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Tag: Google

  • Anti-Semitic propaganda on Google triggers outrage in Sweden

    Google has revealed it is taking measures to address criticism for allowing the spread of anti-Semitic propaganda through various search results, which had triggered outrage in Sweden.

    A search on Google for the Holocaust showed an anti-Semitic blog post high up containing information about Swedish Jews. With their names, pictures and occupations listed, dozens of them were described in a humiliating and threatening manner, according to local media.

    Searches for the neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement’s propaganda website also appeared as news with “top stories from Nordfront.se”, as seen on searches for media organisations, Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter reported.

    A spokesman at Google has confirmed the development, however, without providing any details.

    “Sometimes search results that both we and users find offensive can show up. But there are also concerns about suppressing material based on personal opinion,” Google Sweden said on Twitter.

    “We must, like everyone else, comply with the law,” the tweet further read.

     

  • Incoming German Minister to open talks with Google, Facebook

    Dorothee Baer, Germany’s incoming minister with responsibility for digital policy says she will push social media giants to make users’ information feeds more diverse and timely to avoid creating “echo chambers” for the like-minded.

    Companies such as Facebook have come under pressure from regulators around the world as evidence has emerged of how the recirculation of a particular selection of news and views on their platforms can narrow perceptions of the world and voters behaviour.

    The minister said she would open talks with Facebook and Google on the way that posts on social media platforms were sequenced.

    “At the moment, the algorithms sort according to relevance or popularity. That pushes to the top old posts that often have little to do with the truth.

    “I want to see real-time timelines again that confront people not with what they want to know, but what they need to know, what is happening at this moment,” she told the newspaper Die Welt in an interview.

     

  • Google search engine will change job narratives in Nigeria – Presidential aide

    Mr Afolabi Imoukhuede, the Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Jobs Creation and Youth Employment, says usage of Google, a search engine, will change job narratives in Nigeria.

    Imoukhuede made the assertion on Thursday at the unveiling of Google’s new Job Search Feature in Lagos.

    According to him, the job world is really evolving and government is partnering with the private sector to make the needed change.

    “The economic strategy of Federal Government to tackle unemployment is going to be both private sector/government-driven.

    “There is need to attack the problem of unemployment headlong and partnering with platforms like this will make things easy.

    “Government’s focus is how to turn youths into assets and not liability,’’ the president’s aide said.

    Also, Mr Ayodeji Adewunmi, the Co-founder, Jobberman, said that unemployment rate in the country was a massive social problem that needed urgent attention.

    Adewunmi said tackling unemployment should not be left to government alone, adding that the private sector also has a role to play.

    “Getting a job is not an entitlement, but a gift and so when one gets a job, it should be held with utmost care.

    “We are having problem with skills set in the country as the school curriculum does not enable one to have skills that will aid in job getting.

    “Government does not have the responsibility to create jobs, but the private sector. What government does is to create an enabling environment,’’ he said.

    Adewunmi urged government to create policies to aid job creation and also increase its political will to push the policies.

    In his remarks, Mr Tayo Olosunde, the Executive Director, Mind the Gap, said the problem that existed as regards jobs creation was that of linkages and not unemployment.

    Olosunde said the linkages had to do with youths knowing what to do in life, adding that this could be achieved through building on one’s skill within the immediate environment.

    “Technological skills is not all that one needs to get a job, but skills that are relevant to the existing jobs,’’ he said.

    Olosunde added that the Google job features would streamline job offers to making things easy for seekers on their platform.

    Also, Mr Ogugua Belonwu, the Founder, MyJobMag, urged government to create a platform that would enable youths to access resources.

    Belonwu called for more training for human resources departments on employment processes, saying that it would aid them to match candidates with jobs.
    He urged Google to put a quality control check in the job features to checkmate offers that came into the features.

    The Google Country Director, Ms Juliet Ehimuan-Chiazor, unveiled a new job search feature in its search engine in Lagos on Thursday.

    “For the first time, when someone uses his phone or computer to search on Google for a job, he will see a streamlined experience letting them explore, research and find relevant local job postings.

    “As of today, job seekers in South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria will be able to use the new job search experience to help them to quickly and easily find opportunities suited to them.

    Giving further details about the tool, Ehimuan-Chiazor said: “Users will be able to view at-a-glance details about the posting, such as job title, location, whether it is full-time, part-time or an internship.’’

    She said that they would also be able to get detailed information should a job be of interest.

    “Using Google Maps integration, job seekers can search for jobs any place they can find on the map.

    “If they are signed in, they can even see how long it will take to commute to the job from home,’’ she said.

    The country director said that being an open ecosystem, Google was inviting all job sites, platforms and employers, big and small to integrate with them and make their jobs eligible to display in the new jobs search experience.

     

  • Google unveils new search engine experience for job seekers

    Search engine giant, Google, on Thursday unveiled a new job search experience designed to help job seekers find employment opportunities.

    Unveiling the feature in Lagos, Google’s Country Director, Ms Juliet Ehimuan-Chiazor, said the new job search would help millions of Nigerians in searching for new opportunities.

    “We believe that the web allows anyone, anywhere, of any age, to grow their business, learn the skills they need to get a job, to grow in their career, become an entrepreneur or developer.

    “This new jobs search tool will be a key driver for connecting job seekers to open opportunities, helping more people to Grow with Google

    “For the first time, when someone uses their phone or computer to search on Google for a job; they will see a streamlined experience letting them explore, research and find relevant local job postings.

    “This launch builds on Google’s existing commitment in Sub Saharan Africa to improve economic opportunities for job seekers and employers, demonstrated through its Grow with Google initiatives.

    “The Digital Skills for Africa programme, Google’s commitment to train one million African youth between April 2016 and March 2017, was achieved and surpassed.

    “In July 2017 this programme was extended to see 10 million youth trained by 2022 as well as 100 000 developers trained across the region, these are in bid to get the youth employed,’’ she said.

    Ehimuan-Chiazor said that “as of today, job seekers in South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria would be able to use the new job search experience to help them quickly and easily find opportunities suited to them.’’

    She said that it would be through an immersive experience that would let them explore jobs from across the web and refine their search to meet their specific needs.

    “Users will be able to view at-a-glance details about the posting, such as job title, location, whether it’s full-time, part-time or an internship, as well as detailed information should a job be of interest.

    “Using Google Maps integration, job seekers can search for jobs any place they can find on the map, and if they are signed in, they can even see how long it will take to commute to the job from home.

    “Searching for a new job can take time, so if you step away from your job search, Google has made it easy to pick up where you left off as well as stay in the loop on opportunities that are right for you.

    “Simply push the “get alerts” button to get email notifications when new jobs matching your search appear,’’ Ehimuan-Chiazor said.

    The country director said that this being an open ecosystem, Google invited all job sites, platforms and employers, big and small to integrate with them and make their jobs eligible to display in the new jobs search experience.

    “With Google’s newly released open documentation, any job provider is able to integrate its content through open structured schema.org web mark-up standards Google supports.

    “To optimise the feature and make it more useful, Google is working with a broad and growing cross-section of partners, such as Jobberman, NGCareers, MyJobMag and other job resource websites in Nigeria.

    “These collaborations ensure Google is able to present job postings content accurately, as soon as it is posted, to exactly the people that will find it most relevant.

    “The launch of this new jobs search experience is part of our broader commitment to improve economic opportunities for job seekers and employers through Google technologies in partnership with the broader employment industry.

    “Google is committed to providing useful, accurate and relevant information based on your search queries and helping you connect to your next job.

    “In this way we hope to make a contribution towards matching job seekers with jobs and taking steps to tackle the skills gap,” Ehimuan-Chiazor said.

    She said that in addition to its digital skills initiative and the new jobs search experience, Google also supports tech start-ups at various stages of their lifecycle through the Launchpad programme.

    She said that Google announced last year that Launchpad Accelerator Africa would provide over $3 million in equity-free funding, mentorship, working space and access to expert advisers to over 60 African start-ups over three years.

    She added that intensive three-month programmes, held twice per year, would run out of a new Google Launchpad Space in Lagos, the programme’s first location outside of the United States.

    She urged web developers who would want to index their job listings with Google to find a walk-through by visiting support.google.com.

     

  • News content: Australia regulator to conduct inquiry into Facebook, Google

    Australia’s consumer regulator has announced it will conduct a broad-ranging public inquiry into how digital platforms like Facebook and Google have impacted media organisations’ ability to fund and produce quality news and journalistic content.

    The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said on Monday it would examine the impact of such platforms, which have “up-ended advertising markets across the world.’’

    ACCC Chairman, Rod Sims, said: “digital platforms like Google and Facebook are part of the sweeping technological and cultural changes overhauling the media landscape in Australia and globally.

    “While these technological changes have brought many benefits for consumers, this inquiry will have a particular focus on examining whether the changes affect the quality and range of news supplied to Australian consumers.”

    The inquiry will also look into the extent to which consumers understand what data is being collected about them by the platforms, and how this information is used, as well as the use of algorithms affecting the presentation of news for digital platform users.

    The Silicon Valley giants have been criticised for benefiting from content made by traditional media companies, which have seen massively falling revenue in recent years.

    “Considering the longer term impacts of digital platforms and the ability of traditional media to remain financially viable will also be key to understanding the media and ad markets,” Sims said.

    The Australian government directed the commission to undertake the public inquiry in December.

    It will issue a preliminary report into its findings in December 2018.

     

  • Google’s app network quietly becoming huge growth engine

    Google’s app network quietly becoming huge growth engine

    Google makes ads show up in more smartphone apps than any other technology company and that is the core of a resurgent business for parent Alphabet Inc.

    Google’s ad network unit has posted three straight quarters of year-over-year double-digit sales increases.

    The business is nearing 20 billion dollars in annual revenue, making it as important to Google’s top-line as its hardware, cloud computing and app store groups combined.

    For years, the star of the network was Google’s AdSense, which delivers ads to websites in exchange for a cut of ad revenue.

    But as consumers migrate from desktop computing to mobile, momentum has shifted to AdMob, Google’s mass-market tool for third-party apps, and DoubleClick for Publishers, its higher-end mobile software.

    Google has lured app developers from competitors by lowering commissions and simplifying software and and it is increasingly satisfying advertisers with hot new formats such as video.

    Advertisers are taking notice. Alex Hewson, managing partner at M&C Saatchi Mobile, said the London-based ad buying agency has used AdMob for years, but only recently has it become the “top supplier.”

    “They have engaged big developers and done that well,” he said, noting it has come at a cost. Google is growing by giving app and website creators a bigger chunk of ad sales.

    In last year’s final quarter, Google’s portion fell by 33 million dollars compared to the year-earlier period even though overall network revenue rose 559 million dollars .

    The company is feeling the heat. Alphabet shares dipped five per cent after missing profit estimates this month.

    “They are chasing top-line growth and beating the competition by losing margins,” said Brian Wieser, a senior analyst with Pivotal Research, a New York City firm that provides stock guidance.

    Google gives developers about 70 cents of every one dollar it collects from ad buyers compared to 50 cents to 60 cents at some competitors.

    The high payouts, coupled with Google’s entrenched relationship with millions of advertisers, has turned Google into the main revenue source for many apps.

    Purchases of in-app ads nearly tripled last year compared to 2016 on Google’s DoubleClick Bid Manager, used by advertisers with the biggest budgets.

    Over 1.1 million Android-apps include Google’s ad software, double from a year ago, making it by far the fastest-growing and most widely used ad-service, according to research firm MightySignal.

    Google’s iPhone market share is only slightly behind.

    The biggest choice for many app creators is between Google’s AdMob and DoubleClick. It is not clear which is growing faster because Google does not provide that data.

    AdMob, which was designed specifically for mobile, tends to attract ads promoting apps and smartphone services. Google bought AdMob for $750 million in 2010, beating a bid from Apple Inc.

    Google needed technology fresher than AdSense to deliver in-app ads, according to Sissie Hsiao, who leads the company’s apps business.

    Chinese app maker, Cheetah Mobile Inc, turned to AdMob last year, shifting focus from Facebook Inc’s Audience Network.

    Google paid better and offered more ads, said Vincent Jiang, chief financial officer for Cheetah, which has 589 million monthly users for its games and a popular memory-clearing app known as Clean Master.

    Google’s DoubleClick ad tool, meanwhile, requires customization to maximize revenue. Companies with many websites and apps use it to integrate ads that they sell on their terms.

     

  • India watchdog fines Google $21m for ‘search bias’

    Google has been fined 1.36 billion rupees (21 million dollars) by India’s anti-trust watchdog for abusing its dominant position in online search services, officials and reports said Friday.

    In its 190-page ruling, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) found that users searching for flight details were directed to Google’s own flight search page.

    “Google was found to be indulging in practices of search bias and by doing so, it causes harm to its competitors as well as to users,” the CCI said in the order posted on its website.

    Google, which has the right to appeal the order, said it was reviewing the CCI’s concerns, its spokesperson told the Economic Times daily.

    “The CCI has confirmed that, on the majority of issues it examined, our product complies with Indian competition laws,” the spokesperson said.

    CCI’s ruling is a result of a 2012 complaint by Indian matchmaking website Bharat Matrimony and a consumer protection group, Consumer Unity and Trust Society.

    The penalty amounts to about 5 per cent of Google’s average annual revenues in India over three years to 2015.

    The fine is meagre compared to the 2.4-billion-dollar penalty Google was forced to pay by the European Commission in 2017 for manipulating shopping searches.

    Google’s parent company Alphabet has reported profits exceeding 6.5 billion dollars in the past two quarters.
    Google also faced similar anti-trust charges in Russia in 2017 but settled the matter out of court.

     

  • Google pulls out 1.7 billion bad ads from sites

    Google pulls out 1.7 billion bad ads from sites

    Google pulled out 1.7 billion bad ads from sites with machine learning technology in 2016, an official, Ms Jenn Kaiser, has said.

    Kaiser, the Head of Ads PR, Europe, Middle East and Africa for Google and YouTube, gave the figure on Monday in Johannesburg, South Africa.

    She spoke on “Good Advertising, Our Products and Policies’’ at a Google Online Advertising Conference for Media Personnel.

    According to the official, some of the bad ads are misleading and redirect someone to other sites.

    Kaiser assured the global business community that policy enforcement by Google would ensure that bad ads would not infiltrate sites easily.

    She said that Google would provide tools that would ensure good decision making for advertisers and publishers involved in online ads.

    “Google policies are evolving; this is to ensure that bad ads do not infiltrate sites easily.

    “This has to do with regulation changes from various countries, legal and user safety market trends and technology.

    “The changes are made through investigations, user feedbacks and market trends that have to do with emerging businesses,” she said.

    Kaiser said that the policy would be valuable and transparent for it to make the required impact.

    The official warned that one could be blocked from the Google ecosystem if seen as a constant defaulter, although access could be returned later.

    According to the official, by Feb. 15, Google Chrome would have a feature that ensures good ads on sites in the North America and Europe.

     

  • Google marks Stephen Keshi’s 56th birthday with Doodle

    Google on Tuesday marked the 56th birthday of the late Nigerian football icon, Stephen Keshi, with Doodle.

    Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google’s homepages that commemorates holidays, events, achievements and people.

    Mr Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade, Google’s Communications and Public Affairs Manager, Anglophone West Africa, made the asertion during a chat with Google in Lagos.

    According to Kola-Ogunlade, Keshi was born in Azare, Bauchi State, Nigeria, and was a member of the famed St. Finbarrs College Football Academy of 1977.

    He said that he was later called up for the Junior Eagles and subsequently the Super Eagles in preparation for the 1980 African Cup of Nations competition.

    “Football took Keshi all over the world as he played across Africa, Europe, and the U.S.

    “Known affectionately as `Big Boss’, he was beloved as a player for Nigeria’s national team, where he earned more than 60 caps and for representing the country at the FIFA World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations,’’ he said.

    Kola-Ogunlade said that after his great success as a player, Keshi moved into coaching, the next phase of his career, adding that when the “Big Boss’’ became the coach of the Togo national team, he brought his trademark passion with him.

    The Google manager said that against the odds, Keshi led Togo all the way to a qualifying spot in the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

    “He achieved his personal dream in 2011, when he became an indigenous national coach of the Super Eagles, cementing his place in African and world football history.

    “Coaching the Nigerian team, Keshi won the African Cup of Nations in 2013, and in 2014 became the first African coach of an African nation to make it to the knockout round of a World Cup.

    “Keshi is one of the only two men to win the Africa Cup of Nations as both a player and a manager, a testament to his wit, talent, and love for the sport.

    “A big cheer for this football legend on what would have been his 56th birthday!’’ he said.

     

  • Pichai announces Google’s AI research centre for France after meeting Macron

    Following a meeting between French President Emmanuel Macron and Google’s chief executive Sundar Pichai on Monday, the tech giant has announced it will open a research centre in Paris devoted to artificial intelligence.

    “The different achievements in this country, including in science, art and the academic field, make it an ideal place for the creation of a centre of theoretical research in artificial intelligence,” Pichai said in a statement.

    The announcement came as Macron welcomed 140 multinational business leaders to Versailles in Paris on Monday night, ahead of the opening of the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday.

    Google said it will extend its headquarters in the capital to accommodate the centre — the third to open worldwide, after California and Switzerland.

    The number of staff in Paris is set to increase from 700 to 1,000.

    Facebook earlier announced its intention to double the number of researchers at its own AI centre, opened in Paris in 2015, from 30 to 60.

    The social media giant will also invest EUR 10 million by 2022 to “accelerate artificial intelligence” in France.

    The announcements “signal the competitiveness of France” in the growing sector, the Elysee Palace said in a statement.

    Both companies intend to open programmes in France to help train tens of thousands of people in digital skills.