Speech2Tweet or Why I Love Google

Over the weekend Google and Twitter worked together (as well as with SayNow, a company Google acquired) to launch Speech2Tweet, a service that lets people call a number and leave a message that gets tweeted to the world. You can either look at this as a cool little project, or you can see it as something more – Google helping people who are being oppressed and censored in the world.

From the Official Google Blog:

“We worked with a small team of engineers from Twitter, Google and SayNow, a company we acquired last week, to make this idea a reality. It’s already live and anyone can tweet by simply leaving a voicemail on one of these international phone numbers (+16504194196 or +390662207294 or +97316199855) and the service will instantly tweet the message using the hashtag #egypt. No Internet connection is required. People can listen to the messages by dialing the same phone numbers or going to twitter.com/speak2tweet.”

When you consider Google’s stance on human rights over the years it’s admirable; not bowing to China, moving quick to provide information to aid the Haiti Earthquake response and floods in Brazil, Australian, Pakistan, and other major crisis situations over recent years, and now giving a voice to the brave people of Egypt who have had their internet cut, isolating them from the world by the stubborn dictator they are fighting against for freedom.

I hope Google’s efforts to help those in need around the world lead to more start-ups and companies living up to their responsibility as well.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the people in Egypt and all those that are in need around the world.