Blogging the Mumbai Crisis

Out of disaster often comes progress. Last week’s deadly train bombings in India’s financial capital of Mumbai could prove to be pivotal in boosting Internet penetration in a country that has lagged behind in online usage. Faced with jammed phone lines and spotty cell phone coverage, countless numbers turned to online channels such as blogs, wikis, and photo-sharing sites.

The July 11 explosions killed nearly 200 people and left more than 700 injured. In light of the dearth of information, some 30 Mumbai-based bloggers created the Mumbai Help blog (www.mumbaihelp.blogspot.com), which offered continuously updated traffic information, names of those suspected injured or missing, updates on the rail situation, and helpline numbers. The blog drew more than 6,500 visitors in the first four hours it was operational. “We’re trying to help in ways that the news agencies and police can’t,” says blogger Peter Griffin.

The effectiveness of newer online collaboration and sharing technologies in times of crisis could finally bring more people online. India had about 50 million Internet users in 2005, far behind the 120 million in China and 200 million in the United States.

Blogs were not the only online resource offering information and solace. Mumbai residents also turned to online photo-sharing sites like Flickr to post images of the bomb blasts. Indian news portals like the Nasdaq-listed rediff.com put up online message boards where text messages sent by readers could be displayed on a web page. Wikia, a popular Indian wiki, set up a wiki resource for blast-related news and updates. Users uploaded videos of first-person accounts of the blasts on video-sharing sites like YouTube.

“In this crisis, the Internet is playing a huge role since mobile phones have almost given up,” says Ivor Soans, editor of CXOtoday.com, an online news daily about IT use in Indian enterprises. “You have television viewers sending in messages to TV channels asking people to use the Internet instead of cell phones.”

Contact the Writer: PGanapati@RedHerring.com

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A Week in the Life of GoogleThe hip folks at Merriam-Webster have finally caught on to what the world has already known for years: the word “Google” is synonymous with online search, and people around the globe use it as a verb, as in, “I’m Googling my blind date now.” So the venerable dictionary will be including Google in the 11th edition of its collegiate version this fall. Merriam-Webster plans to list Google as a transitive verb.Joining Google among the nearly 100 new words and terms in the 11th edition are “bling-bling,” “soul patch,” “unibrow,” and “himbo.”

Michigan Sub-Branch

Also in the fall, the online search king plans to open an AdWords sales and operations center in the Ann Arbor, Michigan, area. The facility could employ up to 1,000 workers over the next five years. Why Ann Arbor? The region has sentimental value for Google co-founder Larry Page, who graduated from the University of Michigan. The state will give Google a tax credit valued at more than $38 million over 20 years.

Traveling in Style

On another front, a 767 wide-body jet bought last year by Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Mr. Page is making news. It came to light earlier this month that the plane is the subject of lawsuits between Blue City Holdings, the company that owns the aircraft on behalf of Mssrs. Brin and Page, and Leslie Jennings, an aviation designer hired to renovate the plane’s interior. Wags were less interested in the legal particulars of the case than the aesthetic tastes of the young titans. According to The Wall Street Journal, design requests included adjoining staterooms for the founders, a large sitting and dining area, hammocks hung from the plane’s ceiling, and a “California king-size” bed for Mr. Brin. Mr. Jennings, who was fired, reportedly has denied accusations that he failed to meet the design specifications and claims he is owed nearly $200,000 for his work.

Secret Project

Is Google coming out with yet another product to challenge Microsoft? Following its recently unveiled spreadsheet application, and with a word-processing program in the works, it may now be testing a virtual hard-drive service that allows users to store files remotely and access them from anywhere. Blogger Corsin Camichel stumbled upon a screen shot of the service, dubbed GDrive and codenamed Platypus, when he tried to research Writely, Google’s word-processing program. Google declined to comment about the hard-drive service.

Contact the Writer: WTanaka@RedHerring.com