New Zealand Blog
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YouTube’s Ongoing Commitment to the Christchurch Call: Wellington Incident Response Workshop
Thursday, December 12, 2019
This time last week, 120 experts across Governments, companies, civil society and NGOs converged in Wellington to participate in a YouTube-hosted Incident Response Workshop. We developed the programme as part of our ongoing commitment to the
Christchurch Call
, in consultation with the New Zealand Government and the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (
GIFCT
). The Workshop aimed to
refine and strengthen the collective response
in the event of another terror attack with an online component. It was particularly important to work with civil society groups on this and the Atlantic Council played an integral role in content developing scenarios and facilitation.
Two months after the terror attack on two mosques in New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and French President Emmanuel Macron led the launch of the Christchurch Call at a summit in Paris, as a commitment by Governments and tech companies to eliminate terror and violent extremist content online. Since then, at further meetings in Aqaba, Jordan and in New York at the United Nations General Assembly, we’ve seen continued work including the
announcement
that the GIFCT would become an independent body.
Jacinda Ardern and YouTube’s Managing Director APAC, Gautam Anand, opened the two-day workshop with an address to the attendees.
This Incident Response Workshop was the next step in the development of the Christchurch Call and it delivered on its three key objectives:
We worked in a multi-stakeholder format and developed stronger partnerships across companies, governments, civil society and NGOs.
We stress tested the Christchurch Call Shared Crisis Response Protocol - alongside other relevant protocols, against evolving risks and scenarios.
We gathered critical feedback from those present, in order to inform the future agenda of the GIFCT’s crisis response working group.
YouTube was honoured to host this workshop and will continue to work together with the GIFCT, governments and civil society to tackle these issues.
Post content
Posted by Ross Young, Google New Zealand Government Affairs and Public Policy.
Year in Search 2019: Here’s what Kiwis searched for this year
Wednesday, December 11, 2019
As Kiwis we grinned, grew and grieved through Search this year, so as 2020 draws near, it’s time to reflect on the moments, people and existential questions that piqued our interest in 2019.
Sports tournaments, games and stars took the lead in trending searches across the country this year. We mused over musicians, paid close attention to fires, both here and abroad, and looked to Search to solve everyday problems like how to write a cover letter. Kiwis continued the obsession with keto, however ‘plant based diets’ surged to the top of our diet queries.
Watch the global Year in Search 2019 clip below.
Here’s a summary of some themes that dominated New Zealand's searches this year:
A Helpful Search
Answering the questions you either can’t or don’t want to ask someone else, Search provided helpful information to Kiwis on everything from cover letters to quinoa. Many of us wondered what is Easter, and Ramadan, and what is area 51?
Helping Kiwis with recipes, we cooked spag bol and guac with gusto, not to mention pikelets and pumpkin soup. (Doesn’t that sound like the worst dinner party ever?)
A Country of Two Halves
As we saw in 2018, Kiwi’s sports obsession continued throughout the year. Games of rugby, cricket matches, tennis tournaments and boxing champions all captured our hearts and minds. Six of the top 10 Kiwis searched are athletes, and Spark Sport and ‘Where to watch the Rugby World Cup’ helped the sports supremacy continue.
Millennial Moments
Generational divide came into stark contrast for us this year, as we collectively wondered, ‘what is a boomer?’ Millennials prevailed with Kiwi’s curiosity of local heroes Kane Williamson (let’s not talk about the cricket), Israel Adesanya and Lorde. Alongside this however, up and coming Gen Z’s, such as Billie Eilish, broke into the zeitgeist.
Local Events
Some moments found New Zealand on the world stage this year, and our Search habits show local interest in these. The Christchurch shooting and the Grace Millane case also drew international interest. We kept up with ongoing disputes at Ihumatao and a measles outbreak, and wondered what our minimum wage was.
A Changing World
News events of fires, terror attacks and cyclones all show the state of the world we’re trying to understand. Our searches show we came together for greater understanding, as we also queried how to wear a hijab and what is a mosque. Meanwhile breakout activist Greta Thunberg captured our attention, as did a newfound discovery of the ‘plant based diet’.
Check out the top trending* lists for New Zealand in 2019:
Overall
Rugby World Cup
New Zealand vs England
Cricket World Cup
Christchurch Shooting
Stuff News NZ
Spark Sport
Australia vs Pakistan
Australia Open 2019
Disney Plus
Grace Millane
Kiwis
Israel Adesanya
William Waiirua
Ryan Fox
Lorde
Kane Williamson
Anna Wilcox
Sarah Dowie
Robert Whittaker
Sonny Bill Williams
Scott McLaughlin
Loss
Grace Millane
Cameron Boyce
Pua Magasiva
Manning Smith
Luke Perry
Jeffrey Epstein
Karl Lagerfeld
Keith Flint
Etika
Jessi Combs
Global Figures
James Charles
Billie Eilish
Prince Andrew
Nipsey Hussle
Greta Thunberg
Jordyn Woods
Israel Folau
R Kelly
Pewdiepie
Marie Kondo
News Events
Christchurch Shooting
Nelson Fire
The fall of the Berlin wall
London Bridge attack
Measles
Auckland Fire
Notre Dame
Sri Lanka
Ihumatao
Cyclone Oma
What Is…
What is area 51?
What is black Friday all about?
What is a mosque?
What is lupus?
What is a boomer?
What is momo?
What is minimum wage in NZ?
What is easter?
What is the time in India?
What is ramadan?
How to…
How to watch the Rugby World Cup
How to watch Game of Thrones NZ
How to wear a hijab
How to solve a rubix cube
How to write a cover letter
How to cook quinoa
How to get rid of fleas
How to make french toast
How to take a screenshot
How to make cheese sauce
Recipes
Spaghetti bolognese recipe
Guacamole recipe
Hot cross buns recipe
Apple crumble recipe
Pikelet recipe
Playdough recipe
Pancake recipe easy
Fried rice recipe
Lasagne recipe
Pumpkin soup recipe
Diet Trends
Plant based diet
Fodmap diet
Keto diet plan
Diet doctor
Mediterranean diet
What is keto diet
Dubrow diet
Low carb diet
Vegan diet
Atkins diet
* Trending Searches: What was hot in 2019? The "trending" queries are the searches that had the highest spike in traffic over a sustained period in 2019 as compared to 2018.
Post content
Posted by Carrie Jones, Communications Manager, Google New Zealand
Kiwi’s Top Trending YouTube Videos Revealed for 2019
Friday, December 6, 2019
It's time to hit #YouTubeRewind and check out the top trending videos for 2019.
In 2019 we revelled in the return of Sam Smith, the scandalous revelations of James Charles and recreations of Billie Eilish. We bopped to ‘
Bad Guy
’ and attempted to learn
how to create the video
clip at home!
Let’s dive into our annual look back at the year that was in online video, and reflect on the moments that captured the hearts and minds of Kiwis in 2019.
Kardashians, conspiracies and spicy wings reviews all made it into our top trending videos. Well known creators dominated our watchlist, with the confessions and investigations of
James Charles
and
Shane Dawson
. While
Gordon Ramsay
and the infamous ‘twenty bucks’
Karen
brought us entertainment with a side of colourful language.
The spectacular leaping acrobatic display by
Katelyn Ohashi
clearly captured us. As did the opportunity to jump on a bandwagon to “
Make this video the most liked video on YouTube
” (sorry guys, no luck this time).
Breakout artists of the year
Billie Eilish
and
Camila Cabelo
made our top list but we are still clearly obsessed with
Ariana Grande
(with two of her tracks in the top 10!).
And if you claim you haven’t watched or listened to
Old Town Road
- you’re a liar.
Some may have inspired a belly laugh, while others a break down. These are the videos that had Kiwi’s laughing, leering and losing it in 2019.
New Zealand’s Top Trending Videos
1.
No More Lies
2.
Katelyn Ohashi - 10.0 Floor (1-12-19)
3.
Gordon Ramsay Savagely Critiques Spicy Wings | Hot Ones
4.
Conspiracy Theories with Shane Dawson
5.
Make This Video The Most Liked Video On Youtube
6.
73 Questions With Kim Kardashian West (ft. Kanye West) | Vogue
7.
how to create billie eilish's "bad guy"
8.
New Zealand Today - Karen wants her $20 back.
9.
Minecraft Part 1
10.
Gangsters in Paradise - The Deportees of Tonga
New Zealand’s Top Trending Music Videos
While some artists returned for a second year in a row we also saw breakout stars Billie Eilish and Camila Cabella feature this year. But the great return of Sam Smith dominated.
1.
Sam Smith, Normani - Dancing With A Stranger
2.
Billie Eilish - bad guy
3.
Shawn Mendes, Camila Cabella - Señorita
4.
Lil Nas X - Old Town Road (Official Movie) ft. Billy Ray Cyrus
5.
Ariana Grande - 7 rings
6.
Khalid - Talk (Official Video)
7.
Lil Dicky - Earth (Official Music Video)
8.
Khalid, Kane Brown - Saturday Nights REMIX (Official Video)
9.
Cardi B & Bruno Mars - Please Me (Official Video)
10.
Ariana Grande - break up with your girlfriend, i'm bored
As 2020 draws near, we also take this moment to celebrate YouTube with the annual
Rewind mashup
. This year, we tried something different and looked at what you did like — a lot. Our Rewind 2019 video compiles the top videos and creators that you liked, shared, and watched the most around the world, from the biggest games to must-try beauty tutorials and breakout stars.
Check out the full video below and head over to our
Rewind site
for more!
Post content
Posted by Carrie Jones, Communications and Public Affairs Manager, Google New Zealand
Helping Kiwi Teachers Learn Digital Skills through the Manaiakalani Education Trust
Wednesday, November 13, 2019
Back in 2013 Google New Zealand
began work
with the Manaiakalani Education programme by partnering on initiatives to help digitise education. Today we announced our continuing support of their
Digital Fluency Intensive
(DFI) which is rapidly upskilling large numbers of teachers in schools across New Zealand.
While 8 in 10 New Zealand principals say that digital technologies are positively impacting student achievement
(1)
, 72% also believe that professional development among staff presents either a “major barrier” or “somewhat of a barrier” to the use of digital technologies in schools
(2)
. That’s why schools working with Manaiakalani are combining effective teaching techniques with digital enablement to accelerate children’s learning.
Announced today at the 12th annual Manaiakalani Film Festival, Jenny Oxley from Manaiakalani Education Trust said “The Digital Fluency Intensive programme is a direct result of Google's ground-breaking support of the Manaiakalani Digital Teacher Academy innovation and is maximising the impact of the digital learning for young people through accelerating teachers’ own skill development. This is proving to be an enormous professional learning experience for these teachers and the flow-on impact on student achievement is now undeniable.”
Since 2018, the DFI has delivered over 1600 days training to Kiwi teachers across 91 schools. We look forward to seeing how this programme helps New Zealand teachers prepare for the digital future.
Post content
Posted by Ross Young, Google New Zealand Government Relations and Public Affairs.
(1) Research New Zealand (2017)
(2) Education at a Glance. (2017). Retrieved from
https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2017_eag-2017-en
YouTube Creator Workshops Kick Off in Manukau
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
Last week we kicked off the YouTube Creator Workshops in Manukau, Auckland, with many showing up to meet, learn and work with fellow creators from all over the city. These events are for the next generation of YouTube creators who are looking to learn how to set their channel up for success and build positive communities online.
We want to encourage and nurture budding local talent, to help them find their place on the global stage that is YouTube. With over 45% of local YouTube content being viewed from outside of New Zealand, we’re committed to supporting Kiwi creators into a career in this ever changing media environment.
Video content agency
Changer Studios
delivered the programme and shared knowledge on how to keep your voice and remain socially aware, and how to get your videos watched by the right audience. Attendees also heard from successful YouTube creators,
Torrell Tafa
and
Ben Mikha
on what they’ve learned in their years developing and putting out content.
The number of YouTube channels in New Zealand with over 100,000 subscribers, which is the point where many turn their content into a career whether full or part time, has increased by over 50% between this year and last. We want this number to continue to grow, by sharing best practice advice with budding creators on building a sustainable business on the platform, and giving them access to successful creators who have built a brand on and off YouTube.
This was the first in a series of workshops that will travel around the country. Further dates can be
found online
.
Post content
Posted by Ross Young, Government Relations and Public Affairs, Google New Zealand
Google pilot aims to provide accurate store hours in New Zealand this Labour Day
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Starting this week, we'll start a pilot to confirm holiday hours for a small number of local businesses in New Zealand with the help of the
Google Duplex technology
. Duplex makes it possible for AI to conduct natural conversations to carry out complex tasks over the phone.
Businesses in this pilot group will receive an automated call from Google asking to confirm their hours for the upcoming Labour Day public holiday on October 28. Once confirmed, these times will automatically be updated on Google Maps and Search for anyone searching for the business info for the holiday. This not only helps people save time during busy holidays, but also ensures that businesses maximise foot traffic at their stores.
We’re also mindful of including controls for businesses. If a business wants to opt-out of receiving calls from Google, we’ll honour that. You can tell us over the phone or change your settings in
Google My Business
. As always, we’ll disclose that the business is speaking with an automated system when making a call. Business owners can also learn more about
calls from Google here
.
Post content
Posted by Scott Huffman, Google’s VP of Engineering.
Never miss your favourite artist on tour again--see tickets for live shows right on YouTube!
Thursday, October 17, 2019
Over one billion fans come to
YouTube
each month to connect with their favourite artists and discover new music. And now, we’re making it easy for Kiwis to go from experiencing music online to seeing live performances through our partnerships with Ticketmaster and Eventbrite.
Starting today, New Zealand fans watching videos from Official Artists Channels will see ticket listings for live music performances throughout the country. With one easy click on the “Tickets” button, they’ll be able to purchase directly from Ticketmaster or Eventbrite. New Zealand is one of the first countries to have this feature outside of North America.
Live events continue to be a major source of revenue for artists, so we want to help artists keep fans updated on their upcoming shows and sell more tickets to live performances. YouTube’s global audience also lets artists find new fans, with 24% of Millennials and 33% of teens claiming they discover live music events through the platform, according to a
Nielsen
report from 2018.
The new feature aims to connect fans with not only the global artists they love, but also will give them a chance to discover more intimate events with breakthrough Kiwi talent like
SACHI
.
YouTube is the space where many New Zealand artists first built their online platform. We’re excited to continue furthering the power of video discovery on YouTube by bringing those artists and fans closer together through live shows.
Posted by Ruuben van den Heuvel, Head of Music Content Partnerships (South East Asia, AU/NZ), YouTube.
New Zealand’s First Think With Google - Bridging the Digital Divide
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
Today we hosted Google New Zealand’s first annual
Think With Google
event.
‘Think’ events are our global flagship events where we share thought leadership and insights with top advertisers and agencies, to enable them to create meaningful connections between their businesses and the customers they care about most. We highlight new ways to make these connections and how Google can be a key partner in this journey.
Today’s event, “Bridging the Digital Divide” looked at how Kiwi businesses are progressing with digital maturity. Drawing on research from BCG on Australia and New Zealand economic digital maturity, we know that only 2% of AUNZ businesses are in a place of digital maturity and those that reach that goal experience 15% more incremental revenue.
Marketers from more than 50 businesses attended and heard Nick Love, Head of Performance Advertising and I speak alongside key industry speakers on how best to tackle this evolving challenge. Jonathan Waecker (The Warehouse Group), Toni Tuslove (Fonterra), Glen MacKellaig (Harmoney), and Jane Stanley (Hearts and Science) participated in an engaging panel discussion, looking at their own businesses and how they’re striving for digital excellence. Special guest speaker, Francis Valintine, founder of the Mind Lab, delivered the opening keynote on the need to innovate to meet consumer expectations.
Experiential elements to the day, included Kiwi tilt brush artist, Danny Owen creating art in real time for the guests, and a virtual Google Earth studio to explore the great walks of New Zealand.
Think With Google events will be held annually in New Zealand.
Post content
Posted by Caroline Rainsford, Country Director Google New Zealand
Privacy and Security on a Safe and Open Internet: Net Hui 2019
Thursday, October 3, 2019
Today I had the pleasure of participating in the
Net Hui
Conference, held at Te Papa in Wellington.
Google has been a long time sponsor of New Zealand’s largest Internet gathering, that explores the benefits, opportunities and challenges of the online world. The theme of this year’s event was ‘Safety, inclusion and wellbeing on the open Internet’.
Following the Prime Ministers keynote address, I was on a panel lead by InternetNZ’s Jordan Carter, which brought together many different perspectives and views on ‘The Internet After Christchurch’.
I was also able to share with the conference some of the recent updates we’ve made to our privacy and security products, announced just this week.
Our goal has always been to create products that are simple, helpful, and intuitive. It’s no different with privacy and security: managing your data should be just as easy as making a restaurant reservation, or using Maps to find the fastest way back home.
Earlier this year,
we started rolling out
more ways for you to protect your data, including making our controls easier to access, new ways to use Google apps with Incognito mode, and options to
automatically delete data
like your Location History, searches, and other activity with Google.
Making these controls consistent across our core products will help them become more familiar, and we hope, even easier to use. Today, we’re sharing a few more updates on our progress toward this goal.
Incognito mode arrives in Maps
Incognito mode has been one of our most popular privacy controls since it launched with Chrome in 2008. We added it to YouTube earlier this year, and now we’re rolling it out in Google Maps.
When you turn on Incognito mode in Maps, your Maps activity on that device, like the places you search for, won’t be saved to your Google Account and won’t be used to personalize your Maps experience. You can easily turn on Incognito mode by selecting it from the menu that appears when you tap your profile photo, and you can turn it off at any time to return to a personalized experience with restaurant recommendations, information about your commute, and other features tailored to you. Incognito mode will start rolling out on Android this month, with iOS coming soon.
Expanding Auto-delete to YouTube
In May, we announced that you could automatically delete your Location History and Web & App Activity, which includes things you've searched and browsed. We promised to bring this to more products, and now we're bringing Auto-delete to
YouTube History
. Set the time period to keep your data—3 months, 18 months, or until you delete it, just like Location History and Web & App Activity—and we’ll take care of the rest.
Strengthening your password security
Protecting your privacy online requires strong security, and that’s why we protect your data with one of the world’s most advanced security infrastructures.
Tools like our Security Checkup help users by automatically detecting potential security issues with your Google Account and make it easy for you to add extra protections to keep your account safe, like removing old devices or unused apps that still have access to your account.
But we also want to help protect you across the internet, and a big part of that is helping you remember passwords for your other online accounts. With so many accounts, bad habits like using the same password across multiple services are common, and make all of your accounts as vulnerable as the weakest link. If someone steals your password once, then they could access your information across different services using that same password.
Our
password manager
automatically protects your passwords across your different accounts, and today, in time for Cybersecurity Awareness Month, we’re making it much more powerful. We’re introducing the Password Checkup, a new feature that—with one click—tells you if any of your passwords are weak, whether you’ve reused them across multiple sites, or if we've discovered they've been compromised (for example, in a third-party data breach). Find more about the Password Checkup in
this post
.
We’re constantly working to improve the products that billions of people use, right now. We’re also looking to the future so that teams at Google, and other organisations, can build new products and develop new engineering techniques, with privacy and security as core principles. In May, we
opened the new Google Safety Engineering Center
where we expect the number of privacy engineers to double by the end of 2019. We’ve also open-sourced technologies like our
differential privacy library
,
Private Join and Compute
and
Tensorflow Federated
. These will help any institution—from hospitals to governments to nonprofits—find better ways to gain insights from their data while protecting people's privacy.
As technology evolves, so do people's expectations for security and privacy. We look forward to building protections that aim to exceed those expectations, and will continue sharing regular updates about this work.
Post content
Posted by Ross Young, Government Relations, Google New Zealand
Celebrating the Dynamic Digital Advertising Industry at the IAB NZ Digital Advertising Awards
Friday, August 30, 2019
Last night at the Auckland Museum the third annual
IAB New Zealand Digital Advertising Awards
were held to recognise the best talent in the interactive media industry. It was a record year for the Awards, with the number of entries doubling from the previous year and the number of awards categories growing from 17 to 23!
Here at Google we’re hugely proud to be part of this event that recognises outstanding work by the people and teams who are leading digital advertising in New Zealand. With both myself [Caro, Google NZ Country Manager] and Susan Carlton [Google NZ Marketing Manager] on the panel of judges, we had the opportunity to review an abundance of incredible work.
Google was delighted to sponsor three key awards this year and our congratulations go to Harmoney for winning Best Use Of Search/SEO for “Creating a competitive advantage leveraging AI & Google Ads Smart Bidding Strategies”, MBM for winning the Agency Of The Year Award, and finally, to Tianze Yu from Big Mobile, the winner of the Grand Prix award. Well done Tianze!
Congrats to the IAB for a fantastic event, which once again proved to be such a great opportunity to come together and recognise the incredible work of these industry professionals.
Post content
Posted by Caro Rainsford, Google NZ Country Manager
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