Public Policy Blog
Updates on technology policy issues
Browsers powered by user choice
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Posted By Sundar Pichai, Vice President Product Management
Last month the European Commission
confirmed
that it had sent a statement of objections to Microsoft about the tying of Internet Explorer to the Windows operating system, which it said
"harms competition between web browsers, undermines product innovation and ultimately reduces consumer choice."
Then in a blog post earlier this month, Mozilla's
Mitchell Baker
weighed in, saying that
"Microsoft's business practices have fundamentally diminished (in fact, came very close to eliminating) competition, choice and innovation in how people access the Internet."
We are applying to become a third party in the European Commission's proceeding. Here's why:
First, browsers are critical to the Internet -- they enable us to surf the web, search, chat, email, watch videos, or connect to our social networks. And because they are so central to every user's web experience, browsers are crucial to innovation online.
Second, Google believes that the browser market is still largely uncompetitive, which holds back innovation for users. This is because Internet Explorer is tied to Microsoft's dominant computer operating system, giving it an unfair advantage over other browsers. Compare this to the mobile market, where Microsoft cannot tie Internet Explorer to a dominant operating system, and its browser therefore has a much lower usage. The value of competition for users (even in the limited form we see today) is clear: tabbed browsing, faster downloads, private browsing features, and more. Even greater competition will drive more innovation within browsers themselves - as well as in web design, enabling sites to load faster and offer new kinds of interactive tools and applications.
Finally, we believe that we can contribute to this debate. We learned a lot from launching our own
Google Chrome
browser last year and are hoping that Google's perspective will be useful as the European Commission evaluates remedies to improve the user experience and offer consumers real choices. Of course creating a remedy that helps solve one problem without creating other unintended consequences isn't easy - but the more voices there are in the conversation the greater the chances of success.
We don't know how the Commission's proceeding will evolve. But we are confident that more competition in this space will mean greater innovation on the web and a better user experience for people everywhere.
Washington plugs into the smart grid
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Posted by Michael Terrell, Google.org Program Manager
(Cross-posted from the
Official google.org Blog
)
Just one week after launching Google's
energy information
campaign, we kicked off our first joint
smart grid event
with GE, a larger clean energy collaboration we
announced
last fall. Our timing was fortuitous; the event took place just as President Obama signed an historic economic stimulus bill that includes $11 billion to modernize the electricity grid.
Getting energy information into the hands of consumers requires reworking the electricity grid to make it smarter. At Tuesday's event, hosted in Google's Washington office, experts explored what the fundamental elements of a smarter grid should be -- from empowering consumers with information, tools, and choices to manage their energy use, to creating an open system that encourages innovation, to enabling a massive scale up of renewable energy sources and plug-in vehicles. We also explored the government's role in accelerating these efforts. Our panelists were enthusiastic about the opportunity created by the stimulus, but also noted the government's challenge of getting the money out the door in an effective and efficient manner.
Some highlights from the event:
GE's film clip
highlighting a smart grid project in Oklahoma
An appearance by
Carol Browner
, President Obama's senior energy official in the White House, who noted with delight the packed crowd of over 450 people
Former astronaut and current Googler,
Ed Lu
, making the case for open standards and user access to energy information on our technology panel
Our very own Dan Reicher shamelessly punning that "we want to help build a
fridge
to the 21st century," a play on
Bill Clinton's '96 campaign mantra
To stay plugged into our energy information campaign and learn about developments along the road to a smarter grid, be sure to
join our Google Group
.
UPDATE:
Watch the
event video
on YouTube.
Green living at Google's D.C. office
Friday, February 13, 2009
Posted by Dorothy Chou, Global Communications and Public Affairs
Google offices around the world are known for their great food, colorful lava lamps, and foosball tables -- but how do these buildings fit in with our commitment to "
go green
"? Eric Kuhn of the Huffington Post stopped by our office in Washington, D.C. to
learn more
:
Reaction to the FTC's advertising privacy principles
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Posted by Pablo Chavez, Senior Policy Counsel
For the last year or so, the Federal Trade Commission has been looking at privacy questions surrounding online behavioral advertising. We've been pleased to be a part of that process, including
testifying
at the FTC's 2007 town hall meeting, submitting our own
comments
last year on the
draft principles
, and having extensive conversations with FTC staff.
Today, the Commission released the
final version
of its self-regulatory principles. The FTC principles underscore that in a fast-evolving space like the Internet, a self-regulatory approach is the best way to protect consumers and promote innovation.
We agree with the statements of Commissioners Liebowitz and Harbour that individual companies and industry generally can and should do more to protect user privacy. Google will continue to engage in efforts to develop strong self-regulatory principles and will will continue to advocate for comprehensive federal privacy legislation.
Safer social networking and self regulation
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Posted by Luc Delany, European Policy Associate
Although there are European laws in place to protect online users (remember, if an act is illegal offline it's illegal online also), legislative processes can be time consuming and have the potential to be out of date before they can be enforced. That's why self-regulation is a crucial tool for industry be able react quickly to immediate policy needs. We applaud the European Commission also for
recognising
the need for this approach.
On
Safer Internet Day
, earlier this week, Google signed up to support the
"Safer Social Networking Principles"
that were agreed between online service providers with the help of the European Commission through its Social Networking Taskforce. We think this is a great initiative and precisely the right approach to be taken to help protect young people on social networking services.
Obviously Google itself is not a social networking service but some elements of certain services do have social elements and we will endeavor to uphold the principles. On YouTube for example, we give users a wealth of safety information in our "
Safety Tips
" centre featuring tips and guidance on topics like teen safety, cyber citizenship, cyberbullying, hateful content, and privacy. We'll be making a full self-assessment of the principles and our services by April, along with all the other signatories.
The creation of the principles is another step in the developing the maturing self-regulatory approach to child protection on-line, building on initiatives such as
Teach Today
.
Broadband provisions in the economic stimulus package
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Adam Kovacevich, Senior Manager, Global Communications and Public Affairs
We're trying out a new feature on this blog -- video interviews with folks from Google's public policy team.
With a deal apparently
struck
today on the economic stimulus bill before Congress, I spoke this afternoon with Rick Whitt, who handles telecom policy issues for Google, about the bill's provisions to expand broadband deployment. Check it out:
Learning what rocks the music industry
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Posted by Rob Tai, Policy Analyst
Over the past decade, the music industry has adapted to an Internet generation accustomed to MP3 players, file-sharing, and
music videos
on YouTube. What does the next decade hold, and how will the industry respond to technologies that challenge traditional business models?
Musicians, technologists, lawyers, policymakers and industry leaders will address these questions and more at the
Future of Music Coalition's Policy Day
, taking place tomorrow in Washington, D.C.
YouTube's very own chief counsel Zahavah Levine will explain advances YouTube has made in
monetizing content for artists and creators
as part of a panel,
"Win-Win When? Copyright and Innovation in the Digital Age"
.
For a preview of the kinds of issues that will be discussed, I highly recommend that you check out the Future of Music Coalition's
YouTube Channel
and learn what
George Clinton
of Parliament-Funkadelic has to say about
music sampling
:
Power to the people
Monday, February 9, 2009
Posted by Ed Lu, Engineering team
(Cross-posted from the
Official Google Blog
)
[As Google expands its clean energy advocacy, we will be doing more in Washington to bring the perspective of our users and the voice of experts into the policy debate. Join us next Tuesday at our DC office for "Plug Into the Smart Grid," an event co-hosted with General Electric, to discuss a smart power future and what it will take to get there. Learn more and
RSVP here
. --Harry Wingo, Google Policy Counsel]
Imagine how hard it would be to stick to a budget in a store with no prices. Well, that's pretty much how we buy electricity today. Your utility company sends you a bill at the end of the month with very few details. Most people don't know how much electricity their appliances use, where in the house they are wasting electricity, or how much the bill might go up during different seasons. But in a world where everyone had a detailed understanding of their home energy use, we could find all sorts of ways to save energy and lower electricity bills. In fact,
studies show
that access to home energy information results in savings between 5-15% on monthly electricity bills. It may not sound like much, but if half of America's households cut their energy demand by 10 percent, it would be the equivalent of taking eight million cars off the road.
Google’s mission is to "organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful," and we believe consumers have a right to detailed information about their
home electricity use
. We're tackling the challenge on several fronts, from policy advocacy to developing consumer tools, and even investing in smart grid companies. We've been participating in the dialogue in Washington, DC and with public agencies in the U.S. and other parts of the world to advocate for investment in the building of a "smart grid," to bring our 1950s-era electricity grid into the digital age. Specifically, to provide both consumers and utilities with real-time energy information, homes must be equipped with advanced energy meters called "smart meters." There are currently about 40 million smart meters in use worldwide, with plans to add another 100 million in the next few years.
But deploying smart meters alone isn't enough. This needs to be coupled with a strategy to provide customers with easy access to energy information. That's why we believe that open protocols and standards should serve as the cornerstone of smart grid projects, to spur innovation, drive competition, and bring more information to consumers as the smart grid evolves. We believe that detailed data on your personal energy use belongs to you, and should be available in an open standard, non-proprietary format. You should control who gets to see your data, and you should be free to choose from a wide range of services to help you understand it and benefit from it. For more details on our policy suggestions, check out the
comments
we filed yesterday with the California Public Utility Commission.
In addition to policy advocacy, we're building consumer tools, too. Over the last several months, our engineers have developed a software tool called
Google PowerMeter
, which will show consumers their home energy information almost in real time, right on their computer. Google PowerMeter is not yet available to the public since we're
testing it out
with Googlers first. But we're
building partnerships
with utilities and independent device manufacturers to gradually roll this out in pilot programs. Once we've had a chance to kick the tires, we'll make the tool more widely available.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution to providing consumers with detailed energy information. And it will take the combined efforts of federal and state governments, utilities, device manufacturers, and software engineers to empower consumers to use electricity more wisely by giving them access to energy information.
Finding that dream volunteer gig abroad
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Posted by Galen Panger, Google for Non-Profits
On Tuesday night we had the pleasure of hosting Idealist's
Global Volunteering Fair
here at our D.C. office, where over 600 students, young professionals and others came to learn about and discuss opportunities to volunteer abroad.
The event was co-sponsored by the
Building Bridges Coalition
and the
Brookings Institution's Initiative on International Volunteering and Service
, and
26 organizations
came to share their opportunities. Attendees were also treated to workshops on "International Volunteerism 101," "Affordable Volunteering Abroad," and "Google 101 for International Volunteers."
Make sure to check out tonight's fair in
New York
or Saturday's fair in
Boston
if you happen to live near either city.
Thanks to Idealist for the opportunity to host such a cool event, and make sure to keep an eye on
idealist.org
for more opportunities to
work
and
volunteer
in the non-profit community.
Photos: Idealist
Introducing the White Spaces Database Group
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Posted by Richard Whitt, Washington Telecom and Media Counsel
Since November's
big vote
at the FCC, some have begun asking when we'll start seeing consumer mobile devices take advantage of TV white spaces spectrum.
As the Commission made clear in its ruling, a working white spaces database must be deployed in order for consumer devices to be available in the market. Before sending or receiving data, devices will be required to access this database to determine available channels in the vicinity. Combined with spectrum sensing technologies, use of a
geo-location
database will offer complete protection to licensed signals from harmful interference.
With this mandate in mind,
this morning
we joined Comsearch, Dell, HP, Microsoft, Motorola, and Neustar to launch the White Spaces Database Group.
In the coming weeks and months, members of the group will be offering to the Commission their perspectives, and some specific recommendations, about the technical requirements we would like to see adopted for the database. Many of these specifications ultimately will be heavily technical; put simply, we'll advocate for data formats and protocols that are open and non-proprietary, with database administration that is also open and non-exclusive.
We don't plan to become a database administrator ourselves, but do want to work with the FCC to make sure that a white spaces database gets up and running. We hope that this will unfold in a matter of months, not years.
Stay tuned to this blog for further updates on the group's work.
Data protection meets YouTube
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Posted by Iarla Flynn, Public Policy Manager, Ireland
What does privacy mean to you? We are helping to give you a chance to tell the world -- through video.
In honour of
Data Privacy Day
last week we've announced for the second consecutive year a video competition with Ireland's
Data Protection Commissioner
. Through the Commissioner's
YouTube channel
, participants are asked to submit videos on the theme "Public I, Private Eye." The aim of the competition is to encourage debate and create awareness of data protection and privacy issues. This competition is open to all, and I encourage all of you who care about privacy to upload your videos, The total prize fund is €10,000, with the winning video clip getting €5,000.
You can read more about the competition
here
-- or in this video:
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