* Lets people use
Twitter without
Internet connection
* Translates voicemail into
Twitter messages
(refiles to fix typo in headline)
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 31 (Reuters) -
Google Inc launched a special service to allow people in
Egypt to send
Twitter messages by dialing a phone number and leaving a voicemail, as
Internet access continues to be cut off in the country amid anti-government protests.
"Like many people we've been glued to the news unfolding in
Egypt and thinking of what we could do to help people on the ground," read a post on
Google's
official corporate blog on Monday.
The service, which
Google said was developed with engineers from
Twitter, allows people to dial a telephone number and leave a voicemail. The voicemail is automatically translated into a message that is sent on
Twitter using the identifying tag #
egypt,
Google said.
Google said in the blog post, titled "Some weekend work that will (hopefully) enable more Egyptians to be heard," that no
Internet connection is required to use the service.
Google listed three phone numbers for people to call to use the service.
Internet
social networking services like
Twitter and
Facebook have been
important tools of communications for protesters in
Egypt.
(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by
Bill Trott)