Posted by Alan Davidson, Senior Policy Counsel

What a difference a year makes. This time last year, Celine Dion was still performing in Las Vegas, Jamie Lynn was the "good" Spears sister, and ...Read More

Posted by Alan Davidson, Senior Policy Counsel

What a difference a year makes. This time last year, Celine Dion was still performing in Las Vegas, Jamie Lynn was the "good" Spears sister, and I was Time's reigning Person of the Year (you were too).

The holidays are a good time to look back on what the past 12 months have brought for Google's public policy efforts.

This blog is now a toddler
It's hard to believe that we took the wraps off this blog only six months ago. When we launched in June, our hope was to create a resource to inform policymakers -- as well as our users -- about our positions and efforts to keep the Internet a revolutionary medium for freedom and innovation. Since then we've welcomed tens of thousands of visitors each month, including folks from the House, Senate, FCC, and other agencies. For the curious, here were this year's most popular posts:

1. What Do We Mean By "Net Neutrality"? (June 16)
2. Eric Schmidt's summer of public policy (July 26)
3. The promise of open platforms in the upcoming spectrum auction (July 10)
4. Signs of real progress at the FCC (July 31)
5. Candidates at Google: Barack Obama (November 15)
   

Would-be presidents take the "Google Interview"
In what Newsweek called a "must-stop on the 2008 trail," eight (nine?) presidential candidates visited our headquarters in Mountain View, California: Senator Chris Dodd, Senator Barack Obama, Senator Mike Gravel, Representative Ron Paul, Senator John Edwards, Senator John McCain, Governor Bill Richardson, and Senator Hillary Clinton.

With the Iowa caucuses fast approaching and the 2008 election less than 11 months away, these visits allowed Googlers (and voters, via YouTube) to hear the candidates' thoughts on the war in Iraq, technology, immigration, trade, health care, and the most efficient methods for sorting one million 32-bit integers.

Issues, Issues, Issues
This year we were very proud of our efforts to promote changes in U.S. spectrum policy. We called for international privacy standards and took steps to further enhance privacy for our users. Patent reform moved forward, and we reminded people of the value of fair use. At year's end, we were gratified that the FTC approved our acquisition of DoubleClick with no conditions -- agreeing that the deal will help consumers and doesn't hurt competition. And, last but not least, we continued our work to keep the Internet free and open.

Debates, YouTube style
Democratic and Republican presidential candidates descended on Charleston and St. Pete, respectively, for the first-ever CNN/YouTube debates. Nearly 4.5 million viewers tuned in to the Republican debate, making it the most-watched primary debate in cable television history. More than 3,000 questions were submitted for the Democrats; over 5,000 for the Republicans. One Nebraska high school teacher even asked his students to submit questions as a homework assignment. And who said school was boring?

Googlers on the Hill
Four Googlers testified before Congress this year. YouTube's Chad Hurley talked about the future of online video. People Operations VP Laszlo Bock talked immigration. Chief Legal Officer David Drummond promoted our acquisition of DoubleClick, and JL Needham talked about our work to make federal government websites more searchable.

From all of us to all of you, best wishes for a happy holiday season. And stay tuned to this blog for much more in the new year.

Posted by Liz Eraker, Policy Analyst and Jen Marsh, Fellowship Coordinator

Has the end of the year crept up on you just as fast as it has on us? What we wouldn't give for a few extra days to wrap up our loose ends in 2007 ...Read More

Posted by Liz Eraker, Policy Analyst and Jen Marsh, Fellowship Coordinator

Has the end of the year crept up on you just as fast as it has on us? What we wouldn't give for a few extra days to wrap up our loose ends in 2007!

Never fear: we are extending the deadline for the Google Policy Fellowship program that we announced last month. Now students will have until Friday, January 11th to submit their application and postmark their letters of recommendations.

The Google Policy Fellowship program offers undergraduate, graduate, and law students the opportunity to spend the summer of 2008 contributing to the public dialogue on issues fundamental to the future of the Internet and its users, and exploring future academic and professional interests in Internet and technology policy.

Fellows will have the opportunity to work at public interest organizations at the forefront of debates on broadband and access policy, content regulation, copyright and trademark reform, consumer privacy, open government, and more. Participating organizations include: American Library Association, Cato Institute, Center for Democracy and Technology, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Internet Education Foundation, Media Access Project, New America Foundation, and Public Knowledge.

Check out all of the details and get started on your application now.

Posted by Machiel Bolhuis, Annette Kroeber-Riel, and Nicklas Lundblad, European Policy Team

Openness is the key to innovation, and innovation is the key to future growth and development. So it is hardly surprising to see that governments all over the European Union -- in Norway, the Netherlands, and Germany -- are now moving to support both open standards as well as open source.Read More

Posted by Machiel Bolhuis, Annette Kroeber-Riel, and Nicklas Lundblad, European Policy Team

Openness is the key to innovation, and innovation is the key to future growth and development. So it is hardly surprising to see that governments all over the European Union -- in Norway, the Netherlands, and Germany -- are now moving to support both open standards as well as open source.

The Norweigan ICT minister Heidi Grande Røys just recently advertised a large national push for open source and open standards projects all over Norway. A national competence center for open source was also recently founded by a group of trade associations, municipalities and national government agencies. The objective of the center is to promote openness in projects as well as to make sure that institutions and support exists to sustain long-term development for open source. The Norweigan government also recently declared that they will only use open standards for government information, with the Open Document Format identified as the main alternative.

In September the Dutch Secretary of State of Economic Affairs, Frank Heemskerk, and the Dutch Secretary of State of Internal Affairs, Ank Bijleveld-Schouten, published the Action Plan Open Standards and Open Source Software. This plan, which sets the agenda for the public sector to use open source software from 2008 and a requirement to apply a "comply-or-explain and commit" principle for open standards, is a follow-up of the national competence center that was founded a couple of years ago.

When the plan was discussed in the Dutch Parliament on December 12, some political parties went beyond simply declaring their support and stated that the price of hardware and software should be unbundled and requested a legal obligation to use open source software. Heemskerk did not favour a legal obligation, but promised to set-up a hotline where complaints can be filed. On that same date Heemskerk also published a letter in the Financiele Dagblad that reiterated the commitment of the Dutch government to open standards and open source software, also based on the notion that this will reduce administrative burdens.

Germany has also had a long-standing involvement in open standards and free software. Prodded by a very active developer base and the oldest and largest industry association for free software, the Linux-Verband, the German government was the first to fund free software development with its support for GnuPG as early as 1999. Free software is recommended by the German Agency for Security in Information Technology (BSI) and adoption ranges from the German Foreign Ministry, which introduced free software to secure its lines of communication with all embassies around the world in 2003 and started using GNU/Linux on the desktop in 2006, over municipalities like Munich to regions like Friesland. Much of this adoption is driven by strategic considerations and security by transparency. Control of infrastructures, freedom of choice, markets and political independence are other driving factors of this evolution. It is hardly surprising then, that the German Foreign Ministry recently came out in strong support of the Open Document Format.

Clearly European governments are engaging more and more in open standards and open source software (perhaps inspired by European Commission research showing that these steps will stimulate the European economy). This trend is picking up momentum at a crucial time, as the European Commission conducts the midterm review of their i2010 programme for ICT policy in the European Union. Here's hoping that openness is front and center in their policy going forward.

Posted by David Drummond, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer

(Cross-posted to the Official Google Blog)

Earlier today, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) cleared our acquisition of DoubleClick ...Read More

Posted by David Drummond, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer

(Cross-posted to the Official Google Blog)

Earlier today, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) cleared our acquisition of DoubleClick. This is obviously excellent news for both companies, and I would like to comment on its significance and what it means for us going forward.

Perhaps most importantly, the FTC’s decision publicly affirms what we and numerous independent analysts have been saying for months: our acquisition does not threaten competition in what is a robust, innovative, and quickly evolving online advertising space. In fact, we firmly believe the transaction will increase competition and bring substantial benefits to consumers, web publishers, and online advertisers.

Looking at the FTC's clearance statement, a few key points jump out as noteworthy:

• Transaction was cleared with no conditions. The FTC cleared the acquisition unconditionally, without demanding any changes in or commitments concerning the companies’ business practices. This will allow us to remain flexible as we continue to innovate and provide the best services to our customers and users.
  
  
• Google and DoubleClick are not competitors. The FTC stated that its "thorough analysis of the evidence showed that the companies are not direct competitors in any relevant antitrust market." Furthermore, the FTC concluded that the merger would not eliminate beneficial potential competition, writing that "it is unlikely that the elimination of Google as a potential competitor in the third party ad serving markets would have a significant impact on competition." We agree with both of these findings. Google and DoubleClick provide complementary services, and competition between the companies was not necessary to create benefits for consumers. To the contrary, consumers will benefit from the two companies working together and combining our resources.
  
  
• Third party ad serving markets are highly competitive. The FTC noted that "the evidence shows that the third party ad serving markets are competitive," and said that "the evidence also shows that firms can and do switch ad serving firms when it is in their self-interest to do so." This is an important finding, because it means that ad serving customers will continue to benefit from innovation and product development by the many players in this space, and that they can always select the ad serving provider that offers them the best services.
  
  
• Privacy not a part of the merger review. Though we strongly believe in protecting our users' privacy, the FTC clearance decision reaffirmed the law by noting that privacy concerns played no role in its merger review. This is an important principle, as privacy issues need to be addressed on an industry-wide basis, and not on a company-by-company basis. The FTC wrote, "although such issues may present important policy questions for the Nation, the sole purpose of federal antitrust review of mergers and acquisitions is to identify and remedy transactions that harm competition. Not only does the Commission lack legal authority to require conditions to this merger that do not relate to antitrust, regulating the privacy requirements of just one company could itself pose a serious detriment to competition in this vast and rapidly evolving industry." The FTC also noted, however, "that the evidence does not support a conclusion" that this particular transaction will harm consumer privacy.
  
  
• Data combination wouldn't pose problems. The FTC rejected the suggestion from competitors that Google would combine user information with DoubleClick's customers' data to obtain an advantage in the market, writing that the data is owned by DoubleClick’s customers and that "at bottom, the concerns raised by Google’s competitors regarding the integration of these two data sets -- should privacy concerns not prevent such integration -- really amount to a fear that the transaction will lead to Google offering a superior product to its customers." Moreover, "a number of Google’s competitors have at their disposal valuable stores of data not available to Google. For instance, Google’s most significant competitors in the ad intermediation market, Microsoft, Yahoo!, and Time Warner have access to their own unique data stores."
  
  
• Advertisers and publishers aren't concerned. The FTC noted that "the clear majority of third parties expressing [competitive] concerns [about the deal] were Google’s current or potential competitors." Additionally, Commissioner Jon Liebowitz noted in his concurring opinion that "my staff and I independently spoke with publishers and advertisers potentially affected by this deal and, somewhat surprisingly, they raised few anticompetitive concerns. In fact, many seem unruffled by the alternatives in the post-merger market." It is telling that while our competitors tried hard to come up with theories of how our customers and partners could be harmed by the deal, those customers and partners themselves did not agree with those theories. In fact, we know that many of these advertisers and publishers are excited about the transaction and look forward to benefiting from it.
  
  

But as I said at the outset, perhaps the most important aspect of the clearance decision is its recognition of the fact that both Google and DoubleClick do business in a competitive and rapidly evolving arena. Indeed, as the FTC noted, all of the recent acquisitions that have occurred in the online advertising space have confirmed this. "The entry and expansion of...well-financed competitors has transformed the ad intermediation marketplace over the last six months," the FTC wrote. "All of these firms are vertically integrated, and all appear to be well-positioned to compete vigorously against Google in this new marketplace."

I should also note that, separate from its clearance decision, the FTC this morning released some suggested principles to guide online companies engaging in online advertising. We support the FTC's effort to develop industry-wide standards in this area, and we are studying these proposals carefully.

Receiving clearance from the FTC is of course an important step forward, but it does not mean that we can now close the acquisition. For that, we must also receive clearance from European Commission (EC), which is still conducting its review. We are cooperating fully with the EC and are hopeful that they will soon reach the same conclusion as their U.S. counterparts.

Posted by Rishi Jaitly, Policy Analyst, New Delhi

How many heads of state, both present and former, can boast an engineering degree, claim responsibility for the development of a national space program, and cite a professorship at a premier academic institution - all ...Read More

Posted by Rishi Jaitly, Policy Analyst, New Delhi

How many heads of state, both present and former, can boast an engineering degree, claim responsibility for the development of a national space program, and cite a professorship at a premier academic institution - all prior to assuming office? Just one that I know of: Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, former President of India, who recently spoke to Googlers here in Hyderabad.

Before his talk, President Kalam lamented the dramatic drop in support staff since leaving the presidency in July and thanked Google's search engine for being a trustworthy "friend" throughout the transition. Though President Kalam's lecture touched on many topics, he focused on how the ability to access, comprehend, and effectively utilize information can be "an instrument of economic growth and national development."

The former president argued that delivering valuable information over the Internet can be an important way to boost creativity, innovation, and competitiveness in a given society, leading to the creation of a what he referred to as a "knowledge society." Said President Kalam: "The challenge is not the technology alone, but how the application and service are facilitated or delivered to the people as per their requirements."

Along these lines, he offered three recommendations to the information communications and technology industry: first, industry should lead society's key stakeholders in broadly accepting the Internet as "the new way of living, the way of learning, the way of trading and business, the way of socializing and the way of governance."; second, he encouraged the ICT industry to facilitate the creation of local content online that could bring economic prosperity to a particular region; and third, he asked industry to promote public policy changes that address issues such as authentication, security, intellectual property rights, and the prevention of abuse on social networking sites.

In closing, President Kalam urged Googlers to tackle some big problems: the development of speech-recognition and speech-production technologies that would create "language-independent access to knowledge and information"; the creation of digital libraries of information for science and engineering students in the developed anddeveloping worlds; and the building of a system that generates, collects, and distributes clean energy.

Here's the complete video of former President Kalam's talk.

Posted by Richard Whitt, Washington Telecom and Media Counsel

Remember how, before cable and satellite TV became ubiquitous in our homes, we would have to turn the VHF dial on our old televisions to watch local channels? NBC might have been on channel 3, CBS on 10, and ABC on 17. And between those channels...was static.Read More

Posted by Richard Whitt, Washington Telecom and Media Counsel

Remember how, before cable and satellite TV became ubiquitous in our homes, we would have to turn the VHF dial on our old televisions to watch local channels? NBC might have been on channel 3, CBS on 10, and ABC on 17. And between those channels...was static.

Today, the spaces between those channels remain largely unused. But now a consensus is growing that those portions of TV spectrum -- known as "white spaces" -- could be used to expand Internet access through low power personal devices, akin to Wi-Fi. Best of all, new spectrum sensing technologies can ensure that this spectrum could be used for mobile broadband service without interfering one bit with television signals. Which means that not only would more Americans be able to reach the Internet, but also that I'll still be able to watch The Colbert Report (at least once the Hollywood writers' strike is settled).

Over the past few months, bipartisan legislation has been introduced in the House (by Reps. Jay Inslee and Nathan Deal) and Senate (by Sens. John Kerry and Gordon Smith) to open up this spectrum. We support these bills and thank their sponsors. At the same time, the Federal Communications Commission is currently evaluating the technology concepts behind this issue. As part of that process, we met last week with some of the FCC's engineers and presented encouraging test results based on ongoing trials of wireless technologies.

Today, Google joined a broad-based coalition of technology companies, public interest and consumer groups, civil rights organizations, think tanks, and higher education groups to launch the Wireless Innovation Alliance, a new group to promote the numerous benefits that the "white spaces" can bring to consumers. The members of the coalition have already helped secure significant political support for our goals from Members of Congress, and we will be working over the next several months to educate more policymakers about the promise of white spaces. And while some have sought recently to politicize this process, we think the FCC should be allowed to conduct its analysis free of political considerations.

Between today's TV channels lies the opportunity for more Americans to enjoy the Internet's rich resources. We'll be working hard to make sure this debate is marked by more clarity, and less static.

Posted by Derek Slater, Policy Analyst

Though Senator Chris Dodd may not be attracting the same crowds as other presidential candidates, he has made his mark on the campaign trail with voters like myself who consider the protection of civil liberties to be a critical election issue. Dodd’s ...Read More

Posted by Derek Slater, Policy Analyst

Though Senator Chris Dodd may not be attracting the same crowds as other presidential candidates, he has made his mark on the campaign trail with voters like myself who consider the protection of civil liberties to be a critical election issue. Dodd’s visit to the Googleplex Monday focused on this topic, and it did not disappoint. He didn’t pull any punches, even when that meant offering some candid criticism of Google.

Dodd’s speech centered on his outspoken opposition to retroactive immunity for telephone companies who allegedly assisted President Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program. He has taken to the Web to make his case against letting the companies off the hook, including through this YouTube video with whistleblower Mark Klein, the retired AT&T technician who uncovered “a switch [at AT&T’s facilities] that channeled Internet traffic culled from millions of living rooms, bedrooms, kitchens and offices across the nation to a secret room operated by the NSA.” Many lawsuits have been brought against AT&T and other carriers to stop this alleged cooperation with government surveillance of Americans, but immunity could stop these cases in their tracks.

While pledging to uphold Americans' constitutional liberties if elected president, Dodd also impressed upon Googlers that it is our responsibility to protect these sacred liberties as well. As he put it, Google's commitment to the free flow of information and powerful, speech-enabling technology provides the foundation for "a transformative power both vast and unprecedented - the capability to not only transform society but the very notion of society. Of community. Of democracy." At the same time, he challenged Google to do more to defend free expression and privacy both in the U.S. and abroad, directly questioning our decision to operate in Internet-restricting countries like China.

In Q&A with our General Counsel Kent Walker and audience members, Dodd canvassed a range of other issues, including net neutrality, energy policy and immigration.

View the whole video here:



And his interview with YouTube's Steve Grove:



Dodd was the eighth presidential candidate to stop by Google, and you can view videos of visits by Barack Obama, Ron Paul, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Bill Richardson, John Edwards, and Mike Gravel.

Posted by Pablo Chavez, Policy Counsel, and Liz Eraker, Policy Analyst

Last month we blogged about a big step forward towards making U.S. government more accessible to its citizens: the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee's approval of the ...Read More

Posted by Pablo Chavez, Policy Counsel, and Liz Eraker, Policy Analyst

Last month we blogged about a big step forward towards making U.S. government more accessible to its citizens: the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee's approval of the E-Government Reauthorization Act of 2007, which nudges federal government agencies to make their websites more accessible to search engine crawlers. Today, J.L. Needham, who leads Google's work with federal agencies to help Google's crawlers find their web content, is testifying before the committee about Google's work in this area (read his complete testimony here).

While search engines have made connecting to online government resources easier in recent years, certain barriers can still get in citizens' way. "The most common barrier is the search form for a database that asks users to input several fields of information to find what they’re looking for," J.L. will say in his testimony. "Our crawlers cannot effectively follow the links to reach behind the search form."

In 2005, Google introduced the Sitemap Protocol, an open standard for web sites that allows search engines to readily identify the location of all pages on the site, including database records lying behind a search form. The standard has been embraced by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Ask.com and others. As a result, any government site using this standard can reach Americans through all major search engines.

J.L. will also share Sitemaps success stories, noting that "the Department of Energy’s Office of Scientific and Technical Information operates a large database that makes research and development findings available to the public. OSTI developed a Sitemap for its Energy Citations and Information Bridge services in just 12 hours, opening up 2.3 million bibliographic records and full-text documents to crawling by search engines. After its implementation of Sitemaps, OSTI saw a dramatic increase in traffic to its services..."

Our testimony before the Senate coincides with the release of a new report today by the Center for Democracy and Technology and OMB Watch that lists some of the most frustrating federal government-related web searches. This morning's Washington Post has a preview, and we're sure the CDT report will be a topic of conversation at today's hearing.

We hope to post video of J.L.'s testimony later today. Stay tuned.

UPDATE (9:07 p.m.): Here's the video:

Posted by Vint Cerf, Chief Internet Evangelist

(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog)

We know that technologies like the "v-chip" can be used to keep kids from seeing inappropriate content on TV. And while technology has an important role to play in protecting kids online, it's as important that parents implant a symbolic "v-chip" in their children's minds to guide them when it comes to deciding what online content is and is not appropriate.Read More

Posted by Vint Cerf, Chief Internet Evangelist

(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog)

We know that technologies like the "v-chip" can be used to keep kids from seeing inappropriate content on TV. And while technology has an important role to play in protecting kids online, it's as important that parents implant a symbolic "v-chip" in their children's minds to guide them when it comes to deciding what online content is and is not appropriate.

That was one of the observations I shared this week at the Family Online Safety Institute's conference in Washington, D.C. The Internet provides an amazing opportunity for young people to express themselves creatively and access immense quantities of useful information. Kids are using geospatial, mobile and social networking technologies, for example, to learn in new, interactive ways. The Internet also provides unparalleled opportunities for free expression, enabling kids and adults alike to deliver tremendous benefit to society by voicing sometimes unpopular, inconvenient, or controversial opinions.

At the same time, there is some online content and activity that is unsuitable for younger users. Google is dedicated to supporting parents' efforts to educate and protect their children when they go online. We've invested in developing family safety tools that empower parents to limit what online content their children can discover. Our SafeSearch filter, which users can adjust to block explicit content from their search results, is an example of this type of technology.

On YouTube, where we host user-generated content, we aim to offer a community for free expression that is suitable for teens and protects them from exploitation. Our work to keep YouTube safe for teens includes clear policies about what is and is not acceptable on the site; robust mechanisms to enforce these policies, such as easy tools for users to police the content by flagging inappropriate videos; innovative product features that enable safe behavior; and YouTube safety tips.

We've also partnered with child safety organizations, including CommonSense Media, i-Safe, iKeepSafe, NetFamilyNews, and, of course, the Family Online Safety Institute to increase awareness about online child safety. In addition, we cooperate with law enforcement and industry partners to combat child exploitation and help minimize the uploading of illegal content, offering training and technical assistance to law enforcement officials and providing groups like the National Center For Missing and Exploited Children with technology tools to help them be more effective in their work.

Keeping children safe on the Web is the shared responsibility of parents and families, educators, industry, and government. We have a shared responsibility to help teach children the media literacy skills they need to become savvy online and offline information consumers and, working together, we believe this goal is attainable.

Posted by Adam Kovacevich, Senior Manager, Global Communications and Public Affairs

Bali may be best known for its Hindu temples and hot springs, but for the next two weeks the Indonesian island is ...Read More

Posted by Adam Kovacevich, Senior Manager, Global Communications and Public Affairs

Bali may be best known for its Hindu temples and hot springs, but for the next two weeks the Indonesian island is playing host to a United Nations conference on climate change. Delegates from 190 nations are congregating to negotiate a new pact to succeed the Kyoto Protocol (which is due to expire in 2012).

Climate change is one of the three major priorities of Google.org, Google's philanthropic arm, and several members of the Google.org climate team will be in Bali this week. They're sharing some of their observations on the Google.org Blog -- check it out.