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A power plant for the Internet: our newest data center in Alabama
June 24, 2015
Every time you check your Gmail, search on Google for a nearby restaurant, or watch a YouTube video, a server whirs to life in one of our data centers. Data centers are the engines of the Internet, bringing the power of the web to millions of people around the world. And as millions more people come online, our data centers are growing, too.
We’ve recently expanded our data centers in
Iowa
,
Georgia
,
Singapore
and
Belgium
. And today we’re announcing
a new data center
in Alabama—our 14th site globally.
This time, we’re doing something we’ve never done before: we’ll be building on the grounds of the
Widows Creek coal power plant
in Jackson County, which has been scheduled for shutdown. Data centers need a lot of infrastructure to run 24/7, and there’s a lot of potential in redeveloping large industrial sites like former coal power plants. Decades of investment shouldn’t go to waste just because a site has closed; we can repurpose existing electric and other infrastructure to make sure our data centers are reliably serving our users around the world.
At Widows Creek, we can use the plants’ many electric transmission lines to bring in lots of renewable energy to power our new data center. Thanks to an arrangement with Tennessee Valley Authority, our electric utility, we’ll be able to scout new renewable energy projects and work with TVA to bring the power onto their electrical grid. Ultimately, this contributes to our goal of being powered by 100% renewable energy.
In 2010, we were one of the first companies outside of the utility industry to
buy large amounts of renewable energy
. Since then, we’ve become the largest corporate renewable energy purchaser in the world (in fact we’ve bought the equivalent of over
1.5 percent of the installed wind power capacity in the U.S.
). We're glad to see this trend is
catching on
among other companies.
Of course, the cleanest energy is the energy you don’t use. Our Alabama data center will incorporate our state-of-the-art energy efficiency technologies. We’ve built our own
super-efficient servers
, invented
more efficient ways to cool our data centers
, and even used advanced
machine learning
to squeeze more out of every watt of power we consume. Compared to five years ago, we now get 3.5 times the computing power out of the same amount of energy.
Since the 1960s, Widows Creek has generated power for the region—now the site will be used to power Internet services and bring information to people around the world. We expect to begin construction early next year and look forward to bringing a Google data center to Alabama.
Posted by Patrick Gammons, Senior Manager, Data Center Energy and Location Strategy
Vertical Street View of the world’s most iconic rock wall: Yosemite’s El Capitan
June 24, 2015
Today we’re launching our first-ever vertical Street View collection, giving you the opportunity to
climb 3,000 feet up the world’s most famous rock wall: Yosemite’s El Capitan
. To bring you this new imagery, we partnered with legendary climbers Lynn Hill, Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell. Read more about the project from Tommy Caldwell, who completed the world’s hardest climb in Yosemite in January of 2015.
-Ed.
“That is awesome. I definitely have to be a part of that.”
Maybe it was the sheer exhaustion from being in the middle of a
19-day climb of the Dawn Wall
, but when the guys at Google Maps and
Yosemite National Park
asked if I wanted to help them with their
first-ever vertical Street View collection of El Capitan in Yosemite
, I didn’t hesitate. Yosemite has been such an important part of my life that telling the story of El Capitan through Street View was right up my alley—especially when it meant working with the Google engineers to figure out some absurd challenges.
Climbing is all about flirting with the impossible and pushing the boundaries of what you think you can be done. Capturing
Street View imagery 3,000 feet up El Capitan
proved to be an extension of that, especially when you take a camera meant for the inside of a restaurant and mount it thousands of feet up the world’s most iconic rock wall.
Brett Lowell and Corey Rich capturing Street View of
Alex Honnold on the King Swing
Doing anything thousands of feet high on a sheer granite face is complicated, but everyone up there had spent years of their lives on a rope and knew exactly what they were doing. After some testing, we used
our tried-and-true climbing gear
like
cams
and ropes to make sure the camera wouldn’t fall to the ground in the middle of our Street View collection.
Once we figured out how to keep the camera on El Cap, we created two sets of vertical Street View. First, we collected Street View of legendary Yosemite climbers—and my good friends—
Lynn Hill
and
Alex Honnold
in iconic spots up the sheer vertical face.
Lynn Hill, Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell camp out 1,140 feet up El Capitan
Lynn Hill’s ascent of El Capitan changed the paradigm of climbing, and she had an extraordinary effect on my climbing career. I’ll never forget when she became the first person, man or woman, to free-climb (using only her hands and feet)
“The Nose”
back in 1993. Now, you can see her navigate these epic moves— like climbing sideways on tiny holds of the
Jardine Traverse
, inventing a “Houdini” maneuver on the
Changing Corners
and traversing under the
Great Roof
.
Lynn’s epic ascent up El Cap is now in Street View
Any story of El Capitan had to include my good friend Alex Honnold. He holds the speed record for climbing the Nose at 2 hours and 23 minutes - most people take 3-5 days. His unwavering confidence in himself is contagious; when I’m with him, I feel like the mountain has shrunk to half its size. As you make your way around Yosemite in Street View, you’ll see Alex doing what he does best: chimneying up the “
Texas Flake,
” racing up the
bolt ladder
, or getting dinner ready in the
solar-powered van
he calls home.
Just a normal day on on the Texas Flake for Alex Honnold
You’ll also see a glimpse of
yours truly on the Dawn Wall
. I spent some of my rest days during my January climb of the Dawn Wall testing out the Street View technology the Google team had sent me that month. El Cap is an intimidating environment for experimentation, but years of setting ropes proved pretty helpful in figuring out
how to get the equipment rigged and ready to collect Street View
.
Tommy Caldwell climbing the sheer face of the Dawn Wall
Then, we really put Alex to work to collect the second set of Street View: the entire vertical route of “The Nose” on El Capitan. One of the few people that could do this efficiently and quickly, Alex took the camera and pretty much ran 3,000 feet up with photographer partner Brett Lowell. Now, anyone can get the beta (climbing speak for insider advice) before they
climb the entire route
.
Alex Honnold and Brett Lowell climbed 3,000 feet to get the entire route in Google Maps
Lynn, Alex and I also helped create
a new Yosemite Treks page
, where you can take a tour up El Cap and learn more about climbing, from what a “hand jam” is to why we wear such tiny shoes. And as a father, I’m excited kids will learn more about Yosemite when Google brings students to the park through NatureBridge later this year as a part of this project. Plus, its pretty awesome that students who can’t make it to Yosemite yet will be able to go on a virtual reality field trip to the Park with
Google Expeditions
.
Hear the legendary Lynn Hill explain describe the gear she uses as she starts up El Cap
Yosemite’s driven so much of my life that I’m excited to be able to share it with the world through my eyes. These 360-degree panoramic images are the closest thing I’ve ever witnessed to actually being thousands of feet up a vertical rock face—better than any video or photo. But my hope is that this new imagery will inspire you to get out there and see Yosemite for yourself… whether you travel up a rock wall or just down the trail.
Tommy Caldwell, Lynn Hill, and Alex Honnold hanging out in Yosemite
Posted by Tommy Caldwell
Music for everything you do
June 23, 2015
Need some music right now to make whatever you’re doing better? Even if you’re not already a
Google Play Music
subscriber, we’ve got you covered. Google Play Music now has a free, ad-supported version in the U.S., giving you a new way to find just the right music—and giving artists another way to earn revenue. In less time than it takes you to read this sentence, you could be exercising with
Drop-a-Beat Workout
, cooling off with
Poolside Chic
, or spending quality time with
Songs To Raise Your Kids To
.
At any moment in your day, Google Play Music has whatever you need music for—from working, to working out, to working it on the dance floor—and gives you curated radio stations to make whatever you’re doing better. Our team of music experts, including the
folks who created Songza
, crafts each station song by song so you don’t have to. If you’re looking for something specific, you can browse our curated stations by genre, mood, decade or activity, or you can search for your favorite artist, album or song to instantly create a station of similar music.
We hope you’ll enjoy it so much that you’ll consider
subscribing to Google Play Music
to play without ads, take your music offline, create your own playlists, and listen to any of the 30 million songs in our library on any device and as much as you’d like. You’ll also get ad-free, offline and background features for music videos on YouTube. And with or without a subscription, you can store and play up to 50,000 songs from your own collection for free.
To help you get started, check out the top 10 most popular activities on Google Play Music, each of which offers several radio stations to choose from based on what you like:
Brand New Music
Driving
Working Out
Boosting Your Energy
Having Friends Over
Having Fun at Work
Entering Beast Mode
Waking Up Happy
Unwinding
Bedtime
The new free, ad-supported version of Google Play Music is launching first in the U.S. It’s available on the
web
today, and is rolling out this week to
Android
and
iOS
. And while you’re checking it all out, we’ll be catching up on our
Blogged 50
.
Posted by Elias Roman, Product Manager
Building even better communities with the Google Impact Challenge: Bay Area
June 23, 2015
What if low-income kids had the same opportunity for jobs in the tech sector as students from the best computer science departments? What could that mean for their futures, or the future of their communities?
That’s the question asked by Oakland-based Hack the Hood, whose mission is to inspire Bay Area kids to pursue careers in technology. Hack the Hood trains young people by hiring them to build websites for small businesses in their communities. After applying for the Google Impact Challenge last spring, Hack the Hood went to work with $500,000 in Google.org funding and nearly 100 Googler volunteers. In the past year they’ve expanded their programs in SF, Oakland and Richmond to reach six times as many young people.
Last year we awarded $5 million to help “hometown hero” organizations like Hack the Hood make a greater impact. Today we’re announcing the
2015 Challenge
, and issuing an open call for nonprofits who are asking big “what ifs” about how they can improve their communities and put innovative solutions to work in the Bay Area.
Click to find out more about last year's finalists
The Bay Area region has always been defined by the people who live here: people who question the status quo to help move our communities forward. From Harvey Milk’s fight for LGBT rights to Alice Waters’ movement for sustainable food to the technological advances of Silicon Valley, the Bay Area has long been at the forefront of positive social change.
We saw this passion in the 1,000+ nonprofit proposals we received for the 2014 Impact Challenge, and we see it in the 25 finalists. We see it in
C.E.O.
, which is training formerly incarcerated people to reenter the workforce; in
Lava Mae
’s commitment to bringing showers with dignity to the homeless; and in
Mission Asset Fund
’s providing low-income people with zero-interest loans. We see it in our neighbors who are striving for a better Bay Area for all.
As this is our home, and thousands of Googlers live and work here, we want to work together towards an even better Bay Area. The Google Impact Challenge will be accepting proposals from nonprofits through Thursday July 23, 2015 at 11:59 p.m. PDT. To learn more or to nominate a nonprofit visit
g.co/bayareachallenge
.
Update October 21:
826 Valencia, Bayview/Hunters Point Community Legal, City Year, The Hidden Genius Project, Kiva and the Reset Foundation received the top votes in the 2015 Impact Challenge: Bay Area. You can learn more about these organizations on our
website
.
Amazingly, after more than 400,000 votes—an increase of more than 2X from last year—we had a virtual tie for fourth place. So six organizations, instead of four, will each receive $500,000. Overall that means the total amount funded has increased to $5.5 million.
Congratulations to all of the nonprofits that participated in the Challenge and work every day to make the Bay Area better for everyone. And thanks to everyone who voted!
Posted by Jacquelline Fuller, Director, Google.org
Introducing the News Lab
June 22, 2015
It’s hard to think of a more important source of information in the world than quality journalism. At its best, news communicates truth to power, keeps societies free and open, and leads to more informed decision-making by people and leaders. In the past decade, better technology and an open Internet have led to a revolution in how news is created, distributed, and consumed. And given Google’s
mission
to ensure quality information is accessible and useful everywhere, we want to help ensure that innovation in news leads to a more informed, more democratic world.
That’s why we’ve created the
News Lab
, a new effort at Google to empower innovation at the intersection of technology and media. Our mission is to collaborate with journalists and entrepreneurs to help build the future of media. And we’re tackling this in three ways: though ensuring our tools are made available to journalists around the world (and that newsrooms know how to use them); by getting helpful Google data sets in the hands of journalists everywhere; and through programs designed to build on some of the biggest opportunities that exist in the media industry today.
Tools for better reporting
From Maps to YouTube to Fusion Tables to Earth to Search, we offer many tools that newsrooms can use in their reporting and storytelling. Now, journalists around the world can access tutorials on these products created specifically for newsrooms, at
g.co/newslab
. We’ll post short written and video tutorials and case studies that highlight best practices from top newsrooms around the world. As Google develops new products that help journalists, we’ll update these resources regularly. You can also get updates by following us on
Twitter
and
Google+
, and by subscribing to our
YouTube
channel.
Data for more insightful storytelling
There’s a revolution in data journalism happening in newsrooms today, as more data sets and more tools for analysis are allowing journalists to create insights that were never before possible. To help journalists use our data to offer a unique window to the world, last week we
announced
an update to our Google Trends platform. The new
Google Trends
provides journalists with deeper, broader, and real-time data, and incorporates feedback we collected from newsrooms and data journalists around the world. We’re also helping newsrooms around the world tell stories using data, with a
daily feed
of curated Google Trends based on the headlines of the day, and through
partnerships
with
newsrooms
on specific data experiments.
Programs focused on the future of media
We’re also working with partners to build a series of programs focused on imagining the future of news and information, as well as on empowering new voices in media. One of the opportunities we’re focused on is increasing the number of media startups in the marketplace. We’ve launched partnerships with
Matter
, a media accelerator in San Francisco, and
Hacks/Hackers
, a global community group for developers and journalists, to provide financial support and mentorship from Google engineers that will help these organizations expand their impact to more startups around the world. We’re also holding a series of
TechRaking
summits with the Center for Investigative Reporting: hackathons focused on developing new investigative tools such as
drones
, online databases, and more.
Another area we’ve focused our programs on is citizen reporting. Now that mobile technology allows anyone to be a reporter, we want to do our part to ensure that user-generated news content is a positive and game-changing force in media. We’re doing that with
three projects
—
First Draft
, the
WITNESS Media Lab
, and the
YouTube Newswire
—each of which aims to make YouTube and other open platforms more useful places for first-hand news content from citizen reporters around the world.
The News Lab is a global effort, with teams in the U.S., U.K., France, and Germany to start—and we’re also powering the training and research arm of Google’s
Digital News Initiative
in Europe.
Google has created many technologies and platforms that have engaged the media industry. As both the media landscape and technology continue to evolve, we believe we can create a more informed world if technologists and journalists work together—and we’re excited to be part of the effort.
Posted by Steve Grove, Director, News Lab
Through the Google lens: Search trends June 12-18
June 19, 2015
The shooting in Charleston, S.C., was the top topic in search this week. Here’s a look at what people were searching for after the tragedy, plus a glimpse into what else was on searchers’ minds this week.
Tragedy in the south
On Wednesday night, a gunman shot and killed nine people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, a historic black church in Charleston, S.C. The suspect, Dylann Roof, was arrested Thursday morning, and charged today with nine counts of murder. As people tried to make sense of the story, many turned to the web, leading searches for “
Charleston shooting
” to climb to more than 5 million. Top questions in the early morning after the shooting include “What was the motive of the hate crime shooting in Charleston?” Many were also interested in the
Confederate flag
, which still flies above the S.C. Capitol building; interest in the flag spiked 20X in the past week in the U.S. as people asked questions like “What does the Confederate flag stand for?”
Presidential politics
We’re still well more than a year away from the 2016 election but the presidential race is already crowded, and getting more so. This week two new candidates joined the fray:
Jeb Bush
and
Donald Trump
both announced they plan to run, bringing the total number of Republican candidates to
a cool dozen
. Though Bush was the most searched candidate in more than 25 states after his announcement, it didn’t last long. Following Trump’s announcement Tuesday, he became the most searched Republican Presidential candidate in every state in the U.S. Top questions on the newest candidates include “Is Jeb Bush related to George Bush?” (that would be a “yes”) and “What is Donald Trump’s net worth?” (he says more than $8 billion; the numbers are
disputed
).
Must-see TV
This week was big for sports, with Google’s own hometown team
Golden State Warriors
beating the Cleveland Cavaliers to win their first NBA Championship title since 1975. The Warriors were at the top of the search charts on Tuesday with more than 2 million searches. Meanwhile, in hockey, the
Chicago Blackhawks
edged out the Tampa Bay Lightning to win the Stanley Cup for the second time in three seasons. Winning never gets old, though: interest in Blackhawks apparel spiked 8X in Chicago between June 9-16, and there were more than 20,000+ searches for the
Blackhawks parade route
, which took place Thursday with more than 2 million attendees.
Hockey and basketball not your game? Then perhaps you were one of the 8 million people watching the fifth-season finale of HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” (Spoilers for the show follow.) The show was the subject of
2 million searches
on Sunday night, as people watched with baited breath to find out what gruesome ends the show had in store for their favorite characters
this
season. One of the top questions about the show was simply “Who died on ‘Game of Thrones’?”, while others expressed their disbelief by asking “Is Jon Snow dead?” and “Is Stannis dead?” There were also more than 200K searches for
Lena Headley
, who plays Cersei Lannister, and another 20K later in the week for
Rebecca Van Cleave
, Headley’s body double for a scene where Cersei is forced to walk naked through the streets. Finally, there was a lot of interest in
Arya Stark
, one of few surviving Stark children, whose path on the show has also been one of the strangest.
Tip of the week
This weekend marks the first official day of summer, and that means BBQ season. If you’re watching what you eat, Google can help you figure out what to choose at the picnic table. Just ask Google to “compare coleslaw and potato salad” or “compare burgers and pulled pork.”
Posted by Emily Wood, Managing Editor, who searched this week for [jurassic world showtimes]
Join our global Pride celebration: #AndProud
June 18, 2015
Pride is one of the world’s greatest celebrations of diversity, one that we’re excited to support every year. For 2015, we’re doing something a little different: we’ve created an online parade, #AndProud, so that people from around the world can celebrate Pride together.
To join the global parade, visit
Androidify
, where you can create your own Android character with a fun new Pride wardrobe. During the weekend of June 27-28 your character will party side-by-side with others from around the world in the online parade.
But the celebration doesn’t end there. While the virtual parade happens online, thousands of Googlers will hit the streets of San Francisco, London and New York to show their support in those citywide Pride festivals. Some of the best #AndProud characters will appear on big screens as part of Google’s pride floats in all three cities.
From left to right, Sam Smith, Tom Daley and Jessie J celebrating the #AndProud parade
In addition to #AndProud and our floats in SF, London and NYC, we’re celebrating Pride in our offices around the
world
, and in all
sorts
of ways across our
products
. We’re excited to be able to extend the celebration and give people around the world a new way to share their Pride.
Hope to see you at the parade!
Posted by Eddie Kalletta and Rich Terry, #AndProud parade marchers
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