Google.com/myanmarcyclone/ Google collects donations for Myanmar. image:40054:0::0

The military junta overseeing the government in Myanmar banned Google, Yahoo and Hotmail from the region in an effort to prevent its citizens from reading the news about Myanmar and disseminating information from inside. The junta wanted to prevent news and pictures about the uprising by the monks from being released to the public and the world.

When one accesses Google in Burma, they will get the following error: “Error Number 1045 Access Denied.”

The citizens ended up with limited news offered by the military junta.

After Cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar, Google put a donation link just below the search box on its site to Web users could actively participate in relief efforts. Normally, Google keeps the search page very simple, but in this case it added the donation link.

When you click this donation link it provides two donation options; one to Unicef and the other to Direct Relief International. Google will match these donations and provide up to $1 million to victims.

Google's donation page does not include any fees or charges, so 100 per cent of a donation will be transferred directly to relief efforts.

Microsoft is also helping out despite being banned in Myanmar.