anyway it means more development all around. N that dude who says he didn’t know we had computers. ignorant man, it turns out we do.

In Uganda, they will find a man who has overstayed his welcome as country’s president. In Kenya, Mwai Kibaki is clinging to power even after a clear sign fom the people they are fed up with hm.

Welcome to Africa!

Mutimba

that’s sounds like a good plan to me. technological innovation is great, but there’s a chance, just a chance, that social and societal innovation is better.

this is like saying the US shouldn’y spend on technology while there is recession, unemployment rising ( no matter what they tell you), healthcare problems soaring, and 2 billion dollars being spent every day to fight in Iraq.

You can see that it doesn’t work that way.

If you’re thinking that Google is moving faster into Africa just for what your concept of the internet is, you’re wrong there too. It’s about mobile phones and the long tail of the African market. There are more than 200 million mobile phones in Africa that few companies are paying any attention to. It’s Africa’s PC.

Yes, there is a market within urban areas for traditional web-based Google products, but this isn’t the main market in Africa.

Your comment that, “Africa remains the final frontier for internet growth” is true though. People are going to make millions of dollars there very soon, and the rest of the world will be surprised because they didn’t see it coming.

Although that’s a weird generalization to make, it relates to an important point in that the the innovation Google would bring is far in advance of the real needs of many Africans. I know there’s not a lot of business in it, but still, if the governments try to jump forward by spending money on internet technology before they focus on solving tribal/genocide/starvation/disease problems, the continent is not *really* going to benefit, only a tiny minority of people will.

SEO Training
I’m not sure if we’re allowed to call it darkest Africa or similar any more.

“Google is expanding its presence in Africa, in what locals are suggesting is part of a move by Google to “realign” its growth strategy part in response to Microsoft’s takeover offer for Yahoo.”

Look around, lots of companies are “realigning” for the African market. It is the only remaining unindustrialized continent, and it’s jumping straight into the information era, the largest population to do so without industrialization. Any company that has vision will “realign” itself. As a journalist, you should be more careful to point out the real driving forces behind these shifts.

That line must bring a lot of traffic, eh?