Google announced today that Search, News, and Discover will be “removing links to Canadian news publications” in response to a new law.
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Canada is a hotbed for artificial intelligence and machine learning research, with Google cultivating that talent in a number of ways. Google today announced three new Canadian offices to account for future growth.
After soft launching in five existing Red countries this May, YouTube is beginning an international expansion of its newly revamped Music and Premium services. Now available in 17 countries, this includes Canada, Russia, France, and several other European nations, while it’s now widely accessible for users in current markets.
As widely rumored, Android Pay is finally available in Canada beginning today. Google’s payment service is now available in its 12th country, with support from a number of local retailers, apps, and banks.
Google celebrated its 1oth anniversary in Canada by doubling its staff and indicating hopes to have an even larger presence in 2012.
The company currently has 300 employees in four Canadian offices, in Toronto, Waterloo, Ottawa, and Montreal. Google’s global headcount was listed at 32, 353 in the third quarter of 2011.
The Mountain View, Calif.-based search engine first moved north in 2001, and Head of Mobile Advertising Eric Morris was one of the first Google Canada employees to start work for the North American sect.
“Canada is one of the fastest growing markets for Google and it’s one of our big bets corporately,” said Morris. “It’s a market that Google is very committed to and investing in heavily in terms of resources and growing very, very quickly.”
In 2002, according to Morris, Google projected that 70 percent of Canada’s population would be online by 2017. Canada reached 79 percent in 2010.
“In 2010, 93 percent of households with three or more people, as well as those with at least one member under the age of 18, had home Internet access,” reported a recent Canadian Internet Use Survey. “By contrast, 58 percent of one-person households had home Internet access.”
