Tag Archives: UK

Search ranking is based on many things, British politics isn’t one

In my time at Google, UK publishers of every political leaning have asked me why they don't rank higher in Search. My answer is always the same: search ranking is based on many things, but British politics is not one of them.

We go to great lengths to build our products and enforce our policies in ways that don't take political leanings into account. People trust Google to deliver relevant results; distorting results for political purposes would undermine that trust and hurt our business.

This question comes down to the fundamentals of how Search works. When you type in a query, there could be thousands or even millions of webpages or other information that might be relevant. In a fraction of a second, Google’s Search automated systems sort through this to find the most relevant, useful results for what you’re looking for. There are hundreds of factors that determine which results are shown – from quality and freshness to the words of your query, expertise of sources, and the searcher’s location and settings.

We know Search can always be better. That’s why we conduct hundreds of thousands of experiments every year and get feedback from third-party Search Quality Raters, resulting in thousands of improvements, all of which are rigorously tested.

Along with our own testing, independent studies including by Stanford and The Economist have demonstrated there is no political bias in Search and News results. As the Economist concluded: “Google rewards reputable reporting, not left-wing politics”. Other UK publishers have also conducted their own research.

These questions come in from all sides and we’re always happy to explain how our systems work. As long as I keep getting these kinds of queries from every corner of the political spectrum, I'll know we’re doing our job.

Celebrating 10 years of Google for Startups in the UK

I remember clearly the palpable sense of excitement at the Google for Startups Campus in London’s ‘Silicon Roundabout’ when I first visited in 2012. My first startup, back in Krakow Poland, had shut down after three years of solid early traction, and I moved to London in pursuit of bigger opportunities, a community and capital to fuel growth. The UK quickly became home, and my London Campus experience was so positive I ended up joining Google six years later.

As we celebrate the 10 year anniversary of Google for Startups UK, we’re taking a moment to celebrate the entrepreneurs and teams who have blazed a trail, and looking ahead to ensure we’re helping create the right conditions for future founders.

The industry has grown exponentially since Google for Startups UK launched 10 years ago – this year, we’ve already seen UK tech startups and scaleups cumulatively valued at more than $1 trillion (£794bn); up from $53.6 billion (£46bn), ten years ago.

One area of the UK tech startup community that has flourished in particular is impact tech - defined as . companies founded to help address global challenges like climate change and help transform health, education and financial inclusion. Our new report created in partnership with Tech Nation, A Decade of UK Tech, shows that funding for impact tech startups has soared. In fact, since 2011, funding for impact tech companies addressing UN Sustainable Development Goals has risen 43-fold from just $74 million (£59 million) to $3.5 billion (£2.8 billion).

Graph: Investment into impact tech scaleups (2011-2021)

Graph 1: Investment into impact tech scaleups (2011-2021)

Source: Tech Nation, Dealroom, 2022

Startups are helping to solve global challenges, like climate change, education, health, food and sanitation, with agility, innovation and determination. And at Google for Startups, we’re proud to be supporting these businesses along the way by connecting founders with the right people, products and practices to help them grow. Because their continued success is vital not just for the UK’s future, but that of the world.

Enduring market barriers and perceptions of high risk can slow private sector investment. But even such challenges create a multitude of new opportunities for tech startups to leverage the UK's position as a financial services powerhouse. Elizabeth Nyeko
Founder of Modularity Grid - A deep tech startup

Google for Startups was launched in the UK with a mission to support a thriving, diverse and inclusive startup community. Here’s where we are a decade later:

  • Startups in our community have created more than 24,000 jobs
  • Startups in our network have raised £358 million
  • We supported 20 UK-based Black-led startups with the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund in Europe. Last year's European cohort went on to raise £64 million in subsequent funding and increase their headcount by 21%

Our work at Google for Startups is far from over. We’re committed to levelling the playing field for all founders, and closing the disproportionate gap in access to capital and support networks for underrepresented communities. For the impact tech sector to continue to grow and succeed, we must ensure funding is channeled towards the most innovative startups - no matter their valuation, funding stage or background.

Find out more at Google for Startups.

Google and news in the UK: The facts

Recent events have reminded us of the role that journalists play in helping us understand important topics as they unfold. The UK has a long history of great journalism, which has enriched our society, economy and democracy.

When people use Google Search to look for information about what’s happening in the world around them, they want links to reliable news sources. Likewise, publishers want to reach and inform more readers, helping everyone make sense of events. This has real benefits for publishers. In fact, the overall value of web traffic is estimated to be worth more than £500 million a year to news publishers in the UK.

Beyond this simple value proposition, we invest heavily in news – making us one of the UK's biggest financial supporters of journalism. For instance, at the beginning of last year, we brought Google News Showcase to the UK, which licenses content from more than 200 UK news publications.

Sharing some facts about how we work with UK publishers

Publishers choose if and how links to their articles appear on Google

Like other types of web pages that appear on Google Search, we provide links to news content. News publishers remain in full control over whether or not links to their web pages are included in Search and how much of a preview of their articles we show. Most decide to be included because it helps readers find their stories. Each month, people click through from Google Search and Google News results to publishers' websites more than 24 billion times around the world. This traffic helps publishers increase their readership, build trust with readers and earn money through advertising and subscriptions.

Google does not make significant revenue from news-related searches

In 2020, news-related queries accounted for under 2% percent of total queries on Google Search in the UK. And we don’t run ads on Google News or the news results tab on Google Search. Nearly all of the ads people see on Google are on searches with commercial intent like “toasters,” or “electrician,” rather than from news-seeking queries.

Publishers that use our ad products keep the vast majority of the revenues

Many of the top news companies around the world use Google Ad Manager to manage their digital advertising business and on average they keep over 95% of the digital advertising revenue generated on their sites with this tool. Between 2018 and 2020, we paid out over £245m to the top five UK news publisher partners alone in our ad network.

Google invests in products and programmes to help publishers make money online

Almost half of the overall decline of newspaper revenue has come from the loss of newspaper classifieds to specialist online players like Rightmove or Motors.co.uk. Yet innovative publishers are evolving, turning to new ways for distribution, analytics, advertising and subscriptions and the majority of publishers are optimistic about the growth of digital revenues. Google is providing support through products, programmes and funding, like investing £18m in training, partnerships and programming with news organisations in the UK.

We support new rules

Beyond our existing support for journalism, we have been engaging closely with the UK government and regulatory authorities over many months as they consider how to ensure a strong future for news and enable innovation. We support thoughtful regulation.

Addressing speculation on the value we gain from links to news

A few days ago, we saw new speculation about the value Google gains by providing links to news publishers on Google Search. However, this latest paper chose not to include any mention of the vast value that news publishers gain from reaching readers through our platform – leaving out half of the story.

Even setting this aside, the paper essentially alleges that links to news content are of vital importance to Google, and that their loss would have devastating consequences. In the framework of the paper (which is something of a black box), it is claimed that the quality contributed by these links enables Google to carry something like half of its ads. This is not just wholly implausible – it also flies in the face of the facts. In reality, Google does not make significant revenue from news-related searches. As we said earlier, in 2020, news-related queries accounted for under 2% percent of total queries on Google Search in the UK and we don’t show ads on the vast majority of searches.

The paper also features some fanciful estimations on the value of the “data” derived from the integration of links to news results in Search for Google’s revenues from YouTube and its ad tech products. Yet its calculation relies on something else – the impact on publisher revenues from the removal of third party cookies on non-Google sites. Confused? So are we.

Ultimately, both publishers and readers gain real value from the presence of links to news sources on Google Search. We must all work together to ensure that people have access to authoritative information online and we will continue to work with the government, publishers, journalists and readers on public policies that further strengthen journalism.

Creating new career opportunities with Google Cloud

A year ago, in a forum with chief technology officers from our Google Cloud Partner network, there was one topic on everybody's mind: talent. Or more specifically, a lack of it. All the leaders in the room were finding it incredibly difficult to hire, train and retain top cloud talent. I was hosting this forum and so went away to think how we could best solve this challenge and grow the pool of available cloud-skilled individuals.

In my day job, I lead a team of engineers in the U.K. and Ireland who work with our partners’ technical teams to enable and support them in delivering Google Cloud technologies to our customers. So I was motivated to solve this skills gap. This is not unique to us, either: we know from Gartner that through 2022, insufficient cloud Infrastructure as a service skills will delay half of enterprise IT organisations’ migration to the cloud by two years or more. So this is an industry-wide challenge.

We wanted to do something locally, to help grow the pool of available skilled individuals, ideally tapping into underrepresented groups. This was the genesis of Project Katalyst: to create a programme that would provide equal access to job opportunities for young people who may not have had the chance to go university, giving underrepresented groups a path into a rewarding, well-paid and growing tech sector. Yes, it’s Katalyst with a K, not the traditional C; this is a nod to Kubernetes, a key component of the training. In the recent LinuxFoundation 2021 Jobs Report, cloud and container technologies were ranked as the hottest skill.

To do this quickly at a large scale, we needed to work with a partner with experience in this area. We were introduced to Generation UK, a charity which already does exactly what we are looking to achieve. After our first meeting, it was clear we were completely aligned. Over the following months, as we developed the programme with Generation UK, their drive and expertise has been invaluable in creating the ideal way to prepare, place and support people into careers that would otherwise be inaccessible, all on Google Cloud.

Google already does a lot to make the workplace as inclusive as possible. For me, the Katalyst programme helps us to bring part of that inclusivity to our partners and the wider communities we live in. Growing up, I always thought one day I would be a teacher, following in my mother’s footsteps. While I took a different career path, for me it’s fantastic to have the opportunity, through this programme, to enable life-changing careers, supporting others to learn and hopefully enjoy working with Google Cloud as much as I do, fulfilling, in part, a dream I once had.

The Katalyst programme is 12 weeks long, with the initial pilot running this summer 2022, covering both technical and soft skills training. On the course, participants will go through the Google Cloud Digital Leader certification,and will also do much of the training for the Google Cloud Associate Cloud Engineer certification, which they will be expected to complete in the first six months of their new roles, once they start at our Google Cloud Partners.

Participants will then get to meet and interview for confirmed roles at our Google Cloud Partners with an expected annual salary of up to £30,000 in London. To grow the pool of underrepresented people working on our technology and the workplace in general, the programme is aimed at participants representing a balance of genders, ethnic minority communities, young people who are furthest away from the labour market through no fault of their own, individuals who are not in education, employment or training for more than 6 months, or those with a mental or physical challenge, who've not had a chance to develop their skills. The hope is to then expand this out to other locations in the U.K. and beyond, as well as our customers’ organisations, after we deliver a successful pilot.

If you would like to offer a place to one of our participants at your organisation, you can learn more here or if you are interested in applying for one of the places, or know someone who might, you can apply on Generation UK’s site

Supporting small businesses in a hybrid world

As we all moved online during the pandemic, businesses learnt how to adapt quickly to stay connected to customers and employees.

We grew accustomed to using QR codes in place of queueing, online workouts instead of visiting the gym and video calls replacing real-life conversations. It’s estimated that in 2020, the use of technology leapt forward five years in about five months.

Now, as we make the switch to hybrid working and welcome the return of face-to-face experiences, businesses — including Google — are having to adapt again. New research we commissioned shows 60% of the UK’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) owners believe they are operating in a post-pandemic “new normal,” with customer and employee expectations dramatically altered.

And while there has been much focus on post-pandemic return-to-office for big businesses, 60% of SME leaders say they need more support to help adapt to the permanent changes brought about over the past two years.

Over a third (35%) of SMEs say they have changed their business radically, and 63% say that digital skills and tools are now more important than they were pre-pandemic, as they look to grow in a hybrid and more digitally mature world.

In spite of that, a majority of SME leaders find that it’s harder now to recruit staff with the right digital skills. They are eager for the next phase of digital skills that will support them: almost three quarters (72%) of businesses say they would be interested in government or third party funded digital skills training, and in incentives for providing training (68%). But many of them don’t know where to get help.

That’s why today, with Chancellor Rishi Sunak, we’re launching the next phase of our in-person digital skills training, along with new support via Google Career Certificates to help small businesses adapt to this post-pandemic ‘new normal.’

Delivering in-person digital skills training nationwide

Starting today in Ipswich, Suffolk, our in-person Google Digital Garage team will be visiting towns and cities nationwide, making stops in places like Leeds, Lincolnshire, Salisbury and Glasgow, to teach small businesses and individuals digital skills that can help them maximize their potential. As well as classes on topics like 'How to write a CV', 'Digital Marketing Strategy' or 'Coding,' we’re offering one-to-one mentoring with digital experts.

Small businesses are at the heart of our economy – creating jobs and prosperity across the UK. It’s been fantastic to meet so many SMEs in Suffolk today and to see Google’s digital workshop in action which is giving them the tools to grow. Rishi Sunak
Chancellor of the Exchequer

High-impact tech skills with Google Career Certificates

We’re also working alongside the Federation of Small Businesses to offer up to 500 Google Career Certificate Scholarships to SMEs, worth up to £87,000 per business, to help them grow and develop high-impact tech skills. The programmes, which are available on Coursera, offer flexible online training in high-demand areas such as project management, IT support, data analytics, UX design and digital marketing. We're proud these certificates are giving learners the opportunity to gain entry-level digital skills in competitive fields and helping businesses across the UK to fill their skills gaps.

Levi Roots

Entrepreneur Levi Roots on stage with two small business founders at today’s Google Digital Garage skills training event

When work moved from offices and studios to online, no one knew how we’d adapt to such sudden change. But adapt we did. Small businesses leaders looked for creative ways to bring their offline services online and many saw how powerful that could be. Like Zoe Chapman, founder of Kiddiwhizz, who used digital tools like online advertising and social media to supercharge growth, build brand awareness and increase profitability.

Going digital helped me to grow my new business at an incredible rate, despite launching mid-pandemic. Opportunities that may have otherwise taken years to materialise are already in the works. Zoe Chapman
Founder of Kiddiwhizz

Zoe added that, "Having access to a Google Digital Garage mentor was like having a hand to hold whilst learning."

The UK’s growing digital economy has created opportunities for record numbers of British small businesses to thrive. We’re committed to helping more businesses, and their employees, make the most of that opportunity to maximize their growth.

Girlguiding and Google: technology is for everyone

Technology has always been a huge part of my life. Growing up in the nineties and early noughties, I can’t remember a time without it. From chunky flip phones and CDs, to newer, sleeker gadgets with all sorts of capabilities, technology has changed rapidly and remarkably in my lifetime alone.

But, despite growing up around tech, I — like lots of my female peers — never really felt I could be involved in creating it. This needs to change. Technology can be made by anyone, and is for everyone. We need to make sure that girls and young women have the opportunity to pursue an interest in STEM subjects.

That’s why, as a Ranger and Young Leader within Girlguiding, I’m really excited about Girlguiding’s newly expanded programme with Google which will give nearly 400,000 Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Rangers more opportunities to learn digital skills for their future.

Girls feel STEM is not for them

To encourage more girls and young women to pursue STEM subjects, we need to change attitudes from a very young age. Girlguiding’s Girls’ Attitudes Survey, found in 2021 that 52% of girls aged 11-21 saw STEM subjects as “for boys”. Girls of this age are at a stage where they’re making choices about their future, but sadly, preconceived perceptions are impacting their aspirations.

A third (34%) aged 7 to 21 feel there’s a lack of women role models in STEM. One in five (19%) aged 7 to 10 say girls who are interested in STEM subjects are teased. 27% of girls aged 11 to 21 believe teachers and career advisors often encourage girls to do different subjects to boys.

These numbers really highlight the need for groups like Girlguiding to work with organizations like Google to change this and enable more young people to feel empowered to pursue their interests.

  • A picture of Girlguiding groups and Google engineers.

    All four of Girlguiding's sections (age groups) and Google's engineers holding the partnership's digital skills badge.

  • Picture of a Rainbow raising her hand while taking part in the co-created activities.

    A Rainbow raises her hand while taking part in the co-created activities.

  • A picture of a Ranger taking part in pixel art at Google's offices

    A Ranger takes part in pixel art at Google's offices.

Digital discovery badges

Google and Girlguiding first launched the Google Digital Adventure for Brownies and Digital design badge for Rangers in 2018. More than 15,000 girls have already taken part.

Now, we’re expanding our partnership to give more girls and young women opportunities to learn about concepts like coding and algorithms, with new activities co-created by Google’s women engineers.

The new activities include Happy appy for Rainbows to learn about app designs; Brownie bots to teach Brownies how to write code and fix bugs; Chattermatter to teach Guides about chatbots, and Build-a-phone, which aims to teach Rangers the basic principles of phone design.

The new activities will form part of Girlguiding’s national programme within the Skills for my Future theme. These span all four Girlguiding sections (age groups) and have been created to be completed offline to ensure they are accessible to all girls.

An exciting future for all girls

Our goal — to make sure the next generation of girls and young women are encouraged to pursue STEM subjects — may not happen overnight. But thanks to the Girlguiding and Google partnership, nearly 400,000 girls like me in the UK will get new opportunities to learn the essential skills they need to break through stereotypes and become tech pioneers.

In years to come, I hope to see the Rainbows or Brownies of today on the front cover of a newspaper showing off their incredible discoveries and inventions. Alongside Google, Girlguiding is working to help build a future where more girls and young women feel empowered to help change the world!

Want to find out more? Read all about the new Google and Girlguiding partnership at www.girlguiding.org.uk.

A space for connection in King’s Cross

Once at the heart of the industrial revolution, today London's King’s Cross is a hub for innovation and entrepreneurship. We’re proud to be part of this community, where thousands of Googlers work on products like Android and Google Business Profile that people around the world use.

We believe in the area’s future growth and potential, which is why it’s so exciting to see our newest development take shape. We’re partnering on our first ground-up development in EMEA with British designer Thomas Heatherwick and Bjarke Ingels Group. When finished, our new location will include more than one million square feet of office and ground-floor retail space, and it will be a resource not just for Googlers but Londoners, too. We want the spaces and experiences we offer to create opportunity for local people and businesses, and contribute to the culture of entrepreneurship and vibrancy of the area.

A space curated by — and for — the local community

One of the ways our ambition will come to life is via our office’s ground floor, which runs along King’s Boulevard. To ensure it meets the needs of our local area, we’re listening to residents’ and small businesses’ views and ideas through partnerships with organisations like Camden Giving, which works to end poverty and inequality in Camden, and local media startup Camdenist. We’ll continue this work to ensure the place we create is relevant and meaningful, and has a positive local impact, complementing our wider community outreach in the area.

A computer generated image showing the ground floor of Google’s new building on King’s Boulevard, with a mix of retail and office spaces, several people are pictured in the foreground.

A visualisation of King’s Boulevard featuring a mix of different shops and spaces

A mix of local makers and established and growing brands

We recently submitted plans for a redesigned ground-floor space that will include more than 250 metres of shop fronts and a flexible space for events and community use. Our ambition is to create a lively, welcoming boulevard that connects communities to an ecosystem of local makers, purpose-driven retailers, and public activities.

We plan to offer the shop units to a mix of established and growing brands, and provide support to help great ideas grow. Alongside the individual retail units, a market hall will offer a launchpad for small businesses, while a community, education and event space will host a changing programme of events all year round.

The new ground floor designs will create a more inviting, creative public space, with a series of playful tilting timber portals and varied shop fronts that each tenant can customise. The designs also incorporate more places for the public to come together — something we’ve heard is important to local residents.

A computer generated image showing the roof of Google’s new building on King’s Boulevard, workers are pictured on the terrace and the roof itself is lined with trees and plants.

Visualisation of the roof of our newest building in King’s Cross.

A sustainable and flexible workplace

We believe in the value of coming together in person to collaborate, which is why we’re continuing to invest in our offices around the world. As we transition to flexible, hybrid work, we’re introducing new workplace technologies and collaboration spaces to keep our teams connected wherever they’re working.

We’re also emphasising sustainability in all aspects of the building’s design as we work towards a carbon-free future. The kitchens and onsite equipment will be fully electric, which will allow us to track hourly energy usage and match this with local renewable energy. A system of 13,500 interconnected devices around the office will improve energy efficiency in real time, while solar shading will help regulate the building’s temperature by reducing glare from the sun. We’ve prioritised low-carbon, local materials in the construction and interior design to reduce the carbon impact of our building by 20%.

We’ll share the lessons we learn to help other businesses reduce their carbon impact too, building on our partnerships with Camden Clean Air, the Knowledge Quarter and other local groups.

As well as offering a quiet green space for breaks during the work day, a densely planted outdoor roof garden, with a rainwater irrigation system, will provide a habitat for protected species of bats and birds. We’re collaborating with the London Wildlife Trust and the borough of Camden as part of a wider initiative to protect our native species and improve local biodiversity.

How Google supports the local community today

We’re proud to partner with more than 60 grassroots charities across Camden, providing mentoring, skills training and funding to support their work. In the past two years we’ve provided virtual work experience for more than 200 students in Camden schools, and supported over a thousand local residents impacted by COVID with our Community Help Kit. We’ve built strong connections and gained incredible insights from these programmes which, together, bring the voice of local residents and businesses into our long-term plans.

Google’s community-led mentoring really had a profound effect on me and totally changed my approach to building the brand of Comic Mania. I honestly don't think I could have got better support even if I paid for it. Simone Haynes
Founder of ComicMania, a small NGO based in Camden

Our commitment to the U.K.

Our ongoing work on our King's Cross campus along with our $1 billion investment in our London Central Saint Giles office demonstrates our long-term commitment to the U.K. We‘ll keep working hard to ensure we play a meaningful role in the cities we call home.

Helping UK children be safe and confident explorers of the online world

Children are growing up with access to the internet, and all its educational and social benefits, from an early age. Today, learning how to stay safer online is a vital part of a child’s education — and it is something that the whole community around the child needs to support, from their school and their family to the technology companies who have a responsibility to design safer products for children.

As a teacher, I've spent 20 years having broad conversations about safety with children and supporting them to better understand how to be safer and more confident explorers of the online world, and how to get support from trusted adults.

One of the ways I do this is via Be Internet Legends, an online safety education programme, developed by Parent Zone and Google.

Be Internet Legends teaches children in the UK how to be Sharp, Alert, Secure, Kind and Brave online at a level that children understand. Anyone who takes part in the activities — children, educators, parents — gets it. Playing Kind Kingdom in Interland helps families see the impact being kind online has. Role playing what to say to a trusted adult when they have seen something upsetting online empowers children when learning from the Be Internet Brave pillar. And inviting parents and other family members to join a National Drop-in Assembly from their home or workplace helps to facilitate conversations outside of school about how to stay safer online — reinforcing the learning that takes place in school.

There’s proof that it works. An independent review[9f04e3]found that following the Google and Parent Zone training, children are twice as likely to show an improved understanding of internet safety than those who haven’t received the training. It also found that two weeks after receiving the training, 7 in 10 children aged 7-11 report having been kinder in the way they say things online.

A new curriculum for 2022

The Be Internet Legends curriculum was first released in 2018 for all UK primary schools. With the ever changing digital landscape, an update was due – and I was excited to work on this in my new role as education writer at Parent Zone.

Coming straight from the ‘front line’ as a teacher, my knowledge of what really works in the classroom – and what makes a teacher's life easier – enabled the team, in partnership with Google, to develop an updated curriculum that would be well-received, relevant and actionable.

One wonderful aspect of the curriculum and how to use it is that it is completely flexible; teachers are empowered to adapt and use the curriculum to suit their learners. But, in developing the update, I wanted to create ways for schools to use the curriculum with greater span and longevity.

In direct response to teachers’ feedback, I created a progression of skills plan for each year group – and we increased the number of lesson plans to ensure the programme’s messages can be embedded across different age ranges.

The progression of skills demonstrates to schools how they can use the programme with each year group over 4-5 lessons per year; each one building on the previous year’s learning. Following this approach means the Be Internet Legends curriculum can be fully integrated into the PSHE/RSE/computing curriculum every year.

So, you can see that we really want teachers to take ownership of the curriculum and deliver it in a way that suits them.

Media literacy and social-emotional learning

New additions to the programme include a Media Literacy and Social & Emotional learning focus. Media literacy is vital for children and young people; it is the ability to identify different types of media and to understand the messages they are sending.

The curriculum also has a strong Relationships and Sex education (RSE) focus: thinking about, discussing and sharing feelings. Be Internet Legends is about more than just teaching practical online skills – there is a big focus on roleplay and discussions about different relationship situations.

image of instruction manual that says "sharp, alert, secure, kind, brave"

Helping teachers teach

One of the best things about Be Internet Legends is how it gives teachers autonomy over the learning – allowing them flexibility to use it as, when, and how they wish. Teachers love being in control of what they are teaching!

By co-delivering the teacher-training workshops, I’ve found out so much about how the programme is being used. One secondary special educational needs and disability (SEND) school teacher explained how the curriculum fits perfectly with the academic levels of their learners — and how the students are highly engaged. They said materials for younger learners rarely resonate for their students.

Parents from across the country and with children of all ages have also told me it's something they can understand and, importantly, engage in.

Starting your Legends adventure

Helping schools — and families — stay ahead of the curve with online safety is crucial – so seeing the programme develop for 2022 is exciting. Whether it’s media literacy, RSE or another priority, it’s great to see teachers learning to adapt the programme to support their communities.

I’m really looking forward to continuing to help teachers, children and their parents become safer and more confident explorers of the online world.

And you can find out more about the Be Internet Legends programme or — if you feel like a challenge — take on the Interland game to test your legendary skills too!

2022: The year we thought about what really matters to us

“The only way to truly educate ourselves is to ask questions. Questions that sometimes aren’t comfortable,” says Marcus Rashford, a hero to so many, and the person who spearheads our #ItsOktoAsk campaign here in the UK.

The campaign encourages us to be unafraid to ask the questions closest to our hearts. The questions that can help us to better understand one another and bring us closer together. Post pandemic, many have been taking stock of what’s important, re-evaluating relationships and considering career changes. We partnered with YouGov to find out more about what people were seeking to understand, but were hesitant to ask friends and family.

We partnered with YouGov to look at search data and the survey revealed some fascinating results:

  • 64% of UK adults say being able to ask questions without judgment makes it easier to ask a search engine like Google first, specifically on questions that define societal norms.
  • 50% of UK adults say the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns led them to re-evaluate friendships, relationships, family and work.

Friendships – calling time and setting boundaries

Both YouGov and Google Search Trends data shows that we’re thinking carefully about who we want to spend time with, with YouGov research indicating that 44% of UK adults are actively seeking new friendships, 46% want to end negative or non-useful friendships and 42% are looking to set more boundaries around their time.

Many of us are evaluating our networks, with one in 10 UK adults turning to Google to ask “How to make a more ethnically or gender diverse friendship group'' according to YouGov, and the same number questioning the gender of their friends, for example whether it’s “OK to have only male or female friends.”

Tellingly, we see Google trending searches over the last year including questions such as, “How can I make friends?” and “Is it normal to not have any friends?”

Romance and relationships

With IRL dating back on the cards, many UK adults are re-circling previous debates such as who pays the bill, which was a breakout search over the last year. Other trending searches were, “Is it OK to date two guys at the same time?” alongside, “Is it normal to want an open relationship?”

For 31% of those surveyed aged 45-54 looking for a fresh start after a relationship, correlating Google searches for “Should I split up with my partner?” and “When should I date again after a breakup?” saw a spike at the beginning of the year.

Many in relationships are reconsidering what that means, with searches like, “How to tell my boyfriend I’m polyamorous” and “How to meet polyamorous couples” spiking over the last year.

Other trending questions over the last two years using Google Search reveal our very human vulnerabilities:

  • “Is it OK to be single?”
  • “How long after a date should I text?”
  • “Is it OK to have sex on a first date?”
  • “Is it OK for woman to be taller than man?”
  • “Is it OK to split the bill on a date?”

Parenting – whether to and how to

People are questioning what parenthood looks like as we enter 2022, with a surge in searches for “How do you know if you want children?” and “Is it OK to not want children?” over the past year.

We are also turning to Google Search for parenting advice. Questions that have spiked over the last year show it’s been a preoccupation, and unsurprisingly given the circumstances for many parents. They included:

  • “How to be the best dad”
  • “How to be the best mum”
  • “How to balance being a mum and working”
  • “How to work full time and be a single mum”
  • “I always doubt my parenting abilities”
  • “How does society affect child rearing?”

Work life shake ups

Google Trends shows that 23% of searches indicate that many people want to make big lifestyle changes when it comes to their work-life balance. Searches spiked around terms such as “How to make extra money from home” and “Flexible work from home jobs.”

Many are also looking into creative vocations, with increases in searches over the last year including:

  • “Film director courses”
  • “Interior design apprenticeship”
  • “DJing course”
  • “Sign language courses”
  • Jewellery making course UK”

More than ever before, women are looking to support each other in the workplace too, with Google Search interest in female mentorship increasing by 130% in the past 12 months in the UK — more than any other European country during this time. Peer mentoring for women was also on the rise, spiking by 250% in the UK in the past 12 months compared to the previous year. We’ve reason to be proud here.

What will you be searching for to improve your conversations and understanding about life and relationships?

Black Founders Fund: Meet the UK Founders

From the internet to the world’s first vaccine, the United Kingdom has long been home to groundbreaking ideas that have changed the world. Great ideas come from everywhere, but in most cases, an idea alone isn’t enough to bring an invention or a business to life. Funding plays a key role in turning a brainstorm into a business venture.

Unfortunately, startup founders do not have equal access to funding. In 2020, less than 0.25% of venture capital (VC) funding went to Black-led startups in the U.K. and only 38 Black founders received venture capital funding in the last 10 years. Black founders are disproportionately over-mentored, yet underfunded, and in many cases not being given access to the resources needed to turn great ideas into great businesses.

Nobody wins in this cycle of underrepresentation. Black founders miss out on opportunities to bring their vision to life, investors miss out on opportunities for worthwhile returns, and society as a whole misses out on innovative solutions that were never given the opportunity to grow as they should.

That’s why in 2021 we launched the firstBlack Founders Fund in Europe to help tackle the inequality in venture capital, and today we’re launching a new fund, twice the size, and inviting Black-led startups to apply for a total of $4 million worth of non-dilutive cash awards.

Some say there’s a pipeline problem when it comes to funding black startups, but we know this isn’t true: last year we received almost 800 applications from across Europe. Some of the exceptional British startups that received last year’s funding range from Axela’s data-enhanced healthcare solutions to Kami’s virtual support systems for parents.

Our teams partnered with ITV, WPP, Allen & Overy and Soho House to offer last year’s 20 U.K.-based founders free advertising opportunities, legal support and co-working space, in addition to Google Cloud grants and ads support. This gave the founders the time and resources needed to grow their businesses, and the results speak for themselves: last year’s group raised over $63 million (approx £48 million) in subsequent funding and increased their staff headcount by 21%!

In the video above, two UK-based founders, Rachael Corson, founder of haircare line Afrocenchix, and Ismail Jeilani, founder of education influencer platform Scoodle, discuss the fund’s impact on their businesses and explain why more Black founders should apply for this year’s fund.