Google bets big with ‘India first’ features

From alerting Google Maps users when their vehicles go off-route to partnering with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MHUA) for the “Loo Review” campaign, the bullish search engine giant has a history of building India-first features for the world’s second-largest population.

India also has the second-biggest digital market and the population of internet users of 500 million is expected to touch 650 million by 2020.

Especially targeted at the vernacular audience, in 2014 Google introduced “Voice Search” in the country, which let users speak in Hindi to navigate the web.

Google’s virtual assistant -- Google Assistant - can now read web content in 28 regional languages including Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam, Marathi, and Tamil.

“By focusing on voice and vernacular, Google is innovating for a new generation of mobile-first, and mobile-only Internet users, connecting the unconnected, and enabling them to access and experience, Google’s suite of products and platforms,” Prabhu Ram, Head, Industry Intelligence Group (IIG), CMR, told IANS.

One of Google’s most-popular India-first features introduced on Maps in June 2019 is called “Stay Safer,” which has been designed to give people travelling in taxis and auto-rickshaws peace of mind, or avoid being taken through a longer route.

As part of the feature, if the user’s driver deviates more than 0.5-km from the Google Maps’ suggested route, the user’s phone would buzz with a prominent notification, which they can tap to see where they are, compared to the original route.

“Innovating for India’s digital surge provides Google with opportunities to experiment, iterate, fail-fast, as well as scale successful made-in-India solutions globally,” noted Ram.

In partnership with the MHUA, Google launched the “Loo Review” campaign in September 2018, to encourage all local guides in India to rate and review public toilets on Google Maps.

This is part of a feature which allows all citizens to locate public toilets in their cities on Google Maps, Search and Google Assistant and also provide feedback.

Google Maps currently has more than 45,000 community and public toilets as part of the campaign.

Earlier, in July, Google Maps added three new features for Indian users to help them discover local experiences and get recommendations that are personalised for better dining experience, including an “Offers” section to help them find deals and claim them at restaurants in 11 cities. The feature was rolled out in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai, Kolkata, Goa, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Chandigarh and Hyderabad.

In another first, Google teamed up with Cisco to roll out free, high-speed public WiFi access in India, an initiative aimed at the next billion users of the Internet.