Google launches Chat SMS, Trader at GNigeria event

With not less than 2000 developers, entrepreneurs  gathered Thursday and Friday at the civic centre Lagos for Google’s third web and mobile conference , the search engine giant has launched the Gmail Chat SMS that allow users to use Gmail chat to communicate between all mobile phones and platforms, even if they are offline or have an SMS and voice only phone.

The Gmail Chat SMS according to Google also allows users to receive Google+ SMS notifications and post status updates via SMS, and will ensure that the users are always connected with the people in their circles.
The two-day event brought together hundreds of tech savvy entrepreneurs, developers and journalists, and provided training sessions on how to get the best from the internet.
Participants got the opportunity to discuss the future of web application development, receive training on Google’s products and learn about online business skills.

The capacity building conference was the latest in a series of interactive forums and tech days that Google has been holding across Africa over the past eighteen months, to promote innovation and business in the region.

For one thing, the third annual GNigeria event reemphasizes Google’s commitment to making the web more relevant to the everyday Nigerian.
However, the conference featured capacity-building sessions for top-tier journalists, news webmasters software developers, and business owners.

The sessions are focused on showing Nigerians new opportunities to make money from the Internet.  Attendees were able to explore Google’s platforms through a combination of tech talks, breakout sessions and code-labs run by engineers and business teams from across the globe.
Conference content included Google’s developer and business technologies, ranging from established products such as Google Maps and YouTube, to brand-new Google innovations such as GMail Chat SMS, Trader SMS and Google+ SMS products.

The first day focused on hands-on training from Google engineers specializing in popular tools such as App Engine, Android, Maps, Google+ and Webmaster Tools, while the second day was focused on marketers, webmasters, and entrepreneurs.

Google highlighted tools for the development of the news industry in Nigeria through tailor-made workshops for journalists and news webmasters, and attendees got to see awesome applications built by Nigerian developers for Nigeria and the world.

The conference informed developers and businesses on relevant ways to make the most of the web and broaden the range of technical skills relevant to today’s technology landscape.