Top > Webmaster > 2006 > October > 2006-10-26

Google Brings Literacy to the Masses

Google Inc. has announced its intention to launch a new website dedicated to literacy. The announcement came at the Frankfurt Book Fair last week, where Google promised to bring together all its books, videos, blogging and mapping services under one umbrella site (google.com/literacy) for teachers and educational organizations to share reading resources. Although Google has a market value of over $120-billion, it started out as a site to help people find information and hopes to carry on this vision through the new website.

According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), over 1 billion people around the world over the age of 15 are illiterate. Literacy groups around the globe will be encouraged to make used of the many services available on Google?s site. Teachers have been asked to upload video segments of their successful teaching methods so that other people can also learn from these resources. Google is hoping, in this way, to show users that the internet is something that they can contribute to and not just use as a means of getting information only.

A controversial project that Google embarked on two years ago is its aim to digitally scan all the books of the world onto the internet. This idea has its supporters and opponents, with some lauding the project as brilliant, while others complaining that it constitutes copyright violation. It seems that with these two ambitious projects, Google is certainly dedicated to bringing literacy to the masses through the internet.