NoNet

Translation Example
General Web Searches
Specific Web Search
Wikipedia Example
Yelp Example

+1 902 903 6416 (send 'cmd' to get started)

Inspiration

We believe in the right of every individual to have access to information, regardless of price or censorship

What it does

NoNet gives unfettered access to internets most popular service without an internet or data connection. It accomplishes this through sending SMS queries to a server which then processes the query and returns results that were previously only accessible to those with an uncensored internet connection. It works with Yelp, Google Search (headlines), Google Search (Articles/Websites), Wikipedia, and Google Translate.

some commands include:

'web: border wall' // returns top results from google
'url: www.somesite.somearticle.com' // returns article content
'tr ru: Hello my russian friend!' // returns russian translation
'wiki: Berlin' // returns Wikipedia for Berlin
'cmd' // returns all commands available

The use cases are many:

in many countries, everyone has a phone with sms, but data is prohibitively expensive so they have no internet access
Countries like China have a censored internet, and this would give citizens the freedom to bybass that
Authoritarian Countries turn of internet in times of mass unrest to keep disinformation

How we built it

We integrated Twilio for SMS with a NodeJS server, hosted on Google App Engine, and using multiple API's

Challenges we ran into

We faced challenges at every step of the way, from establishing two way messaging, to hosting the server, to parsing the correct information to fit sms format. We tackled the problems as a team and overcome them to produce a finished product

Accomplishments that we're proud of:

"Weathering a Tsunami" - getting through all the challenges we faced and building a product that can truly help millions of people across the world

What we learned

We learned how to face problems as well as new technologies

What's next for NoNet

Potential Monetization Strategies would be to put ads in the start of queries (like translink bus stop messaging), or give premium call limits to registered numbers