fidzu : Google

In this post: Rich Jones, who works in people operations at Google, is the host of a personal finance podcast called "Paychecks & Balances." He hopes his show can help people learn from his mistakes - and now he's helping others start podcasts, too.

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Several years ago, Rich Jones was on the hunt for personal finance podcasts. But none were right for him. "It felt like every podcast that I listened to either made me feel dumb, or made me feel like I was being lectured by an old white guy in a suit," he says. "Or it just was really boring." So he decided to create his own.

These days, his podcast, "Paychecks & Balances," has been downloaded more than two million times and recently won an award from the Plutus Foundation, which highlights excellence in financial media. He often records episodes from his Mountain View home in the early-morning hours, then logs on for his job working in People Operations at Google.

For years, Rich has turned to the internet to express himself. But even though his name is, well, Rich, he didn't first think of money as a topic to talk about. In fact, he had first blogged about relationships for several years, and then co-hosted a podcast called "2 Guys, 1 Show," that was about more general topics, including money.

Rich realized that if he felt lectured by finance podcasters, other people like him - and possibly younger people learning about money for the first time - likely felt the same way. So he and his co-host decided to focus on finances and rename the podcast "Paychecks & Balances." They wanted to reach out to younger versions of themselves - and Rich also wanted to represent people like him as well as reach them. "Even now, you won't find a whole lot of Black men in the personal finance space in particular," he says. "I think it's important to be out there as a Black male and show a perspective that you might not be getting elsewhere."

For the current season of the show, Rich is hosting the show solo, and he's continuing to share his own financial progress while also teaching others. When he started the show, he was grappling with credit-card debt after treating his cards like "free money." Because of his experience, he knows to talk about money in a way that's relatable and simple, for people just starting to manage their finances. "I don't call myself an expert," he says. "Podcasting is a medium for me to talk about my experience. And not just my successes, but the mistakes I've made along the way as well."

Rich is constantly surprised that he keeps getting the same questions over and over - like how to balance a budget, or why not to sign up for a credit card in exchange for a free T-shirt. And over the past year, he's seen friends fall prey to get-rich-quick scams and even try to sign him up. Rich says this is a symptom of a lack of financial education. "The interesting problem to me is: How do we close that gap where this information feels accessible to everyone, and people are accessing that information a lot sooner?" he says.

With the growth of his podcast, Rich says people have come to him asking for advice on starting their own podcasts. So this month he launched a YouTube page, The Show Starter, which breaks down advice for people who might not have a technical audio background. "It'll be a combination of tutorials, reviews and some motivational content, but not the cheesy, corny kind," he says. "It's very similar to the approach I take with personal finance topics, where I try to simplify things as much as possible and take out the jargon." He hopes to one day expand his work into a multimedia company, with multiple brands under the "Paychecks & Balances" umbrella.

Rich says both his podcast and his YouTube channel have the same goal: helping others. "While the podcast is about money, for me this has never been about the money," Rich says. "I love seeing people achieve freedom in their lives, whatever that means for them. I think continuing to focus on that is what has kept people along for the ride."

1. HBCU Tech Advisory Board:The board will be involved in shaping "Pathways to Tech" efforts and will expand to include additional corporations in the future.

2. HBCU Presidents' Council: Dr. Michael Lomax of UNCF and Dr. Harry Williams of TMCF will lead an HBCU Presidents' Council, which will advise the board and ensure that we're creating and executing meaningful programming that meets the needs of HBCU students.

3. Joint Steering Committee: To set goals and drive this work forward, I will sit on a steering committee alongside Dr. Kamau Bobb, Global Lead, Diversity Strategy and Research at Google; Maria Medrano, Senior Director, Diversity Strategy at Google; Eric Hart, Chief Programs Officer at Thurgood Marshall College Fund; Chad Womack, Senior Director of STEM Programs and Initiatives; Angela Van Croft, Director, Corporations and Foundations at United Negro College Fund; and Alycia Onowho, Program Manager at Howard University.

4. Internal Advisory Committee:I will lead an HBCU Advisory Committee that consists of senior vice presidents across Google, including product leaders and executives across Talent Acquisition, Grow with Google, Google.org and Engineering Education, to organize our efforts across the company.

As we deepen our work together, here's a look at some of the areas we're focused on.

Helping to build equity for HBCU computing education

We'll continue to invest in programs that help students develop skills and immerse themselves in tech, and help universities and faculty establish the infrastructure and tools they need to support these students. Our ultimate goal is to ensure that when HBCU students graduate, they'll have the skills they need to succeed in tech.

This year, our Tech Exchange program will host 114 computer science majors, providing them with the opportunity to immerse themselves in coding classes at Google. This first-of-its-kind program is now in its fourth year, and we've continued to update, broaden and improve the program over the years. Through our Google in Residence program, which sends experienced Google Software Engineers to HBCU campuses for a semester to teach introductory computer science classes, we've reached more than 4,000 students. Through this initiative, students gain practical knowledge about what it's like to work in the tech industry.

Our Faculty in Residence program is an immersive professional development program that brings CS faculty from HBCUs and HSIs to Google for a four week summer residency, where they design project-based, industry-informed content and implement that content back in their classrooms.

Since 2017, we've invited more than 50 faculty members from 30 HBCUs to join the program.

Helping students find jobs in tech

We'll also remain focused on helping HBCU students find and secure internships and jobs that will help them build successful careers. Last year, we launched the Grow with Google HBCU Career Readiness Program, a partnership with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, which brings Grow with Google digital skills training into the career centers of HBCUs. The program recently expanded to 20 HBCUs, and aims to help 20,000 students learn digital skills by the end of the current school year. As we have in the past, we'll continue our HBCU Campus Outreach efforts to prepare students for the tech industry with resume workshops, mock interviews and opportunities for students to develop their soft skills and technical skills through events like coding challenges and hackathons.

Creating a workplace where everyone belongs

For students who choose to pursue a career at Google, we're also accelerating efforts to ensure every Googler - and in particular Black students and those from other underrepresented groups - experience Google as an inclusive workplace and have the opportunity to accelerate their careers.

We have a responsibility to help provide access and opportunities for underrepresented talent to join the tech industry. Many of the initiatives we're working on are the first of their kind in our industry. It's so important that we keep this momentum going.

Editor's note: Welcome to A Matter of Impact, Google.org's monthly digest, where we highlight what the team's been up to and spotlight some of the incredible nonprofits and Google.org Fellows helping solve some of society's biggest challenges through technology and innovation.

It didn't take long for the effects of COVID-19 to reveal a devastating, but predictable, truth: the pandemic has had an outsized impact on marginalized groups, especially people of color. At Google.org, we aim to bring the best of Google to support underserved communities. So when we made a $100 million grant and 50,000 pro bono hour commitment to support COVID-19 relief, we focused our efforts on addressing the compounding racial and social inequities of this crisis.

As we join forces to fight this pandemic, we must put equity at the center of our response and lift up our most vulnerable communities. Here you'll find updates about our work that's at the intersection of COVID-19 relief and equity and two themes that remain top priorities for us.

Equitable distribution of vaccines and health information

Data shows that COVID-19 affects people of color at much higher rates: about 71% percent of Black Americans and 61% of Hispanic Americans know someone who has died or been hospitalized from the virus compared to 48% of white Americans. Yet data also shows that Black Americans are getting vaccinated at lower rates than their peers. That's why we have a team of Google.org Fellows working full-time with the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine to help create a Health Equity Tracker to map and contextualize COVID-19 health disparities in communities of color throughout the U.S. We're also committing $5 million in grants to organizations addressing racial and geographic disparities in COVID-19 vaccinations.

Support for minority-owned small businesses

Turning to the economy, reports have shown that 41% of Black-owned businesses - about 440,000 businesses - have shuttered due to COVID-19 compared to 17% of businesses owned by white people. To support minority business owners through the pandemic, we've supported Common Future with grant funding to provide capital and technical assistance to 2,000 women and minority small-business entrepreneurs in the U.S. We'll also provide opportunities for Google volunteers to assist them with skill-based coaching and mentoring.

Read the rest of our Google.org updates below.

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In case you missed it

Yesterday, leading academic organizations with support from a team of Google.org Fellows, shared the launch of Global.health, a data platform that helps model the trajectory of COVID-19 and future disease. Last month, we launched a Google.org Impact Challenge to help bridge the digital divide in Central and Eastern Europe, and announced $3 million in grants to help underserved communities in Kenya during a virtual summit with Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, and H.E. Uhuru Kenyatta, President of the Republic of Kenya.

Hear from one of our grantees: Common Future

Rodney Foxworth is the CEO of Common Future, a network of leaders helping to build an economy that includes everyone. Last spring, Common Future received a $5 million Google.org grant to provide capital and technical assistance to women and minority small business entrepreneurs in the U.S.

A few words with a Google.org Fellow: Colin Jackson

Colin Jackson is a product manager who recently completed a Google.org Fellowship with Satcher Health Leadership Institute (SHLI) at Morehouse School of Medicine.

Radio reaches more Americans every week than any other platform. Public radio stations in the United States have over 3,000 local journalists and each day they create audio news reports about the communities they serve. But news audio is in a similar place as newspaper articles were in the 1990s: hard to find, and difficult to sort by topic, source, relevance or recency. News audio can not delay in improving its discoverability.

KQED is the most listened to public radio station in the United States, and one of the largest news organizations in the Bay Area. In partnership with Google, KQED and KUNGFU.AI, an AI services provider and leader in applied machine learning, ran a series of tests on KQED's audio to determine how we might reduce the errors and time to publish our news audio transcripts, and ultimately, make radio news audio more findable.

"One of the pillars of the Google New Initiative is incubating new approaches to difficult problems," said David Stoller, Partner Lead for News & Publishing at Google "Once complete, this technology and associated best practices will be openly shared, greatly expanding the anticipated impact."

What makes finding audio so much harder?

In order for news audio to be searched or sorted, the speech must first be converted to text. This added step is trickier than it seems, and currently puts news audio at a disadvantage for being found quickly and accurately. Transcription takes time, effort and bandwidth from newsrooms - not something that is in abundance these days. Even though there have been great advances in speech to text, when it comes to news, the bar for accuracy is very high. As someone who works to make KQED's reporting widely available, it is frustrating when KQED's audio isn't prominent in search engines and news aggregators.

The challenge of correctly identifying who, what and where

For our tests, KQED and KUNGFU.AI, applied the latest speech-to-text tools to a collection of KQED's news audio. News stories try to address the "five Ws:" who, what, when, where and why. Unfortunately, because AI typically lacks the context in which the speech was made (i.e. identity of the speaker, location of the story), one of the most difficult challenges of automated speech-to-text is correctly identifying these types of proper nouns, known as named entities. KQED's local news audio is rich in references of named entities related to topics, people, places, and organizations that are contextual to the Bay Area region. Speakers use acronyms like "CHP" for California Highway Patrol and "the Peninsula" for the area spanning San Francisco to San Jose. These are more difficult for artificial intelligence to identify.

When named entities aren't understood, machine learning models make their best estimation of what was said. For example, in our test, "The Asia Foundation" was incorrectly transcribed as "age of Foundations" and "misgendered" was incorrectly transcribed as "Miss Gendered." For news publishers, these are not just transcription errors, but editorial problems that change the meaning of a topic and can cause embarrassment for the news outlet. This means people have to go in and correct these transcriptions, which is expensive to do for every audio segment. Without transcriptions, search engines can't find these stories, limiting the amount of quality local news people can find online.

A machine learning ↔ human ↔ machine learning feedback loop

At KQED, our editors can correct common machine learning errors in our transcripts. But right now, the machine learning model isn't learning from its mistakes. We're beginning to test out a feedback loop in which newsrooms could identify common transcription errors to improve the machine learning model.

We're confident that in the near future, improvements into these speech-to-text models will help convert audio to text faster, ultimately helping people find audio news more effectively.

Every year, approximately 40 million women undergo breast-cancer screening in the U.S. using a procedure called mammography. For some, this can be a nerve-wracking experience; many wait days or weeks before a radiologist can review their scan and provide initial screening results. Between 10 and 15 percent of women must return for a second visit and undergo more scans before receiving a final diagnostic assessment - drawing out the process further.

Together with Northwestern Medicine, Google Health is working on a new clinical research study to explore whether artificial intelligence (AI) models can help reduce the time to diagnosis, narrowing the assessment gap and improving the patient experience.

Women who choose to take part in the study may have their mammograms reviewed by an investigational AI model that flags scans for immediate review by a radiologist if they show a higher likelihood of breast cancer. If a radiologist determines that further imaging is required, the woman will have the option to undergo this imaging on the same day. This study will evaluate whether this prioritization could reduce the amount of time that women spend waiting for a diagnostic assessment. Women whose mammograms are not flagged will continue to have their images reviewed within regular timeframes.

"Through this study, Northwestern Medicine aims to improve the excellent care we deliver to our patients every day. With the use of artificial intelligence, we hope to expedite the process to diagnosis of breast cancer by identifying suspicious findings on patients' screening examinations earlier than the standard of care," says study principal investigator Dr. Sarah Friedewald, chief of breast imaging at Northwestern Medicine and vice chair for women's imaging in radiology at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. "Every patient in the study will continue to have their mammograms interpreted by a radiologist, but the artificial intelligence will flag and prioritize patients that need additional imaging, facilitating the flow of care."

This research study with Northwestern Medicine builds on previous research which demonstrated the potential of AI models to analyze de-identified retrospectively collected screening mammograms with similar or better accuracy than clinicians.

Artificial intelligence has shown great potential to improve health care outcomes; the next challenge is to demonstrate how AI can be applied in the real-world. At Google Health, we're committed to working with clinicians, patients and others to harness advances in research and ultimately bring about better and more accessible care.

1. Be intentional

The best tip I can share to help support Black-owned businesses in your community is to start with an open mindset. If the intent and the willingness to help are there, then you've already taken a big step in supporting these businesses.

There's an old saying that says, "when America catches a cold, a Black man catches a flu." The barriers that minority communities face are currently being exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, Black-owned businesses have closed at double the rate of white-owned businesses due to the pandemic. This is a direct reflection of the unconscious bias that exists in America today, and further proves why mindfulness is so important.

Do the research. Understand the opportunity and the need. And be deliberate and intentional in showing up for the Black-owned businesses in your community.

2. Show your support in whichever way works best for you

Once you've made the decision to support Black-owned businesses, there are so many ways you can help uplift them.

You can show up for the business by ordering takeout, delivery, goods and gift cards online. If you can't afford to regularly spend money on the goods and services these businesses offer, you can also upload photos or leave a positive review on their Business Profile on Google Search and Maps. Word of mouth and positive affirmations help us keep our heads high and our doors open.

3. Exercise patience

During The Breakfast Klub's first year providing breakfast to the Houston community, we had a customer who kept supporting us as we figured out how to gracefully support our customers. He'd come in and say, "Hey, I see you trying. And as long as you keep trying to get it right, I'm here for you." His patience meant the world to us as we figured out how to operate our business.

A lot of small businesses hadn't been exposed to certain challenges and business opportunities prior to the pandemic. For restaurants, transitioning to curbside pickup and delivery isn't just a flip of a switch. (If you're a Houston-based business owner, there's an upcoming free training that can help make this switch a little easier.)

You can help rebuild your neighborhood by showing patience for Black-owned businesses as they try to sustain themselves through a very tough time. If you're not sure which businesses in your community are Black-owned, Google is a great place to start. By searching for Black-owned restaurants, clothing stores, salons - you name it - you're already taking the first step.

For several years, governments around the world have been meeting at the OECD to reform the international corporate tax system. Not surprisingly, success hasn't come quickly. This isn't an easy task - but it remains a critical one. As the world economy seeks to recover from the global pandemic and governments face new fiscal pressures, an agreed solution is needed now more than ever to ensure a durable framework for cross-border trade and investment.

Tomorrow's meeting of G20 finance ministers represents an important opportunity to give this process new momentum. For the new Biden Administration, the meeting represents a chance to underscore its commitment to the OECD-led multilateral process and to fair, comprehensive, and coordinated changes to corporate tax policies. And it represents an equally important opportunity for finance ministers from France, the UK, India, Indonesia, and other leading economies to commit to end the headlong rush to discriminatory tax measures that we've seen in recent years and work with the U.S. on a durable agreement.

The central question is less about how much corporate income tax companies pay than where they pay it. For Google's part, our effective tax rate over the past decade has exceeded 20% of our profits, in line with average statutory tax rates. While we're one of the largest corporate taxpayers in the world, roughly 80% of our corporate income tax has been due in the United States, where Google was founded and where most of our products are developed. The concentration of our tax obligations in our home market mirrors many other multinational companies spanning various industries and countries; foreign firms operating in the U.S. and other countries, for example, also pay the majority of their corporate income taxes in their home countries.

These tax practices are the product of international rules - specifically, international tax treaties that historically have attributed a smaller share of profits to the countries where products and services are consumed, leaving the bulk of taxing rights to the countries where products and services are created.

We have long supported efforts to update international tax rules to arrive at a system where more taxing rights are shifted to countries where products and services are consumed. So, U.S. exports, including a range of technologies, might incur more income tax abroad, while foreign companies exporting to the U.S. would pay more to the U.S. public purse. Like any good agreement, this will require a healthy amount of give-and-take.

Unfortunately, in the absence of multilateral consensus, the world has seen the growth in recent years of taxes targeted at foreign companies. Most prominently, we have seen the growth of so-called "digital services taxes" that aim to raise revenue from a small subset of firms, narrowly defined by revenue thresholds and business models. This selective approach has sparked tensions between the U.S. and some of its allies, pushing countries toward trade disputes that could further damage fragile economies.

Some of the countries imposing these targeted taxes claim they help build momentum for broader international tax reform. But these digital services taxes are complicating efforts to reach a balanced agreement that works for all countries - they're simply laying claim to income that would otherwise be taxed in the U.S. We encourage these governments to roll back what are essentially tariffs or, at a minimum, suspend them while negotiations continue.

The next few months will test commitments countries have made to reinvigorate international cooperation. Left on the current trajectory, tax discord could quickly yield beggar-thy-neighbor protectionism that would weaken cooperation on many issues. But serious steps forward - starting with the rescission or suspension of existing unilateral taxes - could create new momentum for multilateralism, supporting collaboration on many other important fronts. We urge countries to work together on this critical project, building a firmer foundation for international cooperation in the 21st Century.

Welcome to the latest edition of "My Path to Google," where we talk to Googlers, interns and alumni about how they got to Google, what their roles are like and even some tips on how to prepare for interviews.

Today's post is all about Agnieszka Hryniewicz-Bieniek, the Global Director of Google for Startups. She shares what it was like to first serve as Country Manager for Google Poland and eventually move to a new team focused on supporting startups in the region and around the world.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

I'm Agnieszka Hryniewicz-Bieniek, but please call me Agni. During my first 11 years at Google, I first managed a sales team for a few years before going on to serve as the Country Manager. Later, I was promoted to Country Director for Poland, a position I held for nearly six years. Then, I led Google for Startups in the region as the Head of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) prior to my current role as the Global Director of Google for Startups. I like to say that I used to represent my country in Google, and now I advocate for startups around the world within Google.

While my non-linear career path has spanned fast-moving consumer goods, telecommunications, banking, publishing, entertainment and technology, two things have remained constant: I love applying my knowledge from one industry to another to learn and discover new perspectives, and I thrive when helping other entrepreneurs pursue their dreams.

What was it like transitioning from Country Director for Google Poland to the Google for Startups team?

My transition came naturally because, for a long time, Google Poland felt like a startup itself. When I started in 2008, we had a team of only 10 people. By the time I left, Google Poland had more than 500 employees and had just signed a deal in Poland to build a local Google Cloudregion to ensure that all Polish companies have access to Cloud technology.

I still love leading small, agile teams in big organizations to drive high impact - and Google for Startups is exactly that. Managing such a multicultural and international team is a unique opportunity to hone my own skills while supporting startups in over 125 countries around the world.

How did the recruitment process go for you?

I appreciated that my interviews were dialogues. They felt more like interesting conversations. I was thrilled to speak to Googlers from Turkey, Germany and the United States. They each brought a fresh point of view to the conversation, and I knew that I wanted to work with international colleagues to broaden my own perspectives.

What do you wish you'd known before applying?

Actually, I will reverse that question - I am so glad I didn't know more! I applied based on curiosity, which kept my mind open and positive. I encourage applicants to be more curious, more open and more sincere when thinking about their careers.

Even when I applied for the head of Google for Startups role, I knew I was taking a risk. You design your own path - don't let someone else design it for you.

OurAI Principles prioritize creatingtechnology that's socially beneficial. How does this keep you inspired?

Founders keep us on our toes because they have a high level of awareness of how Google technology and products work. Not only is supporting entrepreneurs the right thing to do because it makes good business sense, Google for Startups is the gateway to supporting founders of all backgrounds as they grow the businesses that will shape our world. That's why we're proud to have initiatives such as the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund, which provides equity-free cash awards to Black-led startups in the U.S, Brazil and Europe.

I've seen firsthand how digital transformation and startup ecosystems can transform economies for the better. Poland is part of Central Eastern Europe, a region that has been one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Growth was initially fueled by traditional industries, but entrepreneurship has really put CEE on the map. I'd love to do the same for other emerging regions around the globe.

Do you have any tips you'd like to share with aspiring Googlers?

Ultimately, the company you work for is more important than the role itself. The company fosters the culture that will create your professional experience. Rather than getting hung up on a job title or moving up the ladder, consider the opportunities that the organization may open for you. Do you connect with the people, and do they share your values? Who you work with is just as important as who you work for.

Editor's note: Today's post is by Evan Landis, Chief Product Officer with VaxCare. The company aims to simplify vaccination for healthcare providers. VaxCare partnered with Social Mobile to create custom devices managed with Android Enterprise for its customers.

The intense worldwide effort to vaccinate against COVID-19 has highlighted some of the core challenges that have always existed in expanding protections against preventable diseases.

At VaxCare, our mission for more than 10 years has been to simplify vaccination programs, easing the logistical barriers to increasing vaccination rates. Our digital platform is designed to help healthcare professionals modernize their vaccination programs, reduce costs and focus on their patients.

Android devices are central to this strategy. Recently, we partnered with Social Mobile who designed and built bespoke, Google Mobile Services-certified devices that interface with our digital platform. The flexibility of Android Enterprise enabled us to build solutions aligned to our customer needs with simple, flexible management and security tools.

A better customer experience with Android

Social Mobile helped us create custom devices that are simple to set up, use and update, while still meeting HIPAA and HITRUST certification compliance. We were inspired by consumer-facing, point-of-sale devices and the flexibility of the Android platform to create an ideal hardware solution for our customers.

The VaxCare Hub is our stationary, in-practice integrated device with a 13-inch touchscreen, a camera and a scanner that is the main gateway to our platform. When vaccinating patients, healthcare providers scan the dose and view the vaccine and patient information, ensuring accuracy before administering the vaccine.

As a dedicated device tied to our service, healthcare providers always have access to quickly look up the status of their inventory and get updates on new vaccine shipments.

To design for the new contexts and places where vaccines are administered, we also worked with Social Mobile to create the VaxCare Mobile Hub. This smaller dedicated Android Enterprise device also connects to our Portal service and gives healthcare providers the flexibility to get the information they need no matter where they are administering vaccines.

Having this vital information readily available in this purpose-built, rugged device has produced efficiency for our network of over 10,000 providers. Since launching the Mobile Hub device in September 2020, they administered over 650,000 flu shots during the 2020 season. One partner practice saw their immunization rates increase 54 percent year-over-year.

Flexible management solutions

Android Enterprise provides comprehensive tools for rapid and secure device enrollment and flexible management, which we enable for our devices through Social Mobile's Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) platform, Mambo.

With zero-touch enrollment, we enable a quick and simple device startup experience for customers. After unboxing and powering on the device, it's automatically enrolled and configured for use with our application. Devices are managed in lock task mode, which locks a device to a specific set of apps, so customers are always connected to our VaxCare Portal.

Security and privacy are critical to any healthcare setting. As a device with Google Mobile Services, the VaxCare Hub and Mobile Hub use Android multi-layered security to continually monitor and protect critical data. We have confidence in the platform security features to ensure we meet the security and privacy promise we make to our customers.

Help for a vaccine surge

With Android Enterprise, we've set ourselves up to scale as we see an increased demand for vaccines and offerings like VaxCare. We've been able to quickly bring online support for our partners in the public phase of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. We've optimized our platform to assist any of our providers who enroll in a public vaccination program to manage inventory, record-keeping and billing.

As we continue our mission of helping the healthcare community more simply deliver vaccines, we're confident that Android and Social Mobile's custom solutions will continue to be a major component of our hardware and software strategy to support the healthcare community.

Nelson Mandela once described South Africa as the most beautiful place on earth, with its breathtaking scenery, wildlife safaris, active adventures, vibrant culture and friendly people. I'm thrilled to announce that, starting today, you can explore what makes the country so spectacular through our new online exhibition - South Africa: an explorer's paradise. Through over 500 high-resolution photographs and videos, 20 expertly-curated stories and 60 Street Views, you can join a safari to meet lions and elephants, or feel the rhythm of the cities and visit ancient geological sites. Step inside the oldest caves in the world and zoom into vast savannas, lush forests and sparkling oceans.

Here are four places to start:

4. Travel to 60 locations with Google Street View

Use Street View to explore South Africa's most breathtakingly beautiful sites: Visit Cape Town's iconic Table Mountain; experience the rocky plains of the Cederberg, where you can view the five-meter-high Maltese Cross; or amble through the lush Big Forest Tree Walk, taking in the ancient foliage around you.

For us at South African Tourism, today marks the start of formalizing a relationship and partnership with Google that will play a crucial part in the sector's recovery. We know that digitally-led is the norm and through our partnership we hope to equip the sector with the necessary skills to thrive and adapt in a digital environment.

Curious to see more? Check out g.co/sharesouthafrica or download the Google Arts & Culture app.

Across Google and YouTube, we are always working to protect our users from harmful content, especially the kind of horrific, illegal content referred to as child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Since our earliest days, we've been committed to fighting online child sexual exploitation and abuse both on our platforms and in the broader online ecosystem. We have invested in the teams, tools, and resources to deter, remove, and report this kind of content, and to help other companies do so. But we know this issue cannot be solved by any one company alone, and we're committed to tackling it with others in our industry and partners who are dedicated to protecting children around the world. Today, we're sharing more information about our work, including new efforts to combat this abuse, and how we're supporting organizations that are committed to protecting kids online.

How we identify and remove CSAM

We identify and report CSAM with a combination of specialized, trained teams of people and cutting-edge technology. We use both hash-matching software like CSAI Match (a technology developed by YouTube engineers to identify re-uploads of previously identified child sexual abuse in videos) and machine learning classifiers that can identify never-before-seen CSAM imagery. These tools allow us to proactively scan our platforms for potential CSAM and identify potentially abusive content so that it can be removed and reported - and the corresponding accounts disabled - as quickly as possible. A crucial part of our efforts to tackle this kind of abuse is working with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), the U.S.-based reporting center for CSAM. NCMEC tracks reports from platforms and individuals and then sends those reports to law enforcement agencies around the world.

New insights into our work to fight CSAM

We recently launched a new transparency report on Google's Efforts to Combat Online Child Sexual Abuse Material, where we detail the number of reports we made to NCMEC in the first and second half of 2020. The report also provides data around our efforts on YouTube, how we detect and remove CSAM results from Google Search, and how many accounts are disabled for CSAM violations across our services. We also include information on the number of "hashes" of newly identified CSAM we share with NCMEC. These hashes (unique digital fingerprints) help other platforms identify CSAM automatically at scale. Contributing to the NCMEC hash database is one of the most important ways we, and others in the industry, can help in the effort to combat CSAM because it helps reduce the recirculation of this material and the associated re-victimization of children who have been abused.

Working to combat CSAM across the internet

Because CSAM is an issue that spans beyond any one platform, in 2018 we developed and launched the Content Safety API. Using AI classifiers we built for our own products, the API helps organizations classify and prioritize the most likely CSAM content for review. Today, the API is being used by NGOs like SaferNet Brazil and companies including Facebook and Yubo. Along with CSAI Match, these tools are offered free-of-charge for qualifying organizations and companies. In 2020, the Content Safety API was used by our partners to classify more than 2 billion images, helping them identify the small fraction of violative content faster and with more precision. We encourage organizations who are interested to apply to use CSAI Match or Content Safety API.

For many years, we've had dedicated teams working to prevent access to CSAM on google.com by de-indexing and reporting illegal sites and filtering autocompletes for search terms associated with CSAM. Last summer, we redesigned and expanded a feature we've been running since 2013 where users who enter CSAM-related queries are shown a prominent message that CSAM is illegal and instructions on how to report this content to their local authorities. We also provide information about local resources to connect users with NGOs that support children or families who may have been victims of abuse. We're already seeing an impact from these efforts: hundreds of thousands of users each month are clicking through to the reporting hotlines we surface, including the Internet Watch Foundation in the UK, the Canadian Center for Child Protection and Te Protejo in Colombia. And, crucially, we've seen when these warning boxes are shown, we're less likely to see follow-up searches seeking similar material. We will be expanding this feature over the course of this year.

Supporting organizations to fight CSAM globally

The scale and complexity of fighting CSAM online means we must take a global and multi-stakeholder approach. That's why we're working together across industry and with leading child safety organizations like the WeProtect Global Alliance, Thorn, the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children. And we continue to work to empower and support organizations that are creating real and lasting change for children. For example, we've funded a three-year Google Fellow at NCMEC to modernize and integrate their systems. We've also extended our Ad Grants program to qualifying child protection nonprofits during the pandemic, providing funding and campaign help for organizations like the INHOPE hotline network and ECPAT International. Since 2003, we've given almost $90 million in Ad Grants to global child protection organizations. We also supported the Five Country Ministerial Forum Voluntary Principles to Counter Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse and collaborated across industry to produce a practical guide for companies considering applying these principles. This builds on our work on Project Protect as part of the Technology Coalition.

Working together, we can make meaningful progress in the global fight against CSAM.

Last year, Google's Women Techmakers launched "Founded," a podcast celebrating the real, honest stories of women leaders in the tech industry and their journeys to entrepreneurship. Now, we're back with a second season that will follow six women in tech with a common goal: to build a successful business.

We'll hear from women like Hana Hassan, who's working to diversify tech companies' hiring practices, and Laura Rodriguez O'Dwyer, CEO of a startup that's demystifying certain parts of learning languages.

• Image shows a headshot of a woman with long brown hair and a black blazer smiling at the camera against a black background.

  Cristina De La Peña is the o-founder of Synapbox, a content-testing platform using AI to help brands better understand consumer engagement towards advertisements.

• Image shows a woman with short curly pink hair smiling at the camera against a black background.

  Shelly Bell is the founder of Black Girl Ventures Foundation, an organization transforming entrepreneurship by reimagining the way Black and brown women founders access financial and social capital.

• Image shows a woman in a red shirt smiling at the camera against a black background.

  Laura Rodriguez O'Dwyer is the founder of Glot Learning!, an education startup that created an app to help people learn difficult aspects of foreign languages.

• Image shows a woman with dark hair smiling at the camera against a black background.

  Yasmine El Baggari is the founder of Voyaj, a platform that connects people from around the globe for meaningful, one-on-one exchanges to help foster understanding and peace.

• Image shows a woman with dark hair smiling at the camera against a black background.

  Sandeep Ahuja is the co-founder of cove.tool, an automated sustainability consultant for building performance modeling, 3D performance visualization and parametric optimization

• Image shows a woman with curly dark hair and glasses smiling at the camera against a black background.

  Hana Hassan is the CEO of Blackmaple.io, a global talent marketplace dedicated to the diversification of hiring in the technology industry.

As the host of "Founded," I've learned so much from these incredibly driven women. So to give you a sneak peek to the season, here are three lessons you'll hear throughout the episodes:

1. Just start. In the interviews, you'll hear that most of the founders we spoke to didn't have the "perfect" financial or social circumstances to launch a tech startup. What they did have was ambition and drive; the moment they put their foot to the pedal, their ideas took off. Sometimes this take-off was very slow, and sometimes it was fast. What mattered is that they began their journeys and made their ideas a reality.
2. Be bold in your ask. You can't build a company on your own. You'll need a team, and you'll probably need other people's money. These people are investing in you and your vision. To get that investment, you have to make "the ask." The initial ask might be challenging, but you need to grow your resources and knowledge base if you want to build a company beyond one person and one idea. We heard from people who demonstrated how one relationship, one investor, one supporter could transform a startup's direction. So never miss that opportunity!
   
3. Stay rooted in a clear sense of purpose. From ensuring financial stability to building and nurturing a team, founding and running a startup is hard work. But a common thread between these founders was they always reminded themselves of why they started their businesses in the first place. What makes them get up in the morning is the same drive that helps them overcome obstacles.

Season two of "Founded" is available now, and you can find it on Google Podcasts or wherever you listen.

Data has always been a vital tool in understanding and fighting disease - from Florence Nightingale's 1800s hand drawn illustrations that showed how poor sanitation contributed to preventable diseases to the first open source repository of datadeveloped in response to the 2014 Ebola crisis in West Africa. When the first cases of COVID-19 were reported in Wuhan, data again became one of the most critical tools to combat the pandemic.

A group of researchers, who documented the initial outbreak, quickly joined forces and started collecting data that could help epidemiologists around the world model the trajectory of the novel coronavirus outbreak. The researchers came from University of Oxford, Tsinghua University, Northeastern University and Boston Children's Hospital, among others.

However, their initial workflow was not designed for the exponential rise in cases. The researchers turned to Google.org for help. As part of Google's $100 million contribution to COVID relief, Google.org granted $1.25 million in funding and provided a team of 10 fulltime Google.org Fellows and 7 part-time Google volunteers to assist with the project.

Google volunteers worked with the researchers to create Global.health, a scalable and open-access platform that pulls together millions of anonymized COVID-19 cases from over 100 countries. This platform helps epidemiologists around the world model the trajectory of COVID-19, and track its variants and future infectious diseases.

The need for trusted and anonymized case data

When an outbreak occurs, timely access to organized, trustworthy and anonymized data is critical for public health leaders to inform early policy decisions, medical interventions, and allocations of resources - all of which can slow disease spread and save lives. The insights derived from "line-list" data (e.g. anonymized case level information), as opposed to aggregated data such as case counts, are essential for epidemiologists to perform more detailed statistical analyses and model the effectiveness of interventions.

Volunteers at the University of Oxford started manually curating this data, but it was spread over hundreds of websites, in dozens of formats, in multiple languages. The HealthMap team at Boston Children's Hospital also identified early reports of COVID-19 through automated indexing of news sites and official sources. These two teams joined forces, shared the data, and published peer-reviewed findings to create a trusted resource for the global community.

Enter the Google.org Fellowship

To help the global community of researchers in this meaningful endeavour, Google.org decided to offer the support of 10 Google.org Fellows who spent 6 months working full-time onGlobal.health, in addition to $1.25M in grant funding. Working hand in hand with the University of Oxford and Boston Children's Hospital, the Google.org team spoke to researchers and public health officials working on the frontline to understand real-life challenges they faced when finding and using high-quality trusted data - a tedious and manual process that often takes hours.

Upholding data privacy is key to the platform's design. The anonymized data used at Global.health comes from open-access authoritative public health sources, and a panel of data experts rigorously checks it to make sure it meets strict anonymity requirements. The Google.org Fellows assisted the Global.health team to design the data ingestion flow to implement best practices for data verification and quality checks to make sure that no personal data made its way into the platform. (All line-list data added to the platform is stored and hosted in Boston Children's Hospital's secure data infrastructure, not Google's.)

Looking to the future

With the support of Google.org and The Rockefeller Foundation, Global.health has grown into an international consortium of researchers at leading universities curating the most comprehensive line-list COVID-19 database in the world. It includes millions of anonymized records from trusted sources spanning over 100 countries.

Today, Global.health helps researchers across the globe access data in a matter of minutes and a series of clicks. The flexibility of the Global.health platform means that it can be adapted to any infectious disease data and local context as new outbreaks occur. Global.health lays a foundation for researchers and public health officials to access this data no matter their location, be it New York, São Paulo, Munich, Kyoto or Nairobi.

To blind traveling bluesman Joshua Pearson, songwriting is more than just a good melody. "Songwriting gave me a language to talk about my frustrations. And by putting my music out there, I could hopefully let somebody else feel some of what I was feeling." For Joshua, TalkBack is his main pen and paper for writing songs; it lets him dictate lyrics into his phone and hear them told back to him.

Screen readers, such as Android's TalkBack, are the primary interface through which Joshua and many other people who are blind or low vision read, write, send emails, share social media, order delivery and even write music. TalkBack speaks the screen aloud, navigates through apps, and facilitates communication with braille, voice and keyboard input. And today we're releasing an all-new version of TalkBack that includes some of the most highly requested features from the blind and low vision community.

Tap as you please with multi-finger gestures

We've added a dozen easy-to-learn and easy-to-use multi-finger gestures that are available with the latest version of TalkBack on Pixel and ​Samsung Galaxy devices from One UI 3 onwards. These gestures make it easier for you to interact with apps and let you perform common actions, such as selecting and editing text, controlling media and finding help.

We worked closely with people in the blind and low vision community to develop these easy-to-remember gestures and make sure they felt natural. For example, instead of navigating through multiple menus and announcements to start or stop your favorite podcast, it's now as simple as double tapping the screen with two fingers.

Read or skim with just a swipe

Reading and listening is easier with new controls that help you find the most relevant information. For instance, you can swipe right or left with three fingers to hear only the headlines, listen word-by-word or even character-by-character. And then with a single swipe up or down you can navigate through the text.

Say what? There's new Voice Commands

Starting with TalkBack 9.1, you can now swipe up and right to use TalkBack's new voice commands. TalkBack will stop talking and await your instructions. With over 25 different commands, you can say "find" to locate text on the screen or "increase speech rate" to make TalkBack speak more quickly.

Do things your way with more customization and language options

While we put a lot of thought into this redesign, one thing we've learned from working with the community is that everyone interacts with their phones in their own way - which makes customization important. You can now add or remove options in the TalkBack menu or reading controls. Additionally, gestures can be assigned or reassigned to scores of settings, actions and navigation controls.

Lastly, we're adding support for two new languages in TalkBack's braille keyboard: Arabic and Spanish.

Joining forces for accessibility

The all-new TalkBack is the result of our collaboration with trusted testers and Samsung, who co-developed this release. We will continue to work with Samsung to improve TalkBack capability, and TalkBack is now the default screen reader on all Samsung Galaxy devices from One UI 3 onwards, making it easier to enjoy a consistent and productive screen reader experience across even more devices.

To help everyone keep up with all the changes, we've created an entirely new tutorial to make it easier to make the most of TalkBack - there's even a test pad to practice new gestures. With these new features and collaborations we hope that more people can find useful and creative ways to use TalkBack. Who knows, you might even find lyrical inspiration like Joshua.

Lydia Kluge is an active member of the Google Maps Local Guides community, the everyday people passionate about sharing their experiences on Maps. In 2020, she added more than 1,100 contributions on Google Maps in the form of reviews, photos, and places. Coincidentally, Lydia also hiked, ran, and biked 1,100 miles last year. All those adventures earned her the well-deserved Expert Trailblazer and Expert Fact Finder badges on Google Maps.

But Lydia's journey has been full of adventures long before 2020. Originally from England, Lydia landed in Utah in 2005 for what was meant to be a six-month stint as a ski instructor. She's been there ever since after falling in love with (and on) the slopes where she met her now-husband.

Over the past fifteen years, the couple traveled to over 30 countries. Along the way, Lydia used Google Maps to find hidden gems - from the best restaurants in Paris to snorkeling spots in Australia.

• Lydia and her daughter stand by a river in a national park

  Lydia with her daughter by Virgin River in Zion National Park (near the trailhead of Watchman Trail)

• Lydia Kluge with her daughter standing near a lake with mountains and trees

  Lydia and her daughter took a lakeside hike at Pine Valley Reservoir, in Utah.

  
  

• A photo of Lydia and her daughter walking together on The Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah

  Lydia and her daughter stroll The Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah

In 2019, Lydia and her husband welcomed their beautiful baby girl into their family and couldn't wait to travel with her. But COVID-19 changed their international jet-setting plans. Like many of us, Lydia's spending more time closer to home. She's explored Utah's mountains, deserts, and national and state parks. And, just like in her international travels, Google Maps has been her companion. She's added and reviewed dozens of nature trails, trailheads, and parks, and created lists of family-friendly activities in Utah. "One thing I've missed about working outside of the home is how I can contribute to others and my community," Lydia said. "Adding these things to Google Maps is a way I can give back."

Here are Lydia's tips on how to use Google Maps to explore natural attractions near you:

Find parks and hiking trails on Google Maps

Search outdoor terms like "hiking trails" or "parks near me" to find nearby treks. For most hiking trails, you'll be able to find ratings, reviews and photos from other hikers. Some may also have useful details like open hours and phone numbers. You can also use the Lists feature on Google Maps to see curated recommendations, like Lydia's Things to See and Do in St. George and Food and Fun in Park City. Simply search for a town and scroll down to see Featured Lists.

Quickly sort through reviews to find popular topics or search for specific words

Lydia leaves detailed reviews on parks and hikes with searchable terms like "family," "steep," or "kid-friendly." Search for specific words to quickly sort through reviews and get a better sense of the place. If you want an idea of what most people are talking about, you can see a list of popular keywords in reviews - from "banana slug" and "poison ivy" to "parking lot" and "sunset."

Preview your trek with photos

Lydia has left more than 3,500 photos on Google Maps that have been viewed more than 25 million times. To get a sense of what your outdoor trip will look like, browse photos that people like Lydia have uploaded. Sort photos to see the latest, pan through Street View and 360-degree images, and even see videos. Pay it forward to the next trekker and leave photos of what made your hike memorable.

Add and update hiking areas yourself

Some trails may not have traditional signage and could be hard to find. If you know where an unmarked (or poorly marked) trailhead is, you can confirm that the pin locations are in the appropriate spot. To do so, open your Google Maps app and navigate to the place. Tap "suggest an edit" to update information about the hiking area.

To follow Lydia's adventures, check out and follow her Google Maps profile.

Last February we announced GameSnacks, a HTML5 gaming platform from Area 120, Google's workshop for experimental products. We launched GameSnacks to test whether lightweight, casual games would resonate with people who use the internet via low memory devices on 2G and 3G networks, especially in countries like India and Indonesia.

Since then, millions of people from around the world have played our games. GameSnacks now has more than 100 games built by early game development partners. These games span multiple genres: classics (e.g. Chess), racing games (e.g. Retro Drift), puzzle games (e.g. Element Blocks), and hypercasual games (e.g. Cake Slice Ninja) to list a few. You can check out the full catalog by visiting gamesnacks.com.

Today, we're sharing how we've broadened our efforts by bringing HTML5 games to Google products. We're also inviting more game developers to join us as we grow the platform.

Finding HTML5 games to play is hard

When I mention HTML5 web gaming to friends and family, they fondly remember Flash gaming sites from 10 or 15 years ago. Web games have come a long way since then. Mobile browsers can now render rich graphics, and engines like Phaser, Construct and Cocos make it easier for developers to build HTML5 games.

HTML5 games tend to be small, enabling them to load quickly in a variety of network conditions, whether on 2G near the outskirts of New Delhi or on an intermittent connection on a New York City subway. Users can play them on any device with a web browser: Android, iOS, and desktop. And across these devices, users don't need to install anything to play. They simply tap on a link and start playing games immediately.

However, the distribution landscape for HTML5 games is fragmented. Developers have to painstakingly modify their HTML5 games to work across each app they integrate with or web portal they upload to. Discovering HTML5 games to play is often difficult.

We've been thinking about how we can make HTML5 game developers' lives easier to ultimately get more HTML5 games out to more users. Here's a closer look at how we're doing this.

A new way to discover HTML5 games across Google products

Back in February 2020, we announced our partnership with Gojek to bring HTML5 games to their users and give developers a new distribution opportunity. Since then, we've been bringing the GameSnacks catalog to users across a variety of different Google apps.

First, we've made it easy to access GameSnacks games directly from the New Tab page in Chrome, starting with users in India, Indonesia, Nigeria and Kenya. Users can get to gamesnacks.com via the Top Sites icon on Chrome on Android. The Games section is one of the most frequently visited sections of the page.

Second, we've brought GameSnacks games to Google Pay users in India. Google Pay initially started as a way to help users pay friends. Increasingly, they allow users to get many more things done: book rides, order food and now, entertain themselves.

Google Pay users in India can play GameSnacks games from the Games section of the app.

Third, we're experimenting with bringing GameSnacks games to the Google Assistant. When select Android Assistant users ask to play a GameSnacks game, they can start playing instantly.

And finally, we're experimenting with surfacing GameSnacks games in Discover. Select users in India will see GameSnacks games appear in their feed:

GameSnacks will be a one-stop shop for developers to bring their HTML5 games to Google users, no matter what product they're using. Over the coming months, we'll look for more opportunities to bring GameSnacks games to more Google products.

An open call to game developers

We're committed to helping game developers succeed with HTML5. Beyond continuing to help developers reach more users, we'll help developers build meaningful gaming businesses by helping them better monetize HTML5 games. We'll soon start experimenting with next-generation AdSense for Games ad formats with a select number of GameSnacks games.

Meanwhile, we're continuing to add more high quality HTML5 games to our catalog. If you're a game developer interested in being an early GameSnacks partner, reach out and let's work together.