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Editor’s note: This the third in a four-part series of interviews between expert panelists for the Google.org Impact Challenge for Women and Girls.Today’s interviewer, Kate Garvey, is the co-founder of Project Everyone, which aims to make progress in achieving the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals. 

Amika George is a 21-year-old activist who, after learning about the lack of awareness around period poverty, started a movement in the UK that turned into a tidal wave of change. She went on to write a book about the lessons she learned from that experience…all before graduating from university.  

Her commitment to this issue made her the perfect fit to be an expert panelist for the Google.org Impact Challenge for Women and Girls. Along with 27 other incredible women, Amika and I have the honor of helping select the grantees — nonprofits and social enterprises that are leading the way to a better future for women and girls — who will be announced later this year.

Until then, here’s my conversation with Amika George.

What drove you to become an activist? 

At first I didn’t identify as an activist because I didn’t know what it meant and it felt like a loaded term. But the issue of period poverty — when people who menstruate can’t afford period products — made me think more critically about activism. I started Free Periods in 2017 after learning about girls in the UK who miss a week of school every month as a result of period poverty. I was shocked and upset by the reality of it.

Free Periods began online as a petition and branched out to organizing protests and events. Our efforts led to a legal case that required schools to provide free menstrual products. Now we can confidently say that every student in England can get the products they need.

What is one lesson about activism that you would pass on?

For many marginalized people, or even people who aren’t old enough to vote, activism is how you can have an impact in a productive way. For young people, the issues we’re most scared of — structural racism, the climate crisis, widening gender inequality — aren’t always prioritized or reported on. You need your own way to have an impact and shape our future.

What’s next for you?

My generation is realizing that it’s more productive and effective when you focus on one thing. I often get asked, “What about the climate crisis, is that what you’re going to focus on next? Are you going to address poverty as a whole?” But no one individual can end poverty or the climate crisis. You can choose one small thing, find your niche and focus on that. And frameworks like the UN’s Global Goals are useful — they’re the roadmap to a better world. You can take the one thing you’re working on and see how it links to one of the Goals.

There must have been low moments or moments when things went wrong. What advice do you have to deal withthat?

I learned too late that you can’t do things on your own. There wasn’t a huge amount of public discussion about period poverty before Free Periods, and it gave me a platform to reach people. But I was still only 17. 

There’s a whole chapter in my book on mental health and how it wasn’t sustainable for me to carry the movement on my own. It’s difficult not to take things personally, but when you have a community you can find strength when everyone is working hard and committed to the cause. 

Any final words of wisdom for the grantees of the Impact Challenge, and those fighting for women’s economic empowerment?

Be creative, especially right now. In lockdown, our lives changed in a drastic way and we had to think differently. We couldn’t have protests or speak face to face, and we continue that creativity going forward. Creativity is an essential part of activism.

It’s been a year since we introduced .new as a domain extension to help businesses build memorable shortcuts to their products. And since then, people from all walks of life have been using these shortcuts to get things done. We recently checked in with three teams that started using .new early on — Adobe, Glitch and Google Workspace — to see if their customers are enjoying the shortcuts they created.

Adobe

Adobe launched 14 .new shortcuts to help their users create, convert, compress, sign and design elements within their apps. In this video, you’ll see why pdf.new is a convenient way for anyone to find their favorite Acrobat tools on the fly:

Glitch

Glitch makes it possible for anyone to build a web app right in their browser and instantly publish their application. Reception for glitch.new has been enthusiastic, with more than 8,000 apps already created through their shortcut. They also received positive community feedback, which led them to add new features, including the ability to remix any of their starter apps:

Google Workspace 

The Workspace shortcuts (docs.new, sheets.new, slides.new, and more) were the original inspiration for launching .new. Since October 2018, we’ve seen over 30 million docs created with the docs.new and doc.new shortcuts alone:

What’s one thing the Adobe, Glitch and Workspace .new shortcuts have in common? They’re helpful in the classroom, for both students and teachers. So as we head into fall, here’s a roundup of some of our favorite shortcuts to help with back-to-school season:

1. Quizlet.new makes it easy to learn any subject with study tools like flash cards, practice tests and explanations proven to help with learning.

2. Kahoot.new allows you to easily create and host educational games on any topic.

3. Slides.new makes it easy to create a presentation for that big school project.

4. Fundraiser.new lets you design and sell custom apparel for your next school fundraiser.

Any company or organization can register its own .new domain. Get inspired at whats.new/shortcuts.

Last month, we explored mental health resources for journalists in the U.K., inclusive news coverage and innovation in Latin America, leadership training for reporters in Asia Pacific and more. Keep reading for July updates.

Promoting mental health in the media industry 

Many of the challenges that impacted the mental health of journalists in the months and years before the global pandemic have been exacerbated by COVID-19. We’re supporting the Headlines Network to test out a new form of training in the United Kingdom to strengthen and promote mental health in the media industry. Independent industry experts will offer a safe space for early career journalists, new managers, mid-career journalists and senior leadership.

Reflecting on diversity in Latin American Journalism

We partnered with The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas to publish the ebook “Diversity in Latin American Journalism,” which was announced at the annual conference of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. In the book, 16 journalists from seven countries reflect on how to make newsrooms and news coverage more inclusive across gender, sexual orientation, racial and ethnic issues and disability. The ebook is available for free in Spanish.

Celebrating Innovation Challenge recipients

Building on the Digital News Innovation Fund in Europe, Google News Initiative Innovation Challenges have supported more than 180 projects that bring new ideas to the news industry. Around the world, we’re learning from former Innovation Challenge recipients who are using their funding to drive innovation in news.

Google Nest’s mission is to create a home that takes care of the people inside it and the world around it.. All of this starts with helping you understand what’s happening within the walls of your home and outside of it. 

One of Nest’s first goals was to simplify home security, and we did this with our first line of cameras. So when we started dreaming up what our next generation of cameras and doorbells would be like, we wanted to incorporate the way the connected home — and your expectations — were heading. That included smarter alerts, wire-free options for installation flexibility, greater value and beautiful designs, plus enhanced privacy and security. We wanted our new line to give you the most comprehensive set of intelligent alerts right out of the box, and easily work with your other Nest products, like displays.

Today we’re introducing our next-generation Nest Cams and Doorbell: Google Nest Cam (battery) is our first outdoor/indoor battery-powered camera ($179.99); Google Nest Doorbell (battery) is our first battery-powered doorbell ($179.99). Then there’s Google Nest Cam with floodlight, our first connected floodlight camera ($279.99) and finally the second-generation Google Nest Cam (wired), a wired indoor camera and our most affordable Nest Cam ever ($99.99).

The new battery-powered Nest Cam and Nest Doorbell are available for preorder today and will go on sale on Aug. 24. Nest Cam with floodlight and the new wired indoor Nest Cam are coming soon.

Security with smarts

Because we’re all overloaded with notifications every day, our next-generation cameras and doorbell are made to send you the most helpful alerts. They detect important events that happen in and around the home, including alerts for people, animals and vehicles — and in Nest Doorbell’s case, also packages. Our new cameras and doorbell can do this because they process what they see on-device, which means more relevant notifications and added privacy and security. On-device processing means that all of this works right out of the box, no subscription required. 

Google Nest Cam (battery) and Google Nest Doorbell (battery) are the latest additions to the Nest family — and they’re Nest’s first battery-powered security devices, built for every home. Here are 11 things to know:

• Smarter alerts, right out of the box:Your new Nest Cam and Doorbell can do more right out of the box because we moved object detection on-device, allowing us to include features that are usually behind a subscription (like Activity Zones and smart alerts, including package, animal, vehicle and person detection) for no additional cost, plus three hours of event video history. Thanks to on-device processing, they can also record up to a week’s worth of events if power or Wi-Fi is out.
• Made with Machine Learning:Building a camera that uses ML to recognize objects requires showing the ML model millions of images first. Our new Nest Cameras and Doorbells have been trained on 40 million images to accommodate lots of different environments and lighting conditions. Thanks to a cutting edge TPU chip, our new cameras run an ML model up to 7.5 times per second, so reliability and accuracy are even better.
• Works in any home:Nest Cam and Doorbell’s wire-free designs, built-in rechargeable batteries and optional power connectors allow you to install them where you want — not only where there’s a power outlet or pre-existing wiring. 
• Set up your way: Make sure to check out Google Store’s accessories. In addition to weatherproof cables, a tabletop stand with a power cord allows you to place your Nest Cam on an indoor surface, like a mantle. There’s also an anti-theft mount that tethers your Nest Cam to the magnetic mount for extra security. For Nest Doorbell, there’s a horizontal wedge and an AC adapter.
• Works better, together: Nest Cam and Nest Doorbell seamlessly work with your Nest displays. Just say “Hey Google, show me the backyard” to see your Nest Cam feed. And you can set up your speakers and displays to chime when someone rings your Nest Doorbell, while using your display to see who’s at the door and take action from the screen. 

• All on the Google Home app: It’s easy to see all of your events quickly, and your 24/7 live feed at any time in the Google Home app. If you have more than one Nest camera, you can view all of them in one place, alongside your other connected home devices. You can even filter by event type — for example, you can pull up every package delivery. 
• See clearly in a variety of conditions:Both Nest Cam and Nest Doorbell have night vision, 6x zoom, and HDR so images are crisp in the dark or bright light. And we gave Nest Doorbell a taller field of view so you can see visitors from head to toe and packages as close as eight inches away from your door.
• Extra secure with a Google account: Your devices are only as secure as your account. That’s why the new Nest Cam and Nest Doorbell require a Google account, which comes with added protections like suspicious activity detection, 2-step verification and password checkup. Read more about our commitment to privacy and security in Nest’s dedicated Safety Center.
• Add a Nest Aware subscription:With a Nest Aware subscription ($6 monthly), you’ll get familiar face detection and the ability to call 911 from the Google Home app (U.S. only) as well as 30 days of event video history. With a Nest Aware Plus subscription ($12 monthly), you’ll get all of this with 60 days of event video history and the option for 10 days of continuous video recording when your Nest Cam is plugged into a power outlet.
• Made with care: Nest Cam and Doorbell are made with recycled materials and rigorously tested through drops and extreme weather, like heavy rain and hurricane-strength winds.
• Built for your life: Nest technology is designed to fit into your home, not distract from it. Nest Cam is sleek and white and fits in anywhere — indoors or outdoors. And Nest Doorbell’s design was inspired by clean, minimalist architecture. In the U.S., it comes in four different colors so your front door can make a great first impression.

The new battery-powered Nest Cam and Nest Doorbell are available for pre-order today for $179.99 — you can visit the Google Store to find out more, including whether Nest Cam and Nest Doorbell will be available in your country.

It’s time to get ready for the holiday season! This year, we expect shoppers to continue using the digital-first services they learned during the pandemic, like curbside pickup and grocery delivery, in combination with in-store shopping trips. We see this across Google, where searches for “now near me” have grown globally by more than 100% year over year and searches on Google Maps for “curbside pickup” have increased globally by 5,000% year over year.¹

To help you capture the opportunity this holiday season, we’re hosting Think Retail on Air 2021 on Tuesday, August 31 at 10 a.m. PDT. During this virtual event, we’ll share the latest holiday shopping insights, category trends and Google solutions to help you prepare your business for the holidays. You’ll hear from product experts and industry leaders, including:

Marketers and agencies sign annual deals with top publishers to simplify purchasing and negotiating inventory across multiple brands and campaigns. This includes annual upfronts and newfronts deals. Increasingly, marketers rely on Programmatic Guaranteed and other non-guaranteed deals to fulfill these commitments with Display & Video 360, because its frequency management capabilities improve performance while delivering consistent user experiences across channels.

To help media agency professionals more efficiently manage publisher deals, we’re introducing new tools to package, prioritize and monitor deals across partners and advertisers in Display & Video 360.

Let’s say you’ve negotiated a deal with a publisher and you’d like to use it across different partner accounts. Instead of going into each of Display & Video 360’s partner accounts and creating separate deals, you can now create one deal and then distribute impressions across partners and advertisers. You can also easily edit the deal and the changes will propagate to all Display & Video 360’s accounts you shared the deal with.

Package and prioritize deals across partner accounts

In addition to saving time creating and editing deals, you can also package the inventory to fit the needs of the brands you work with. You can take inventory from different deals, bundle them together and give access across partners and advertisers. For example, you can create a package for a special time of year (like Black Friday or major sporting event), a marketing objective or for always-on campaigns and share it across multiple partners. This way you don’t have to recreate the same package in multiple accounts. In addition, for preferred deals, you can prioritize access to the deal across partners and advertisers, giving you additional control in how you distribute impressions from the deal among your various campaigns.

Monitor publisher commitments in one place

When you commit to buying a fixed amount of ad inventory through a Programmatic Guaranteed or a non-guaranteed deal, you have to closely monitor its delivery so that you don’t waste your budgets. The ability to keep track of your spend at the publisher level is particularly relevant for your upfront deals that span across various properties and cover different advertisers and campaigns. So if these deals are running behind, it’s important to quickly reallocate impressions across campaigns. Now, you can easily monitor pacing for each publisher and deal in one place, identify delivery issues and reallocate impressions across accounts and campaigns before the deal expires.

To access these new tools, please contact your account team. In the future, we’re planning to add more controls and flexibility in how you manage your deals across partners.