Google just announced a new service they have dubbed ‘Helpouts by Google. This service has been available to online a few premium subscribers but yesterday the service was opened to the public both on the web and via an Android application.
How does it work?
Helpouts uses Google + Hangouts and Google Wallet to get you a live video chat with an expert who gives you help on whatever topic you would like to know about. These are real-life conversations with experts over live video calls. It sounds amazing however your credit card gets billed, you get to choose whether to pay per helpout, or per minute depending on your preference, however some helpouts are free, but the majority are premuim.
What you get is a video call, from what Google calls over 1000 experts, you make a video call and get the help you need.
Is it Practical to Africa?
Honestly its a huge NO, because the idea of paying for stuff using credit cards isn’t a trend here, it in fact difficult, besides Google has several options for you to actually get help, the commonest being the search bar, . Much as i find video help the best, i have found it to have many flaws, and there are free alternatives to this service such as Youtube, yelp, Google +, hangouts where you ask someone you know for help.
Video chatting has been known to have its ups and downs, when you bandwidth and internet speed are on ‘steroids’ the call and video quality is high and you enjoy the experience, but majority of people in Africa have low bandwidth, low internet speed or their data bundles are small since several telecos are hiking internet rates.
Is the idea nice?
Google is keen to innovating and its ability to come up with new products is high, and Help outs will definitely make people Google everything and by everything i mean use their products more.
Google will accept every publisher of content to be added to the list of providers, as long as they follow terms and conditions, this will might affect the quality of the content provided within these Helpout sessions.
So just in case you need to know how to edit Html 5 or learn how to dance ‘alingo’, or how to root your phone, you can search for a Helpout by Google and you will probably find the help you were looking for.
