Google is getting into voice, not only with its highly anticipated relaunch of GrandCentral, but all over the world. Google Labs in India, for instance, just released Google Noticeboard in beta. This is a service geared at developing nations where not everyone has a computer. You can think of it as village voicemail on shared computers.
An administrator sets up a noticeboard on a shared computer in a village or Internet cafe. Then the applications acts as public noticeboard, where anyone can record a voice message. Text can also be added, but it is designed to work in places where literacy rates are low. People from the village can check for new group messages on any shared village computer with the software installed. It works as a Firefox add-on for Windows only. Google India describes the purpose of the service:
Communities with access to shared computers can use the Noticeboard for exchanging messages related to community announcements, social interactions, local buying and selling, and information that is of wider interest to the community. The Noticeboard may also be used for the community to engage in a dialog with benefactors, public servants, and other service providers who are geographically distant.
Adding communication services such as Noticeboard to shared computers is a step towards bridging the digital divide. The one issue I see is that Noticeboard requires that messages be recorded via a computer microphone. It would be better if villagers could phone in messages as well.
(Hat tip to reader Nimish Adani from Workosaur).
For all of you doubters who disparage my friend from Smart Girlies Are Sexy Blog, here is another piece of mounting evidence tending to indicate that in another decade, India may overtake Silicon Valley. Already, many firms are contracting and subcontracting with Indian programmers, designers, and other consultants who can do extraordinary work for fractions of American prices. We may have funny accents that get in the way in the tech support arena, but our funny accents are a non-issue when it comes to writing codes and designing.
I may have to disagree with you, my friend. We have already overtaken Silicon Valley, plus San Francisco, Los Angeles and hundreds of other American cities and towns. We have a very, very proud presence as executives on gas stations, CEOs at hundreds of convenience stores, and more.
Yes, some of us are software engineers, web developers and even VCs, which proves, as you state, that we have overtaken and I dare to say, “saving America”
CEO, –> Chief Executive Officers of convenience stores? I think owners and managers of convenience stores would be more appropriate.
India is 12 hours off US, so ideal tele-support during night hours in the US. Nothing other than logical.
Its grammar and not the accent problem with Indians. B more smart and less sexy
hi sunil, can you tell me what the earnings of labourers in india ( any form), how many % of people earn less than 1000 rupees (approx. 30 $ ) a month, how many are jobless and on the streets how many beggars ??? leave aside your valleys.
thanks
steve
What you meant to be sarcasm is not very far from truth anyway…so, thanks!
Tru dat…
This is great news if you are an Indian. In other words, who gives a s**t?
Feeling insecure, eh?
The real search engine news from India is the launch of Yauba http://www.yauba.com
NICE ONE … I like it:
“The entirety of our privacy policy is as follows.
We do not keep any personally identifiable information.
Period.”
http://www.yaub...sttname=privacy
Yauba’s alpha is better than Powerset or Cuil’s beta.
Nice. Very Nice !!!. I can see how this site could get a lot of traffic being that it’s niche is to protect the user’s IP. I also like how you can visit your search results annonymously. Techcrunch should do an article on Yauba.com. I did a test search and it works just as well as Google or Yahoo. So this is an Indian-owned enterprise?
Wow! Yauba is too cool. I checked it out just now, and I am really impressed by it. Need to play with it to see if it can really beat Google
WTF! WT Holy F???
I can’t believe this is an Alpha product.
I found stuff about me on Yauba that I never knew existed. There is a pdf file quoting a college paper I wrote 10 years ago written by grad student in New Zealand!?!
Yauba is superb. It can beat Google. @TechCrunch, when are we getting a coverage on Yauba?
It seems that Indian “tech bloggers” have been bit by the “world domination” bug. It’s already four great civilisations destroyed by this world domination disease. When you do your work and help other groups of humans and go back home to rest, things remain peaceful. When you try to disrupt other economies, things go bad. Ask Europe. Ask America. Ask the Mughals. Ask the Romans. If India cannot learn from four big dirty blobs (not dots) on the graph, Indians are not as intelligent as they make themselves out to be. I am Indian, I live in India and have never left the country for long periods of time. Our most important quality is our love of symbiosis, not parasitism. The reason we want it all back is the obvious plain truth of the immediate past – of all of the British empire. We must aim to be intellectual leaders not political, military or religious. Those are local things. And we must not aim to dominate others for if we do that, we are no different from the ones we think are oppressive. There is not worse future for India than one where we go down to the level needed to be reached to actually control the world full of huge organised crime cartels. Sure, dream of doing India proud, but dont dream of changing people’s lives to copy our culture. Make friends, not enemies or slaves – it is not the Indian way. This might seem out of place and off to a tangent on TC, amidst tech issues, but let me assure you that power moves so swiftly and precisely that to stop yourself from being seduced it takes great character already present in you. That is the key. You cannot learn to handle power and fame on the job – it has to be learnt and practised much before. And simply, why must India be the sole leader?
Aren’t Anglo-Saxon people intelligent? Aren’t Caucasians intelligent? Aren’t Africans intelligent? Aren’t Chinese intelligent? Aren’t Arabs intelligent (Al Jabr ? )
I’m posting this only because many Indians read TC and almost all Indians want to see India “lead the world”. But make no mistake, leading the world is far different from *ruling* the world. A leader serves selflessly, a ruler often butchers ruthlessly.
Which do you want to be?
Jedi or Sith, which do you want to be?
Yoda or Vader, which do you want to be?
Ram or Ravana, which do you want to be?
Krishna or Duryodhana, which do you want to be?
Universal friend or Universal emperor, which do you want to be?
The **back of the mind** is where the really big plots are hatched. And this is meant towards preventing that.
Humility and utility, not money and hegemony.
You make a very interesting point distinguishing between leading the world and ruling the world.
Google is getting into voice is a good idea. For example, residents of an apartment complex can use the Noticeboard for posting announcements, or NGOs who own and operate computer centers in several villages can use the Noticeboard to enable village residents to communicate amongst themselves.
Another great (non-Google) initiative is the Shared Access to voice that has been ongoing for about 2 years
http://www.indi...EA-10-6-06.html
From India
Anjali Sen
Great service and good effort to make google a household name. Microsoft has made many efforts to penetrate in rural india and has more recognition. Google is still alien as connectivity ain’t great.
correct. Microsoft makes constant, persistent efforts to penetrate all of us…..
Right now, American Accent classes are very popular in India and are more or less a prerequisite for those who want to get into telephone tech support. As the web/tech world becomes more Indianize, there may be a shift. Wouldn’t it be ironic, and funny, if some day Americans have to take Indian Accent classes in order to get a job in the United States? Wouldn’t it be ironic if one day an American executive will not be considered legit unless and until he can learn to speak with an Indian accent, so as to make him more intelligible and articulate? Don’t be too doubtful my friends, or you may be called a full-blown pessimist by our friend RJ.
Hh, you have to take a standardized test in enroll in an Indian Accent class? I guess that when that day comes, the best selling perfume will be Current Scent !! lol
You mean curry? I guess you are into fetishes.
@WTH? INDIAN ACCENT CLASS?,
You are pathetic. Go away, retarded spammer.
Not sure how if I understand the real value of Google Noticeboard. In India, mobile phones penetration is high and increasing (even in the rural areas..). Mass broadcast SMSes can serve this type of a need better?
Amit
As written in the post, “Text can also be added, but it is designed to work in places where literacy rates are low. ”
That’s also the reason why mobile phones are so popular here compared to the computer..And also the reason why more people call in India rather than send text messages..
Google SMS Channels!
bullshit
Yes, to answer someone’s earlier question. It does seem that some people are feeling insecure.
Otherwise, what would prompt a one word response of “bullshit” to such a great product? I mean, what are the negatives of a voice bulletin board in low literacy areas? The ramifications are enormous. The “Third World” has been screaming for this for years. This could have enormous impact not only in India, but all over Africa for years to come.
@smartbabesarebitches,
Your comment shows your utter ignorance, and how narrow minded you are. You need to learn to appreciate things that are actually good. It may be Google Noticeboard or Yauba (superb search engine).
In India Cellphone outnumber computers 10:1.
Can I operate Grand Central through a browser based cellphone instead of a laptop?
India is already ahead of America in the field of Technology. America is on the top of the world only because of Indians in its backbone.
I think your statement is extremely broad and general. I think most people in this forum would disagree with you. India is certainly the backbone of the tech world. However, in terms of innovation, it appears America is way ahead. This may change with time but for now, it is not the case. Just as you can say that Indian doctors are the “backbone” of medicine in America, you cannot say that Indian medicine is ahead. Traditional caucasian MD’s still make up the cutting edge front line of medical innovation that is going on at prestigious American universities and American research entities. This is not to discredit the Indian community, which is far ahead of other ethnic groups (even Asians and certainly Africans cannot compare with Indians in terms of …)
@ubewe
“Just as you can say that Indian doctors are the “backbone” of medicine in America”
You certainly have no clue – plus, if you really believe this nonsense, sorry but you do need professional help…
Travis, open up your HMO directory, read the names of doctors in there. Isn’t it true that approximately 50 percent of the doctors listed are Indian? And what percent of the general American population do Indians make up? Probably less than 2 percent.
Secondly, by “backbone,” I do not say that they are better, as a higher percentage of Indian practicioners are in primary care and internal medicine, two areas that are very rigorous yet not very glamorous. These two areas of practice are viewed as backbone because they are such a high-demand and integral part of the provision of medical services.
@Ubewe — Please *get real* and “HMO directory?”
According to the AMA [American Medical Association] there are approximately 750,000 licensed physicians in the US, probably more.
Less than 42,000 are from India or from Indian descent.
Now, if you live in Detroit, you might think that you are in Mumbai, because there are so many Indian doctors concentrated there.
There are 300M+ people in the US — I would hardly call 42,000 Indian doctors the “backbone” of American medicine…
Why are so many Indian people (considering comments on TC) so inclined to believe that they are *essential* for the US? — delusional wishful thinking, I would say…
Curious fact: a few millions of illegal aliens from Mexico living in the US, doing menial chores and janitorial work, also believe that they are *essential for the US economy* and that if they leave, our country would collapse — Again, more delusional thinking and more hogwash, of course…
Sam,
Thanks for unintentionally reinforcing my point. 42,000 physicians = more than 5% of US physicians. Considering that Indians are, as it turns out, less than 1% of the population in the U.S., the fact that they are 5.6% of physicians is remarkable. The bottom line is Indians consist of a minute portion of the population, yet, they represent a disportionally percentage of highly skilled professions that have significant impact on society. Backbone or not, we can safely say Indians make a substantial if not significant contribution in fields of technology, medicine, engineering, and dare I say, even business.
It is insulting to compare the impact of Indians to that of Mexicans. Sure Mexicans hang a lot of drywall and “contribute” to the construction industry. However, if Mexicans were to vaporize of the face of this earth, many other ethnic groups would be able to step in, fill their shoes, and hang the drywall. Can people of other groups step in and perform open heart surgery if Indians were to vaporize?
@Ubewe — I am afraid that you have totally missed Sam’s points… and I cannot understand why you rely only on percentages of a population to support your reasoning.
This is in essence what you are, wrongly, implying = India has about 800M+ people, the US has 300M+ people, so India is better than the US.
Simply absurd and the product of immaturity and ignorance. It is a childish assumption.
You write “It is insulting to compare the impact of Indians to that of Mexicans” — another unfortunate sentence on your comment. It is not a comparison between Indians and Illegal Mexicans. The *point* is that, even if the contribution of Indian immigrants to the US is indeed important, if **hypothetically** they stop working, or leave the country, the disruption that this may cause, in *ANY* field, would be easily overcome in a matter of days, most probably in less than a week. Again, *HYPOTHETICALLY* —
Immigrants to the US, from any country, including India, are important, but *ARE NOT ESSENTIAL* to the life and future of the US. So, please stop fooling yourself… Any foreign worker could be replaced easily by American workers, any time.
Those who claim that their companies cannot survive without foreign workers, Indian or otherwise, while demanding that the number of H1B visas be unlimited, are greedy bastards, thinking only on getting cheap labor…
To a point, it is understandable that many Indian workers coming to the US may believe that they are “superior” to other Indian -or even American citizens, is a sad fallacy… again, created by those whose only purpose is procuring cheap labor. It is a form of colonialism, even slavery, which I believe is something that Indians may understand very well, if they remember their own history as a country.
@ Markus
I’ll reply to the content a bit later when I have time to settle down. Meanwhile, someone mentioned Indian Accent class earlier. Being that your reasoning skills are marginal, you may want to pre-enroll before ETS institutes an entrance exam. Either way, you’ll have to take the class anyway.
We do need Indians, and they definitely have a place in this country. The effect of the indian cheap labor on US economy cannot be disregarded either, and I’m not so sure it can be replaced within days as some suggested.
The bigger issue I think is that many Americans are feeling like the Indians are invading the industry and that we are loosing our footing on innovation due to Indian sleazy ways. Many Indians who come to this country don’t pay attention to the cultural differences, and therefore create a cultural clash. For example, I’m still not sure why so many Indian women wear that ridiculous traditional clothing for casual outings. I mean it takes just a bit of observational skill to determine that their clothes don’t look anything like what 99% of people around them are wearing. There are other cultural clashes like loud talking in a foreign language (hindi or whatever village they may be from) in hallways. Talking crap about US politics and similar.
I think people are feeling that this invasion is polluting the productive environments with sleazy Indian bureaucracy and politics that only Indians appreciate. This last point is precisely why US is way ahead with innovation than India. Our engineers, innovation geniuses, scientists and professors typically don’t walk around for hours thinking about every possible way to cut a corner and to extend project plans and basically do as little work as possible. Another frustrating point is recruitment. Indians tend to hire Indians, regardless of their competencies.
When we started shipping them as cheap labor, we filed them across low ranks as contractors or associate engineers. Now 15+ years later, many have advanced to roles in middle management. Some are even VPs, although not that common.
So is this really all that bad? Most companies are not run by Indians. Best managers and leaders are typically of US or European descent. So I think the invasion is more of an annoyance than a real problem. The people who are most annoyed are usually in the lower engineering roles because they end up having to take most of that Indian bureaucracy crap. Indian engineers in US are clearly competent to do many tasks, I just don’t believe they are as good managers and leaders. This may change with time of course.
@ Markus & John
You both say that Indians are imported as cheap labor, e.g., cheap associate engineers. I don’t see anything cheap about it. An engineer is paid the prevailing market rate in the US regardless of whether he is from India, China, or Alabama Redneck. You seem to imply that it is typical that Joe Redneck is passed over for a $80K/year associate engineer job because management would and could instead hire an Indian to do the exact same job for $40K/year. Not true. There are lots of Indian engineers because simply there are a lot of Indians who do well in engineering. Likewise, there are way “too many” players of African decent (aka, African-Americans) in the National Basketball League, and might I say, similar to John’s statement regarding culture, the culture of black athletes is also very annoying. I can say this without being faulted because I myself am from Nigeria. However, I am sure that we can say that the reason there are lots of african basketball players is just as simple: there are lots of people of African decent who, for whatever reason, are very good at basketball.
Markus even referred to HBI visas specifically, saying that those who argue for lifting the quota on HBI visas are simply greedy, seeking “cheap” labor. This shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the HB1 system. The HBI is designed to allow employers to import foreign labor in situations where it is not possible to find an American with a needed skillset. An good example would be a Chinese attorney who also possesses a law degree from an American law school being hired on an HBI by an American firm that does lots of import/export with China. The gist of the matter is simply not an available supply of American lawyers who have have the indepth knowledge of the Chinese legal system and Chinese written and spoken language AND be licensed to practice law in the U.S. Thus, the company hires an HBI Chinese lawyer who is licensed to practice in both countries. This in no way is “cheap” labor replacing honest, hardworking American labor.
Sure, the hypothectical Chinese lawyer here is not cheap by any means. He probably costs 1.5 times the cost of a domestic lawyer. But it is well worth it. because you couldn’t accomplish what this China/America lawyer could accomplish if you spent 10 times the money to hire 10 American attorneys. Nor could you accomplish the same by hiring 20 American paralegals. In this regard, yes, it is cheaper to hire on an HBI because spending much larger amounts on American resources would still NOT enable you to do the same. Again, the purpose of the HBI is to provide efficiency by reaching abroad to obtain human labour in a situation where American labour cannot reasonably do the job.
John,
“loud talking in a foreign language..”
You mean instead of whispering out of shame?
I was in China recently and I witnessed a caucasian couple talking “loudly” in German down the hall at a large bank. Oh, how offensive that must have been to the locals that this couple, possibly husband and wife, weren’t communicating in Manderin. WTH were they thinking? Didn’t they realize that they were speaking a language that didn’t coincide with that used by 99% of people around them?
Think about it John, if you and your wife go as far as abstaining from English and switch to Swahili just because you happen to be standing in Africa? How condescending.
Ubewe, you may want to check the definition of the word “Third World”.
Regardless of how many engineers India spews every year, it is still a developing country way behind the world powers like USA, UK, England France and Japan. This is true in both economic and cultural sense. The immigrants from India come across as primitive in the eyes of a civilized Westerner. You can get anybody a computer and a book on a computer language. Teaching them to eat with utensils, table manners, body language and hygiene is something you usually learn from your parents.
Black culture in the US had been integrated into the mainstream culture over the past several hundred years. Indian engineers on the other hand is what some refer to as FOBs (fresh off the boat) so they tend to stick out more than say an immigrant from Nigeria. I personally have nothing against people eating curry with fingers, or dressing up funny in public places but it’s reasonable to point out what constitutes a strong deviation from US mainstream culture.
Also there are certain work ethics that to most civilized Westerners is common sense. Speaking loudly/obnoxiously in a foreign language in a work setting is not the appropriate thing to do.
@ John
I guess I can agree on several points. I myself am from a “primitive” region of the world. However, I (and my fellow Africans) do have the common sense to trade our loin cloths in for suits and ties when we have to, say, attend court or to to the local supermarket in Los Angeles. A lot of it is common sense I have to agree. What baffles me how an entire group of people tend to lack common sense.
Perhaps the issue isn’t common sense to most Indians. Perhaps the issue is national pride. The reason a Caucasian would not switch his khakis out for a loin cloth when visiting Africa isn’t because he doesn’t have common sense. It is because he knows his ways and culture are superior to those of the natives, judge from objective international standards. Likewise, perhaps the reason Indians wear their traditional clothing is because they too, “know” in their hearts that their Indian culture is superior.
haha, so i see this “smart babes” thing is catching on. good for you smart babe blog.
Yea, and what’s wrong in that?
when googlers poop..its on techcrunch …
i just get to see a 404.
Google, Google, Google… I’m tired
Yea, go and play with Facebook fake apps.
why a firefox plugin and not chrome??
Nice article! Check out my similar site at http://macmaniapodcast.com
Guys, don’t fight over America and India. You will definitely see the difference in the next decade. I challenge you that India will be ahead of America in the coming decades.
Aamin!
I do not think that Google will be able to continue to grow at the pace it is doing right now. It is working on many things simultaneously and this may constraint its focus on a few big things. Read the entire analysis at http://www.tele...it-the-ceiling/
Cool concept. Will be interesting to see if it catches hold, and then rolls out to different countries / regions.