Google celebrates lives of the average Indian

It’s not every day that you can be the hero of your own video with the power to inspire others and change lives. That’s the opportunity Google India is giving the average Indian. With its latest offline and online campaign, The Web Is What You Make of It, the search giant is celebrating lives of
the common men and women in India and around the world, who pair their passion and creativity with the power of the web and craft new ventures. The first two videos, which document the life of a woman in Bangalore who started her cooking blog to share recipes and a Japanese dad who writes emotional emails to his kids, have already been aired on TV channels in India. And the campaign hopes to create more videos to share stories and inspire people.

“We realised that post the release of Chrome (web browser), people are online more and look to discover and explore more. These people create interesting stuff online and these stories of everyday people need to be told,” says Nikhil Rungta, country marketing head, Google India, who adds that the idea to start this campaign came about some time last year but took some time to be implemented. He mentions that they are still on the lookout for more people who can be featured.

“Though the people who have featured currently are those we know, we are looking to start a website soon that will allow people to post details of their online ventures and let us feature them.” Rungta says that a strong story that inspires is the only criteria to be selected for the video. “Take, for instance, the Bangalore blogger Archana’s story. It connects with Indian women who quit their jobs after marriage and kids and then, when their kids grow up, want to make a comeback. There are women like Archana out there and her story can inspire them to do more.”

Apart from common man, celebs too have been featured. “Artistes Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber have also been documented in our US version talking on how their music has benefited because of the web,” says Rungta. He adds that the project has just taken off and will be on till the foreseeable future, and there could be plans to make it a global project with videos on different nations aggregated on one site.

Catch the videos
The first video, Letters From Dad, debuted on June 19, 2011 across national TV channels, was inspired by a collection of true stories about parents taking advantage of technology and web services to capture and document the lives of their children. Dear Sophie: goo.gl/QhLyu

Archana’s Kitchen, which aired last week, tells the story of Archana, who grew up in Tamil Nadu and took forward her passion of cooking to the web through Blooking (blog cooking). She got many followers online, which culminated into a catering service and a book deal. Archana’s Kitchen: goo.gl/9MpWL