In the amidst of Google and Facebook competing for limelight in the social networking arena; news arrives from the Sydney Morning Herald that Google and Cisco are joining hands with United Nations to fight global poverty. The two technology tycoons have joined to create MDG (Millennium Development Goals) Monitor, a website aimed at helping the United Nations reach its global poverty goals by 2015. The website provides public access for those interested in tracking global development goals in countries across the world via the well known Google Earth interface.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated that “the new website is one of those tools because it will enable policymakers and development experts to learn from one another’s successes and setbacks, and it will increase public access and attention to the UN goals”.

It is inspiring to see Google returning some honest relief to the world from the technology they have developed. However, while a worthy cause for policymakers; the question remains whether the website’s monitoring functionality will be able to change the overall mindset or perception of humanity towards global poverty?

Click here for the United Nations Campaign to end poverty.