When you spend all of your workday bloggin' it's easy to lose sight of the fact that some folks don't have access to basic utilities, or
HDTV, or -- the horror! -- the Internet itself. In the time-honored tradition of Hippies and earnest seekers alike, Google has headed to rural India, where it will be focusing its philanthropic endeavors (or perhaps its shrewd marketing endeavors) for the next month and a half. The company's
Internet bus will roll through towns in the state of Tamil Nadu, providing connectivity via satellite, and content and instruction in both English and Tamil to people whose only previous exposure to the online world (if any) has been via cell phone or cyber cafe. This is all part of a broader scheme to expand into the Indian countryside, and if the trip is a success more are sure to follow. The company's services already include transliteration, news, bidirectional machine translation, and soft keyboards for a number of Indian languages, and a host of kick-ass Ravi Shankar tunes now available on Google Video.
posted February 3rd 2009 5:28PM
good for them
Where are the other 498 people on the bus? I only see 2!
Will it make a wifi hotspot so I can connect with my sack of shat?
Ride on the Magic School Bus!
I bet it gets more MPG that the VOLT...
...and you can do the wild thing in it too!
- I thought Google was against hippies like Nixon?
I bet the first lesson will be on how to turn on the computer, set google.com as the homepage on your web browser.
Can't say there is anything wrong with that. 99% of people I know have it set as that, for good reason.
^ agreed
if i start up firefox
i usually just head to google to do research
or
just go to facebook xD
or
meebo
honestly
i really dont use my computer for much other than that xD
i'd think if you use firefox then google search is built in
What's wrong with having Google as your homepage? Unless you have your own home page, too addicted to pr0n, can't live without Engadget a couple minutes or some other reason, Google is the best homepage you can choose.
engadget.com is my home page. I use the built in google search bar for research
Better yet, blank is my home page. I'll decide where I want to go, and when I want to go there.
Imagine how rural Indians see their location on Google Earth... my 55 year old father who's used to the internet almost crapped himself when he saw his house on Google Earth.
I think they will try to locate the magic bus too...people somehow tend to think Google Earth shows whatever that is happening on Earth, LIVE.
@hirame
Like in that Simpsons episode?
@r3loaded
yea, "Everyone can see you! Get inside!"
Who loves the Who!? I love the Who!
I love The Who twhoo!
Do you get anything "magic" with the ride?
is it electric at least? they would be promoting electric vehicles at the same time
Somehow I imagine this endeavor happening in a whole Darjeeling Ltd.-like insanity where instead of Owen Wilson and the gang you have Sergey Brin instead.
Seriously? I think it's really sad that Google is more interested in helping a country out who is single handedly trying to ruin the IT business, rather than help out Americans.
Q: What's the most depressing thing on Earth?
A: Google Earth Street View Mumbai.
I don't know if that's even possible.
TAKE SOME ACID AND FILM IT ALL!!! I love The Who, Maximum R&B is the best.
Looks more like a short bus to me......
Oh, they're just trying to get new employees. That, and they are recruiting for Dell. We all know the score.
Lesson 2: Search flowers, "flowers", and [flowers] and click away "on the right"
*Someone mentioned lesson #1 will be to set up Google.com as homepage (or something like that)
**G fanboys, chillax, I'm a GMan too