Google has launched a service called Helpouts, that will let people pay for live video chats with experts. Those experts will be organized by Google itself. The experts will assist people in myriad of areas ranging from making your dishes to applying the right makeup, all via video chats. Google is advertising this with the tag line "real help from real people in real time."
Helpouts is going to be similar to Hangouts, but instead of talking to friends for free, there's a premium attached as you'll be talking to experts and getting their advise. The method of paying is going to be most likely through Google Wallet.
Google is starting the Helpouts service with roughly 1000 experts (as partners) from myriad of areas including fashion, computers, fitness and academics. The service will enable one-on-one video consultation and the duration will range from a minute to hours, depending on the need. The pricing will be set by each individual provider before starting the session. Some Helpouts videos are free.
The success of the service depends hugely on the quality of advise given by the experts. For suggestions, recommendations and other things, we turn to real friends on Facebook or through calls which is absolutely free of cost. However, quality advise costs money and probably that's what Google aims to say.
"Most of the world's useful information still resides in people's heads," Udi Manber, vice president of engineering at Google said. "Helpouts opens the door to that information as well."
Google Helpouts will be tightly integrated with Google+ and Wallet payment system. Hangout's video technology will serve as backend for video chats in Helpouts.
However, Google Helpouts will be facing rift from other Google services, which are right now free. Google Search and YouTube how-tos are to name a few. Apart from this, more people also turn to Yahoo Answers and Facebook real friends are all time favorite.
Google is also working to create APIs for Helpouts and it is expected that it will be open for developers soon.
