fidzu : search engine

The need for reliable and credible journalism in Canada is greater today than perhaps it has ever been. Our mission here when it comes to news is simple: support Canadian journalism of all sizes.

Over the past 20 years, we have been working with the news industry and news publishers around the world to build a better future for news. We are committed to playing a role alongside other companies, governments and civil society groups in aiding the digital transformation of newsrooms and supporting quality journalism and reporting we all count on. As part of that commitment, today we're announcing that we're rolling out Google News Showcase, our new product experience and licensing program for news, across Canada in French and English.

We're also announcing three new partnerships with Les coops de l'Information, Le Devoir and Torstar, who join Black Press Media, Glacier Media, The Globe and Mail, Métro Média, Narcity Media, Saltwire Network, Village Media and Winnipeg Free Press as partners with Google News Showcase. Together, these partnerships include over 100 publications across the country in both official languages.

These deals represent support for journalism of all sizes, from the Toronto Star, which reaches millions of Canadians each month, to more regional outlets like Le Soleil or the Peterborough Examiner. Over 90% of News Showcase participants globally are local or regional publications.

Driven by our recent $1 billion global investment, News Showcase supports news publishers that are invested in comprehensive current events journalism in the public interest by giving them a new way to curate their high-quality content on Google News and Discover - and all clicks on the articles go directly to the publisher's website. Through News Showcase, these publishers can help connect their readers with the news that matters to them.

As part of our licensing deals with publishers, we're also launching the ability for readers to access select paywalled content. This feature will give people the opportunity to read more of a publisher's content than they would otherwise have access to, while enabling publishers to incentivize more readers to become subscribers.

This launch builds on News Showcase deals signed with nearly 1,000 news publications in more than a dozen countries, including India, Japan, Germany, Brazil, France, the U.K., Australia, Czechia, Italy, Austria, Ireland, Colombia and Argentina.

"Quality, fact-checked journalism is a vital way to connect and inform people, and a crucial tool against misinformation. News Showcase will bring more of our award-winning local and national reporting to Canadians, and the world," says Jordan Bitove, Toronto Star publisher and Torstar co-owner. "It's an investment into the future of our newsrooms, our top-quality journalism and the future of news."

"Google News Showcase offers us new opportunities to bring the quality local journalism we produce to more readers," says Stéphane Lavallée, Managing Director of Les Coops de l'information. "Enabling more audiences to connect with content from our six publications is an essential step in our ongoing digital growth. Ultimately, this new partnership with Google will help us produce even more relevant and useful content to the benefit of our communities."

"Le Devoir is a proud partner of Google News Showcase. Today's announcement marks a new era in our relationship. It is based on trust and a mutual understanding of our shared responsibility to strengthen the digital media landscape," says Brian Myles, editor Le Devoir. "Google's assistance and tools are critical in Le Devoir's strategy to build a digital audience. We rely mainly on digital subscriptions and our business model is sustainable. In this regard, Google News Showcase fits perfectly with our current efforts to build a larger community of readers. This partnership will bring us a step forward in our digital transformation, while delivering our trusted and fact-based brand of independent journalism to a wider audience."

News Showcase is just one of the ways we are supporting the news industry in Canada. Through our Google News Initiative, we also provide tools and training to help journalism in Canada thrive in the digital age. In June, we announced that we're increasing our investments across a number of areas.

Over the next three years we'll train 5,000 Canadian journalists and journalism students on strengthening digital skills in newsrooms -in addition to the 1,000 journalists we've already trained to date.

We are expanding our business-oriented workshops for small and mid-sized news organizations on topics including audience development, reader revenue and advertising revenue. The 10 sessions will be delivered in French and English and will use our Digital Growth Program resources and our award winning News Consumer Insights tools.

We have also just launched our first Google News Initiative Startups Boot Camp Canada in partnership with LION Publishers, an eight-week program that supports a group of aspiring, independent journalism entrepreneurs who are launching sustainable news products. Applications are now open until November 14.

All these efforts represent a collaborative effort between Google and publishers in Canada to contribute to quality journalism in this country. We're here to support Canadian newsrooms, big and small, so that news can thrive in Canada for years to come.

For many creators, YouTube is a go-to learning resource. That's why we've created a series of entertaining and educational videos for the Google for Creators YouTube channel. Through interviews, hosted shows, tutorials and roundups, you'll hear from successful creators sharing useful tips, strategies and best practices for making and monetizing content.

Here's a little about each of our video series to help you get acquainted with the Google for Creators YouTube channel.

Creator Insights

Creator Insights taps into the expertise of successful content makers sharing their top insights and advice. Featured creators host a series of episodes, each one diving into a specific topic. Whether you're interested in the value of evergreen content or the importance of setting boundaries to achieve work-life balance, you'll get advice and easy-to-follow strategies to help you on your own creative journey. Recent Creator Insights contributors include lifestyle and beauty blogger Keiko Lynn, holistic wellness influencer Andi Eaton, and Black food and culture digital content makers Eden Hagos and Elle Asiedu - with many more to follow.

Creator Spotlight

Through one-on-one interviews, Creator Spotlight pulls the curtain back on interesting people creating unique online content. Learn from creators like fashion blogger Tokes of Tokes' Take on Style about engaging your audience through live streaming; CityGirl Meets FarmBoy's Kelly Ballard on growing an audience through Pinterest; Laughing Squid creator Scott Beale on curating viral content; and blogging expert Ryan Robinson on the ins and outs of creating online courses.

Storytime

Follow along with Storytime, a weekly video series with guides for making and sharing compelling Web Stories - Google's tappable visual stories format. Storytime gives step-by-step tutorials on Web Stories tools and features, including layout, design and monetization, to help you become a Web Stories master.

The Creator Update

If you're having trouble keeping up with the latest trends in the creator economy, you're not alone. Google for Creators recently launched its video series, The Creator Update, to help with just that. This hosted show shares trending topics in a bite-sized format, with a quick rundown of the latest tools, websites and people making a buzz in the creator community.

Check out all of these series by subscribing to the Google for Creators YouTube channel.

This November at COP26, global leaders will meet in Glasgow to discuss how to jointly address the challenge of climate change. Recent research has found that more than 70% of the global population is concerned or fearful about climate change. So we're focused on making this year's conference accessible to everyone. In partnership with the COP26 Presidency, we'll livestream the activities through YouTube and Google Arts and Culture, helping COP26 expand the reach of its digital channels. YouTube creators at the conference will create content to share with their global audiences, and we'll publish video, imagery and artworks from "the green zone" - the center of COP26 activity - via a new page on Google Arts and Culture, inviting people everywhere to learn about the discussions and activities taking place.

"I'm delighted COP26 is partnering with Google to help bring the Green Zone of COP26 to the world in a few days' time," COP President-Designate Alok Sharma said. "With more than 200 captivating and diverse events on offer we want everyone to have the opportunity to learn more about climate action and help protect our planet."

Our work at COP26 is part of our larger third decade of climate action strategy. We're not only committed to be more sustainable in how Google operates as a business, but we're also focused on building new technologies to make sure that partners, enterprise customers and the billions of people who use Google products every day can be more sustainable as well.

How we're leading at Google

At Google, our goal is to achieve net zero emissions across all of our operations and value chain by 2030. We aim to reduce the majority of our emissions (versus our 2019 baseline) before 2030, and plan to invest in nature-based and technology-based carbon removal solutions to neutralize our remaining emissions.

We were the first major company to operate as carbon neutral in 2007, and have matched our energy use with 100 percent renewable energy for four years in a row. Last year we set a moonshot goal to operate on 24/7 carbon-free energy by 2030 for all of our data centers and campuses. That means that by the end of the decade, we aim to deliver every search, every email, and every YouTube video without emitting carbon. We're making strong progress - in 2020 we achieved 67% carbon-free energy on an hourly basis across our data centers, up from 61% in 2019. Five of our data centers, including those in Denmark and Finland, are at or near 90% carbon-free energy.

On our campuses we're investing in sustainable energy innovations, like dragonscale solar and geothermal pilings, to get us closer to our goal to be carbon-free by 2030. We hope these new technologies will inspire similar projects from others that advance sustainability without compromising design and aesthetics.

How we're enabling our partners

Urban areas are currently responsible for 70% of the world's carbon emissions. Last year we pledged to help more than 500 cities reduce one gigaton of carbon emissions per year by 2030 via Google's Environmental Insights Explorer (EIE). EIE is helping major cities, including Amsterdam, Birmingham UK and Copenhagen, map their emissions data, solar potential, and air quality for their remediation plans.

Technology can also help cities decarbonize in more direct ways. We recently shared an early research project that is deploying AI to help cities make their traffic lights more efficient, and we have a pilot program in Israel accomplishing this. So far, we have seen a 10-20% reduction in fuel consumption and delay time at intersections. We're excited to expand this pilot to Rio de Janeiro and beyond.

Finally, we're helping business customers like Whirlpool, Etsy, HSBC, Unilever and Salesforce develop solutions for the specific climate change challenges they face. Unilever is working with the power of Google Cloud and satellite imagery through Google Earth Engine to help avoid deforestation in their supply chain. At Cloud Next, we launched Carbon Footprint, a tool that helps large and small businesses understand their gross carbon emissions associated with the electricity of their Google Cloud Platform usage. This new information will help companies track progress toward their own climate targets.

How we're aiming to empower everyone

In addition to businesses, increasingly individuals are focused on what more they can do to help the planet. That's why we committed to help 1 billion people make more sustainable choices by 2022 through Google's products and services. Recently, we shared several new ways people can use Google's products to make sustainable choices - from choosing eco-friendly routes and searching for greener flights, hotels, and appliances to supporting clean energy from home with Nest and surfacing authoritative information on climate change from sources like the United Nations.

Google's goal is to make the sustainable choice an easier choice - for governments, businesses, and individuals. We look forward to a carbon-free future and are excited to continue the conversation at COP26.