Google on the Go to Overcome Slow Internet Speeds in Africa

Aiming to help people in Africa to overcome poor internet connectivity and high data costs, tech giant, Google is launching an app called Google Go.

According to a blog post by Google, the Google Go app will decrease the amount of data that is required for displaying search results by 40 percent. Also, it will allow previously searched web sites to be accessed with internet connectivity, and to better work on slower connections, including 2G, Google is also working on the voice search feature.

"More and more Africans are coming online every year and using mobile phones as their primary internet device," Christina Lin, Product marketing manager at Facebook said in the post. "But weak data connectivity, high data costs and low RAM or storage space often make it hard for people to get the most out of the internet.”

With an initiative to help people access the internet irrespective of the speed, Google Go is the effort by the tech giant to reach out to places in the sub-Saharan Africa, where the social media sultan, Facebook has already launched many initiatives bringing low-cost and free broadband to hard-to-reach areas.

Making it available for 26 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Google Go will be running on Android Jelly Bean devices v4.3 and above.  For all Android Oreo (Go edition) devices, the app is pre-installed on and will be available in stores soon.