By Google has quietly introduced the world to Google Helpouts, a new service that promises to help you make money for helping other people do stuff over video chat. Whether you’re showing someone how to bake the best German chocolate cake ever, or simply giving someone some valuable life advice, you can get paid for your time and energy.
Google Helpouts will utilize Google+ and Hangouts to facilitate the video call part of it, which means it can be used with any modern browser that supports Google Hangouts. Alongside PCs, Google has also mentioned that an Android app is on its way.
There are a couple of age restrictions to adhere to, of course. In order to receive help, you must be at least 13 years of age, and you must be at least 18 years of age to dish it out. Pretty standard stuff, we’d say. With that, you’re probably wondering what Google is doing in the way of privacy to help protect those who wish to use this interesting service. Here’s the condensed version:
Helpout Protection
Helpouts can be recorded by Google for quality assurance purposes if you opt-in. If you opt-out, Google still reserves the right to enable quality assurance recording in the event that you flag a Helper for abuse. Helpouts can also be recorded for the public consumption of the customer and helper, and this service must be agreed upon by both parties before the recording is released.
If a customer is under the age of 18, a Helpout cannot be recorded, and if Google receives an abuse request after both parties have consented to recording, Google will not make the recording available following the conclusion of the Helpout session.
Also, if a customer isn’t happy with the service they’ve received, they can request a refund within 72 hours of the session ending. If the provider is unwilling to facilitate that request, Google will step in and refer to the QA recording to make a decision. Google may also opt to reimburse the Helper for their time if they feel they adequately and accurately provided the help that was being sought out.
Beyond all that, the only other thing to note is that Google will scrape 20% off the top of any income earned with Helpouts, which is standard practice for the middle man in any service.
How to get in
Wondering how you can get in? Well, it’s not as simple as you’d hope. As with most other new Google products, you’ll need to be lucky enough to get an invitation code somehow. You can request one from Google, of course, but there’s no telling how long it’ll take before they send out another batch of invites. If you’re interested and want to be able to check this service out then there’s no reason to delay putting your email address into the hat. Go ahead and check it out at the Helpouts landing page.
There should be one more pre-requisite. Only people from the customer’s country are eligible to help, unless it’s a language lesson. This would finally kill the help-desks outsourced to India, and allow fully qualified people deliver quality service.
On the side note – can someone at Google send an invite to Kayden Kross? I don’t know how to wash my car…
So are you under the impression people in india are not fully qualified. They are cheaper and just as qualified which is why they are chosen in the first place.
No mister, I’m not under impression. I’m sure as hell of it.
The dirt cheap price is the only thing that may justify such choice.
You are entitled to your opinion i suppose.
He isn’t wrong in what he said.
yes he is. The exact same certification tests are administered worldwide, with the same testing room setups, the same cameras recording the test in progress, with the same scores to qualify for certification. They’re literally just as qualified.
If you don’t think that certificates can’t be bought in Calcutta street market, you’re wrong. Fully qualified means experienced, which is not equal to certified.
If you think certificates can be bought on a Calcutta street you’re a total idiot. They have the same certifications we do. Period. Xenophobe.
Way to go bullshit_tony. You totally missed the point. I’m not hating on India, I’m hating on bullcrap quality of work and service. I have better chances with an Indian guy at a convenience store around the corner than with army of call center certified professionals in Bangalore.
STFU.
Way to prove your ignorance and xenophobia. The jobs they do are identical to the jobs done here. First level support is always to cover basics. Always. The problem usually lies between the keyboard and the chair, not with the systems or the person servicing you. How angry and defensive you now are illustrates this fact, and if you shut up and listened, you wouldn’t have responded nor would you encounter issues with them.
exactly….not to mention the mass amount of test dumps out there…the only certs that are truly meaningful that can prove experience are those like CISSP and the like that require specific domain experience in a particular space
No they are not, if they really were “fully” qualified they’d be experienced and competent in their jobs and most of them are not.
Yes they are fully qualified. Experience is built thru… Experience. It isn’t part of the qualification or *nobody* would ever be qualified for anything, ever. This is the single dumbest response anyone could have written.
Haha yeah that’s funny coming from BlueBalls_Tony.
The sign of defeat. A total moron trying to defend their holier than thou stance by thinking they’ve insulted someone. Cheers.
Right, a guy who can’t tell the difference between certified and qualified is going to call someone a moron, not to mention calling another poster a xenophobe without actually knowing what it means. Do the world a favour and don’t reproduce, for the good of us all.
I already have 2 children, I’m smarter than you, I know what xenophobe means, and being certified *is* the qualification. They are qualified for the jobs they have or they would not have them. The OP is a xenophobe, by its strict definition. And you are a moron that doesn’t know the difference between qualifications for entry-level work and experience… One being required to get hired, the other built by actually performing the job after getting hired. This doesn’t take a genius to understand, but it takes a total moron to try to dispute.
I speak truth yet you respond again with p*ss and s*it, I thought that perhaps you’d actually read a comment before responding (for once) and there’s a reason you keep getting downvoted by others in this thread. You are by far one of the dumbest posters that visit this site and I won’t waste any more time responding to you and I honestly hope you weren’t being serious with the first five words of your post. Cheers Blueballs_Tony.
LOL. You don’t speak the truth. You are so incredibly wrong, and I’ve proven it to you. Experience isn’t a qualification for an *entry level* job, you total ignoramus. You and the other dummy are the only 2 fools downvoting me. My comments are always supported with evidence when requested, and I could care less your opinion of my posts. Go join the other dummy and post your ignorant xenophobic comments that hold no basis in reality on theblaze. Maybe you’ll finally have one person agree with you. Maybe try replying when your IQ plateaus 90, and you take time to learn basic logic. “Herp derp. They aren’t qualified unless they have experience. Herp derp” Pure, unadulterated stupidity. At no point in your rambling, incoherent responses have you even come close to anything that could be considered rational thoughts. Everyone is now dumber for having seen your posts.
Haha so yet again you keep posting garbage, you consistently disappoint. There are more people than just me and the other guy downvoting you. You aren’t intelligent, people like you who have this false sense of superiority and overstate their worth are truly annoying. You live in this fantasy world where you let your ignorance dictate your logic. You’ve clearly never had any experience or even read up on call centre workers or you’d actually understand what Unorthodox was trying to say instead of accusing of being a “xenophobe”. I never stated that experience is part of a qualification, that is NOT what I was referring to. I don’t know where you come from but in many parts of the world being “qualified” refers to more than just having the qualification. Qualified is what me and Unorthodox both referred to, but it’s nice to see that you like to put words in other people’s mouths. Oh and nice try with the Billy Madison line, jackass.
Clearly I have had experience with call centers. Clearly I’ve set them up before. Clearly knowing they’re in Bangalore and not Calcutta might indicate I’ve been there. Clearly you’re still clueless. Clearly since I’ve interviewed, hired, and trained them I can tell you that they’re literally just as qualified as anyone else through experience. Clearly you still don’t understand that qualifications and experience are not the same. Clearly you keep wanting to argue in a battle you lost the second you opened your ignorant mouth. Clearly you’re unaware that there’s upward mobility in jobs and the best get promoted outside of level 1 support, an entry-level job meant to weed out morons like you that only needed to reboot to solve your issue. Clearly Unorthodox is a xenophobe for not only this comment, but previous ones he’s made. Clearly you don’t know what you’re talking about. And clearly your only goal is to get the last word when you’re matched against someone with actual, real world experience in this realm and is far more intelligent than you, a sign of pure ignorance on your end and not a false sense of superiority on mine. Clearly you’re going to reply again because you’re stuck on this “qualified” word that I’ve repeatedly told you you don’t understand the meaning of. Clearly you read my previous comments so you know I am in DC. Clearly you don’t know the difference between an entry-level job and a higher level job – guess what a call center is. Clearly you’re unaware of how call centers work in general, where level 1 is called that for a reason, and only escalations can happen after their resources have been exhausted… In any country… Around the world. And clearly, there’s also call centers in Malaysia and the Philippines, who are also just as qualified to answer the questions… But the xenophobes issue is he assumes they aren’t because they have an accent.
In summary: you’re wrong. And you’ll never be right. Get over it and move on.
What a f*cking moron lmao! Seriously, you are really this f&cking stupid? Even after ALL this time you still don’t know the difference between “qualification” and “qualified” and you continue trying to accuse me of saying something I didn’t even mention. Go on point out to where I actually said experience is part of a qualification, go on. Oh what’s that? You can’t? You can’t because I never did, this is something you’ve imagined. You’re still harping on about your non-existing intelligence and i’ve clearly struck a nerve with you. You contributed nothing of worth in this thread, except for offering free advertising for sterilisation, you worthless dunce.
“if they really were “fully” qualified they’d be experienced”… That’s from you. Yesterday. Now go back and edit it out. You mental midgit… You can’t even remember what you wrote. You’ve contributed ignorance to this thread… And petulance. Now write back again so we can all see how much of a flocking child you are, needing to try and get the last word constantly after consistently being bitchslapped into your place in life – that of a total failure.
And there we have it, proof that you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. You just proved my point, congratulations. Throughout this thread you’ve made nothing but a fool of yourself and kept putting words in my mouth and now when I ask you to try and prove me wrong, you end up proving me right. Thank you BlueBalls_Tony, thank you for proving what sort of a moron you are. Now go on and keep living in your own deluded word, you naive bastard.
Exactly. A petulant moronic response from the child that can’t be wrong. You said exactly what I quoted. You were wrong. And now you can’t even admit you wrote it. Here it is again – “if they were really “fully” qualified they’d be experienced”. Let’s break that down since you have such struggles with the basics of the English language. To be qualified, one needs to meet the qualifications. Qualified is an adjective that means officially recognized as being trained to perform a particular job; capable. A qualification is a noun that means a quality or accomplishment that makes one suitable for a certain task. So when they’re meeting the exact same qualifications as anyone else in the world, they’re qualified. Job requirements don’t change country to country. They’re certified, they’re trained, they speak English. Now reply once again and illustrate how angry you are. How wrong you are. How much you’re crying right now because you keep getting put in your place – that of a total failure.
In summary: you’re still wrong. You’ve proven yourself wrong constantly. You’ve now proven you don’t understand even basic English sentences. You’ve also proven you can’t admit your own sentences copied word for word or that you have zero capability to form long term memories. Your gene pool is shallow. You have an extra chromosome. And you’ll never be right. Cheers, new xenophobic feeble minded fool.
I just hope that 2 children of yours (that somehow make you “smarter”) will one day tell you how much of a f..khead you are. And just a btw, you were the one who started using such a “professional” lexicon. I never thought I’d meet one of the edumacated ones on this site.
Am I the one cursing? Nope. Didn’t think so. It is you who are, and angry jane over here. Xenophobic, ugly american. Any children you ever have if you find a way to force yourself on someone will be just as ignorant as you by default. A total failure at life with no hope of success. Go back to fox news and the blaze and join in the echo chamber of parrots, patting each other on the back for their failed extremist right wing view of the world. Loser.
You just made me chuckle with your last post. If you ever burdened yourself with clicking on people’s nicknames or simply following the conversation flow instead of jumping to conclusions, you’d see that you couldn’t be more wrong calling me an American. Even my incorrect punctuation shows that.
You think if you set up call centers and hired people in Bangalore makes you an expert – you’re wrong. Because unlike you, I’m from Asia, lived there half of my life, and I know that culture from within. And I’m telling you – half of the people you interviewed had their certificates bought, or memorized the exam answers, or [big surprise] learned how to answer your interview questions from internet.
Oh, and for the record, knowing that most call center businesses aren’t set up in Calcutta, but Bangalore – is NOT geography.
Uhhhh… Knowing where things are located sure is geography — in fact, it’s the most basic part of geography. Since they’re located in two distinct geographical places… Just throwing out one random city in India – probably the only one you knew the name of with all your Asian experience (read: you’re full of shi+, and you’re making things up now, ugly American of Asian descent) and assuming it’ll stick is geographical ignorance on your part.
The certification tests are exactly the same. The interviews are exactly the same. So if you memorize the answers, and are able to regurgitate them on a test and pass… That’s exactly what everyone does on any test worldwide. Americans do the same thing. And Americans practice for interviews as well. You’re so xenophobic and ignorant that it’s hilarious. I don’t even know why you keep trying. Oh yeah… “People in India memorize everything they’ll be tested on!!! But Americans just *know* the answers by virtue of being american.” Yeah, ok, genius…
And no. Certificates can not be bought. The tests are video taped. There are only 4 people to a room, with 1 observer in addition to the recording. The tests are timed. The certificates are registered to an international and easily verifiable database. It isn’t a printout like your “I went peepee on the potty” certificate your mom just gave you. It’s a professional certificate, just like an MD, RN, JD license. Just like a degree from a university that you’ll never get being so ignorant, unless you memorize all the answers and regurgitate them — because you have absolutely zero critical thinking skills. They get verified when hired for legitimacy. Go derp somewhere else now, foolio.
Holy cow, you really have bone for brains. Keep living in your illusory world with pink bunnies. No more comments from me.
Except for this one, right? Hahaha. Xenophobe.
I think what Unorthodox is referring to is the call centers that are outsourced with people that aren’t qualified and are simply reading off of a script of things to try for ‘support’. Obviously your country of origin has zero correlation with your level of intelligence or expertise.
This, and also a lot of other cases. Thank God, I’m now an IT consultant, i.e. an outsourced help myself, but when I worked fullt ime I used to get really pissed off by the quality of software development I’m getting from India based off-shore. Now I can just ignore that and deliver services 3 times faster and 3 times better.
All first level support at any company is scripted. 99.9% of the time the issues exist between the keyboard and the chair. Why waste the time of anyone else when you can pay someone dirt cheap to tell them to turn off their caps lock and solve the problem instantly….
Sometimes it doesn’t matter how qualified they are if I can’t understand them.
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m81cyua4Vt1qe3pbno1_500.gif
:-) I don’t have red hair ;-)
If only they took our pronunciation and diction, too.
thank you god! I hate trying to look up “how to” videos on YouTube and I have to keep scrolling and scrolling past that CRAP to find it! No, I don’t wanna see jenny twerking while she’s drunk, I wanna know how to change my back glass you idiot!
I wonder if you still get paid if you provide terrible help?
Did you read the article?
Not very well apparently. I was trying to read it as fast as @quentyn would speak it. :)
I could see this being a headache for some party involved. Users could request a refund on every video. If the help was provided by someone under 18.. they can’t record it all so they would automatically have to get a refund. It shall be interesting for sure.
Oh, so this is like what I have to do for my mom all the time, only now I’d get paid for telling her how to plug in her laptop?
already signed up, this will be an interesting service :D
my coworkers all have new android devices (coming from iphones)..everyday they have a million questions on how to “this”….i feel it is my job as anAndroidGeek to help them out…this service could help with that..would be nice if you could screenshare on android devices like you could on desktop……
So this will become the new camgirls right? Or did I miss a part where porn is banned?
Wondering if I could get in as an Android expert? O_o
wouldn’t hurt to try, I signed up for “computer repair” just for fun
what if if the help is…to help someone “get off?” lol
i would make a lot of money!!!!!
This is pretty smart. I think I see the strategy behind it. Google has been doing everything to integrate their social network and it’s various tool, in order to get more users. Knowing a lot of people resort to YouTube (like myself), for how – to videos, why not have a service like this that pushes people to use Google+ hangouts?
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They have the same certifications we do, and experience isn’t a
qualification or nobody would be qualified for any job, ever. Period.
Xenophobe.
We are there yet! http://www.airpersons.com
We launched last January 1st and already have 12,000 users.
It’s really scary for us they are also working on this
http://www.airpersons.com
Pl help me get an invitation code.
http://makemoney.hereishelpforyou.com/