Public Policy Blog
Updates on technology policy issues
Helping America flip the digital TV switch
Friday, October 24, 2008
Posted by Johanna Shelton, Policy Counsel and Legislative Strategist
In less than four months, U.S. television broadcasting will switch from analog to digital, a more efficient and higher quality transmission system. At midnight on February 17, 2009, all full power television stations will transition to digital-only broadcasting.
This week, our friends at the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) launched a contest on YouTube to help consumers get ready. CEA is inviting YouTube users to create videos that will educate and inform others on how to prepare for the transition. Contest details can be found at
http://www.youtube.com/dtvtransition
.
Why is the country making this change? More than just better television, digital broadcasting will free up airwaves for emergency responder use and unleash a more open era of mobile communications.
By switching to a more efficient broadcasting system, valuable spectrum can now be used for new wireless services and enhanced public safety communications. The FCC already
auctioned
some of this spectrum. Google sought to ensure that, regardless of who won the auction, consumers would be able to connect any wireless device and download any application and content of their choosing. The winner of a key block of the spectrum, Verizon Wireless, will now be required to give consumers these historic new rights. The digital TV transition also promises to expand the amount of vacant TV "
white spaces
" spectrum that we hope is used for unlicensed advanced Wi-Fi-like services.
Before these benefits can be realized, we all have a responsibility to make sure our friends, families and fellow citizens aren't left in the dark when the
digital TV transition
happens on February 17, 2009.
What can you do? Help identify friends and family members who watch over-the-air television through analog TVs that are not connected to cable or satellite service. Encourage them to get a digital television or a TV converter box to keep their existing analog TVs working. Congress has created a converter box coupon program to provide coupons worth $40 to help households get the converter box equipment they need - see
www.dtv2009.gov
to apply for coupons. And, starting this week, you can also help spread the word by entering CEA's Convert Now contest on YouTube to win a new home entertainment center.
The popular country band Whiskey Falls has created a video to kick off the contest. Check it out -- and be sure to get your videos in before November 23:
Down to the wire on white spaces
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Posted by Richard Whitt, Washington Telecom and Media Counsel
(Cross-posted from the
Official Google Blog
)
There's more than one important vote going on this Election Day. On November 4, as Americans cast their ballots for President of the United States,
the Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to be voting
on rules governing "white spaces" -- the unused airwaves between broadcast TV channels.
Just as Wi-Fi sparked a revolution in the way we connect to the web, freeing the "white space" airwaves could help unleash a new wave of technological innovation, create jobs, and boost our economy. But it can happen only if the FCC moves forward with rules that make the best possible use of this spectrum.
Last week, after many months of thorough testing, the Commission's engineers announced their conclusion that white spaces devices could operate without interfering with TV broadcasts or wireless microphone signals. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin
pledged his support
for opening "white space" spectrum, and announced that the Commission would vote on the issue on November 4.
Unfortunately, last Friday the broadcasting lobby filed an emergency request to stop the vote from happening. This comes despite more than four years of study, months of extensive lab and field testing by the FCC, and tens of thousands of pages of formal record material -- during which the broadcasters' concerns were fully considered. As we understand it, the draft order carefully and appropriately addresses all legitimate concerns about interference, and the resulting draft rules are, if anything, overly conservative. Nonetheless, the proposed framework overall appears to be sound, and we strongly support it.
While the science should speak for itself, that won't stop the broadcasting lobby from trying to use stalling tactics to derail the technology before the rules of the road are even written.
These are the same folks who
over the years
have sought to block one innovative technology after another, from cable TV to VCRs to satellite TV and radio to low power FM to TiVOs.
The enormous promise of white spaces is simply too great to get bogged down now in politics. We're less than two weeks away from a vote that could transform the way we connect to the Internet.
The time for study and talk is over. The time for action has arrived. But we need your help -- before November 4th.
Two months ago we launched "Free the Airwaves" with a simple message: Americans want better access to broadband, and they see the potential of white spaces to make it happen. If you care about the future of technological innovation, please sign our petition to the FCC at
FreeTheAirwaves.com
, and ask your friends to do the same.
Greater access to voting information
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Posted by JL Needham, Public Sector Content Partnerships, and Abe Murray, Product Manager
(Cross-posted from the
Official Google Blog
)
At Google, we pride ourselves on helping people find things on the Internet. And every four years in America,
Google Trends
shows that people are searching to find voting information, like how to register and where to vote.
It's hard to believe that in 2008, information so important to U.S. citizens and the democratic process isn't well organized on the web. To solve this problem, we've released our
US Voter Info site
, an effort to simplify and centralize voting locations and registration information.
We developed the site in the hope that it will increase voter participation. We were helped by a number of partners, including many state and local election officials, the
League of Women Voters
, the
Pew Charitable Trusts
, and others involved in the
Voting Information Project
.
Are you registered to vote? What's the best way to obtain an absentee ballot? When people visit the site, answers to these questions appear. And anyone with a website can provide the same information. The
US Voter Info gadget
places a simple search box that expands to show a full set of voter information when someone enters an address.
We are also offering a simpler way to find out
where to vote
. By entering a home address, citizens across the country will be able to find their polling place for election day.
To encourage political participation, we've opened up this data to third-party sites and developers through an API developed by Dan Berlin, one of our open-source engineers. We're excited to share this data, and hope that others will find it useful in encouraging citizens to vote.
Organizing information is our mission. We do that every day with web content, and we want to do the same thing with information to inform and empower voters and to help them get to the polls this election season.
Quality scores and ad auctions
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Posted by Hal Varian, Chief Economist
(Cross-posted from the
Official Google Blog
)
There's some interest in how and why "quality scores" are used in search engine ad auctions. In this post, we will try to describe "why" we use quality scores; a later post will go into "how," including more information about bids.
When a user types a query into a search engine, it will typically return both natural search results and advertisements. Google and other major search engines use an
ad auction
to determine which ads are shown and how much advertisers pay for them.
In the auctions, advertisers enter bids that reflect how much they are willing to pay for a click on their ad -- this is called their maximum
cost per click
(CPC). Ads are then ordered by the product of the bid that is entered and the estimated ad
quality score
. People often ask why ad quality enters the formula -- isn't the bid per click enough? Why can't advertisers just buy their way to to the top ad position? To see why both components are important, let us look at a simple example.
Suppose that two advertisers are bidding on the keyword "jet airplane." Joe's Jets is selling actual jet airplanes, while Moe's Models is selling models of jet airplanes. Since jets are expensive, Joe is willing to pay a lot per click. But not many people can afford to buy jets, so Joe won't get many clicks. Moe, by contrast, is willing to pay a lot less per click, but he will also get many more clicks.
Which ad should be listed higher in the "sponsored links" section of the search results page?
What matters in this decision is not simply an advertiser's value for a single click -– the maximum CPC that the advertiser is willing to pay -- but rather the total estimated value of showing that ad: the value per click times the number of clicks that the ad is likely to receive.
The number of clicks that the ad is likely to receive depends on the historical
clickthrough rate
, which is an important component of the ad quality score. Thus the bid per click times the quality score gives us an estimate of the total value of displaying an ad over time. Joe's ad may have a higher value for a single click, but if Moe's ad gets a lot more clicks over time, it could easily have a greater total value. In that case, Moe's ad will be shown in the more prominent position. (Click on the image to view larger.)
The quality score gives search engines a way of aligning the incentives of the buyers, the sellers, and the viewers of ads. The search engine wants to sell ad impressions, but advertisers want to pay for clicks. The solution is for advertisers to bid on a cost-per-click basis, while the search engine estimates the total value of the ad over time: bid per click times the expected number of clicks.
This is a neat way to align incentives, but it has a problem: since the advertiser only pays on a per click basis, it may as well seek as many ad impressions as it can so that as many users as possible will be exposed to the ad. Joe might well want to buy the keywords "rocket ship" even if he only has jets to sell. Why not? Joe only has to pay if someone actually clicks on the ad.
This is where another distinct, but related quality issue arises: an ad that gets very few clicks shouldn't really be shown. It is just distracting from the viewpoint of users. The advertisers may not care much about annoying users but the search engine certainly does. Why? Because if it shows a lot of irrelevant ads, people will likely stop looking at or clicking on ads. They may develop a terrible affliction known in the trade as "ads blindness." Better ad relevance leads to a better user experience.
So search engines often apply a "disabling rule" that inhibits ads with very low clickthrough rates for a given query from being shown. Or they might set a relatively high minimum cost per click for ads that don't attract much interest from users as a way to discourage advertisers from showing ads that annoy users and deliver few clicks. A
high
cost per click can easily be consistent with a
low
cost per impression when clickthrough rates are low.
So why are quality scores important? Answer: they lead to a better auction by allowing advertisers to buy clicks, publishers to sell impressions, and users to see relevant ads.
FCC to vote on opening up "white spaces"
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Posted by Richard Whitt, Washington Telecom and Media Counsel
For nearly two years, a
broad-based coalition
of public interest groups and technology companies including Google has been advocating for unlicensed uses of the largely vacant airwaves
between broadcast TV channels
("white spaces"). This spectrum has the potential to dramatically transform the ways Americans connect to the Internet. And over the past two months, more than 18,000 Americans have joined the effort through
Free the Airwaves
.
Today FCC Chairman Kevin Martin
announced
that he wants to move forward with final rules to open up the vacant spectrum for use by broadband devices. Furthermore, press
reports
today indicate that the FCC's field testing showed that "there are no major interference problems" with TV and wireless microphone signals.
This news should be greatly encouraging for American consumers. The FCC now has more than enough information to develop appropriate rules that protect TV stations and wireless microphone users from harmful interference, while at the same time allowing innovators and entrepreneurs to develop technology that productively uses these airwaves.
Chairman Martin said today that he hopes to have the full commission vote on rules to govern these airwaves at the FCC's next public meeting, scheduled for November 4th. Coincidentally enough, we've called on the FCC to
take action by that day
.
Now is the time for the FCC to put the power of better and faster broadband in the hands of innovators and entrepreneurs. Please
sign the petition to the FCC at Free the Airwaves
to help make it happen.
Now's the time: Register to vote
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Posted by Katie Jacobs Stanton, Google Elections Team
(Cross-posted from the
Official Google Blog
)
Political participation is at an all-time high this election season, and a record number of voters have already started to cast ballots -- a few even camped out in Ohio to be the first in line for early voting yesterday.
But roughly 1 in 4 Americans still aren't registered to vote, according to the most recent
Census report
. Now is the time -- voter registration deadlines are less than a week away in most states.
We're trying to help increase participation by making sure you have easy access to voting information. Google's
Voter Info Map
currently puts registration, absentee and early voting information in one place. (If you're on a phone, you can check out our mobile version at
m.google.com/elections
).
We're working closely with state and local election officials, the
Voting Information Project
and the
League of Women Voters
to centralize official voting information. Stay tuned for more posts on the project and details on how you can help confirm your local polling place address.
Leonardo DiCaprio, will.i.am, Tobey Maguire, Forrest Whitaker and a few of their friends put together the first in a series of public service announcements to encourage young Americans to register to vote - and they include a link to our Voter Info Map.
As the Internet plays a greater role in helping people participate in elections, we're excited to help out. And you can, too. Help make sure everyone is ready for election day by reminding your friends and family to register and vote.
Clean Energy 2030
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Posted by Dan Reicher, Director, Climate Change and Energy Initiatives, and Jeffery Greenblatt, Climate and Energy Technology Manager, Google.org
(Cross-posted from the
Official Google Blog
)
Right now the U.S. has a very real opportunity to transform our economy from one running on fossil fuels to one largely based on clean energy. We are developing the technologies and know-how to accomplish this. We can build whole new industries and create millions of new jobs. We can reduce energy costs, both at the gas pump and at home. We can improve our national security. And we can put a big dent in climate change. With strong leadership we could be moving forward on an aggressive but realistic timeline and an approach that balances costs with real economic gains.
The energy team at Google has been crunching the numbers to see how we could greatly reduce fossil fuel use by 2030.
Our analysis
, led by Jeffery Greenblatt, suggests a potential path to weaning the U.S. off of coal and oil for electricity generation by 2030 (with some remaining use of natural gas as well as nuclear), and cutting oil use for cars by 40%. Al Gore has
issued a challenge
that is even more ambitious, getting us to carbon-free electricity even sooner. We hope the American public pushes our leaders to embrace it. T. Boone Pickens has weighed in with an interesting
plan
of his own to massively deploy wind energy, among other things. Other plans have also been developed in recent years that merit attention.
Our goal in presenting this first iteration of the
Clean Energy 2030 proposal
is to stimulate debate and we invite you to take a look and comment - or offer an alternative approach if you disagree. With a new Administration and Congress - and multiple energy-related imperatives - this is an opportune, perhaps unprecedented, moment to move from plan to action.
Over 22 years this plan could generate billions of dollars in savings and help create millions of green jobs. Many of these high quality, good-paying jobs will be in today's coal and oil producing states.
To get there we need immediate action on three fronts:
(1) Reduce demand by doing more with less
We should start with the low-hanging fruit by reducing energy demand through energy efficiency -- adopting technologies and practices that allow us to do more with less. At Google, we've seen the benefits of this approach. We identified $5M in building efficiency investments with a 2.5 year payback. We've also
designed our own data centers to run more efficiently
, and we believe they are the most efficient in the world. On a smaller scale, personal computers can also become much more efficient. A typical desktop PC wastes nearly half the power it consumes. Last year, Bill Weihl, our Green Energy Czar, worked with industry partners to create the
Climate Savers Computing Initiative
to raise energy efficiency standards for personal computers and servers. If we meet our goals, these standards will cut energy consumption by the equivalent of 10-20 coal-fired power plants by 2010.
Government can have a big impact on achieving greater efficiency. California's aggressive building codes, efficiency standards and utility programs have helped the state keep per-capita energy use flat for years, while consumption in much of the rest of the country has grown significantly. Enacting similar policies at the national level would help even more.
We also need to give the American people opportunities to be more efficient. The way we buy electricity today is like going to a store without seeing prices: we pick what we want, and receive an unintelligible bill at the end of the month. When homes are equipped with smart meters and real-time pricing, research shows that energy use typically drops. Google is looking at ways that we can use our information technology and our reach to help increase awareness and bring better, real-time information to consumers.
(2) Develop renewable energy that is cheaper than coal (RE<C)
Google’s data centers draw from a U.S. electricity grid that relies on coal for 50% of its power. We want to help catalyze the development of renewable energy that is price competitive with coal. At least three technologies show tremendous promise: wind, solar thermal, and advanced geothermal. Each of these is abundant and, when combined, could supply energy in virtually every region of the U.S.
This year
Google has invested
over $45 million in startup companies with breakthrough wind, solar and geothermal technologies through our Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal (
RE<C
) initiative, but that is a drop when we need a flood. We need to unleash massive private investment in clean energy. The government can have a big impact here as well. We must dramatically increase federal R&D and enact measures supporting the rapid deployment and scaling of clean technologies such as long-term tax support and a national renewable energy standard. Tax credits for wind and solar have lapsed several times in the last 20 years, starving these nascent industries of the capital they need to truly enter the mainstream.
We also must work both sides of the
RE<C
equation. Progress will be accelerated when the price of carbon reflects its true costs to society. Putting a price on carbon through cap-and-trade or a carbon tax would help address this.
(3) Electrify transportation and re-invent our electric grid
Imagine driving a car that uses no gas and is less expensive to recharge than buying a latte. A "smart grid" allows you to charge when electricity is cheap, and maybe even make some money by selling unused power back to the grid when it's needed. Plug-in cars are on their way, with GM, Toyota and other manufacturers planning introductions in the next two years. At Google we have a small fleet of Toyota Prius and Ford Escape plug-in conversions, as a part of our
RechargeIT program
. The converted Prius plug-ins
get over 90 MPG
, and the Escapes close to 50 MPG. However to successfully put millions of plug-in cars on the road and and fuel them with green electricity, we need a smart grid that manages when we charge and how we're billed. A smart grid could also provide for the two-way flow of electricity, as well as large-scale integration of intermittent solar and wind energy. Much of the technology in our current electrical grid was developed in the 60s and is wasteful and not very smart. We are
partnering with GE
to help accelerate the development of the smart grid and support building new transmission lines to harness our nation's vast renewable energy resources.
We see a huge opportunity for the nation to confront our energy challenges. In the process we will stimulate investment, create jobs, empower consumers and, by the way, help address climate change.
Getting out the vote in Ohio
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Posted by Ginny Hunt, Google Elections Team
As election day approaches on November 4, Google is working with state and local election officials across the country to make voter information as widely available and as accurate as possible. Today, we announced a big step forward in that effort with the State of Ohio.
Thanks to the leadership of Secretary of State
Jennifer Brunner
, Ohio is the first state to make comprehensive voting information available through our
U.S. Voter Info Guide
, a searchable database of election information powered by Google Search and Maps.
In addition, when voters in Ohio do a Google search for “where to vote” or “where to register," they will be directed to
maps.google.com/vote
, where they can enter their addresses and find registration information, absentee and early vote details, and their polling place.
Our guide already includes voting locations for a number of states and the District of Columbia, and we are aiming to have voting information for all 50 states added by mid-October. We hope that this tool will equip voters with the information they need to make it to the polls on election day. Don't forget to vote!
Europe embraces an open Internet
Monday, September 29, 2008
Posted by Vint Cerf, Chief Internet Evangelist
I recently returned from a trip to Europe and discovered some interesting thinking there about the Internet. Last week the European Commission
launched
a debate about whether broadband now needs to be considered part of "universal service." Today, the European Commission’s Information Society and Media department, led by Commissioner Viviane Reding, has published
a fascinating paper on the future networks and the Internet
. It is only ten pages long, so I'd suggest everyone take a look.
Commissioner Reding identifies many of the key issues facing the net and proposes realistic, pragmatic solutions. Her bottom line is simple: the Internet will thrive only by remaining free and open. And she recognizes that there are a variety of dangers that could close the net.
The Commissioner reiterates the powerful statement she made last June in Seoul at the
OECD conference
about the need for open networks. This paper restates the danger of internet service providers using their "traffic management" powers "for anti-competitive practices such as unfairly prioritizing some traffic or slowing it down, and, in extreme cases, blocking it." In order to prevent such a negative development, Commissioner Reding suggests legislation is required to ensure that Internet traffic is treated fairly and not blocked or slowed down. I've
spoken out about this issue
of net neutrality in the U.S.
In the paper, the Commission vows to help forge new copyright solutions to enable new business models to emerge. We're looking closely at this issue.
The paper also makes a compelling case for open standards. It acknowledges the danger of "dominant players" leveraging "proprietary standards to lock consumers into their products or to extract very high royalties from market players, ultimately slowing innovation and foreclosing market entry by new players." She promises that the Commission will use its regulatory powers to prevent such players from putting a brake on the web.
What impresses me most of all is how the Commission recognizes that an Open Internet requires a combination of these three points. For Europe to keep up in the global online race, it needs to sprint ahead powered by an openness recipe encompassing a neutral network, users rights, and open standards. I'm delighted that Europe’s policymakers stress the successful ingredients to promoting a robust, healthy Internet. As usual, I am especially impressed by Commissioner Reding's clarity and energy. If she is successful in this effort, the Internet community in Europe will have much for which to thank her.
Video: "White spaces" explained
Friday, September 26, 2008
Posted by Richard Whitt, Washington Telecom and Media Counsel
If you're one of the many folks not familiar with the basics of
white spaces
(don't worry, it is complicated), the folks at the
People's Production House
have put together a new video that explains the issues for non-techies. Check it out:
New website: Facts about our Yahoo! ad deal
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Posted by Adam Kovacevich, Senior Manager, Global Communications and Public Affairs
Some people have questions about our advertising agreement with Yahoo! and there are some misconceptions about it. So today we are putting facts about the deal on a new website,
www.yahoogooglefacts.com
, to provide more information on the agreement and why it is good for consumers, advertisers and website publishers. We'll be updating the site regularly so check back when you have additional questions.
Which blogs does Canada’s next Prime Minister read?
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Posted by Jacob Glick, Canada Policy Counsel
During this federal election campaign in Canada, the leaders of four of Canada’s political parties – Stephen Harper, Stéphane Dion, Jack Layton and Elizabeth May – are giving users an insight into how they use blogs, news sites and other online sources to stay informed. Along with leading Canadian journalists they are using
Google Reader
to share and comment on new items, opinion pieces and blog postings.
We worked closely with leading Conservative blogger
Stephen Taylor
to make this happen.
Go to
www.google.ca/powerreaders
and click to subscribe to your favourite Power Reader’s feed – or subscribe to them all.
Combined with Canadian Edition of
Google In Quotes
and the
Canadian Election section in Google News
, Canadians have amazing tools to harness the power of the social web to better inform themselves on the issues and decide among the candidates.
Don’t forget to vote on October 14!
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