Fridaygram: Transparency Report, billions of bugs, calming doodle
By Scott Knaster, Google Developers Blog
Editor
The
Google Transparency
Report is designed to point out government censorship, requests to Google for data,
and other details about our information services. The
newest
report, just out this week, shows that government requests for content removal have
reached a new high level, with more than 2200 requests received in the second half of last
year.
Government removal requests are probably the best known
part of the Transparency Report, but there’s plenty of other fascinating and useful data. For
example, you can see information about removal requests for specific URLs from
copyright
owners, or read about the
legal
process that takes place when a government organization or court requests
information about a user. You can learn a lot by spending some time with the
Transparency Report.
If you’re on the U. S. East Coast this spring and summer, you won’t need a report to tell you
that
massive
numbers of cicadas are emerging from their underground homes to breed, fill the
skies, annoy countless humans, last a few weeks, then die (and annoy even more humans who have
to clean them up). This year’s bunch are
Magicicada
septendecim, or periodical cicadas with a 17-year life cycle. So we can
look forward to a similar event in 2030.
Finally, if you haven’t already played with the
Earth Day Doodle from last
Monday, consider taking a few minutes this weekend to enjoy it. You might find yourself
mesmerized by the tranquil scene (cicadas not included).
Fridaygram is
mostly about fun and informative stuff that’s not related to development, but we
seriously
want to congratulate Googlers Peter Norvig and Arun
Majumdar on their election to the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences. Arun runs Google’s energy strategy as vice president
of energy, and Peter is our director of research, although he’s also known for his whimsical take on presentations and
technology.
