Google Asia Pacific Blog: July 2014

New views of India’s old wonders

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Cross-posted from the Google India Blog

Even the most ambitious, iron-willed traveler might find it taxing to explore India’s archaeological sites across the subcontinent all in one go. But starting today, visitors from around the world can virtually visit far-flung historical wonders such as the Ellora Caves and Kangra Fort, simply at the click of a button.

With the support of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Google is releasing new 360-degree online imagery of 76 iconic historical sites from across India. These immersive panoramas are available for viewing through the Google Cultural Institute site as well as on Google Maps. This launch brings the number of ASI locations now online to over 100, including the heritage sites that launched in February 2014 such as the Taj Mahal and Humayun's Tomb.

Safdarjung Tomb in New Delhi is now on Google Maps

We’re also bringing online several Indian arts and archival institutions onto the Google Cultural Institute for the first time ever. You can now explore new exhibits curated by Indian screenwriter and photographer Sooni Taraporevala at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Delhi, follow the journey of the Parsis from Persia to the present day at the Parzor Foundation, and experience India’s first ever Independence Day in 1947 through the eyes of its first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, thanks to archival material from the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library.

Online exhibition of India’s first Independence Day Celebrations, from the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library

Don’t forget that you can curate your own collection on the Google Cultural Institute with the User Galleries function. When browsing an individual exhibit, simply click on the + sign next to the exhibit’s name. It will be added to the drawer at the bottom of the page. For more information, click here.

There’s never an adequate substitute for seeing the real thing, but we hope that by putting these sights online and making them accessible for anyone with an Internet connection, these exhibits will inspire more people to visit, and in doing so, sustain India’s glorious heritage.

Posted by Rajan Anandan, Vice President and Managing Director, Google India

The mobile future is here (in Asia)

Thursday, July 31, 2014

The rise of the mobile Internet in the U.S. was made clear by searches during the World Cup.
In the below chart, you can see that mobile searches (in blue) rose throughout the day of the final — and even spiked to exceed the searches from desktops and laptops during the match.

Google Search data, July 13 (U.S. PST)

Mobile’s on the rise in the U.S. but how is it doing in Asia?

Google Search data, July 13 (U.S. PST)

A completely different picture. More blue than grey.

The difference between Asia and the U.S. becomes even more stark when, instead of stacking the different searches, you subtract one from the other.

Over the day of the final, U.S. searches flipped to mobile for a brief span, rising above the line near the end of the game. In Asia, the desktops only had their moment of World-Cup-final glory as the game began.

The World Cup shows how, for many parts of Asian daily life, mobile devices make up the core. The desktop has its uses, but finds itself on the sidelines in Asia far more frequently than in the West.

Posted by Simon Kahn, Chief Marketing Officer, Google Asia Pacific

Calling all Internet policy researchers in Asia Pacific

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Cross-posted from the Google Research Blog

Twice a year, Google’s Faculty Research Awards program seeks and reviews proposals in 23 research areas, assigning to each area a group of experienced Googlers who assess and deliberate over which proposals we should and can fund. With each call for proposals, we receive a wide array of research ideas in fields that fall within the realm of Internet policy.

We would like to share with you the areas of Internet policy in which we are particularly interested to see progress and stimulate further research:

Accessibility: Google is committed to supporting research that generates insights about what helps make technology a usable reality for everyone, regardless of cognitive, physical, sensory, or other form of impairment.
Access: What policies help bring open, robust, competitive and affordable Internet access to everyone in the world? What are the economic and social impacts of improved Internet access? In particular, what are the emerging impacts of gigabit access networks?
Intellectual property (IP) in the digital era: The growth of digital industries has meant that IP law is an increasingly important policy tool governing innovation and economic growth. We would like to better understand how IP legislation can enable new technologies, and what effect different national or regional IP regimes have on innovation, such as the effect of patent litigation on invention, and how copyright exceptions affect the creation of online technologies.
Freedom of Expression: As an advocate of freedom of expression on the Internet, Google is interested in research that produces insights into how discourse and expression in the global online (public) sphere happens, and how stakeholders best allow freedom of expression, balance it with other rights and resolve conflicts or interest/disputes.
Internet Governance: The Internet is a universal space that many expect to remain open, free, and borderless. Multiple stakeholders (internet companies, governments and civil society) work together to design the governance practices and institutions to maintain order and innovation in the global Internet ecosystem. We are interested in supporting top researchers who analyze and contribute insights into which practices and institutional structures work and which don’t.
Open Standards and Interoperability: Open Standards and interoperability of services are at the core of the Internet’s successful international propagation and usefulness. Google is interested in research that contributes analysis and best practices for standardization and interoperability. Among them we see resource management, access control and authorities for the Internet of Things, as well as questions regarding convergence and security. Also, cloud computing and storage could benefit from open standards that enable interoperability.

Additionally, there are several important research areas like Privacy, Economics and market algorithms, and Security, which have a significant policy component but are dealt with as research topics distinct from policy & standards.

Researchers who are interested in applying for a Faculty Research Award can do so twice a year following the instructions laid out on the Google Faculty Research Awards website. The next window for submissions is October 1 to 15. We look forward to your proposals.

Posted by Vint Cerf, VP & Chief Internet Evangelist, Google

Pakistani shoes that are going places

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

This post is part of our regular series of interviews with people across Asia-Pacific who’ve caught our eye, using the Internet to create, connect and grow.

Waqas Ali and Sidra Qasim of Markhor in Pakistan

How would you describe Markhor in one sentence?
Markhor is an online brand which makes premium handcrafted leather footwear and bespoke accessories for the modern gentlemen.

Where did inspiration for your business come from?
During a visit to his hometown, Waqas was struck by a conversation among village elders, questioning the Internet’s role in Pakistani society. A cobbler asked whether the Internet’s impact had been positive or negative. Waqas told the cobbler—who happened to be out of work because he had no customers—that he could use the Internet to get more orders and to build a new business. And so the idea to use the Internet to sell handmade shoes was born.

At that point, we didn’t have any money and had to turn to others for financing. We pitched our idea to Pashafund, a social innovation fund supported by Google.org, to help get the business off the ground. We secured US$10,000 which enabled us to buy raw materials, and to hire the village cobbler and other experienced shoemakers to design and create our first shoes.

What lessons have you learned along the way?
We’ve learned a lot about brand-building through the web. For example, the Internet has enabled us to better understand what our international customers look for, especially in terms of quality. So we’re now establishing a team that looks closely at quality control. Observing our global competition online, we also realized that we needed a brand that would appeal to an international audience. We hired the best designers in Pakistan to bring our vision for the brand to life. Today our brand is represented by the markhor, our national animal, expressing strength and pride in Pakistani craftsmanship.

Detail of Markhor’s products and brand development on Instagram

What has been your biggest challenge?
We’ve had a few challenges to overcome. First, it was difficult to get access to an online payments system that would allow us to conveniently accept international payments. Second, we've struggled with unpredictability in website access. Our site was blocked for three weeks for no clear reason when we were just getting started. And third, it wasn’t easy to find a reliable and affordable partner for international shipping. We finally found a local company that now helps us deliver our products all over the world.

There have been personal challenges too. It’s not common for a girl from a village to start a business, so Sidra didn’t get much support initially. But with some successes under our belts, our business has become a great story for people in our village to tell and they’re much more supportive now.

What’s next for Markhor?
In August we’ll launch a Kickstarter campaign to raise more capital and show the world how we’re making beautifully handcrafted shoes. We believe in ethically made custom products and this campaign will take our Kickstarter backers through the process of creating high quality custom-made leather goods — from concept, to when a customer ties the laces on our shoes for the first time.

Posted by Waqas Ali and Sidra Qasim, co-founders of Markhor in Pakistan

Meet Robot Taekwon V

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Today’s doodle in South Korea celebrates Robot Taekwon V’s 38th birthday—a landmark animated film that was a smash hit among Korean youth in the late 1970s. This was one of Korea’s first home-grown animations that bore unmistakably Korean hallmarks, like a robot hero who could do complicated kicks from the traditional Korean martial art of Taekwondo.

To create a modern interpretation of Robot Taekwon V while remaining faithful to the original design, our doodler decided to recreate the robot using modern 3D software. We hope the doodle captures a bit of the excitement found in the film's animated action sequences and rekindles interest in Robot Taekwon V.

Posted by Heajin Lee, Marketing Manager, Google Korea

Zubir Said: Music that moved a nation

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Today in Singapore, our homepage is dedicated to the 107th birthday of Zubir Said, a prolific songwriter of over 1,000 works. A self-taught musician, Zubir came to Singapore from Indonesia at the age of 21 to work as a composer, music teacher and part-time photographer. He is best known for composing our national anthem as well as the song for Children’s Day.

In 1958, a year before Singapore attained self-governance, the deputy mayor of the city council invited Zubir to compose a theme song for the council's official functions. The title, Majulah Singapura (“Onward Singapore”), was prescribed to Zubir, as this was the motto that was to be displayed at the re-opening of the city state’s famous Victoria Theater where the song would be performed for the first time.

Zubir spent a year working on the music and lyrics. He later used an old Malay proverb to describe his approach to the anthem: "Di mana bumi dipijak, di situ langit dijunjung", which today translates into the saying that when in Rome, do as the Romans do. For Zubir, this meant coming up with an anthem that was simple and could easily be understood and adopted by all ethnicities in Singapore. The result was an inspiring anthem with a refrain that quickly became popular with locals:

Let us all unite
In a new spirit
Together we proclaim
Onward Singapore

Posted by Sana Rahman, Communications Manager, Google Singapore

8 charts that show you what Asia really thinks of the World Cup

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Here are eight things about Asia's interest in the World Cup that you might not have known:

1. “But I’ve always supported Deutschland”

These countries in Asia suddenly wanted to know about German flags. Bangladesh, Indonesia and Malaysia were searching for the topic of German flags more intensely than Germany.

Searches for “flag of Germany” over the past 12 months in Asia

2. Indonesia searches for (almost) everybody

Here’s a chart showing Asia’s search interest in Germany. Indonesia’s one of the top countries.

This is a chart showing Asia’s search interest in Argentina. Nepal and Bangladesh are searching for the Argentina team the most. But Indonesia’s number three.

Now note Asia’s search interest in the Netherlands. And note Indonesia again.

And here’s Asia’s search interest in Brazil, which is in general higher than for the other teams in the final four. Yes, there’s Indonesia in third place.

3. Asia’s just not that into Asian teams

Japan and South Korea have the most search interest for South Korea. The rest of Asia? Not so much.

Asia’s search interest in South Korea’s team in the past 90 days

The world’s search interest in Japan’s team over the past 90 days

4. India’s just not that into football

If you think the U.S. is the country that cares the least about football (sorry, soccer), think again. India takes the top spot for shrugging its shoulders at the world’s most popular sport.

5. When it comes to injuries, incurred beats inflicted

Both Suarez’s bite and Neymar’s vertebra injury triggered a swarm of searches, but there were more searches for the Brazilian star’s back-breaking incident than even Suarez’s toothy foul that inspired everything from memes to bottle openers.

6. Classiest meme? World-Cup Tang poetry parody

Poems supposedly written by Chinese Tang dynasty poets Li Bai and Du Pu are trending when netizens rewrote them to make an acrostic that spelled out “Brazil suffers huge defeat in 2014”. Actually the poems were not written by Tang poets at all, but by football fans online who are waxing lyrical.

The line in blue is for the name of the poem “Touring Sichuan”; the line in red is for “Brazil”.

Searches for this poem actually spiked above searches for Brazil at one point last week in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

7. J-Lo, watch out for J-Ro

Golden Boot winner James Rodriguez, the striker from Colombia, trended across Asia. Taiwan’s netizens named him J羅, pronounced “J-Luo.” We can call him J.Ro though. Popularity for J.Ro has shot up past that of J.Lo globally. But even the Taiwanese nickname for Rodriguez is suddenly beating the global nickname for Jennifer Lopez.

8. Causation? Correlation?

Paul the Octopus was credited with picking winners. Mick Jagger got blamed for backing losers. The country with the third-highest interest in Paul the Octopus was India (which is amazing, given 4).

We've put together a public spreadsheet of the charts and data in this blog post for you to create your own versions.

Posted by Robin Moroney, Communications Manager, Google Asia Pacific

Hong Kong’s green heroes

Monday, July 14, 2014

Today on www.google.com.hk you’ll find the first ever Google doodle designed by a Hong Kong student. We asked kindergarten to secondary school students of the city’s inaugural Doodle 4 Google contest in Hong Kong to come up with a design under the theme “If I were a green hero...”.

Wong Chiu-yung’s work was chosen among 3,500 designs that were inspired by solutions to make the world a greener place to be featured on the Google HK homepage for a day. Wong, a secondary six student at Pok Oi Hospital Tang Pui King Memorial College, wrote that as a green hero, she would do everything to live a green lifestyle. Her design emphasizes how water is a precious resource which sustains life and nourishes all that is on earth.

We’re inspired by the creativity and all the big ideas coming out of our first Doodle 4 Google competition in Hong Kong, and hope these encourage many more heroic green acts.

Winners of Hong Kong’s first Doodle 4 Google competition with Dominic Allon, Managing Director of Google Hong Kong.
From left to right: Wong Chiu Yung, Chan Mon Chi, Mai Hau Yan, Dominic Allon and Chan Yan Wing.

Here are the doodles by all our finalists:

From top left to bottom right:
Winner of the Kindergarten Group — Chan Mon Chi designed a rechargeable car;
Winner of the Primary 1 - 3 Group — Mai Hau Yan’s doodle depicts various heroic green acts;
Winner of the Primary 4 - 6 Group — Or Pui Chi believes being a green hero means learning to love our natural resources;
Winner of the Secondary 1 - 3 Group — Chan Yan Wing wants to be a green hero by recycling and helping save endangered species

Posted by Dominic Allon, Managing Director, Google Hong Kong

Women explore the wonders of wearable technology

Friday, July 11, 2014

Shoes that help with directions? How about a headband that monitors a user’s heartbeat and plays music to match their mood? These are just some of the neat ideas recently suggested and prototyped by women from Google Business Groups and Google Developer Groups from Colombo in Sri Lanka to Cagayan de Oro in the Philippines.

To coincide with our recent I/O developers’ conference in San Francisco, we held dozens of I/O Extended events across Asia, bringing together hundreds of tech enthusiasts for live streams of I/O, developer demos and hackathons. We challenged women attendees at nine of these events to consider how wearable technology could solve an everyday problem — we called this “Wonderful Wearables”.

Teams had an hour to develop, prototype, and pitch their wearable concepts. Below are some of their ideas:

Colombo, Sri Lanka: Multiple teams presented wearables that improve women’s safety, including a ring that allows users to make contactless payments so they don’t have to take out cash or credit cards in public places, and a bracelet that alerts users’ loved ones of their location and need for help upon trigger.
Cebu, Philippines: Health risks posed by rising levels of air pollution motivated one team to prototype a pendant that can detect pollutants and alert users if they are in a high-risk area. This concept would help concerned mothers identify safer and healthier places to live.
Zamboanga, Philippines: Instead of identifying a problem, one team spotted an opportunity: why not harness the strength of the strong sun in Zamboanga for something useful? Team SolarCap prototyped a hat that not only protects users from the sun’s harsh rays, but also serves as a solar-powered charger for people on the go.

Want to get involved? Women in Vientiane and Kota Kinabalu can take part in sessions this weekend, so sign up now.

Posted by Lindsay Taub, Google Business Group Women Program Lead

Indonesians cast their ballots

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

187 million voters are heading to the polls in Indonesia today, the world’s third largest democracy. In this year’s elections, over one-third of voters are casting ballots for the very first time. Many of them are quite tech and mobile savvy, which is why we’ve partnered with NGOs to encourage developers to create apps that provide easy access to information about the elections, the candidates, and their political platforms.

We’re also commemorating this occasion on Google.co.id with a special doodle that depicts a vote being cast in the Indonesian way — using a nail to punch a hole in the ballot paper, before it is folded and dropped into a box.

Throughout the day, check out our Elections Hub at Google.co.id/elections to stay on top of the latest news and videos as the votes come in.

Posted by Shinto Nugroho, Public Policy and Government Relations Manager, Google Indonesia

World Cup trends: Asia’s far-from-hometown heroes

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

In last week’s installment of World Cup search trends in Asia, Ben Kwon, a US-based follower of this blog, raised a good question: how do countries that aren’t playing in the tournament decide which teams to root for? Despite there being no homegrown teams amongst the semifinalists of Argentina, Brazil, Germany, and the Netherlands, World Cup fever is alive and well in Asia.

So, which of these four teams are most popular in which Asian countries?

We looked at Google searches as a proxy for fandom. It’s no big surprise that host nation and perennial futebol favorite Brazil is extremely popular across the region: from the Philippines to South Korea, the soccer samba-ists are the favorite final four team by far. But you might be surprised to know that Argentina has a legion of supporters in Bangladesh and India’s West Bengal—fans in that region have generally been split into two camps between the Latin American rivals.

The German national team outperforms the Netherlands in searches across the region. Particularly in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Hong Kong — where the black-red-gold jerseys have also all but sold out — the madness for the Mannschaft has spiked around every one of their games. But who knows, searches for the Dutch oranje might just surge if they ride their current underdog status to a victory against the Argentinians.

To our readers: what explains these search trends? Why is the South American rivalry playing out on the subcontinent? And what makes Germany so popular among so many Asian nations? We’re curious to hear your comments below.

Posted by Joyce Hau, Communications Senior Associate, Google Asia Pacific

Gmail now speaks six more Asian languages

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

No matter where you’re from, language shouldn’t be a barrier when it comes to keeping in touch with the people you care about. From today, Gmail is available in six more Asian languages including Chinese (Hong Kong), Khmer, Lao, Mongolian, Nepali and Sinhala.

Over the last ten years we’ve made Gmail accessible to many more Asian language speakers—though there’s still a long way to go before it’s available in the 2,200 languages spoken across the region. In 2005, we introduced Gmail in Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Filipino, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Thai and Vietnamese. Three years later, we followed with Malay, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil and Telugu. With today’s additions, Gmail is now a true polyglot speaking 71 languages—covering 94% of the world’s Internet population.

From Chinese (HK) to Sinhala (pictured above), Gmail now speaks six more Asian languages

As any native speaker knows, each language has its own nuances, and we worked closely with linguists around the world to make sure the tone and style came out just right. For example, both Hong Kong and Taiwan use traditional Chinese characters. However, you’ll notice that Gmail’s new Chinese (Hong Kong) language uses 收件箱 for “Inbox” instead of 收件匣, which is a more common term in Taiwan.

Here's a quick look back at our expansion of Gmail across Asia's languages.

Try out any of these six languages in Gmail on the web and feature phone browsers today by going to your Settings.

Posted by Ian Hill, Senior Project Manager, Google Localization

Meet our winning Web Rangers in New Zealand

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Cross-posted from the Google New Zealand blog

Three months ago, NetSafe and Google invited Kiwi teenagers to become New Zealand’s first ever Web Rangers. Since then, we’ve held workshops in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington, where teens learned about safer and smarter Internet use, and how to spread the word creatively on the Internet.

We received close to 50 campaign submissions from across the country—all of them involving lots of effort and many amazing ideas. We’re inspired by the way teens manage their lives online, and how they’re sharing these messages with their friends and communities.

We’re now pleased to announce our winners from each city, including runners-up. They’ve won some fantastic prizes, including a trip to Sydney to present their campaigns to the team at Google ANZ HQ.

Auckland: Hayley Smith’s Social Experiment - Queen St, Auckland (Anonymous Voice): Hayley came up with the idea of setting up a “social experiment” to illustrate how people might react to having hurtful comments yelled at them on a busy Auckland street. In just two weeks, the video gained over 70,000 views on YouTube. Hayley is a student of Auckland’s Te Kura.

Christchurch: Tip Varnakomala’s Compliment generator and website - Project Positive: Tip became a Web Ranger after becoming fed up with the negative comments and behaviour on social media. He says he and his friends have experienced insults and bullying behaviour online. Tip decided to build a “compliment machine”, using the programming language javascript, to counter the lack of positive comments online. Tip is a student of Burnside High School.

Wellington: Angus Slade’s Animation and song - If Life Was Like The Web: Reflecting on his personal experience with bullying in the classroom, Angus decided to enter the Web Rangers campaign in a bid to reach out to other victims. Not a fan of “serious” messages, Angus spent more than 100 hours drawing, learning animation and producing a humourous song. Angus is home-schooled.

We’re incredibly proud of all the campaigns everyone submitted and recognize the hard work that went into each one. Creating a safer web for teens is important and we look forward to seeing the impact of your campaigns within your communities.

Runners-up

To find out more about Web Rangers NZ and the winning campaigns, visit netsafe.org.nz/webrangers. You can keep up to date with all the campaigns (or if you’re interested in becoming a Web Ranger yourself) over on our Google+ and Facebook pages.

Posted by Sean Lyons, Chief Technology Officer, NetSafe

Make our world better, faster, with Google Impact Challenge Australia

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Cross-posted from the Google Australia blog

From conceiving the Hills Hoist to inventing the bionic ear and WiFi, Australia has a rich history of innovation, fuelled by a desire to solve tough problems with technology solutions. We believe technology can help solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges, and today we’re announcing a new program to support Aussie innovators in the non-profit sector who want to use technology to make an impact.

Starting today, Australian non-profits can submit their technology-driven ideas to Google Impact Challenge | Australia for the opportunity to share in AUD2 million of funding. We’ll reward the four winning submissions with a AUD500,000 grant plus mentoring and support from Google employees to help make each project a reality.

Australian non-profits with DGR status can apply online today at: g.co/australiachallenge.

We’ll announce ten finalists in October, and then open up public voting so Australians can select their favourite idea. On October 14, a judging panel made up of Glenn McGrath, Kim Williams, Anne Geddes, Maile Carnegie and Jacquelline Fuller will select three awardees. The fourth awardee will be chosen based on online votes from the public.

Other Google Impact Challenges around the world have supported ideas ranging from smart cameras for wildlife conservation to solar lights for off-grid communities to a mobile application that helps to protect women from domestic violence.

Non-profits, you have four weeks to submit your ideas. Entries close on July 29.

Whether it’s new technology to help alert residents of an approaching bushfire or an innovative way to tackle homelessness in a CBD, we look forward to hearing some big ideas about how technology can make a real difference to tackle some of the world’s biggest social challenges.

Posted by Alan Noble, Director of Engineering, Google Australia

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