New Zealand Blog
Google news for Kiwis
Four steps we’re taking today to fight online terror
Monday, June 19, 2017
Editor’s Note: This post appeared as an op-ed in the
Financial Times
earlier today.
Terrorism is an attack on open societies, and addressing the threat posed by violence and hate is a critical challenge for us all. Google and YouTube are committed to being part of the solution. We are working with government, law enforcement and civil society groups to tackle the problem of violent extremism online. There should be no place for terrorist content on our services.
While we and others have worked for years to identify and remove content that violates our policies, the uncomfortable truth is that we, as an industry, must acknowledge that more needs to be done. Now.
We have thousands of people around the world who review and counter abuse of our platforms. Our engineers have developed technology to prevent re-uploads of known terrorist content using image-matching technology. We have invested in systems that use content-based signals to help identify new videos for removal. And we have developed partnerships with expert groups, counter-extremism agencies, and the other technology companies to help inform and strengthen our efforts.
Today, we are pledging to take four additional steps.
First, we are increasing our use of technology to help identify extremist and terrorism-related videos. This can be challenging: a video of a terrorist attack may be informative news reporting if broadcast by the BBC, or glorification of violence if uploaded in a different context by a different user. We have used video analysis models to find and assess more than 50 per cent of the terrorism-related content we have removed over the past six months. We will now devote more engineering resources to apply our most advanced machine learning research to train new “content classifiers” to help us more quickly identify and remove extremist and terrorism-related content.
Second, because technology alone is not a silver bullet, we will greatly increase the number of independent experts in YouTube’s Trusted Flagger programme. Machines can help identify problematic videos, but human experts still play a role in nuanced decisions about the line between violent propaganda and religious or newsworthy speech. While many user flags can be inaccurate, Trusted Flagger reports are accurate over 90 per cent of the time and help us scale our efforts and identify emerging areas of concern. We will expand this programme by adding 50 expert NGOs to the 63 organisations who are already part of the programme, and we will support them with operational grants. This allows us to benefit from the expertise of specialised organisations working on issues like hate speech, self-harm, and terrorism. We will also expand our work with counter-extremist groups to help identify content that may be being used to radicalise and recruit extremists.
Third, we will be taking a tougher stance on videos that do not clearly violate our policies — for example, videos that contain inflammatory religious or supremacist content. In future these will appear behind an interstitial warning and they will not be monetised, recommended or eligible for comments or user endorsements. That means these videos will have less engagement and be harder to find. We think this strikes the right balance between free expression and access to information without promoting extremely offensive viewpoints.
Finally, YouTube will expand its role in counter-radicalisation efforts. Building on our successful Creators for Change programme promoting YouTube voices against hate and radicalisation, we are working with Jigsaw to implement the “Redirect Method” more broadly across Europe. This promising approach harnesses the power of targeted online advertising to reach potential Isis recruits, and redirects them towards anti-terrorist videos that can change their minds about joining. In previous deployments of this system, potential recruits have clicked through on the ads at an unusually high rate, and watched over half a million minutes of video content that debunks terrorist recruiting messages.
We have also recently committed to working with industry colleagues—including Facebook, Microsoft, and Twitter—to establish an international forum to share and develop technology and support smaller companies and accelerate our joint efforts to tackle terrorism online.
Collectively, these changes will make a difference. And we’ll keep working on the problem until we get the balance right. Extremists and terrorists seek to attack and erode not just our security, but also our values; the very things that make our societies open and free. We must not let them. Together, we can build lasting solutions that address the threats to our security and our freedoms. It is a sweeping and complex challenge. We are committed to playing our part.
Posted by Kent Walker, General Counsel, Google
Google Flights has landed in New Zealand
Tuesday, June 13, 2017
Pack your bags! Whether you’re traveling from
Auckland to Asia
, or
Kerikeri to Queenstown
, Google Flights will give you travel inspiration and surface the best available flight options. Starting today, you can search on Google for flights to a destination by searching for things like “
Flights to Wellington
” or “
Flights to Australia
”. Or, you can go directly to google.co.nz/flights to quickly and easily compare and book flights in $NZD — from your mobile device, tablet or desktop.
Still daydreaming about your next trip? Try using Explore to get ideas on where to go based on popular destinations. If you want to get away for a holiday next month just choose “July” and a trip duration like “2 weeks” to see the dates with the lowest prices to visit each place.
Once you select your departure and return dates, you’ll be presented with a list of ‘Best flights’; which represents the best tradeoff of convenience and price. Before you select a specific flight, you may see a notification bar with tips on how to find the best price for this route. Tips can include things like recommendations for alternate airports, suggest the cheapest dates to fly, or tell you about an expected price jump based on historic prices for that route.
If you’re not ready to book yet, you can choose to track a flight and receive email notifications when prices are expected to change or when the price actually does increase or decrease significantly.
Whether you’re ticking off your bucket list or taking a quick business trip, our goal is to help you find the best flight with confidence so you can plan, book and take off in a couple of clicks.
Posted by Nabil Naghdy, Product Manager, Google Flights
Helping NZ students stay safe online
Tuesday, May 30, 2017
Ever wondered how you can keep your children safe online? It’s a question more and more parents are asking, as eight out of ten people in New Zealand own a smartphone or tablet, and
88%
use social media every month. Today families have another tool to help children to be smart, safe and responsible online with the launch of a new program for Year Eight and Nine students in New Zealand.
The
Digital Licence
is an interactive online quiz providing cyber safety for kids; educating them on what to do if they are exposed to unwanted, inappropriate and offensive content or cyber bullying; and the consequences of putting their privacy at risk when interacting online.
The
Digital Licence
was developed by the
Alannah & Madeline Foundation
, a not-for-profit dedicated to keeping children safe from violence and bullying and Google is proud to help make the program available free of charge to all Year Eight and Nine students.
The licence was launched today with the
Alannah & Madeline Foundation
at Point England School in Auckland today, a School recognised as a leader in successfully integrating technology into its teaching and learning.
Point England School Principal, Russell Burt said the Digital Licence will be a valuable addition to the skills his students are being taught.
“This is an excellent new tool for NZ teachers and parents to have in the toolkit, to grow Cyber Smart values in that tricky Year 7 to Year 10 age group. Well done to the Alannah & Madeline Foundation and Google for making this available to NZ schools and families.”
We know that the internet is empowering Kiwi students to learn and grow their ambitions. Now, with this program, we can help to make sure that time spent online is positive, constructive and enjoyable.
Find out more about the Digital Licence
here
.
Posted by Stephanie Davis, Country Director, Google New Zealand
Announcing Google's CS4HS recipients for 2017
Monday, May 8, 2017
Helping educators to confidently teach digital technologies provides students with lifelong skills that enable them to solve problems and develop critical analysis skills.
Google’s
Computer Science for High Schools (CS4HS)
program has been running in Australia and New Zealand since 2011 and in that time has trained more than 9,000 teachers.
Through hands-on professional development workshops the program provides teachers with the skills and resources they need to teach computational thinking and computer science concepts in fun and engaging ways.
Ali Duncan, a primary teacher at Ladbrooks School in Christchurch, along with other members of her school’s faculty, attended the first CS4PS (Computer Science for Primary Schools) run by the University of Canterbury in 2016. She says the workshop “made me feel more confident to expand my learning (a tiny bit of Python, robotics, Scratch) and being more open in general to conversations around these areas with my children and colleagues”.
Ladbrooks School students at the BuzzOff Challenge
Since the workshop Ali has become a driving force in her school for computer science and STEM programs. The students “love learning computer science, they enjoy sharing with their parents and making those connections”. Through the CS4PS workshop, Ali’s class was invited to the University of Canterbury’s BuzzOff BeeBot challenge last year which was a fantastic learning experience for the students and showcases the ongoing support for teachers fostered by the CS4HS program.
We’re excited to announce the 2017 CS4HS Awards that will continue to inspire and empower teachers like Ali around Australia and New Zealand.
2017 CS4HS Funding Recipients
Auckland University of Technology
NZACDITT
The University of Canterbury -
Primary Workshop
The University of Canterbury -
Secondary Workshop
Victoria University of Wellington
Posted by Sally-Ann Williams, Engineering Community & Outreach Manager, Google Australia & New Zealand
A remedy for your health-related questions: Google Search launches health info in the Knowledge Graph
Wednesday, March 29, 2017
Think of the last time you searched on Google for health information. Maybe you heard a news story about gluten-free diets and Googled "What is celiac disease?" Maybe you were planning a trip to Bali, so you looked up “Zika virus” so you could take precautions. Or perhaps you were worried about a loved one, and searched to better understand their condition and prognosis.
Starting toda
y in New Zealand, Goog
le search results will show information for over 900 commonly searched for health conditions. The new health feature will include an outline of the condition, symptoms, treatment, and prevalence according to age at the top of search results. For some conditions you’ll also see high-quality illustrations from licensed medical illustrators. Once you get this basic info from Google, you should find it easier to do more research on other sites around the web, or know what questions to ask your doctor.
This feature has been developed as more people turn to Google to help with their health queries. In fact,
1 in 20 Google searches are for health-related information
.
That’s why we’ve surfaced
trusted, quality healt
h information right in Google Search. We hope this will help people find the information they need more quickly and easily.
We worked with a team of medical doctors (led by our own Dr. Kapil Parakh, M.D., MPH, Ph.D.) to carefully compile, curate, and review this information. All of the gathered facts represent real-life clinical knowledge from these doctors and high-quality medical sources across the web.
Each fact has been checked by a panel of at least ten medical doctors at Google and the Mayo Clinic for accuracy.
That doesn’t mean these search results are intended as medical advice. We know that cases can vary in severity from person to person, and that there are bound to be exceptions. What we present is intended for informational purposes only — and you should always consult a healthcare professional if you have a medical concern.
We hope this information will empower you in your health decisions – so the next time you need information on measles or treatments for tennis elbow, Google will be a better place to start.
Posted by Isobel Solaqua, Program Manager
Visit Vanuatu on Street View, and journey under the earth’s surface
Wednesday, March 15, 2017
More than a thousand miles off the coast of Australia is the remote country of Vanuatu, an archipelago of 80 tiny islands – brimming with lush green jungles, pristine black sand beaches, and nine erupting volcanoes.
Starting today in
Google Maps
, we invite you to join us on a journey to the edge of one of the largest boiling lava lakes in the world on the Vanuatuan island of Ambrym. To get inside the active volcano,
we partnered with explorers Geoff Mackley
and Chris Horsly, who repelled
400 meters into the Marum crater with a
Street View Trekker
collecting 360-degree imagery of the journey down to the molten
lava lake, which is roughly the size of two football fields.
“You only realize how insignificant humans are when you’re standing next to a giant lake of fiery boiling rock. It’s like looking into the surface of the sun,” said Mackley.
“Standing at the edge and feeling the heat lick your skin is phenomenal,” said Chris Horsly after returning from his descent into the crater. “I hope that by putting this place on the map people will realize what a beautiful world we live in.”
Ambrym
is defined by the
desolate 39 square mile volcanic
caldera
hosting two active
volcanic cones
c
alled Benbow and Marum.
But the tropical island is also home to more than 7,000 people who live in the rainforest down the mountain.While the volcano has played a significant role in defining their history due to unpredictable eruptions and influence on agriculture and environment, they’ve learned to live in harmony with this beautiful yet deadly natural phenomena.
Chief Moses in the local village of Endu explains,
“We believe that the volcanoes Marum and Benbow are devils. If you go up to a volcano you have to be very careful because the two volcanoes could get angry at any time. We believe that Benbo is the husband and Marum is the wife. Sometimes when they don’t agree there’s an eruption which means the spirit is angry so we sacrifice a pig or fawel to the volcano.” As part of the Google Maps journey,
Chief Moses of Endu invites you to take a walk through his village and hopes you’ll be inspired to visit this sacred place he calls home.
Following
Cyclone Pam
a few years ago, the country has been rebuilding its infrastructure. Now Chief Moses and his village are ready to welcome travelers rs back to Vanuatu to experience its stunning beauty and learn about its cultural traditions. He believes making Vanuatu more accessible to the world is a key step in the island’s recovery and ability to establish a sustainable economy and preserve its culture.
In Street View you can wander the streets of 81 countries and visit incredible historical and natural sites around the world like the
Samburu National Park in Kenya
,
The Grand Canyon
, or
New Zealand’s walking tracks
. Today, for the first time, Street View is going beneath the surface and into the heart of the earth—enjoy exploring Vanuatu’s
Marum Crater and Endu village at Ambrym
.
Posted by Alex Starns, Street View Program Manager
Keep track of your favorite places and share them with friends
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Is your bucket list etched in your memory, or scribbled on a dozen post-it notes scattered around your home? Have you ever promised out-of-town guests an email full of your favorite spots, only to never get around to clicking send? Starting today, you can create lists of places, share your lists with others, and follow the lists your friends and family share with you—without ever leaving the Google Maps app (Android, iOS).
Getting started is easy. Simply open the Google Maps app and find that Dim Sum spot you’ve been wanting to try. Tapping on the place name and then the “Save” icon adds the place to one of several pre-set lists like “Want to Go” or “Favorites.” You can also add the restaurant to a new list that you name yourself, like “Finger Lickin’ Dumplings.” To recall the lists you’ve created, go to Your Places (in the side menu) and then open the saved tab. Icons for the places you’ve saved to lists will appear on the map itself, so you’ll always know whether one of your must-try spots is nearby.
Because sharing is caring, we made it easy to share lists like “Best Views in Auckland” via text, email, social networks and popular messaging apps. Whenever friends and family come to town, tap the share button to get a link and start flexing your local knowledge muscles. Once you send a link to your out-of-towners, they can tap “Follow” to pull up the list from Your Places whenever they need it. Here’s how it all works in real life:
The lists you follow are with you wherever you take Google Maps and are viewable on mobile and desktop—and even offline. Next time you're on a trip, download offline maps of the area in advance and you'll be able to see all the places you’ve added to lists on the map itself.
With the millions of landmarks, businesses and other points of interest in Google Maps, there’s no shortage of places to try. Now that we’ve got the world mapped, it’s your turn to map
your
world with Lists—from local hotspots to bucket list destinations worlds away.
Zach Maier, Product Manager, Google Maps
Bringing Shopping Ads to New Zealand - connecting shoppers and retailers online
Monday, February 13, 2017
As thousands of New Zealand students returned to school this month, here’s a stat that might not surprise some mums and dads out there: New Zealand
searches for “backpack”
have grown by 21% since this time last year. But it’s not just backpacks, searches for the latest fashion, tech and school supplies are surging. Maybe you are searching online today for the perfect Valentine’s Day gift? More than half (
56%
) of Kiwis use the Internet to compare products, prices or features to help make purchase decisions.
We know that this type of research can take time, so we want to help streamline the process for Kiwi shoppers. Today we’re rolling out Shopping Ads - image based ads that help shoppers find the products they're searching for and quickly connect with the merchants who sell those products - in New Zealand. You'll now see them alongside your Google Search results.
So if you’re searching for lunch-boxes or laptops, you can find exactly the one you’re looking for — and easily connect with a retailer who sells it.
Retailers, reach people when they want to buy what you sell
If you're a business, you can use Google Shopping campaigns to promote the products you sell, boost traffic to your website or local store, and find better qualified leads by putting product images, price, and business name in front of people searching on Google. Like search ads, you only pay when people click through to your website. Instead of targeting based on keywords, however, these ads are targeted based on the product data you provide. Learn more
here
.
Whether it’s back to school supplies or maybe you’re looking for a Valentine's Day gift,
shopping ads
can help you find what you’re looking for every time. Top marks for that!
Posted by Aaron Berger, Product Manager for Google Shopping
Working around the clock to protect your privacy and security
Tuesday, February 7, 2017
There are plenty of things we can all do to be safer and more secure online. Having a strong and unique password on different accounts is a good start - who hasn’t recycled the same combination of your pet’s name and the numbers ‘1-2-3’? We’ve all been guilty of that at one stage or another.
Other measures include exchanging personal information only on encrypted sites, and keeping your software up to date with the latest patches - these tried-and-true tips have never been more important and effective. Take our
two-minute Security Checkup
to protect your account and adjust your security settings, and learn more about other ways to keep your Google Account secure at
privacy.google.com
.
But this
Safer Internet Day
, we wanted to give some insight into how our systems protect you automatically - on Google and beyond. No switches to flip or buttons to click, just the stuff that happens in the background that keeps you protected around the clock while you go about your day.
Outsmarting phishing to protect your Google Account
Spam emails take advantage of your trust in friends and businesses to try and steal your username and password
An email may look like it came from someone trustworthy, but it might be a wolf in sheep’s clothing. This spammy message is trying to phish you—trick you into giving away your personal information—and then give its authors access to your account.
Luckily, we’ve built lots of smart armour into Gmail that helps to block dodgy messages before you ever see them. Our systems anonymously examine thousands of signals on Gmail - where a message originated, to whom it’s addressed, what’s contained in the message, how often the sender has contacted the recipient in the past - to determine which messages are safe, and which ones aren’t. We then filter the vast majority of this nasty stuff out; the average Gmail inbox contains less than 0.1 percent spam.
Even that’s not enough, though, because the bad guys can be pretty clever. For example, a fraudster could steal your username and password because you accidentally shared them on an especially deceptive scam site. But even if attackers have your credentials, our systems are still able to block them and keep your account safe - something we did hundreds of millions of times in 2016. That's because we aren’t just making sure you’ve typed the right password.
We also look for subtler signals to confirm the sign-in is you and not someone else: Are you using the same device that you usually use? Are you in a familiar location, or somewhere far away that you haven’t been to before? Scammers leave behind a trail of clues that help us inspect each log-in attempt and compare it with the picture of a safe log-in that our systems have painted based on billions and billions of other log-ins. If something looks fishy, we’ll require more verifications designed to thwart bad guys, send notifications to your phone, or email you so you can quickly act on anything that looks unfamiliar.
On the web, on Android: we've got you covered
We use similar security tools to help make the web and a huge variety of Android apps and devices safer, too.
For example, have you ever clicked a link and seen a red warning, like this one below?
A Safe Browsing warning: red means stop!
That’s
Safe Browsing
at work, strongly suggesting you should avoid visiting a site because it probably contains “badness,” like malware or a phishing trap. Similar to the way we crawl the web to deliver search results, Safe Browsing crawls for bad stuff that might be harmful to you or your device. It’s always hard at work: We show
tens of millions of Safe Browsing warnings
every week on more than
2 billion devices
, across a variety of web browsers.
For our Android users, we developed an “app analyzer” that builds on Safe Browsing’s technology to specifically hunt for dangerous Android apps, wherever they may be, and warn you before you install one. If an app doesn’t pass the app analyzer test, it’s not be allowed in Google Play.
Detecting the obvious badness — sites well-known for phishing scams, ransomware that locks your device until you pay a fraudster — is relatively easy. But the stealthier badness is only detectable by measuring billions of signals across sites and apps. If this sounds similar to the way we approach spam protections on Gmail or suspicious logins into Google, that’s because it is! The ability to understand badness on a large scale enables us to find the clues bad guys didn’t even know they were leaving behind.
We have a responsibility to keep you safe on Google, and help make the web more secure as well. We’re constantly improving our automatic protections, but we want to give you the controls to adjust your security settings as well.
Don't forget to take our
Security Checkup
and learn more about other ways to keep your Google Account secure at
privacy.google.com
, and happy Safer Internet Day!
Posted by Darren Bilby, Security Engineering Manager - Infrastructure Protection, Google Australia
Did someone say homework? Online safety tips for back-to-school week
Friday, February 3, 2017
From Kaitaia to Bluff, thousands of students across New Zealand headed back to school this week. Along with new books and uniforms, many students will be getting new devices and exploring new things online. It’s an exciting time for students, but parents and carers might be looking for some tips on encouraging responsible online behaviours - in and out of the classroom.
Managing privacy and security
The new year and the lead up to
Safer Internet Day
is a great time to check in with the privacy and security settings on your account (or your child’s).
My Account
gives you quick access to settings and tools that let you safeguard your data, protect your privacy, and decide how your information can make Google services work better for you. You can update your password, check out your personal information and change your account preferences.
More parental controls
So the kids are home from school and ready to relax… many families are already enjoying the
YouTube Kids app
, and now you can have more control over what your kids watch in the app. A new
parental control feature
gives parents the tools to decide what content is right for their family and the option to block videos or channels. Because you’re logged in, the videos and channels you block in
YouTube Kids
will remain blocked across all your devices. You can also tailor the experience for based on age and set a timer to limit screen time for your kids, so the app alerts when the session is over.
Google in the classroom
Our back-to-school update wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t share some updates about
Google for Education
tools, which more than 70 million students and teachers around the world use every day. We’ve introduced a new generation of
Chromebooks
, launching later this year, with new features such as stylus, world facing camera and easy access to Android apps, and our education team is working with schools around New Zealand to support ‘bring-your-own-device’ programs.
Google Classroom
has been
upgraded
to make it easier for teachers to give individual attention to students. Stay tuned for more updates on this…
So, a bit of homework (completely optional, of course)! Hope these tips help you and your kids to stay safe and make the most of the web as the school term begins.
Posted by Suan Yeo, Education Evangelist, Google Australia and New Zealand
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