If you have been reading my write-ups, it should be evident by now that my thoughts are biased towards Google 🙂 Google’s Engineers / Developers have the magic touch to churn out a product that has a WoW effect on end consumer. However, Google Labs SMS Channels lacks the WoW effect and seems to be a non-engineered product, in my opinion.
Google Labs SMS Channel was probably launched as a Micro-blogging platform in India. The top channels serve Cricket Score, News etc. I am wondering what will be the relevance of such a service when the SMS take more than an hour to reach the end user / subscriber.
Google Engineers think of in CPU cycles to guarantee unmatched highest quality performance ever produced [I am not joking, talk to Dr. John Hennessy, or interview @ Mountain View and you will know] when they are developing a product and their algorithms have to be the most efficient. I found out that Google SMS Channels use only one SMS relaying center hosted by Tata Indicom Andhra Pradesh Circle [probably Hyderabad] bearing the number – 92470 5507.
And now I want to share some thoughts of mine. I am thinking of a scenario where atleast 100 mn users [1/4th of 400mn+ Mobile subscribers in India] are going to use this service. Going by how Google architects its services, they need to add at least 3 relaying centers [Airtel, Vodafone or BSNL and Reliance] in every Telecom Circle of India connected to Hyderabad Google’s office. For SMS published on Web or SMS generated by processing of RSS feeds, Google needs to add couple of dozens of racks @ Hyderabad which will be the central unit. One can easily find out the mobile number and the circle where it is activated. So Google’s Hyderabad center can send the Mobile Number and the relevant SMS message to the respective circle to relay to the end user, thus reducing the super load the Hyderabad center is currently taking.
Also, their are conflicts between operators in connectivity and delivering messages. For Example, Tata Indicom and BSNL in Karnataka circle. Google has to test these services and make alternate routing arrangements in respective circles. I am sure once they take th challenge they are smart enough to diagnose and fix any such issue.
Good Luck to you before Indians start tweeting 🙂
