Today's announcment (see AppLab page, Google Africa blog post, writeup at WhiteAfrican) came as quite a surprise -- we knew there'd be something, but this is pretty big. They've been increasing their presence in Uganda, and hired Appfrica to do some local (Luganda, I assume) translation earlier this year.
So anyway, today they announced Google SMS service to Uganda -- itself no small feat -- as well as SMS information services for agriculture and health topics (in much the same vein as Question Box, but by text). Finally, they also announced "Google Trader," an SMS-based system designed to facilitate commerce, helping people get price information and connecting potential buyers and sellers (UPDATE: explanation from Google here)
All of this is a collaboration between Google, Grameen's AppLab, responsible for testing high-tech ideas (including Question Box), and MTN, Grameen's telco partner in Uganda (and elsewhere, I believe) since the Village Phone.
All this attention from Google seems like it can't be a bad thing...of all of the private companies to work with (particularly with resources like they have), Google is certainly pretty benign -- they make their money off of people getting access to information, after all.
Now, does this mean Google and/or Grameen will be hiring in Uganda...?
[The unusual brevity is because this post was drafted on my phone]
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