Even before his first day on the job at Google, Ujjwal Singh was trying to figure out how to use his passion for the spoken word and the company's technological prowess to help Egyptians bypass government efforts to muzzle the massive protests there.
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A shop in Cairo's Tahrir Square is spray painted with the word Twitter after the government shut off internet access on February 4, 2011 in Cairo, Egypt. Anti-government protesters have called today 'The day of departure'. Thousands have again gathered in Tahrir Square calling for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to step down. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images) ( Peter Macdiarmid )
Singh, 38, had helped start an online service that lets fans share voice messages with the likes of Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers. Google bought the startup Jan. 25, and a Google product team leader trying to figure out a way around Egypt's recent Internet blackout asked Singh for help before he reported to work.
A weekend of brainstorming and programming later, Speak2Tweet was born -- a service that lets people call a phone number and leave a message, then posts a link to the message to Twitter.
It allowed Egyptians to communicate even as the regime of President Hosni Mubarak cut Internet and cell phone services for days, trying to squelch furious protests in the streets of Cairo demanding an end to his three decades of authoritarian rule.
By the time Singh started his job Monday, his service was already part of the uprising.
"He designed, built and launched his first product before he started at Google, which is now our all-time record," says Steve Crossan, a Google product manager who has been working at the Internet search leader for five years.
Almost 2,900 spoken tweets had been posted as of Friday afternoon on the Twitter account @speak2tweet.
Some of the heaviest volume came after access to both Twitter and the Internet was restored in Egypt earlier this week. The alternative method of tweeting has turned into a forum for longer-form expression because the voice recordings aren't confined to Twitter's 140-character limit.
Another Twitter account, @AliveInEgypt, has been set up to transcribe the messages, which are mostly in Arabic, into text.
Source: Silicon Valley
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