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From kickoff to the final goal, Google is your guide to the beautiful game
June 11, 2014
From the last minute U.S. goal against Algeria in ‘10 to the headbutt watched ‘round the world in ‘06, every four years the beautiful game captures the imagination of billions of people. This year, wherever you are, Google is bringing you closer to the action than ever before.
Don’t miss a minute
For the first time, a simple search for [
world cup
] or [
world cup usa
] will give you team lineups before the match, live scores, and even up to the minute information about goals and player stats.
You can also stay updated on your favorite teams with Google Now—you don’t even have to search. Learn more on
Inside Search
.
What does the world want to know during the tournament?
Google Trends
is your real-time guide to the players, teams and moments that are capturing the world’s attention. At
google.com/worldcup
you can explore these moments throughout the tournament, whether it’s insight on how a country is feeling ahead of a big match, or where fans stand on a controversial game-winning call.
Take in the stadiums and streets with Street View
With
Street View in Google Maps
, you can explore the sights and culture of this year’s tournament, from the
12 stadiums
to the iconic
painted streets
, one of Brazil’s tournament traditions.
Rua Professor Eurico Rabelo - Maracanã, RJ
As the world unites under a common love for a single sport, there's sure to be a lot of action. From dramatic tumbles to magisterial strikes, and from contested headers to flops and flags, we'll be there to help you discover and connect with the moments that matter most.
Posted by Emily Moxley, Product Manager
The world is a canvas: introducing the street art project
June 10, 2014
Here today, gone tomorrow. The transient nature of street art means it can be at risk of being scrubbed out and lost forever to its legions of fans. But long after the paint has faded from the walls, technology can help preserve street art, so people can discover it wherever and whenever they like. In a new project launching today, we’ve partnered with street art experts to bring you 5,000+ images and around 100 exhibitions in the Google Art Project—telling a story of street art around the world.
Starting today, you can immerse yourself in a world of
prowling foxes on lonely walls
,
supernatural symbolism
,
murals
on a grand scale,
tiny hard-to-spot icons
, or
trompe l’oeil
techniques that use physical details of the wall itself to trick the eye.
Some of this work was created as a means of expression and activism, like the Chilean open-sky museums of
La Pincoya
and
San Miguel
, which were born as community projects to transform poverty-stricken neighborhoods, or to make a political statement like in
London
and
Atlanta
.
It’s not just about spraypaint either—other exhibits demonstrate the signature style of the artist, like
JR’s large-scale and evocative photo-portraits
,
Roa’s animals
,
Vhils’ etching
or
Os Gemeos surrealism
.
Regg and Violant, Centro Comercial Alegro, Setúbal,
Galeria de Arte Urbana
Vhils using the texture of the wall as a canvas
Using Street View, you can also explore buildings with street art that are closed to the public, or that have already been demolished—such as the famed Paris 13 tower:
Agrandir le plan
Explore all nine floors and 450 square meters of painted ceilings and walls of the now-demolished Tour Paris 13 building with Street View.
In a series of fascinating exhibitions by our partners, you can also learn about
origins of the street art movement
or see how Street Art is being used in
Poland to revitalize its cities
. Take a tour through the origins of New York’s original graffiti movement of the
90’s
, or see top highlights from the city’s
5 Pointz project
. Compare the global nature of the Street Art produced in
Mexico
, which has a long and vibrant history of muralism, to the scene in the
Philippines
, which is just developing.
Street art may be temporary on our walls and sidewalks, but its beauty and vibrancy live on, on the web. Take a look— you’re sure to be bowled over by the variety of the urban canvas.
Posted by Lucy Schwartz, Programme Manager, Google Cultural Institute
Hangout Bridges: Bringing together young Jews and Arabs
June 10, 2014
The fortressed city of
Acre
lies on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in northern Israel. An important Middle Eastern city in ancient times, it’s now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. With its fortified walls, citadel, mosques, synagogues, khans, baths and Crusader structures, Acre has always been a meeting place for East and West, new and old. Today, it’s a mixed Jewish-Arab city, but people from the two communities interact all too rarely. Mistrust, and sometimes outright hostility, keep the two communities apart.
We wanted to see if the Internet could help break down some of these barriers. So last September, a group of 40 students from the separate Arab and Jewish schools in the city, together with 200 Arab, Jewish, Druze and Bedouin students from other communities in Israel, took part in “
Hangout Bridges: Bridges to Peace
.” A partnership with
ORT
, Israel’s largest educational network of schools and colleges, and the
Peres Center for Peace
, the program uses
Hangouts
to help create understanding—and friendship—between these communities.
Grouped together by their teachers into multi-cultural Google+ circles, the students got to know each other online and started working on joint projects. Each circle met on average 10 times on Hangouts, then in a series of face-to-face meetings.
Last week, we hosted the finale event of the program at
Campus Tel Aviv
, a tech hub for developers and entrepreneurs at our Tel Aviv office. The students and their teachers enjoyed a creative session with
System Ali
, a multicultural rap group, and an inspirational talk with the leaders of
MEET
, an educational initiative that brings together young Israeli and Palestinian leaders. The students then presented the projects they've been working on for the last eight months, including a
walking tour of Acre
using Google Maps that seeks to uncover the rich Jewish-Arab history of this ancient city;
educational Hebrew-Arabic websites
that address racism and prejudice in sports, provide information on relevant legislation and offer quizzes on the topic; and an
original song performed in Hebrew, Arabic and English
, emphasizing coexistence and mutual respect.
This is the second year we’ve run “Hangout Bridges” in Israel. For our next course, starting this coming fall, we’re doubling the number of participants. We hope we can expand to other countries and help—in a small way—build bridges of mutual understanding around the world. As participant Wasim Jass put it: “I learned that we can cast off the hatred and plant love in its place.”
Posted by Doron Avni, Senior Policy Manager, Middle East, Africa, Turkey & Israel
Doodle 4 Google 2014: An inventive doodle for clean water
June 9, 2014
On google.com today, you may have noticed an intricately drawn version of our logo showing an unusual water purifier, surrounded by a variety of fantastical creatures. This doodle is the result of our seventh annual Doodle 4 Google competition, where we asked kids, grades K-12, to tell us what they’d invent to help make the world a better place. Today, out of more than 100,000 submissions,
250 state finalists
, 50 state winners, and five national age group winners, we’re excited to present the 2014 U.S. Doodle 4 Google winner—11-year old Audrey Zhang of New York!
In the spirit of our theme around inventiveness, we asked Audrey to spend a day with the doodlers following our awards ceremony to help animate her illustration. In her new role as animator and film director, the ever detail-oriented Audrey made sure that each light would flicker and that the water was clean enough to (virtually) drink in. She was especially passionate about the illustration’s dragons—about whom (oh, by the way) she is also writing a novel.
In addition to seeing her finished work on our homepage today, Audrey received a $30,000 college scholarship and $50,000 Google for Education technology grant for her school. And to help make Audrey’s vision of water purification a reality, we donated $20,000 in her name to charity:water, a charity that brings clean water to developing nations, to provide clean water to schools in Bangladesh.
"To make the world a better place, I invented a transformative water purifier. It takes in dirty and polluted water from rivers, lakes, and even oceans, then massively transforms the water into clean, safe and sanitary water, when humans and animals drink this water, they will live a healthier life." - Audrey Zhang, 11
Audrey’s doodle was one of many amazing contributions to Doodle 4 Google this year. We encourage you to take a look at the
outstanding national grade group winners
, who we announced at an event with all 50 state winners at the Googleplex back in May.
Every year we do this, and every year we’re amazed. The thousands of young Doodlers who enter the contest are annual reminders of that special combination of curiosity and imagination that seems to come only from young people. Their ideas—like Audrey's—inspire us to do more and be better. Congratulations to all our Doodle 4 Google winners!
Posted by Liat Ben-Rafael, Doodle 4 Google Program Manager
Through the Google lens: search trends May 30-Jun 5
June 6, 2014
It’s been a busy week for entertainment junkies, with the return of [oitnb] and a (yet another) huge episode of [game of thrones]. But people searched for more serious subjects, including the anniversary of [d-day] and a changing of the guard in Spain.
“Stars,” shows and sad goodbyes
Anticipation was high this week for the film adaptation of John Green’s
The Fault in Our Stars
,
which comes out today. It’s the top topic on
Hot Trends
as I write this, and people are looking for
related topics
such as [ed sheeran], who contributed a song to the movie, and [theo james], who is rumored to be dating the film’s star Shailene Woodley. And searches for [
orange is the new black
] skyrocketed as the fan favorite returns for its much-awaited second season on Netflix.
People searched for [
gwendoline christie
], the
Game of Thrones
actress, after it was confirmed she’d be a cast member in the upcoming
Star Wars 7
film. The Lady of Tarth had some company in search this week from [
oberyn martell
]—but we won’t get too into that in case anyone still has last week’s episode awaiting them on DVR.
And finally, on a sad note,
Ann B. Davis
—best known as housekeeper Alice on
The Brady Bunch
—passed away this week at the age of 88. Many were searching for information on her life and famous Alice moments.
Marking a moment in history
Today marks the 70th anniversary of D-Day, and veterans and world leaders gathered to commemorate the storming of the beaches of Normandy that turned the tides in World War II. [D-Day] was a top topic on Google, as people searched for
[d-day anniversary] and [d-day facts]
to learn more about this moment in history. If you’re interested in a more in-depth look at the Normandy Landings, this week we also added a new
collection
of 470 documents and images showing different perspectives on D-Day to the Google Cultural Institute.
Searching for knowledge
After 40 years on the throne, this week it was announced that King Juan Carlos I would step down in favor of his son Crown Prince Felipe. People turned to Google to understand the term [
abdicate
]. And as the summer break approaches, math games like [brainpop], [mymathlab] and [scratch] are trending in search—a good sign that parents and students are looking to stay sharp over vacation!
Tip of the week
Ready to cry? Just ask Google Search (on
iOS
and
Android
) to “show me movie times for The Fault In Our Stars.” You’ll see nearby theaters and showtimes, and can click on the time you like to buy a ticket online. “Ok Google, remind me to bring tissues!”
Posted by Emily Wood, Google Blog Editor, who searched this week for [darren aronofsky atwood] and [first city festival]
Meet the Bay Area Impact Challenge winners
June 4, 2014
Ten days ago, voting
opened
for Google’s first
Bay Area Impact Challenge
, and now the tally is in. On the ballot? Ten amazing nonprofit proposals to make a difference in our community.
Between May 22 and June 2, nearly 200,000 votes poured in (191,504 to be exact)—adjusted for population, that makes it the highest voter turnout we’ve had in a Challenge to date. Now we’re unveiling the winners. Each will receive $500,000 in funding and support from Google:
Hack the Hood
will address digital equity by training low-income youth to build websites for local small businesses, actively supporting them to launch their own tech careers.
Center for Employment Opportunities
will develop a tech platform to prepare formerly incarcerated people for employment in a digital world.
The Health Trust
will create new distribution channels for people to get affordable produce, expanding options for street vendors, corner stores, and farmers' markets for underserved areas.
Bring me a book
will give kids access to digital books, in multiple languages, while creating a supportive online community for parents and caregivers.
Hack the Hood celebrates their win with community advisor Reverend Cecil Williams
But everyone wins in this competition: The six remaining finalists will each receive $250,000, and we also gave an additional 15 nonprofits around the Bay Area $100,000 each.
Finally, all 25 Google Impact Challenge nonprofits will receive one year of accelerator support at our first-ever impact lab, a co-working space launched in partnership with
Impact Hub SF
, a shared workspace for entrepreneurs committed to positive social and environmental change.
Nonprofits will have access to networking events, meeting space, and development workshops in the Impact Hub SF, as well as membership to all U.S. Hub locations. We also plan to host community events for the Bay Area nonprofit community throughout the year—so check out our
website
or follow us on
Google+
to stay in the loop.
Now the work really begins, and we’re excited to continue to build on our ongoing efforts to give back to the community.
Posted by Jacquelline Fuller, Director of Google.org
Transparency Report: Protecting emails as they travel across the web
June 3, 2014
When you mail a letter to your friend, you hope she’ll be the only person who reads it. But a lot could happen to that letter on its way from you to her, and prying eyes might try to take a look. That’s why we send important messages in sealed envelopes, rather than on postcards.
Email works in a similar way. Emails that are
encrypted
as they’re routed from sender to receiver are like sealed envelopes, and less vulnerable to snooping—whether by bad actors or through government surveillance—than postcards.
But some email is more secure than others. So to help you better understand whether your emails are protected by encryption, we’re launching a
new section
in the
Transparency Report
.
Gmail has always supported encryption in transit by using
Transport Layer Security
(TLS), and will
automatically encrypt
your incoming and outgoing emails if it can. The important thing is that
both
sides of an email exchange need to support encryption for it to work; Gmail can't do it alone.
Our data show that approximately 40 to 50 percent of emails sent between Gmail and other email providers aren’t encrypted. Many providers have turned on encryption, and others have said they’re going to, which is great news. As they do, more and more emails will be shielded from snooping.
For people looking for even stronger email security,
end-to-end encryption
is a good option—but it’s been hard to use. So today we’re making available the source code for
End-to-End
, a Chrome extension. It's currently in testing, and once it's ready for general use it will make this technology easier for those who choose to use it.
We encourage you to find tips about
choosing strong passwords
and
adding another layer of protection
to your account in our
Safety Center
. And check out
Reset the Net
, a broad coalition of organizations, companies and individuals coming together this week to promote stronger security practices on the web; we’re happy to be a participant in that effort.
Posted by Brandon Long, Tech Lead, Gmail Delivery Team
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