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Posted by Michael Garrett on February 28th, 2008
In a world where google has now become a verb, and where someone would have to be living under a rock not to have heard of the search giant, does Google actually know what it takes to aid the homeless?
In an announcement earlier today, Google revealed their plan to provide every single homeless person in the city of San Francisco with a free personal phone number complete with voicemail, which would be accessible from any phone. Those who accept the offer will have their number for life, without worry of losing it or not being able to receive messages.
As something that most Americans take for granted without much thought, a phone number could open the door to a host of opportunities to the homeless starting with employment. Anyone who has filled out an application knows that it asks for a phone number to be reached at (as well as an address which still may present a problem for homeless), and anyone who has been through the interview process knows that most of the time employers say they will call you back to let you know if you have gotten the job. Now, anyone in San Francisco can have that chance to get the call back that might get them on the right track. Also, communication and compassion from loved ones can give those who are down and out the inspiration they need to keep trying. This will now give families the same opportunity to reach out to loved ones who have been out of touch due to lack of a means of communicating.
Clearly this gives Google a positive philanthropic stance amongst many greedy, money-hungry companies, and for good reason, given the new possibilities a simple phone number could provide, but is the blatant GrandCentral promotion also necessary as seen in the photograph (seen above) used within the MSNBC article. A Google logo would have done just fine by itself. It was just last July when Google acquired the startup, which has kept relatively quiet since with private beta access by invitation only. Is this the big bang Google wanted to start off with to promote its promising purchase?
Whatever the reason behind Google's “madness”, if you will, it's good to see someone lending a helping hand to reach out to the homeless. One kind act leads to another, and with any success and help, this idea will spread across the country to help the homeless nationwide, rather than serve as a clever marketing scheme.
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| Homeless voicemail: Only in the Valley - - mathewingram.com/work | February 28th, 2008 at 11:25 pm |
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[…] I just know that someone is going to tell me that voicemail will help homeless people get social assistance, and maybe get an apartment or at least a room, and that lots of government departments require you to have a phone number, etc. etc. And maybe all of that is true. But social agencies have been handling that for years. Will free voicemail help? Maybe, maybe not. It sure helps Google look good — and yet, it seems almost absurd on the face of it. Why not just invite them to the Googleplex for a day of free gourmet lunches and foosball games in the cafeteria? […] | |
| Google Launches Another PR Ploy, Er, Google for Non-Profits - Profy.Com | March 18th, 2008 at 9:53 pm |
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[…] Today, Google launched Google for Non-Profits, a destination site that, er, looks almost the same as the standard Google offerings page. They've simply posted links to their existing services that can be used by non-profits (just like everyone else), and didn't even go to the trouble of creating a "Google for Non-Profits" logo. Similar to last month's announcement that Grand Central would continue to offer free phone numbers to the homeless in San Francisco as they'd been doing all along, this is nothing more than public relations. […] | |
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| Tara Kelly | February 29th, 2008 at 4:54 am |
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Brings to mind this piece: There’s a citation in there from Marissa Mayer, Google VP, Search Products & User Experience (I have not checked the validity of this though) talking about how Google needs to collect voice samples in order to learn how to index natural speech - a technology needed primarily to index audio and video content. Why? To serve up relevant contextual ads on YouTube etc. What’s your opinion Micheal? | |
