Official Google Africa Blog

How anyone can make Maps more accessible

Thursday, May 20, 2021

With Google Maps, we want to make it easier to get around, explore and get things done for everyone — and that includes people with disabilities. One way that we make sure our Maps have up-to-date information about details, like if a restaurant has tables suitable for people who use wheelchairs, is through our community of Local Guides. In honor of Global Accessibility Awareness Day, we’re sharing tips from some of these people about how anyone can contribute to a more accessible world — both on and off of the map.

Make an accessibility checklist for your reviews
When you add a review on Google Maps you can create your own template or accessibility checklist to make sure you have the most helpful details covered.

Tushar Suradkar, a Local Guide from India, created a system that helps him make sure all of his reviews covers the accessibility details he cares about — like if a place has tactile paths for the visually impaired, ramp access, and wheelchair-accessible entrances, restrooms, parking and elevators. Each time he leaves a review, he fills in a self-created template that makes these details clear and noticeable so people looking for this information can spot it.

Tushar’s accessibility checklist used on Google Maps reviews.

Add accessibility attributes to your business or places you’ve visited
After visiting a place or business, you can help indicate which accessibility features a place has — like whether it has a wheelchair-accessible entrance, wheelchair-accessible restroom, wheelchair-accessible parking — by answering questions about the business on the Google Maps app.

And if you’re a business owner or manager with a verified Business Profile on Google, you can add attributes to your Business Profile on Search and Maps. In addition to existing accessibility attributes, we recently added the assistive hearing loop attribute that indicates if somewhere, like a movie theater or library, has a sound system that is compatible with hearing aids. If attributes aren’t relevant to your business, you have even more ways you can make your business more accessible by using tools such as Live Transcribe, Live Caption, and TalkBack on Android.

Accessibility attributes displayed on Google Maps.

Create lists to curate accessible places on Google Maps

Another way to share local knowledge is by creating public lists on Google Maps. You can make lists of places like accessible museums in your city or the most wheelchair accessible restaurants in your neighborhood.

Asongfac Lily Rospeen, a Local Guide from the Southwest region of Cameroon, curates lists like her Accessibility Buea list that includes wheelchair accessible banks, hotels, hospitals, bookshops, pharmacies, and supermarkets in her city.

Spread the word about accessibility
Let others know about all the ways they can contribute to Maps to make it more accessible through attributes, reviews and more. Take inspiration from the Local Guides community.

Emeka Ulor, a Local Guide from Nigeria, has rallied other people to add accessibility data to Google Maps and help make it more inclusive. He started the One Accessibility project, recruiting more than 20 volunteers and hosting more than 100 meet-ups to encourage people to add accessibility information to Google Maps. His reviews include information about wheelchair accessible parking, entrances, restrooms, lighting, Braille and seating to help inform people about the accessibility of their destination.

You can read more about these Local Guides and how others in the community are making Google Maps more accessible on Connect, our blog and forum for Local Guides.

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The Future is Africa: African Developers are Building for the World

Thursday, May 20, 2021

Five years ago, 3 young South Africans, Matthew Elan Smith, Ndabenhle Junior Ngulube and Marnus van Heerden teamed up at an insurtech innovation challenge marking the beginning of their tech entrepreneurship journey together. After months of technical work and early-access testing with a few users, the team launched Pineapple: a peer to peer insurance platform that allowed registered members to cover the things they owned through a mobile app. Pineapple now has over 80,000 users and is working to establish partnerships with regional insurance companies to extend value to their member network.

Pineapple’s founders are part of Africa’s digital talent that is shaping the future of the region’s technology landscape. They are also part of the 67 startups that have successfully graduated from the Google for Startups Accelerator Africa in the last 3 years. We established the Accelerator to provide growth-stage African startups access to the best of Google - our people, practices, processes and technology. These startups, from 10 countries across Africa, have had great impact on Africa’s economy creating 2,800 jobs, and attracting USD $72m in investment. We are continuing this commitment to Africa’s founders and recently announced the 6th class of Accelerator Africa which will kick off in June this year.

Over the past decade, Google has been dedicated to supporting Africa’s developer and startup ecosystem growth through a wide spectrum of programs. To help measure and share the size of Africa’s technology ecosystem, Google worked with Accenture in 2020 on research to highlight its strengths and opportunities, which established that there are close to 700,000 software developers in Africa.

Today we are launching the latest chapter in this journey with the release of our Google I/O 2021 talk “The Future is Africa: African Developers are Building for the World”, sharing insights from our years of work with developers across the African continent.

Google’s Developer Community Programs
Across the continent, developer communities are growing, creating an entry point for young developers looking to connect with their peers and upskill. Back in 2009, Faiz Bashir, a Nigerian software developer, established the first Google Technology User Group in Africa, thereby planting the seeds for what would grow to be the largest developer network across the continent. There are currently over 150 Google Developer Groups in 36 countries, and over 200 Google Developer Student Clubs in institutions of higher learning across Africa. These developer communities host regular events, workshops and conferences designed to share and learn together. Developers are able to apply their knowledge and connections to build great products and advance their skills and careers, as well as give back by helping others learn.

Google is also committed to building a developer ecosystem where women developers can thrive. Our Women Techmakers program is dedicated to supporting women in technology through community initiatives for them to connect and network, build visibility and access exclusive training resources. Ire Aderinokun joined the first International Women’s Day Summit in Lagos in 2016 where she learnt about the Google Developers Experts network. She went ahead and applied, and is now part of a global network of developers with deep expertise in Google’s technologies and who volunteer their time to share their knowledge with others.

Training for Africa’s Software Developers
The Google and IFC e-Conomy Africa 2020 report also established the need for upskilling and education opportunities for developers to boost their capabilities. In line with this, Google has an ongoing commitment to train 100,000 African developers on Android, Mobile Web and Cloud technologies. To date, Google’s Africa Developer Scholarship program has offered 77,000 training opportunities to developers from 54 African countries, as well as professional certification opportunities to the top 1,500 learners. Our content partner for the program, Pluralsight, provides a custom learning platform for the developers to not just learn, but also continuously assess and apply acquired skills as they progress through the training. Looking forward to how this developer training translates directly into employment opportunities, Google has been working with Andela to develop a job network which will provide developers who go through the program access to entry-level work opportunities. Applications are open until May 28 for the 2021 Google Africa Developer Scholarship class, with 40,000 training opportunities available for African developers.

We welcome you to view our I/O talk The Future is Africa: African Developers are Building for the World, and to dive deeper into the data behind our talk by reading the Google and IFC e-Conomy Africa 2020 report, and the Africa Technology Ecosystem 2020 research. Developers, we hope to see you at an upcoming meetup!

L’avenir passe par l’Afrique : Les développeurs africains construisent pour le mondePineappleGoogle for Startups Accelerator Africa récemment annoncéce continent compte près de 700 000 développeurs de logiciels en AfriqueGoogle I/O 2021« L’avenir passe par l’Afrique : Les développeurs africains construisent pour le monde »

Programmes à l’intention de la communauté des développeurs Google
Sur tout le continent, le nombre de communautés de développeurs ne cesse d’augmenter, créant une porte d’entrée pour les jeunes développeurs qui cherchent à nouer des contacts avec leurs pairs et à monter en compétence. En 2009, Faiz Bashir, développeur de logiciels nigérian, a créé le premier groupe d’utilisateurs de la technologie Google en Afrique, jetant ainsi les bases de ce qui allait devenir le plus grand réseau de développeurs du continent. Il existe actuellement plus de 150 Groupes de développeurs Google répartis dans 36 pays, et plus de 200 Clubs d’étudiants Google Developer au sein des établissements d’enseignement supérieur africains. Ces communautés de développeurs organisent régulièrement des événements, des ateliers et des conférences axés sur le partage des connaissances et l’apprentissage en commun. Ainsi, les développeurs sont en mesure d’appliquer leurs connaissances et leurs réseaux pour créer d’excellents produits, améliorer leurs compétences et progresser dans leur carrière, tout en donnant en retour afin d’aider d’autres professionnels à se former.

Google s’est également engagé à créer un écosystème de développeurs dans lequel les femmes ont toute leur place. Notre programme Women Techmakers a pour but de soutenir les femmes dans le domaine de la technologie par le biais d’initiatives communautaires leur permettant d’établir des liens et de travailler en réseau, de renforcer leur visibilité et d’accéder à des ressources de formation spécifiques. Ire Aderinokun a participé au premier sommet organisé à Lagos en 2016, à l’occasion de la Journée internationale des femmes, où elle a découvert le réseau Google Developers Experts. Elle a posé sa candidature et fait désormais partie d’un réseau mondial de développeurs possédant une expertise approfondie des technologies de Google et qui donnent de leur temps pour partager leurs connaissances.

Formation destinée aux développeurs de logiciels basés en Afrique
Le rapport de Google et de l’IFC e-Conomy Africa 2020 a également montré la nécessité d’offrir aux développeurs des possibilités de perfectionnement et de formation afin de renforcer leurs capacités. Dans cette optique, Google s’est engagé à former 100 000 développeurs africains aux technologies Android, Web mobile et Cloud. À ce jour, le programme de bourses d’études destiné aux développeurs africains mis en place par Google a proposé 77 000 offres de formation à des développeurs issus de 54 pays africains, ainsi que des possibilités de certification professionnelle aux 1500 premiers. Pluralsight, notre partenaire de contenu pour ce programme fournit une plateforme d’apprentissage personnalisée permettant aux développeurs non seulement d’apprendre, mais aussi d’évaluer et d’appliquer en permanence les compétences acquises au fur et à mesure de leur progression. Soucieux de voir comment cette formation de développeur se traduit directement en opportunités d’emploi, Google a travaillé avec Andela pour mettre en place un réseau d’offres d’emploi qui permettra aux développeurs qui suivent le programme d’accéder à des postes de niveau junior. Les candidatures sont ouvertes jusqu’au 28 mai pour la promotion de d’étudiants bénéficiant de bourses Google Africa 2021, avec 40 000 offres de formation destinées aux développeurs africains.

Nous vous invitons à visionner notre conférence I/O L’avenir passe par Afrique : Les développeurs africains construisent pour le monde. Pour aller plus loin, nous vous recommandons la lecture du rapport e-Conomie Afrique 2020 réalisé par Google et l’IFC ainsi que de l’étude sur L’écosystème technologique de l’Afrique 2020. Développeurs, nous espérons vous rencontrer à l’occasion d’un prochain événement !

Poste par
Andy Volk, responsable de l’écosystème des développeurs, Afrique subsaharienne et
John Kimani, Directeur de programmes, Écosystème des développeurs

Search, explore and shop the world’s information, powered by AI

Wednesday, May 19, 2021

AI advancements push the boundaries of what Google products can do. Nowhere is this clearer than at the core of our mission to make information more accessible and useful for everyone.

We've spent more than two decades developing not just a better understanding of information on the web, but a better understanding of the world. Because when we understand information, we can make it more helpful — whether you’re a remote student learning a complex new subject, a caregiver looking for trusted information on COVID vaccines or a parent searching for the best route home.

Deeper understanding with MUM
One of the hardest problems for search engines today is helping you with complex tasks — like planning what to do on a family outing. These often require multiple searches to get the information you need. In fact, we find that it takes people eight searches on average to complete complex tasks.
With a new technology called Multitask Unified Model, or MUM, we're able to better understand much more complex questions and needs, so in the future, it will require fewer searches to get things done. Like BERT, MUM is built on a Transformer architecture, but it’s 1,000 times more powerful and can multitask in order to unlock information in new ways. MUM not only understands language, but also generates it. It’s trained across 75 different languages and many different tasks at once, allowing it to develop a more comprehensive understanding of information and world knowledge than previous models. And MUM is multimodal, so it understands information across text and images and in the future, can expand to more modalities like video and audio.
Imagine a question like: “I’ve hiked Mt. Adams and now want to hike Mt. Fuji next fall, what should I do differently to prepare?” This would stump search engines today, but in the future, MUM could understand this complex task and generate a response, pointing to highly relevant results to dive deeper. We’ve already started internal pilots with MUM and are excited about its potential for improving Google products.

Information comes to life with Lens and AR
People come to Google to learn new things, and visuals can make all the difference. Google Lens lets you search what you see — from your camera, your photos or even your search bar. Today we’re seeing more than 3 billion searches with Lens every month, and an increasingly popular use case is learning. For example, many students might have schoolwork in a language they aren't very familiar with. That’s why we’re updating the Translate filter in Lens so it’s easy to copy, listen to or search translated text, helping students access education content from the web in over 100 languages.

Google Lens’s Translate filter applied to homework

AR is also a powerful tool for visual learning. With the new AR athletes in Search, you can see signature moves from some of your favorite athletes in AR — like Simone Biles’s famous balance beam routine.

Simone Biles’s balance beam routine surfaced by the AR athletes in Search feature

Evaluate information with About This Result
Helpful information should be credible and reliable, and especially during moments like the pandemic or elections, people turn to Google for trustworthy information.

Our ranking systems are designed to prioritize high-quality information, but we also help you evaluate the credibility of sources, right in Google Search. Our About This Result feature provides details about a website before you visit it, including its description, when it was first indexed and whether your connection to the site is secure.

This month, we’ll start rolling out About This Result to all English results worldwide, with more languages to come. Later this year, we’ll add even more detail, like how a site describes itself, what other sources are saying about it and related articles to check out.

Exploring the real world with MapsGoogle Maps transformed how people navigate, explore and get things done in the world — and we continue to push the boundaries of what a map can be with industry-first features like AR navigation in Live View at scale. We recently announced we’re on track to launch over 100 AI-powered improvements to Google Maps by the end of year, and today, we’re introducing a few of the newest ones. Our new routing updates are designed to reduce the likelihood of hard-braking on your drive using machine learning and historical navigation information — which we believe could eliminate over 100 million hard-braking events in routes driven with Google Maps each year.
If you’re looking for things to do, our more tailored map will spotlight relevant places based on time of day and whether or not you’re traveling. Enhancements to Live View and detailed street maps will help you explore and get a deep understanding of an area as quickly as possible. And if you want to see how busy neighborhoods and parts of town are, you’ll be able to do this at a glance as soon as you open Maps.

More ways to shop with Google
People are shopping across Google more than a billion times per day, and our AI-enhanced Shopping Graph — our deep understanding of products, sellers, brands, reviews, product information and inventory data — powers many features that help you find exactly what you’re looking for.

Because shopping isn’t always a linear experience, we’re introducing new ways to explore and keep track of products. Now, when you take a screenshot, Google Photos will prompt you to search the photo with Lens, so you can immediately shop for that item if you want. And on Chrome, we’ll help you keep track of shopping carts you’ve begun to fill, so you can easily resume your virtual shopping trip. We're also working with retailers to surface loyalty benefits for customers earlier, to help inform their decisions.
Last year we made it free for merchants to sell their products on Google. Now, we’re introducing a new, simplified process that helps Shopify’s 1.7 million merchants make their products discoverable across Google in just a few clicks.

Whether we’re understanding the world’s information, or helping you understand it too, we’re dedicated to making our products more useful every day. And with the power of AI, no matter how complex your task, we’ll be able to bring you the highest quality, most relevant results.

Posted by Prabhakar Raghavan
Senior Vice President, Search & Assistant, Geo, Ads, Commerce, Payments & NBU

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More ways we're making every day safer with Google

Wednesday, May 19, 2021

Every day, we focus on making sure you’re in control of your data by building products that are secure by default and private by design. At this year’s I/O, we’re introducing new features and technologies to keep you safer with Google.

Putting you in control of your data
Privacy is personal. That's why we make it easy for you to choose the settings that are right for you — whether that’s one place to manage settings in your Google Account, Auto-Delete options, or controls that appear in context when you’re using our products. We announced a number of new controls today:

Quick delete in Search. We’re introducing a new, “quick delete” option to delete the last 15 minutes of your Search history with a single tap from the Google Account Menu.
A passcode protected Locked Folder in Photos. Have you ever handed your phone to show someone a photo, but worried they might scroll to a personal or sensitive image — like a photo of your passport or a surprise gift? “Locked Folder” is a new feature in Google Photos — a passcode-protected space where select photos can be saved separately. These photos won’t show up as you scroll through your grid or in shared albums. This feature is coming to Google Pixels first, and more Android devices throughout the year.
Location History reminders in your Maps Timeline. Now, when you see places you've visited in your Timeline, we'll remind you that it's because you turned on Location History — which you can easily turn off right there in your Timeline.

Captions: 1. New “quick delete” option in Search. 2. The new Locked Folder in Photos 3. Location History reminders in your Maps Timeline.

We’re also introducing new, industry-leading transparency and permission features on Android 12. The new OS includes a Privacy Dashboard where you will see a timeline of when apps accessed your camera, microphone, or device location. We’ve also added indicators that show when your camera or microphone are in use, as well as easy toggles to disable access to both across your device. And you can now choose to share your approximate location with an app instead of a precise one.
Building products that are secure by default
As recent high-profile third-party security incidents show, your information isn’t private if it’s not secure. With AI-driven technologies that protect billions of users around the world, our products are secure by default: every day, we block 100 million phishing attempts and 15 billion spam messages in Gmail and encrypt 4 billion photos. And Safe Browsing on Chrome and most other browsers helps keep the rest of the Internet secure, automatically protecting more than 4 billion devices.

One of the biggest security risks is still the continued reliance on passwords — they’re often easy to crack, used across multiple sites, or stolen in phishing attacks. That’s why we’ve been working towards a password-free future — focusing on safer ways to authenticate your identity and building multiple layers of protection into your Google Account, like automatic enrollment in 2-step verification.

But because passwords are still required for most online accounts, we’ve also continued to improve our Password Manager, built directly into Chrome, Android and now iOS, to help you create, remember, save and auto-fill passwords across the web. Today, we announced new enhancements to Password Manager:

A new tool that makes it easy to import passwords from other password managers
Deeper integrations with Chrome and Android to seamlessly fill your passwords across sites and apps, regardless of whether you’re on desktop or on mobile
Password Alerts that automatically warn you if we detect one of your saved passwords has been compromised via a third party breach.
A smart way to fix compromised passwords in Chrome with a simple tap. For supported sites and apps, whenever Password Manager finds a password that may have been compromised, you’ll see a "change password" button from Assistant. When you tap the button, the Assistant will not only navigate to the site, but also go through the entire process of changing your password. This feature is available on Android devices and will be rolling out to more sites and apps in the future.

Captions: 1. A new way to fix compromised passwords in Chrome. 2. A new tool to import passwords from other password managers to Password Manager. 3. Password Alerts.

Making our products private by design
We’ve pioneered new computing technologies like Federated Learning (invented by Google researchers in 2016) that make it possible to deliver helpful experiences while protecting individual data and privacy. We’ve also led on Differential Privacy, which powers some of our most helpful features and products, from our COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports to traffic predictions in Maps, without revealing individual user data. And this expertise guides our work on broader industry initiatives, like the open-source Privacy Sandbox.

Now, we’re continuing that work with Android's Private Compute Core, which keeps your information safe and private for a number of popular AI-driven features like Live Caption (which displays captions based on audio), Now Playing (which tells you the song that’s playing) and Smart Reply (which suggests short responses to messages and emails). For these features, the audio and language processing happens exclusively on your device. Like the rest of Android, Private Compute Core is open source — it’s fully inspectable and verifiable by the security community.

We’ll continue our work to make every day safer with Google with new controls, advanced security, and privacy-preserving technologies.

De nouvelles fonctionnalités pour plus de sécurité avec Google

Chaque jour, nous veillons à ce que nos utilisateurs aient le contrôle de leurs données en proposant des produits qui prévoient, dès leur conception, un degré élevé de sécurité et de protection de la vie privée. À l’occasion des conférences I/O de cette année, nous présentons de nouvelles fonctionnalités et technologies destinées à renforcer la sécurité avec Google.

Un contrôle plus facile des données personnelles
Chacun doit pouvoir gérer ce qui relève de sa vie privée. C’est pourquoi nous faisons en sorte que nos utilisateurs puissent personnaliser facilement leurs paramètres, notamment en regroupant ce qui concerne leur compte Google, les options de suppression automatique ou encore les contrôles qui apparaissent en contexte lors de l’utilisation de nos produits. Nous présentons aujourd’hui de nouveaux outils de contrôle :

Suppression rapide des données de recherche. Nous introduisons une nouvelle option qui permet d’effacer les 15 dernières minutes de l’historique de recherche d’un simple clic dans le menu du compte Google.
Un dossier verrouillé protégé par un code d’accès dans Photos. Qui n’a jamais craint, en montrant une photo à quelqu’un sur son téléphone, de voir apparaître une image personnelle ou sensible, comme une photo de passeport ou un cadeau surprise ? Le « Dossier verrouillé » est une nouvelle fonctionnalité de Google Photos. Il s’agit d’un espace protégé par un mot de passe qui permet de sauvegarder séparément certaines photos. Elles n’apparaîtront pas automatiquement dans la grille de photos, ni dans les albums partagés. Cette fonctionnalité sera proposée dans un premier temps sur les téléphones Google Pixels, puis sur d’autres appareils Android au cours de l’année.
Rappels sur le récapitulatif de vos trajets Google Maps. Désormais, quand un utilisateur voit le récapitulatif de ses trajets dans son compte Google, nous lui rappelons que cette fonction se déclenche quand l’historique des positions est activé et qu’il est possible de la désactiver directement dans les Commandes relatives à l’activité Google Maps.

Nous présentons également de nouvelles fonctionnalités pionnières au sein de l’industrie sur la transparence et les autorisations avec Android 12. Le nouveau système d’exploitation comprend un tableau de bord de confidentialité qui montre où et quand les applications ont eu accès à votre caméra, à votre micro ou à la localisation de votre appareil. Nous avons également ajouté des indicateurs qui montrent quand votre caméra ou votre micro sont utilisés, ainsi que des boutons d’activation intuitifs permettant de désactiver l’un ou l’autre sur votre téléphone. Enfin, il est désormais possible d’indiquer aux applications souhaitant accéder à la position un emplacement approximatif et non précis.

Des produits conçus pour être sûrs par défautnavigation sécuriséeun avenir sans mots de passevalidation en deux étapesGestionnaire de mots de passeChromeAndroidiOS

Un nouvel outil permettant d’importer facilement des mots de passe à partir de gestionnaires tiers.
Une intégration plus poussée avec Chrome et Android pour un remplissage plus fluide des mots de passe sur tous les sites et toutes les applications, tant sur un smartphone que sur un ordinateur.
Une extension « Alertes mots de passe » qui avertit automatiquement l’utilisateur quand l’un des mots de passe enregistrés est compromis lors d’une intrusion par un tiers.
Une méthode innovante pour modifier les mots de passe compromis sur Chrome d’un simple clic. Ainsi, si le Gestionnaire de mots de passe détecte la mise en danger d’un mot de passe sur un site ou une application prise en charge, l’Assistant Google propose un bouton « Modifier le mot de passe » à l’utilisateur. Si ce dernier clique sur le bouton, l’Assistant ouvre le site concerné et se charge même de changer le mot de passe. Cette fonctionnalité existe déjà sur les appareils Android et sera bientôt opérationnelle sur plus de sites et d’applications.

La confidentialité au cœur de nos produits
Google est à l’origine d’innovations dans le domaine des technologies informatiques, comme l’apprentissage fédéré, inventé par nos chercheurs en 2016, dans le domaine des technologies informatiques. Nous pouvons ainsi offrir aux internautes une expérience satisfaisante tout en protégeant la sécurité et la confidentialité de leurs données. Nous sommes également des pionniers de la confidentialité différentielle que nous appliquons à nos fonctionnalités et à nos outils les plus essentiels, notamment à nos rapports sur la mobilité des populations en temps de COVID-19 et aux prédictions concernant l’état de la circulation sur Google Maps, sans dévoiler les informations personnelles des utilisateurs. Nous nous appuyons également sur cette expertise dans le cadre d’initiatives ouvertes à plus grande échelle, comme la Privacy Sandbox.poursuivons nos efforts

Our continued commitment to helping grow the startup ecosystem in Africa

Thursday, April 29, 2021

African startups have experienced significant growth in recent years. This much-desired course is critical for driving the growth in entrepreneurship that will lead to the survival of the continent. According to the Africa Internet Economy 2020 report, sponsored by Google and the International Finance Corporation, Africa’s Internet economy is poised to boost the continent’s economy by 5.25% in the next five years. The report comments that the headwinds brought by COVID-19 will not deter the projected growth of Africa’s internet economy, which is expected to contribute nearly $189 billion to Africa’s GDP by 2025 with a forecasted increase to $712 billion by 2050.

African developers and startups play a crucial role in the transformation of the continent's economy, creating new opportunities and paving the way for economic and social development. At Google, we recognize Africa’s exceptional digital talent and potential, and that is why we are committed to providing critical support to African startups. This year, we will be opening applications for the 6th class of the Google for Startups Accelerator Africa programme while also launching new developer scholarships in partnership with Pluralsight and Andela.

[Startups from the inaugural Accelerator class celebrating their graduation, 2018]

Today, we are making two announcements at a virtual event where we are hosting media, key industry players, policy leads, startup executives and investors driving the growth of Africa’s tech ecosystem. The event, #Build4Africa, is providing opportunities to review trends unfolding throughout the internet economy, paying special attention to the support of developers and startups in Africa.

Applications for the Class 6 Google for Startups Accelerator Africa programme, a three-month programme that is slated to start on 21 June 2021, will be open until 14 May 2021. The online programme (which includes 3 intensive virtual training bootcamps, mentorship and Google product support) is open to applications from 17 countries across Africa, including Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda and Zimbabwe. The aim is to support the advancement of the startups through their crucial growth phases.

The new scholarships for Android, Web and Google Cloud development will be offered to beginner and intermediate developers resident in Africa. A total of 40,000 scholarships will be offered to developers spread across Mobile and Cloud development tracks and, at the end of the training, the top 1,000 students will earn a full scholarship to certify in Android or Cloud development.

Last year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the first virtual class of Google for Startups Accelerator kicked off with 20 startups from seven countries undergoing a 12-week virtual journey to redefine their offering while receiving mentoring and attending workshops.

[Team Voyc.ai pitching their solution at the GFS investor immersion]

[GFS Accelerator alumni participated in an investor immersion, 2019]

In recent years, we have worked to support developer communities across Sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2020, Africa’s first Google Developers Space (a hub for African developers, entrepreneurs and startups) was launched in Lagos, Nigeria. This followed the commitment made by Sundar Pichai to African entrepreneurs in July 2017. The space is where entrepreneurs, developers, venture capitalists and investors can connect and collaborate with each other.

11 startups were also selected last year to participate in the fully digital inaugural Google for Startups Accelerator on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 11 were selected based on their vision to address challenges outlined in the UN’s SDGs including poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, and peace and justice.

Through Google Developer Groups (GDG) and Women Techmakers, we provide training aligned with real-life job competency requirements. There are 173 active GDGs providing opportunities for developers to converge around similar interests at talks and hands-on workshops.

Community groups engage in activities like Study Jams facilitated by developers, for developers. Today there are more than 120 active developer communities across 25 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

We are excited to continue our journey with African startup and developer communities because we believe that Africa’s startup ecosystem is a key driver of economic growth on the continent. The growth of all players in the tech space is collective; the success of one lays the path for others.

Nitin Gajria, Managing Director, Google Africa

Poursuite de notre engagement en faveur de la croissance de l’écosystème des startup africaines Depuis ces dernières années, les « success stories » des start-up africaines se multiplient. Cette formation très attendue est essentielle pour encourager le développement de l’esprit d’entreprise en Afrique, gage de la réussite de ce continent. Selon le Rapport Africa Internet Economy 2020, réalisé avec le soutien de Google et de l’IFC, l’économie générée par Internet en Afrique devrait stimuler l’économie du continent de 5,25 % au cours des cinq prochaines années. Le rapport indique que le ralentissement de l’économie dû à la COVID-19 ne freinera pas les prévisions de croissance de l’économie de l’internet en Afrique, qui devrait contribuer à près de 189 milliards de dollars du PIB de l’Afrique d’ici 2025, avec une augmentation estimée à 712 milliards de dollars à l’horizon 2050.

Les développeurs et les start-up implantés en Afrique jouent un rôle crucial dans la transformation de l’économie du continent, en créant de nouvelles opportunités et en ouvrant la voie au développement économique et social. Chez Google, nous mesurons pleinement le talent et le potentiel numériques exceptionnels de l’Afrique, c’est pourquoi nous nous engageons à apporter un soutien essentiel aux jeunes entreprises africaines. Cette année, nous allons ouvrir les candidatures pour la 6e promotion de l’accélérateur de start-up Google Africa Google for Startups Accelerator Africa nous offrons également de nouvelles bourses d’études destinées aux développeurs en partenariat avec Pluralsight et Andela.

Aujourd’hui, nous faisons deux annonces lors d’un événement virtuel où nous accueillons les médias, des acteurs clés de ce secteur, des responsables politiques, des dirigeants de start-up et des investisseurs qui contribuent à la croissance de l’écosystème technologique africain. Sous le hashtag #Build4Africa, cet événement permet de passer en revue les tendances qui se dessinent dans l’économie de l’Internet, en accordant une attention particulière au soutien apporté aux développeurs et aux start-up installés en Afrique.

Les candidatures pour la 6e promotion du programme accélérateur de start-up (Google for Startups Accelerator Africa), programme de trois mois qui devrait débuter le 21 juin 2021, seront ouvertes jusqu’au 14 mai 2021. Les candidatures à ce programme en ligne (qui comprend trois sessions de formation intensive, un dispositif de mentorat et une assistance pour les produits Google) sont ouvertes. Dix-sept pays d’Afrique, dont l’Égypte, l’Éthiopie, le Ghana, le Kenya, le Nigeria le Sénégal. L’Afrique du Sud, la Tanzanie, la Tunisie, l’Ouganda et le Zimbabwe sont concernés. L’objectif est de soutenir le développement des start-up dans leurs phases cruciales de croissance.

Les nouvelles bourses pour le développement des applications Android, Web et Google Cloud seront proposées aux développeurs de niveau débutant et intermédiaire résidant en Afrique. Ce sont au total 40 000 bourses qui seront accordées aux développeurs répartis entre les filières de développement mobile et cloud. À l’issue de la formation, les 1000 premiers étudiants recevront une bourse complète pour obtenir une certification en développement Android ou Cloud.

L’année dernière, en raison de la pandémie de COVID-19, la première formation en distanciel du programme Google for Startups Accelerator a démarré avec 20 start-up installées dans sept pays qui ont suivi un parcours virtuel de 12 semaines pour redéfinir leur offre, en bénéficiant d’un dispositif de mentorat et d’ateliers.

Ces dernières années, notre objectif a été de soutenir les communautés de développeurs en Afrique subsaharienne.

En 2020, le premier Google Developers Space d’Afrique (un hub réservé aux développeurs, aux entrepreneurs et aux start-up implantés en Afrique) a été lancé à Lagos, au Nigeria. Cette initiative fait suite à l’engagement pris par Sundar Pichai devant les entrepreneurs africains en juillet 2017. Cet espace est le lieu où les entrepreneurs, les développeurs, les investisseurs en capital-risque et les investisseurs peuvent se connecter et collaborer les uns avec les autres.

Onze start-up ont également été sélectionnées l’année dernière pour participer à la première session entièrement numérique de Google for Startups Accelerator, consacrée aux Objectifs de développement durable (ODD). Ces 11 entreprises ont été sélectionnées sur la base de leur vision pour relever les défis des ODD définis par l’ONU, notamment la pauvreté, les inégalités, le climat, la dégradation de l’environnement, la prospérité, la paix et la justice.

Par le biais de Groupes de développeurs Google (GDG) et de Women Techmakers nous proposons des formations qui correspondent aux compétences professionnelles requises dans la vie réelle. Il existe 173 GDG actifs qui offrent aux développeurs la possibilité de se rencontrer sur des thématiques communes lors de conférences et d’ateliers pratiques.

Des groupes communautaires mettent en place des activités comme Study Jams. Ces groupes de travail sont animés par des développeurs pour des développeurs. On compte aujourd’hui plus de 120 communautés actives de développeurs réparties dans 25 pays d’Afrique subsaharienne.

Nous sommes heureux de poursuivre notre aventure avec les communautés de start-up et de développeurs d’Afrique, car nous sommes convaincus que l’écosystème des start-up africaines est un moteur essentiel de la croissance économique de ce continent. La croissance de tous les acteurs de l’espace technologique est collective ; la réussite de l’un ouvre la voie à celle des autres.

Nitin Gajria, directeur général de Google Afrique et Onajite Emerhor, responsable de l’accélérateur Google for Startups Africa

5 ways to explore Lagos creative communities on Google Arts & Culture

Wednesday, April 28, 2021

Editor’s note: Today we hear from Folorunsho Coker, Director General, Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC). He shares on 'Eko for Show', in partnership with Google Arts & Culture towards celebrating Lagos and its creative communities.

Lagos is one of Africa’s fastest growing cities and its creative scene is taking the world by storm. With over 25 million people, the city’s creative scene is fueled by a young generation of talented individuals and communities spanning music, art, photography, fashion, theatre, literature and food. The Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation is committed to fuel Nigeria’s economy by supporting creativity, youth and entrepreneurs.

Since 2020, we have collaborated with Google Arts & Culture on a program to shine light on Nigeria’s rich and diverse cultural heritage, spectacular nature, bustling cities and our welcoming spirit. Our partnership plays a crucial part in achieving our mission of accelerating growth of domestic tourism and fostering economic development in Nigeria. It is with great pleasure to announce today Eko for Show, an expansion of our partnership with Google Arts & Culture and commitment to Nigeria’s youth and emerging talent. The project focuses on creativity stemming from the city of Lagos and expands through our people worldwide.

Eko for Show is a collaboration between seven cultural institutions offering everyone a glimpse into what makes Lagos an epicentre for creativity. Join me in celebrating Lagos by exploring more than 8000 photographs, 80 online stories, 3 Street View experiences, 175 videos and virtually meet the city’s music makers, visual artists, trendsetters, foodies and storytellers. Here are five ways to start your online journey:

Meet the music makers

Meet the visual artists

Meet the trendsetters

Meet the storytellers

Meet the foodies

Check out g.co/ekoforshow, and find out more on the Google Arts & Culture app on Android or iOS.

Posted by Folorunsho Coker, Director General, Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation.

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How fact checkers and Google.org are fighting misinformation.

Wednesday, March 31, 2021

Misinformation can have dramatic consequences on people’s lives — from finding reliable information on everything from elections to vaccinations — and the pandemic has only exacerbated the problem as accurate information can save lives. To help fight the rise in minsformation, Full Fact, a nonprofit that provides tools and resources to fact checkers, turned to Google.org for help. Today, ahead of International Fact Checking Day, we’re sharing the impact of this work.

Every day, millions of claims, like where to vote and COVID-19 vaccination rates, are made across a multitude of platforms and media. It was becoming increasingly difficult for fact checkers to identify the most important claims to investigate. Last year, Google.org provided Full Fact with $2 million and seven Googlers from the Google.org Fellowship, a pro-bono program that matches teams of Googlers with nonprofits for up to six months to work full-time on technical projects.

Pull quote: “We’re not just fighting an epidemic; we’re fighting an infodemic. Fake news spreads faster and more easily than this virus and is just as dangerous.” Tedros Adhanom, Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO)

The Fellows helped Full Fact build AI tools to help fact checkers detect claims made by key politicians, then group them by topic and match them with similar claims from across press, social networks and even radio using speech to text technology. Over the past year, Full Fact boosted the amount of claims they could process by 1000x, detecting and clustering over 100,000 claims per day — that’s more than 36.5 million total claims per year!

The technology in action

The AI-powered tools empower fact checkers to be more efficient, so that they can spend more time actually checking and debunking facts rather than identifying which facts to check. Using a machine learning BERT-based model, the technology now works across four languages (English, French, Portuguese and Spanish). Full Fact’s technology is now in use throughout South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya with their partner Africa Check as well as in Argentina with Chequeado. In total in 2020, Full Fact’s fact checks appeared 237 million times across the internet.

If you’re interested in learning more about how you can use Google to fact check and spot misinformation, check out some of our tips and tricks. Right now more than ever we need to empower citizens to find reliable authoritative information, and we're excited about the impact that Full Fact and its partners have had in making the internet a safer place for everyone.

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Africa Blog

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More ways we're making every day safer with Google

Our continued commitment to helping grow the startup ecosystem in Africa

5 ways to explore Lagos creative communities on Google Arts & Culture

How fact checkers and Google.org are fighting misinformation.

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