Internet Bus to cover 10 cities in Madhya Pradesh
Indore, September 24, 2009 – After covering Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, Google™ India today announced the arrival of the Google Internet Bus in the Hindi heartland as the bus kick-starts its journey in Madhya Pradesh. ‘The Internet Bus’ will travel through the state of Madhya Pradesh covering ten key cities in next 25 days and highlight the benefits of using the Internet. The Google Internet bus experience is specially designed to familiarize people with various applications and services that they can use to make their life simple.
During its 8-month journey the Internet Bus has left behind some compelling stories each time it has visited a city: A businessman in Krishnagiri (Tamil Nadu) was amazed to see how he could pay off his utility bills and book for train tickets with the click of a button. It was a thrilling experience for a local musician in Vijaywada (Andhra Pradesh) to learn how he can use the internet to compose music and showcase his work to the world. A millet farmer in the remote fringes of Tumkur (Karnataka) went back with a memorable experience with the bus and asked his son to go online to search for a job.
With a focus on four themes – information, communication, entertainment and education, the ‘Internet Bus’ will showcase informative content in both English and Hindi to provide the users with an understanding of how the Internet can be used in their daily lives. In addition to basic familiarization on using services like search, email, social networking and online maps, the bus will also aim to reach out to first-time users who have little or no exposure to the Internet.
"We are passionate about empowering users with information and the Internet democratizes access to information. Our vision is to empower users by providing organized, easily accessible information and products which will encourage the creation and consumption of locally relevant content. With the ‘Internet Bus’ we want to take the power of this medium to people who will really benefit from it and thus help in making the internet play an important role in their daily lives." said Dr. Prasad Ram, Head of Google R&D, India.
In Madhya Pradesh, Google has joined hands with NIIT™, who would give a free hour of hands-on internet training to people who visit the Internet Bus. This has been designed to sustain the interest among the users about the internet and also to increase the engagement levels of people.
Users across India will be able to follow the bus through its journey, see pictures and videos and join online communities by simply visiting http://www.google.co.in/internetbus.
This initiative is aligned with Google’s overall strategy of organizing the world’s information and making it universally accessible and useful. In India, Google has been making a significant effort to make the Internet more relevant and accessible to the Indian user. Search has become more localized with useful information like business listings, railways and flight status, cricket scores, movie reviews and more. Google has also launched products like Google SMS Search™, SMS Channels, Google Local Search™, and Google Map Maker™, and has localized many popular Google applications. It has been overcoming language barriers by offering transliteration in 5 Indian languages, Google News™ in 4 Indian languages, machine translation for English-to-Hindi (bidirectional), and soft keyboards for a vast majority of Indian languages. Access to information over mobile devices has become easier with mobile maps, mobile search, and mobile orkut™. Google has also created platforms like the Be NetSmart campaign aimed at students, parents and teachers to educate them on Internet safety.
Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google’s targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.google.com.
* Internet Bus™, Google SMS Search™, Google Voice Local Search™, Google Map Maker™, Google News™, orkut™ are trademarks of Google Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the companies with which they are associated.
Gaurav Bhaskar
Global Communications & Public Affairs Manager Google India
gauravbhaskar@google.com
Aman Abbas
20:20 MEDIA
aman@2020india.com
09810341899
Labels: Inida news announcements
