With President Obama announcing the end of the Iraq war and his challenge to U.S. businesses to hire 100,000 veterans or their spouses, it appears Google might be stepping up to the plate to assist Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans in their transition to the civilian workforce.
Yesterday, on the same day of the President’s announcement that all troops will be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of 2011, Google registered half a dozen domains related to ‘Google for Veterans’ like googleforveterans.com, googleveterans.com, and googleforvets.com.
The full list of registrations include:
googleforveterans.com
googleforveterans.org
googleforvets.com
googleveterans.com
googleveterans.org
googlevets.com
Google certainly wouldn’t be the first company to launch an initiative.
Last March, Microsoft for example, building on its Elevate America program, announced an initiative to help veterans and their spouses prepare for the civilian work force.
The company hasn’t said anything official about its “Google for Veterans” program. Google may be planning the announcement to coincide with Veterans Day 2011, which is only a few weeks away.
(Photo of airman returning home after deployment to Afghanistan via Defense.gov)
Update on November 11 @ 9:00am EST: Google has unveiled its ‘Google for veterans and families’ website on http://googleforveterans.com/. Google writes: “This site was made by some veterans, family of veterans and friends who work at Google. We understand the challenges of serving, coming home and transitioning to civilian life. We’ve been there. Some of us are still figuring it out. Here are some free Google products we’ve gathered together that have made our lives easier. Hopefully, they can do the same for you.”
Discussion: TechFlash and Military Technologies