As per a Google employee (via 9to5Google), Maps usage was three times higher as of last week. Since February 23, worldwide traffic has been significantly higher than the daily average. Meanwhile, usage of Google Groups rose 10x last week. But usage of productivity-oriented services like Google Sheets and Docs were three times lower than usual as life came to a standstill in most parts of Ukraine. Services like YouTube, Search, and Gmail didn’t experience any drastic fluctuations in usage.
Google has restricted the functionality of the Maps app in Ukraine
These findings can be explored from the Google Transparency Report website. The company uses a combination of metrics to gather and analyze the data. Google gathers the data on disruption history from “government sources, news outlets, or ISPs.” Google explains the process in the following way: “The charts give a representation of the ratio of that region’s request rate to the worldwide request rate. For each time period and product, we divide the traffic for each geographic region by total worldwide traffic, resulting in a number between 0 and 1. Then we multiply all numbers by a constant, which normalizes but does not change the shape of the graphs.” A lot has changed since the publication of Google’s transparency report. As of last night, Google removed some Maps tools, including live traffic information, in Ukraine. The company said it took this decision to safeguard locals in the region, clarifying that it consulted with Ukrainian authorities before suspending some Maps functionality. However, live traffic info continues to be available to drivers accessing turn-by-turn navigation in Ukraine. Another Alphabet product, YouTube, also announced steps in response to Russia’s decision to invade Ukraine. The video platform said it is “pausing a number of channels’ ability to monetize on YouTube.” Meta said on Saturday that it is “prohibiting Russian state media from running ads or monetizing on our platform anywhere in the world.”
