Internet Bus Arrives In Bihar

After successfully traveling to 10 states, covering more than 2000 locations and touching the lives of over 56,00,000 Indians across 120 towns, Google India’s educational Internet Bus is now entering Bihar. Surveys have indicated that more than 15,00,000 people have gone online for the first time after visiting the bus.

In Bihar the bus will visit Patna, Gaya, Bhagalpur, Darbhanga, Bihar Sharif, Arrah, Katihar, Chapra & Purnia.

The custom-designed bus has several computer and mobile terminals on board. These will be used to give a first-hand experience to users about the real life benefits of the Internet.

The bus will showcase informative content in English and Hindi in addition to the basic familiarization on using services like search, email, social networking, online ticketing etc. It will also showcase how data services can be used on a mobile device.

Users across India will be able to follow the bus through its journey, see pictures and videos and join online communities by simply visiting www.google.co.in/internetbus.

Posted by Nishant Nair, Program Manager

Google Internet Bus in God's Own Country

Over the last 10 months, the Google Internet Bus has traveled to 60 towns across 4 states, giving many people their first-ever experience of the Internet. The overwhelming response we receive from the people of each state continues to inspire and encourage our efforts to engage with local communities and build local advocacy for this powerful medium.

We are now in 'God's Own Country'. Over 20 days we'll focus on four themes – education, information, communication and entertainment.

The bus will use interactive content in two languages - English and Malayalam - to highlight how people can use the Internet in their daily lives. What's more, our Google Map maker team will also be joining us to help people map their own cities in Kerala.

Users across India can follow the bus through its journey, see pictures & videos, and join online communities by simply visiting http://www.google.co.in/internetbus.

Posted By: Nishant Nair & Srikanth Belwadi

Internet Bus arrives in Andhra Pradesh

Google India is continuing it's efforts to increase awareness about benefits of the Internet in India. Google Internet Bus is an initiative to reach out to people with limited knowledge and exposure to Internet. After an overwhelming response from people in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, we are excited to announce the arrival of the bus in Andhra Pradesh. The bus will visit educational institutes and public places in 16 towns of Andhra Pradesh in the next 48 days. The campaign will focus on four themes – education, information, communication and entertainment. Interactive content - in English and Telugu - will be used to highlight benefits of Internet in people's daily lives.

The Internet bus has traveled across 35 towns so far, reaching thousands of first-time Internet users in each town. The interest we have seen has surpassed our expectations. It has been very exciting to see people from different walks of life, visit the bus and learn about what Internet could do for them. The Bus has helped introduce the Internet to many people, such as a group of farmers in Karnataka, who explored the Internet for agro-development, and a local artist, who learned how tools like Picasa can be used to showcase his work to a global audience.

Mobile based products have been a big hit. In Andhra Pradesh, we will lay special emphasis on this medium and showcase how people can access Internet even on low cost data plans and handsets. We will also engage cyber café owners with an aim to build local advocacy for this powerful medium.

Users across India can follow the bus through its journey, see pictures & videos,

and join online communities by simply visiting http://www.google.co.in/internetbus.

They can also subscribe to receive SMS alerts in Telugu and English with useful

tips on the Internet.

Posted by Srikanth Belwadi and Nishant Nair

Internet Bus journey continues in Karnataka

Google India is continuing it's efforts to increase awareness of the benefits of Internet in India. Our goal is to take the Internet "straight to the people", therefore kick-starting adoption.

Along with the recent product launches of driving directions on India Maps, SMS Search, Gmail in Indian Languages, we are directly engaging with the Indian users through the Internet Bus program. After a successful tour in Tamil Nadu, we are launching the program in the South Indian state of Karnataka.

Tamil Nadu was a big learning for us and it was inspiring to see that people wanted to know about the internet and share their needs with us. This experience has reinforced our belief that awareness is a key challenge in the growth of the Internet in India and we are excited about bringing this campaign to yet another state. The bus will travel through 15 towns in the next 50 days.

Inside the bus, we make the learning hands-on. Along with interactive "learning booths", showing custom videos , we have "explore booths" to let visitors try out what they have just learned. The Internet Bus will focus on four themes – information, communication, entertainment and education. The content will provide familiarization on using services like search, email, social networking, online maps and mobile. All this information will be available in English and Kannada.

Users across India will be able to follow the bus through its journey, see pictures and videos and join online communities by simply visiting http://www.google.co.in/internetbus.

Posted by Srikanth Belwadi & Nishant Nair