You know that website called Fiverr which gives people a legit way to earn quick cash by offering up whatever skills they have? Google has announced Helpouts, a similar service that actually lets ‘experts’ deliver assistance to customers over live video chats.
So Fiverr’s the $5 service you go to for getting someone else to do your work and Helpouts is the website you visit if you want assistance with a task for which you could use some advice. Amazon Mechanical Turk and TaskRabbit are similar examples of marketplaces which were built with the idea of getting freelancers online and in one convenient, accessible location.
It’s one thing hiring a person to do your work and another co-coordinating with people over a live video session. How-to guides and any information you’d need for most day to day tasks are just so freely available on the internet, including on Google-owned YouTube too. Say what you will, but we’ve got this gut feeling that Mountain View will be forced to can the service sooner or later.
The Helpouts website currently divides the services into 8 categories – Home & Garden, Education & Careers, Fashion & Beauty, Health, Food & Nutrition, Computers & Electronics, Art & Music and Cooking. The asking fees range from free to upwards of $15. And it’s not just regular folks who are offering their expertise on various subjects such as guitar lessons and plumbing amongst other things.
Make-up brand Sephora, Home Depot’s Redbeacon handyman service, Rosetta Stone learning solutions and other brands are already making their presence felt on the site. All those using the portal will need a Google+ account and a webcam for signing into Hangouts, of course. Payments are made via Google Wallet and only those who opt to have their Helpout recorded are eligible for the money back guarantee.
You can check out all the Helpouts details by hitting this. The page also contains a link to the related app on Google Play Store.