Tech - Google soups up the SMS from its India Labs

Subbalakshmi B M


Launches SMS Channels to allow users to create and send content to mobiles for free

BANGALORE: Imagine being able to get SMS alerts of all kinds—from news to jokes and cricket scores to weather updates—all for free.

Google India Labs is testing a new service, SMS Channels, where users can create their own channels to send content through SMSes to others.

The service also allows users to publish content for use by other subscribers through SMS.

“Google SMS Channels is free both for content publishers as well as mobile phone users who subscribe to text updates via SMS. The service is currently available to users with Indian mobile phone numbers,” said Prasad Ram, centre head and director engineering, Google India R@D.

Users can also create groups to communicate with friends, family and co-workers through SMS.

“It is an age of collaboration today and the coming days would see an explosion in the kind of web services that would be available for users,” Ram said.

SMS Channels apart, Google India has launched its Indic Transiteration platform to help users experience the web in their native language in September this year, delivering content on the web in their language of choice through the click of a button.

“To make the experience even more holistic, Google has provided users with the ‘Google suggest’ which helps users search and find content they are looking for more easily. Options like the soft keyboard and use of video add to an immersive Indic experience,” he said.

Ram was speaking to mediapersons on the sidelines of the Google Developer Day which was attended by nearly 400 developers and enthusiasts. On the discussion board were Google’s application programmable interfaces (APIs) and tools developed for improving performance and compatibility of web applications like the Google Web Toolkit and Google App Engine.

Participants also got an insight into the new set of APIs and frameworks, including OpenSocial, which are opening up interesting ways to interact with people through applications. Google’s development of a set of tools to help Indians experience the web in their native language, besides mapping and other geo applications were also highlighted.