Today Google released a new product called ”Helpouts” which goes in line with the worlds connectivity and collective intelligence thats being mirrored in many different startups and collaborative spaces today.
Its like a extension of the already existing Google Hangouts on Air which enables ”experts” in any field to either sell och offer tutoring for free through video chat. Google will take a 20 precent cut and is offering a money-back guarantee if things don’t work out.
Not coming on IOS
So far Google have no intention of extending their platform toward Apple and IOS yet and are happy with being only on desktop and Android. The website for Helpouts is very similar to your Google+ and even share some of the features. Each ”expert” has a landing page where users can schedule a future Helpout or even start one immediately.
Helpout participants are identified with their public Google+ profiles so each party knows who is calling. No notifications are generated by this action so you can peacefully do your chat without the whole world knowing about it.
If we are willing to look beyond the actually interaction of another human being Im a bit dsceptic against Helpout. It doesn´t really add anything new to the mixed world of all the different platforms of tutorials and the growing MOOC movement. But it sure make it easier for an everyday ”expert” to reach out and share knowledge as well for smaller businesses to use Helpout as a marketing strategy to help customers. What do you think?
