It’s often assumed that big cities benefit the most from the Internet, but we believe the net offers giant opportunities to everyone from urbanites to small town residents, farmers and nature lovers in the far-flung countryside. We recently tested this thesis in our first-ever European Google eTown awards, which recognize those areas that had most embraced the web’s potential over the last year.

The results were fascinating—and surprising. Smaller, quirky and plucky towns came out ahead. Scunthorpe, a steel town in the north of England, topped the U.K.’s list. Caen, a town in rural Normandy not far from the D-Day beaches and famed as the home of camembert cheese, came first in France. Salerno, nestled between the Amalfi and the Cilento Coast led the way in Italy and Elbląg, a remote northern town located in the region of 1,000 lakes won in Poland. In all four participating countries, eTown lists included towns of all sizes.

How did we determine our eTown awards? We broke down the U.K., France, Italy and Poland into all of their thousands of towns and then ranked local areas according to the growth in small businesses using AdWords over the last year. The top towns in each country won Google eTown awards.




The results back up recent research identifying the Internet as a main force driving growth throughout Europe. For example, a recent McKinsey report Internet Matters states that 2.6 Internet jobs are created globally for every job destroyed. Separately, the Boston Consulting Group estimates that by 2015 the web will account for 7.3 percent of Denmark’s GDP, 10 percent of the U.K.’s GDP and 5.5 percent of France’s GDP. The net drives growth of both big and small businesses—indeed another BCG report called “Turning Local” (PDF) makes clear that small businesses with a website grow faster than businesses without a web presence.

We’ve seen this ourselves, in the businesses of all shapes and sizes that we encountered as part of our eTown awards. An entrepreneur in Hartlepool in the U.K. sells golf balls online. A Polish programmer runs a data recovery business from Piaseczno. An plumber directs a heating systems company from Vicenza, Italy and a French retailer has reached new scooter customers online in Reims. Online advertising has helped them grow and reach more customers than ever before. When it comes to the Internet, our eTown awards show that anybody, almost anywhere, can boost a business by going online.

Posted by Ben Novick, European Communications Manager

Whether it’s the nutritional value of food, the fuel economy of a new car - or the real performance of your broadband connection - good, standardised data and transparency is the key to understanding this important information. Our executive chairman Eric Schmidt outlined our views on the importance of measurement in a speech this week in Brussels.

Yesterday, as part of Measurement Lab (M-Lab), we presented important data on Internet network speed to a committee at the Organisation for Economic Development and Co-operation in Paris. M-Lab is a collaborative effort led by researchers in partnership with companies and other institutions, as part of a drive to help ISPs, regulators and consumers improve Internet services across the continent. Some regulators such as the UK’s Ofcom are also running their own comparable measurement projects.



At the OECD, we outlined several recent developments. SamKnows, an M-Lab partner, is running a project for the European Commission designed to map network performance in all EU Member States. In Greece, the country’s telecom regulator, the Hellenic Telecommunications and Post Commission, has launched a new consumer-focused broadband measurement portal, using M-Lab’s Network Diagnostic Tool (NDT) and data. Greek consumers now have real-time, useful information about their broadband performance. The portal uses M-Lab’s NDT to detail average speed, latency, packet loss, and other performance metrics for different areas of Greece. Interactive features allow consumers to compare the results from their tests with averages.

In the future, the Greek regulator hopes to expand the portal to allow consumers to compare speeds across Internet service providers, and to run M-Lab’s Glasnost test to determine the occurrence of application-specific traffic blocking. We encourage other governments and consumer advocates to take a look at M-Lab, and to consider the possibility of using this open-source code. Everyone - ISPs, regulators and consumers - will benefit from solid data about Internet network speeds.

Posted by Meredith Whittaker, Program Manager, Google Research

Last year, our Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt promised to open a research and development and culture centre in France. Today, Eric returned to Paris to inaugurate our new 10,000-square meter office in a refurbished 19th century Second Empire building near the St. Lazare Train Station. It will be our headquarters not just for France, but our entire Southern Europe, Middle East and Africa operations.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy honored us with his presence. “Why as President, do I make this symbolic move and come to Google?" he asked rhetorically to a packed courtyard auditorium. “I love the United States, and its motto that everything is possible whatever your origins.” President Sarkozy also officially launched the Elysee Palace’s YouTube channel and his visit was shown on YouTube Live, the section of the site where we list all live streamed events.



The President participated in a Google+ Hangout, taking questions from French-speaking Google employees around the world. (“What time is it there?” he asked someone dialing in from California.) On a serious note, he expressed his gratification for how Google has moved to dig deep roots in France. “When I first met Eric, we had a frank conversation,” he recalled, saying his message was clear. “I asked him how long Google was preparing to make money in France without investing here. I told him that Google must have its feet in France.”



Our new Paris headquarters is emblematic of our commitment to one of Europe’s fastest-growing Internet economies. According to a recent McKinsey study that we helped sponsor, the web contributed to 3,2% of the French GDP in 2009 and created more than 700,000 jobs during the past 15 years. Between now and 2015, McKinsey estimates that the digital contribution will grow to 5.5% of GDP, and 450,000 additional jobs will be created. In order to help accelerate the French digital engine, we’ve launched a Startup Café, an online platform offering information and tools.

Our investment plan for France is ambitious, and extends far beyond buildings. We’re expanding our engineering presence to take advantage of France’s strong engineering talent pool and are making significant academic investments, including a partnership with the French national research center CNRS.

France is a global cultural leader and we’re working hard to partner with French writers, filmmakers and musicians. Over the past year, we've reached an agreement with the biggest French publisher Hachette to scan and sell digital versions of out-of-print books and are providing payment systems for French news publishers from Hachette. YouTube has signed royalty-collection agreements with music copyright societies and our new Cultural Institute will be located in the Paris headquarters. It will aim at driving innovation in cultural preservation, creation and access, not just in France, but across the world.

Just before the President left, he asked to say a few final words. He praised our “dynamism” and wished well our expanded operations, before making a parting promise. “I hope this inauguration is one of a long series,” he said. “If you invite me to another building opening, I will come.”

Posted by Anne-Gabrielle Dauba Pantanacce, Head of Communications, France

In these challenging economic times, it's important to focus not just on today's immediate problems, but on innovating for the future and for growth. European Commission President José-Manuel Barroso and Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn are to be commended for tackling this long-term challenges by hosting an Innovation Summit today in Brussels.

We were delighted that our Executive Chairman, Eric Schmidt, was invited to give one of the keynote speeches. Eric outlined a pro-innovation agenda, focusing on how governments can identify “smart problems” and steer entrepreneurial energy in a productive direction.

Data is key, Eric said. Today’s computing power, including on mobile phones, makes it possible to address problems in new ways by taking advantage of the vast datasets available and in so doing identify big opportunities. And decisions driven by data need to measured carefully: "GDP measures, for example, may not be enough, as the productivity benefits of IT adoption in the workplace and the uncounted consumer benefits from online services are not included in such estimates.(for details, see the McKinsey Study for IAB Europe).."

Eric set out an agenda designed to take advantage of data-driven innovation:

1. Education: “We need to invest in training a new generation of smart problem-solvers, and encourage innovative methods for teaching and learning.”
2. Copyright and other Internet issues: Eric called on Europe to implement a regulatory framework which fosters cloud computing and other innovations.
3. Patents: Europe should avoid following the U.S. lead on patents. “I don’t want to get too far into the intricacies of the various debates underway on patent legislation, but here is my top advice - don’t copy the US. You’re still light years ahead of us!,” Eric said.
4. Culture of entrepreneurship: Governments should provide support and investment for world-class clusters of innovation, like the UK government’s Tech City initiative in East London. We’re a sponsor and active participant in Tech City - and in France, we’re backers of the Startup Cafe resources center for entrepreneurs, as well as the Le Camping incubator.

Europe’s future need not be one of crisis - but one of innovation, Eric concluded. Europe has the talent. It has the human potential. Now the task is to summon new thinking and leadership at every level in society to ensure that the full promise of technology is unlocked.

Posted by Simon Hampton, Director, European Public Policy and Government Affairs

Journalism is is in the midst of moving onto the Internet and Google is committed to helping ease this transition. We drive millions of readers to media sites every day and we split billions of dollars each year in advertising with publishers. We also aim to reward journalism that takes advantage of new digital tools.

A sign of the commitment is our partnership with the School of Journalism at Sciences Po in Paris. We created an award to showcase student projects, as well as professionals. A panel of prestigious journalists was recruited as judges: Jean-Marie Colombani, the founder of Slate.fr, Jean-Marc Manach, author of the blog Bug Brother, Thibaud Vuitton, deputy editor of the platform of continuous information France Television, Pascale Robert-Diard, author of the blog world Chronicles Judicieres and Alice Antheaume, deputy director of the journalism school at Sciences Po and author of the blog Work In Progress.



The awards were delivered at an event today at Sciences Po. Villeneuve 5/5, led by a group of students from the Grenoble School of Journalism, won the student award for a project that uses the video, sound, text and images to bring readers into the heart of violent riots which shook the district of Villeneuve in 2010. In the professional category, the jury praised the innovation of two journalists Slate.fr, who seized the tools used on social networks to investigate the murky finances of France’s richest woman Liliane Bettencourt.

Prix Google de l'innovation en journalisme from Sciences Po on Vimeo.

This initiative is part of a comprehensive partnership with Science Po's School of Journalism, announced in May 2011. We look forward to pursuing it - and continuing to support online journalism.

Posted by Elisabeth Bargès, Institutional Relations, Google France

As in the real world, keeping kids safe online is a challenge. Children move fast with an insatiable curiosity which drives the questions and answers, sparks innovation, and can ultimately lead to a brighter future. At Google, we believe in empowering families with technologies and resources to help kids grow -- as well as tools to protect them online. Google SafeSearch, YouTube Safety Mode and other safety features are built into our products help our users make their own choices about what minors do and see online.

These controls need to be adapted to local concerns in order to be effective. We have launched more than 50 Family Safety Centres across the world in national languages, with more countries joining all the time. Last week, the Russian Ministry of Telecommunications awarded a national Internet award. the Runet Prize, to our Russian Family Safety Center. This award signals government recognition of our efforts to build transparency, choice, and security into our products.



Online child safety is emerging as a major issue in Russia. A recent Law on Protection of Children from Harmful Information will enter into force in September. It stipulates several Internet-challenging issues, namely mandatory content filtering at the level of access providers. We are concerned that such an approach may not eradicate illegal content from the web and could instead impact Internet freedoms.

In less than three decades of existence, the Internet has grown into an exciting world of e-books, digitised culture and connected communities. Kids are naturals to this environment. While we have much to teach children about staying smart online, they, in course, have much to teach us. Harsh regulation will not solve the problem. Instead, we all should work together to develop tools that promote online responsibility and user choice. We’re glad that the Russian Ministry of Telecommunications recognizes our work in this direction.

Posted by Ksenia Karyakina, Policy Analyst for Russia

When Eric Schmidt delivered his MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival this summer he spoke of the importance of bringing the worlds of art and science back together if Britain’s creative industries are to succeed in the digital era. Luvvies and boffins, he said, need to work together.

That call seems to have struck a chord with industry, the arts and government, so this week we gathered a group of more than a hundred prominent figures from both worlds at our London offices for our first Luvvies and Boffins event.




The Rambert Dance company’s artistic director Mark Baldwin and resident scientist Professor Nicola Clayton explained how they worked together to create Comedy of Change, a ballet based on Darwin’s theory of evolution.

Ian Livingstone, founder of the video game pioneers Eidos and author of Next Gen, a new report on the future of our creative industries, made a passionate plea to the Government to include computer science in the schools curriculum.

The Science and Universities Minister David Willetts dropped in and showed he’s listening. This week the government responded positively to Ian Livingstone’s report, Prime Minister David Cameron agreeing that “we're not doing enough to teach the next generation of programmers.”

It was an evening of intense conversation, inspiring demonstrations and scientifically prepared cocktails. We plan to continue to meet as a group to promote the aims of what’s now being called STEAM education - Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths.

Posted by Peter Barron, Director, External Relations, Europe Middle East and Africa

We’re strong believers in the benefits of the Internet for young people, whether in the classroom, at home, or out and about. But we also know that like all technologies, the value of the Net is what you make of it. If you’re a parent (and many of us here at Google are), then you want to ensure that your kids can navigate the web smartly and safely.

That’s why today we’re pleased to become a founding member of European Commissioner Neelie Kroes’ Better Internet for Kids coalition. The new coalition brings together a wide range of technology companies with diverse experience in protecting children online. We’ve committed to working together and sharing our expertise to achieve a better Internet for kids.



Over the years, we’ve dedicated significant engineering and educational resources to providing families with choice, transparency, and security. Our SafeSearch Lock enables parents to block offensive content; our flagging system and Safety Center on YouTube provide an easy way to report abuse and find support from professionals. We also regularly run pragmatic digital literacy campaigns - the most recent being our “Good to Know” initiative (in English and German), in partnership with citizens’ advice organisations.

We’ve learned a lot in the process - but know that on the ever changing web, it's important to work with others to keep on top of the challenges. We’re looking forward to getting started with this new initiative, and we encourage other companies across the spectrum of the technology business to get involved too.

Posted by Simon Hampton, Director of European Public Policy