In December, we took the Street View trekker  to Christmas Island, a remote tropical territory of Australia just south of Indonesia. With Parks Australia, we joined the island’s red crabs as they marched in the millions from the forest to the sea for their annual migration. 

Now it’s time to shellebrate. Starting today on Google Maps Street View and Google Earth, you can explore Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands’ unique wildlife, dazzling ocean vistas and lush rainforests, including the grand finale of the red crab migration—the spawning. The red crabs wait all year for this very moment—and the precise alignment of the rains, moon and tides—to release their eggs at the coastal waters. 

Christmas Island’s remote location makes it home to a wild and diverse ecosystem—including 600 species of tropical fish, 14 species of terrestrial crabs, more than 100 bird species and four native reptile species. Exploring its wetlands and blowholes and coastline, you can see for yourself why the island is often called “Australia’s Galapagos.”





Posted by Camilla Ibrahim, Christmas Island Crab Advocate, Google Australia & New Zealand

In the 19th century, newspapers were rocked by a disruptive new technology. The telegraph allowed information to travel faster than ever before, worrying editors and journalists. Why would anyone read a newspaper if news could travel instantly through cables?
The telegraph meant readers expected news to be conveyed more efficiently. But the anticipated newspaper apocalypse never arrived. Far from bringing an end to the industry, the telegraph was co-opted by the best newspapers. Although the telegraph is obsolete today, the rapid and reliable delivery of information it enabled remains a hallmark of the newspaper industry.
Technology has shaped the way people consume news for centuries. Today, anyone with a smartphone can access an unprecedented number of news sources, while sharing content with friends and followers. Consumers are also using the Internet and mobile apps to engage with new forms of advertising, putting pressure on traditional ad-supported industries, including news publishers.
These changes in consumer and marketing behaviour have profound implications for traditional news business models. But they do not mean the death of journalism. In fact, our appetite for quality journalism is on the rise. According to Enhanced Media Metrics Australia, 90 per cent of Australians read Australian news media, and readership has been increasing.
I have read the AFR every day since high school. The way I read it has changed from print to a computer and now to a smartphone. What has remained constant is my need to be kept informed, whether on breaking business developments or the latest cricket results. Technology is the news industry’s strongest tool in satisfying the basic human need for good reporting.
We at Google are not content makers, we do not employ people to work as journalists, and we have no intention of becoming a news publisher. But we share an important common vision with the Australian news industry, which is to ensure that people have access to quality news and information. This is at the heart of our partnerships with publishers such as Fairfax Media. It is also why we support the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s inquiry. We have submitted our response and are ready to engage transparently and constructively with the Commission.
We are committed to securing journalism’s bright future in Australia by doing our part to make sure it works for newsrooms, news publishers and news consumers - and we are focusing on a number of areas.
First, newsrooms are looking to engage audiences better, so we are expanding our News Lab Fellowships in Australia in partnership with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. We help journalists use technology to tell more compelling stories, and offer them insights on how their work resonates with readers through Google Analytics.
Second, publishers are endeavouring to grow their business, so we are partnering with them to increase their revenue through digital advertising. We are also helping to promote subscriptions through the integration of subscription content in Search and offering a simple one-click sign-on called Subscribe with Google. With Flexible Sampling, publishers decide how much free sampling to offer their potential subscribers.
Third, consumers are seeking more news on digital platforms, so we are improving the way Search delivers them to the most relevant and trusted sources. In the past calendar year, we directed more than 2 billion visits to Australian news websites — each visit an opportunity to gain a loyal subscriber.
Finally, consumers are also seeking a better news consumption experience. People quit sites that take more than three seconds to load. So we are helping publishers create web pages that load in less than half a second with our open-source Accelerated Mobile Pages format.
And, at all times, people should have transparency and control over how their personal data is used. That’s a responsibility we take very seriously at Google, and we are encouraged that Australians are increasingly aware of how to access and change - even delete - the data they have shared with Google. In 2017, Australians visited myaccount.google.com more than 22 million times to understand what data they share with Google and how it is used to create a more relevant experience for them.
The way that people consume news may change, but the need for quality journalism does not. Our goal is to support newsrooms in meeting the evolving expectations of their audience. Ultimately, consumers will be the ones who decide whether news publishers flourish, but on present form there is every reason to believe that they will.
Jason Pellegrino, Managing Director, Google Australia

If you’re a pet owner, you've probably taken countless photos of your pooch. Here are a few pet-tential ways you can celebrate your pets with Google Photos:

Identify popular breeds with Google Lens

Recently, we made Google Lens preview available in Google Photos across Android and iOS. Now, when you take a photo of an animal—like a cute cat or dog—you can use Lens to help identify its breed and get more information.
Create a movie dedicated to your furry friend

Your pet may have a leading role in your life, but it’s time to show the rest of the world that your animal is a star. If your pet is ready for a big screen debut, open your Google Photos app, go to the Assistant tab, and click on the movie button. Then, if available, choose the Meow Movie or Doggie Movie option, select your pet, and we’ll compile the best photos of your four-legged pal into a movie, set to pet-themed music.

Label your pet to easily find photos of them
In most countries, you can label your cats and dogs so that you can search to quickly find photos of them. Or even better, you can find photos of that one time you dressed them up for Halloween by searching “Oliver hat” or pictures of them in the park by searching “Oliver park.”

Search by breed and emoji

Speaking of fast ways to find photos of your pets, you can also search by breed, species, or emoji — try  or – or quickly search “pitbull” to rediscover photos of your sister’s cute canine.

Howevfur you pampurr your pets, we hope you can try out a few of the features that Google Photos has to off-fur.

Posted by Kristi Bohl, Product Manager and Cat Enthusiast, Google Photos 

• "Play Lucky Trivia for Families”
• “Play Musical Chairs”
• “Play Musical Statues”
• “Let’s play a game”

Learn ?

Posted by Gabi Conlon, Head of Brand, Google Australia & New Zealand

People come to Google looking for information they can trust, and that information often comes from the reporting of journalists and news organizations around the world. And while the demand for quality journalism is as high as it’s ever been, the business of journalism is under pressure, as publications around the world face challenges from an industry-wide transition to digital.
That matters deeply to Google. After all, our mission to build a more informed world is inherently tied to the reporting of journalists and news organizations. Our shared mission also reflects shared business interests. Platforms like Search and YouTube depend on a healthy ecosystem of publishers producing great digital content. That’s why it’s so important to us that we help you drive sustainable revenue and businesses. Last year, we paid US$12.6 billion to partners and we drove 10 billion clicks a month to publishers’ websites for free.
It’s also why over the years, we’ve worked closely with the news industry to address key challenges. We worked with the industry to launch the open-source Accelerated Mobile Pages Project to improve the mobile web, YouTube Player for Publishers to simplify video distribution and reduce costs, Flexible Sampling to help with discovery of news content on Google, Google News Lab to provide newsrooms with trainings and editorial partnerships, and the Digital News Initiative to drive innovation in the European news industry.
We invested a lot time and energy in these collaborations. But the hard truth is—all of this might not be enough. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish what’s true (and not true) online. Business models for journalism continue to change drastically. The rapid evolution of technology is challenging all institutions, including the news industry—to keep pace.
We need to do more. That’s why we’re launching the Google News Initiative (GNI), our effort to help journalism thrive in the digital age. The GNI signifies a major milestone in Google’s 15-year commitment to the news industry, and will bring together everything we do in collaboration with the industry—across products, partnerships, and programs—to help build a stronger future for news.
The GNI will build on these efforts and deepen our commitment to a news industry facing dramatic shifts in how journalism is created, consumed, and paid for. It’s focused on three objectives:

• Elevate and strengthen quality journalism
• Evolve business models to drive sustainable growth
• Empower news organizations through technological innovation

Elevate and strengthen quality journalism
Over the past few years, we’ve worked with publishers to elevate accurate, quality content and stem the flow of misinformation and disinformation.
On our own platforms, we’re focused on combating misinformation during breaking news situations. Bad actors often target breaking news on Google platforms, increasing the likelihood that people are exposed to inaccurate content. So we’ve trained our systems to recognize these events and adjust our signals toward more authoritative content. There are comparable challenges on YouTube, and we’re taking a similar approach, highlighting relevant content from verified news sources in a “Top News” shelf.
But we’re also working directly with news organizations to combat misinformation. We’re launching the Disinfo Lab alongside the First Draft to combat mis- and disinformation during elections and breaking news moments. Finally, to help consumers distinguish fact from fiction online, we’re teaming up with the Poynter Institute, Stanford University, and the Local Media Association to launch MediaWise, a U.S. project designed to improve digital information literacy for young consumers.

Disinfo Lab continues our work with First Draft, which includes last year’s CrossCheck FR. This is a photo from a verification training in the runup to the French elections last year.

Disinfo Lab continues our work with First Draft, which includes last year’s CrossCheck FR. This is a photo from a verification training in the runup to the French elections last year.
Evolve business models to drive sustainable growth
Over the last decade, we’ve worked closely with news organizations to grow their digital advertising revenue. In just the past few years, we’ve applied our advanced machine learning expertise to automatically surface key insights about revenue opportunities (generating recommendations worth over US$300 million in additional revenue) and supported the creation of faster, better ad experiences for the mobile web through AMP and native ads.
But consumers are willing to pay for digital news content, creating an opportunity to expand beyond ad revenue. Today we’re delivering on a vision outlined last year to enable publishers to diversify their revenue streams. We’re excited to launch Subscribe with Google, a way for people to easily subscribe to various news outlets, helping publishers engage readers across Google and the web. Our goal with Subscribe with Google is to ease the subscription process to get more readers consuming publishers’ journalism, as quickly as possible.
In October, at our Partner Leadership Summit, we told publishers about how we’re experimenting with ways to grow their subscriptions using Google data, machine learning, and DoubleClick infrastructure. We’re now in the early stages of testing a “Propensity to Subscribe” signal based on machine learning models in DoubleClick to make it easier for publishers to recognize potential subscribers, and to present them the right offer at the right time.
Of course, not every publication has the resources to dedicate a team to collect, analyze and understand their user data. News Consumer Insights, our new dashboard built on top of Google Analytics, will help news organizations of all sizes understand and segment their audiences with a subscriptions strategy in mind. At the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, this project led to a 150 percent increase in page views to their Subscribe pages and a month-over-month tripling of new digital subscription purchases.
Empower news organizations through technological innovation
We work with news organizations around the world to develop and deploy technology that improves newsroom efficiency, creates enriching storytelling experiences, and protects journalists from cyber attacks around the world. For example, we’re using our natural language processing API to help Hearst Newspapers sort, label and categorize more than 3,000 articles every day. We’ve also worked with the South China Morning Post to use Google Earth Studio to create immersive VR experiences that show the evolution of Hong Kong throughout history. With AMP Stories, which is now in beta, publishers can combine the speed of AMP with the rich, immersive storytelling of the open web. This is just the beginning. We want to continue working closely with publishers to experiment on new ways they can reach audiences and produce impactful storytelling.
Finally, we’re also launching today Outline, an open-source tool from Jigsaw that lets news organizations provide journalists more secure access to the internet. Outline makes it easy for news organizations to set up their own VPN on a private server—no tech savvy required.
Our commitment Over the next three years, we’re committing $300 million toward meeting these goals. We’re also deepening our commitment to building products that address the news industry’s most urgent needs. In the past, we’ve done this by working closely alongside the industry in product working groups, resulting in projects like AMP and the DNI. We’ll be expanding that model globally.
The commitments we’re making through the Google News Initiative demonstrate that news and quality journalism is a top priority for Google. We know that success can only be achieved by working together, and we look forward to collaborating with the news industry to build a stronger future for journalism. Philipp Schindler, Google Chief Business Officer Philipp SchindlerChief Business OfficerGoogle

Posted by Aisling Finch, Marketing Director, Google Australia & New Zealand

Technology has changed the way that newsrooms reach their audiences and engage them with compelling stories. There are myriad new ways that consumers can access the news, including through their smartphones and now even through smart speakers like the Google Home.
But how do newsrooms connect with their communities and make sure they’re including everyone’s voice in their coverage? Often the quiet voices and those from isolated and remote communities are overlooked in mainstream media coverage - and it can be hard for them to find a journalist to tell their stories.

The hackathon sought to help newsrooms connect with their communities and make sure they’re including everyone’s voice in their coverage.

That’s the problem that 40 journalists and coders from around Australia tried to solve at a hackathon organised by the Global Editors Network (GEN), the Walkley Foundation and Google News Lab. We gathered some of the best media innovators from Australia and New Zealand at Google Australia’s headquarters in Sydney over two days to develop innovative news prototypes around the theme of "Connecting with local communities".

The Seven West Media team  at work on 'Newsroom Hotline'.

The winning team was from Seven West Media, publisher of The West Australian, with their prototype Newsroom Hotline, a simple but ingenious tool that enables anyone to dial a phone number and leave a voice message that is converted to text using artificial intelligence and emailed to the newsroom.

The Conversation team won the Public Choice vote.

As Seven West’s team said: “It is too difficult for people to get tip offs to journalists. Many simply don’t know how who to contact or how. This is because we no longer have editorial assistants to receive calls, our reporters are often on the road and news editors in the office are managing breaking news and competing deadlines across multiple newspapers, websites and social media channels.”
“The structure of newsrooms are constantly evolving, which makes it confusing for people without media experience to navigate to say what they want to say. Emails get lost in the white noise of press releases and too many phone calls bounce around the office. We need to make the connection between our community and our journalists as easy as possible.”

Teams from 10 different media organisations pitched their ideas to a panel of judges.

The Seven West team will next head to Lisbon to compete in the global GEN Editor's Lab final over three days. Special mentions go to The Conversation for their prototype On the Ground, which received the Public Choice, and to Junkee for YarnBot, and we’re grateful to all the teams who came from around the nation to contribute their time and resources to the hackathon.
Each of the ideas that were pitched are valuable contributions to helping solve the problem of connecting communities with the newsrooms that can tell their stories, and we can wait to see how they evolve and grow over time.
Irene Jay Liu, Google APAC News Lab Lead and one of the judges at the hackathon

Small business owners are always looking to stay one step ahead, so it’s fitting that Sydney’s leading female business owners came together today to celebrate International Women’s Day (one day ahead of the main event) and learn new skills at the International Women’s Day Digital Garage, hosted by Google and Business Chicks.

More than 120 business leaders joined the workshop to learn new digital skills and find out more about how they can grow their business online.



Guests had the chance to hear from other small businesses doing great things online and the New South Wales Minister for Women, Hon Tanya Davies MP.

Minister Davies spoke about the importance of supporting women in business and beyond, and invited guests to #PressForProgress - this year’s International Women’s Day theme.



We also heard from Leona Watson, Director of Cheeky Food Events, who shared her inspiring story of founding a team-building cooking company. She spoke about how she uses digital tools to reach new customers.

“About 70 percent of my new business is generated from people calling after seeing my ads on Google Search. As a business owner, there’s nothing better than being able to track down to the dollar where your marketing budget is going and to see the results it’s returning, it enables my business to just keep growing and gives me confidence... invaluable really!”



The workshop covered practical steps business owners can take to help put their business on the map and be found online by new customers.

Businesses right across Australia can take advantage of free, in-depth trainings on the Digital Garage site, which features tips on everything from taking your first steps online to analytics and mobile advertising.

Check out the Digital Garage today and stay tuned for more International Women’s Day news this week!


Posted by Richard Flanagan, Head of Business Marketing, Google Australia and New Zealand

We have something we want to Cher with you - this year’s Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras was one of the best ever!
The Mardi Gras is already one of our favourite times of the year, giving everyone a chance to join with friends and family to celebrate diversity and inclusion - but this year we had the added celebration of the recent legalisation of same-sex marriage, the presence of Cher as the headline act, and of course the 40th anniversary of the event.

It is the enormous diversity of groups and the enthusiasm they bring that make Mardi Gras such a special event.

At Google we believe that by creating an environment where everyone can feel comfortable bringing their whole selves to their work, they can be more innovative, creative, and inspired at work. We also want our employees to have the same inclusive experience outside of the office as they do at work, and for people to be safe and to be accepted wherever they are, so we look for impactful ways to help the LGBTQI+ community in Australia.
Google supports the Mardi Gras through its Community Parade Grants program, which is designed to fund and support a diverse range of community ideas and provide grants to individuals, community groups and not-for-profit groups to help lift their parade entries to a completely new artistic level.
This year is the second year for the program, and because it’s a special occasion - the 40th anniversary of the parade - we invested further funds to support a greater number of community groups and nonprofits: $80,000 in grant money was divided among 31 deserving organisations from all over Australia to help create extra fabulous floats in celebration of the momentous anniversary.
Some of the 31 Community Parade Grant recipients include:

Salamat Datang used their float to stand in solidarity with the LGBTQI community in Indonesia.

• Selamat Datang GLBTQI: Selamat Datang was created to show support for GLBTQI people in Indonesia and their struggle for acceptance in Indonesian society. Recently, the national Constitutional Court narrowly rejected a petition to have homosexual acts banned. The backlash from this has been phenomenal. There is now a debate being conducted by the national House of Representatives to introduce a new criminal code which would seek to ban homosexual acts between two consenting adults. Selamat Datang used their float to stand in solidarity with the LGBTQI community in Indonesia. 
• Trans Sydney Pride: TSP is a Sydney based social and support group founded by binary transpeople for binary, non-binary and gender queer transpeople. Their vision was to create a Trans Army in response to the Trump Administration’s position on trans people serving in the military. 
• twenty10: twenty10 provides social support, counseling, housing and mental health support for young LGBTQI people in Sydney. Their Parade entry was themed; 'Flaming Futures: Be yourself but don’t leave anyone behind!' and depicted what an evolved future free of discrimination and oppression could look like.

Disability rights, similar to LGBTIQ rights, have evolved substantially over the last four decades and PWDA aimed to celebrate and embrace this with their entry.

• People With Disability Australia: PWDA’s float theme was “Evolution to Inclusion”. Disability rights, similar to LGBTIQ rights, have evolved substantially over the last four decades and PWDA aimed to celebrate and embrace this with their entry.
• Departure Lounge: This float proudly proclaims “Rock Out With Your Croc Out” and will showcase the unique and fabulous LGBTQIA+ community in the Northern Territory. With a large contingent of locals from the NT attending, including many Sista Girls and Brotha Boys from the Tiwi Islands, Daly River and other remote parts of the NT, the float was led by a giant inflatable Territory Crocodile. 

FOBGAYS' float transformed into a giant colourful wedding party, called a baraat, traveling down Oxford Street.

• FOBGAYS: FOBGAYS is a grassroots community network of Friends and Family of Brown (South Asian) LGBTQI identifying people. Their float transformed into a giant colourful wedding party, called a baraat, traveling down Oxford Street in celebration of marriage equality.
• In Memory of Carmen Rupe: A grand dame of Mardi Gras, Carmen Rupe was a legendary Kiwi icon who called Sydney home for most of her life and who passed away five years ago. This float celebrated the life of this trailblazer who spent her life championing equality.
• Inner City Legal Centre: The ICLC is a non-profit community based legal centre who have been helping provide support to the LGBTQI community for over 30 years. Their float saw participants dressed in their 70’s finest in celebration of the original 1978 marchers as well as the significant LGBTI law reform that has occurred over the past 40 years.

The Itty Bitty Titty Committee's float was a homage, with a twist, to the 2017 hit TV series 'The Handmaid's Tale'.

• Itty Bitty Titty Committee: The title of this float is 'The Handmaid's (Fairy) Tale'. The float was a homage, with a twist, to the 2017 hit TV series, 'The Handmaid's Tale' and featured lesbian handmaids who are happy, gay and free, unlike the imprisoned characters in the show. 
• Tasmanian Gay & Lesbian Rights Lobby Group: TGLRG’s float celebrated LGBTQI Tasmanians and the 30th anniversary of the formation of the Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group, Tasmania’s leading LGBTQI rights group.
• The Kirby Institute: The Kirby Institute has worked closely with the LGBTI community towards eradicating HIV and other infectious diseases in Australia and globally. The theme of their float was “Agents of Change” and aimed to highlight and celebrate developments in HIV prevention and treatment over the years.

It is the enormous diversity of groups and the enthusiasm they bring that make Sydney Mardi Gras such a special event, and it was fabulous for everyone at Google to be able to make a difference to their participation this year.
Posted by KJ Pittl, Gayglers Sydney lead, Google Australia