As protests continue and the Egyptian government blocks access to the internet, Google created a workaround over the weekend so people can access Twitter via phone calls and leave updates, the company's official blog announced.
"Like many people we've been glued to the news unfolding in Egypt and thinking of what we could do to help people on the ground. Over the weekend we came up with the idea of a speak-to-tweet service--the ability for anyone to tweet using just a voice connection," the blog reported.
Working with Twitter and Google's newly acquired SayNow, the company has set up three phone numbers where people can call and leave Twitter posts. The numbers, outside Egypt, are in three countries - the United States, Bahrain and Italy (+16504194196, +97316199855 and +390662207294 respectively). The numbers can also call the numbers to hear Tweets.
"We hope that this will go some way to helping people in Egypt stay connected at this very difficult time. Our thoughts are with everyone there," the blog states. The last sentence, perhaps, includes the Egyptian Google employee, Wael Ghonim, who has been missing for five days.
Marketers Rejoice! ClickZ has launched ClickZ Live, an educational series to bring you innovative online marketing strategies and techniques. Learn to construct and successfully execute multi-channel marketing campaigns, plus identify key metrics and translate them into actionable plans.
Thursday, July 18: ClickZ Live will be in Vancouver, BC. Register before July 1 to save $100!
