France: Google CEO tells Paris it will secure a future for ‘news without fear’

Google CEO Sundar Pichai used a keynote speech in Paris to announce two major new media programmes, just hours before the French government announced it will seek €1.6 billion in back tax payments from the search giant.

In his keynote at Sciences Po university in Paris, Pichai said Google will finally rollout its fast-loading ‘Accelerated Mobile Pages’, or AMP project, and give preference to those stories at the top of search results.

First announced last fall, AMP will offer “a search carousel surfacing more news content, that loads four times faster and uses 10 times less data”, Pichai announced in his first European keynote, where he received a rockstar reception.

“The same code works across multiple platforms and devices, different formats and sites using paywalls,” Pichai explained. “It will help publishers crack the best content and cultivate modern readers,” he added on the feature, widely seen as a competitor to Facebook’s own Instant Articles, and Apple’s iOS app Apple News.

Pichai also said that Google’s Digital News Initiative (DNI) would invest €27 million into news organisations in 23 European countries, ranging “from automated content journalism, robot journalism, hoax-busting ads to real-time reporting”. The company has already received “a huge number of applications” to these grants, Pichai said, adding that the next round would open before the summer 2016.

Full content: Wired

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