de conseils, de demonstration d 'outils et de temoignages d'enfants.
Grâce aux conseils de Bruno SOLO, ambassadeur de la Voix De l’Enfant, les enfants et les adultes découvriront les règles de « savoir vivre » sur Internet et des conseils utiles pour une meilleure utilisation de cet outil.
Permettre qu’Internet reste d’abord une grande opportunité pour tous est également notre but poursuivi tout au long de l’année avec la société Calysto. Depuis 5 ans, Google est l'un des partenaires fidèle et engagé dans le « Tour de France des établissements scolaires ». Cette opération a permis de rencontrer plus d’1 million d’enfants et 300 000 parents qui ont bénéficié dans toute la France de sessions d’animation dynamiques et engageantes pour la pratique d’un Internet plus sûr : www.tousconnectes.com
De même à l’initiative de Google et grâce à l’expertise de Calysto plus de 25 000 élèves ont participé cette année à la 2ème édition du concours « Cherche Net ». En classe, accompagné par leur professeur, des élèves de 5ème et 6ème ont appris à développer les bons réflexes, à se protéger et respecter les autres sur Internet en participant à un concours dont le terrain de jeu est Internet. Ils ont résolu résoudre des énigmes autour de la thématique du développement durable et devenir les auteurs responsables d’un blog collectif. La troisième édition de Cherche Net sera lancée en janvier 2010. http://www.cherchenet.fr/
Internet se trouve au centre de la vie de nos enfants. Accompagnons les dans la découverte, l’utilisation, et la pratique de cet extraordinaire outil, source d’ouverture sur le monde et d’échanges interculturels pour contribuer tous ensemble à un "developpement durable" d'Internet.
Posted by Anne-Gabrielle Dauba Pantanacce, Corporate Communications Manager & Olivier Esper, Public Policy Manager
Our goal was to minimize these barriers. We included functions such as voice search and providing access to previous searches a user has done via a history list. Speaking commands rather than typing a search query makes the whole experience dramatically quicker and more intuitive.
Google Mobile App also allows users who have chosen to opt in to location services to improve their search results. For example when I am in Brussels this evening and I want to find an Italian restaurant for dinner, I just speak 'Italian restaurant' into my phone, which conducts an automatic Google search, and up pops the relevant results. Pretty cool, no? Download from mobile.google.com for BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Symbian Series 60 phones and give it a try.
Posted by Benedict Davies, Senior User Experience Designer and Elaine Montgomery, User Experience Design Manager
Last year, we joined with a broad class of authors and publishers to announce a settlement agreement that would make millions of out-of-print books available to students and readers in every part of the U.S., while forging new opportunities for rightsholders to sell access to their books. Tonight we submitted an amended version of the Google Books settlement agreement to the court.
We've traveled all over the world together with the authors and publishers to talk with people about our agreement, and over the last two months, we've read the many letters and briefs written to the court. We've also had discussions with the Department of Justice about the settlement.
The changes we've made in our amended agreement address many of the concerns we've heard (particularly in limiting its international scope), while at the same time preserving the core benefits of the original agreement: opening access to millions of books while providing rightsholders with ways to sell and control their work online. You can read a summary of the changes we made here, or by reading our FAQ.
We firmly believe in the promise of the agreement, as do our many supporters. As Sergey Brin recently wrote in a recent op-ed, "even if our cultural heritage stays intact in the world’s foremost libraries, it is effectively lost if no one can access it easily."
We're disappointed that we won't be able to provide access to as many books from as many countries through the settlement as a result of our modifications, but we look forward to continuing to work with rightsholders from around the world to fulfill our longstanding mission of increasing access to all the world's books.
If you'd like to hear more, you can join Chairman of the American Association of Publishers Richard Sarnoff, Authors Guild Executive Director Paul Aiken and me for a public conference call at 9:15 PM Pacific/12:15 AM Eastern to discuss our amended agreement.
You can find more perspectives on the agreement from authors and publishers here and here.
Posted by Dan Clancy, Google Books Engineering Director
