Can’t buy me love? 10 gifts from Google to win the hearts and minds of Europe

Google has had a rough 12 months in Europe. Allegations that it doesn’t pay enough taxes. That it’s a big, scary monopolist. That it’s abusing privacy.

Of course, Google has been lobbying European governments as well as the European Union at the highest levels trying to stem the tide of investigations and accusations. But at the grassroots level across the continent, it also has an image problem. Average folks here worry about the company’s influence over their digital lives and economy.

So while Google has been trying to persuade policymakers that it comes in peace, it has also been trying to show its kinder, gentler side to the populace through a series of gestures designed to reboot its image.

Here are 10 gifts doled out from Google in recent months:

1. Giving Europe’s museums a mobile boost: A few years ago, Google created the Cultural Institute in Paris, which seeks to bring all sorts of artistic and cultural wonders and landmarks online. In December, the Cultural Institute announced it had created a new mobile platform to help museums create mobile apps that would highlight their collections and educational resources. At the launch, 10 museums in Europe took part in the pilot program.

According to Google: “The platform allows museums to create a simple but powerful mobile app, based on Google’s technology including Street View and YouTube. Without resorting to expensive technical help, museums now can tell their stories.”

2. Restoring Bletchley Park in England: Bletchley Park is famous as the World War II codebreaking center. However, over the decades, it began to crumble. As part of a more recent campaign to restore Bletchley Park, Google says that it “donated money, hosted events, created videos to help preserve and promote its story.” Those efforts culminated last summer in Bletchley reopening as a museum.

“Bletchley Park is where Alan Turing’s theories were first put into practice, in the Bombe machines used to break Enigma, operated by women like 93 year old veteran and grandmother of one of our colleagues in Google London, Jean Valentine. It was also home to Colossus, the world’s first electronic programmable computer,” Google said.

3. Live streaming experiment at the London Zoo: Last October, Google announced it had partnered with the London Zoo to conduct an experiment with “spectrum sharing.” Using a Google database for spectrum sharing and some donated hardware, the Zoo was using the Google-powered technology to allow it to efficiently deploy cameras that could stream views of animals without interfering with visitors’ ability to use spectrum to make phone calls or upload their own photos and videos from their smartphones. The upshot: More livestreams of baby otters.

4. European Code Week: Also in October, Google handed out small grants to organizations across Europe who were holding events related to Code Week.

5. Voices of the Mediterranean: In January, in partnership with the Voces Fondation, Google launched a project to promote a dialogue across countries in the Mediterranean region. “Our focus is engage young people between the ages of 14 and 22 from Spain in the West to Palestine in the East that are interested in photography and audiovisual arts,” Google said. As part of the project, they created a Google Plus community for young artists to share their work.

6. Made in Italy digital program: Italy’s economy is still in the doldrums, and Google wants to give it a nudge in the right direction by helping small and medium-size businesses become more digitally savvy. So Google created a program that “gives them tools to bring them online, aiming to help them export and reach global markets.” This included launching a hub for Italian businesses here that explains how to market their businesses using Google Trends, among other tools.

7. Oxford University partnership on Artificial Intelligence: Google announced last fall that DeepMind, the London-based AI company it acquired a few years ago, would start collaborating with research teams at Oxford. As part of the deal, Google hired several researchers, with some continuing to hold joint appointments at Oxford. Google also made a “substantial contribution” to Oxford’s computer science and engineering departments.

8. Spurring Greek tourism: As Google gently explains: “For the past five years, an economic meltdown has plunged Greece into crisis. Amid the the rubble, the country’s economic motor more than ever has become tourism.” So, Google created a program that gives the country’s tourism industry digital skills and tools to expand business, which mainly occurs during just a couple of summer months.

9. Google Campus Madrid: As part of its efforts to boost European entrepreneurs, Google is opening a second campus for startups in Madrid, following an earlier one in London. “At Campus, entrepreneurs get unparalleled access to mentorship and trainings led by their local startup community, experienced entrepreneurs, and teams from Google,” the company said last fall.

10. Boosting Israeli video production: Google created a partnership with the Israeli Film and TV Producers Association and with the Ministry of Economy to run Made for Web, what it called “a celebration of Israeli content online.” Essentially, it’s an ongoing contest where winners receive cash to produce more video as well a trip to the YouTube Space in London.

SOURCE: Google European Policy Blog