The Hindu Business Line : Google unveils I-Day anniversary offerings

Bangalore, Aug. 21 A little delayed, perhaps, but welcome all the same. Google’s Indic keyboard and transliteration were announced on the Google official blog as “presents” to India on her 60th Independence day anniversary. The two offerings were launched on Monday.

The Indic On-Screen Keyboard iGoogle Gadget will offer users the ability to type search queries in 14 Indian languages. Users can type in their languages by clicking letters on the on-screen keyboard using the mouse.

The Indic Transliteration site ( http://www.google.com/transliterate/indic/) allows the user to type in Hindi using phonetically equivalent English text. For instance, typing “Mera Bharat Mahaan” would give its hindi typed version, with just a hit of the space bar.

This service was launched on Blogger earlier this year, and is now being offered as a standalone offering. Users can create Hindi content and use it in applications of their choice – such as mails and documents. The product uses a machine learning-based approach that can learn from corrections made by the users.

“Our vision for India’s 60th year of independence is to empower our Indian users by providing organised, easily accessible information and products which encourage the creation and consumption of locally relevant content. India Labs is one such effort that will enable users to test and provide valuable feedback on products that are most relevant to them,” said Dr Prasad Ram, Head of Google R&D, India, in a release.

New products

The firm also launched its India Labs programme and two new products – Local Search and Local Business Centre.

While Local Search lets users search for information on local businesses such as restaurants, shops, and hotels from http://local.google.co.in, Local Business Centre (at www.google.co.in/local/add) allows businessmen to add their information onto Google Local for free.

When users search on Google Local Search, the listed business information will be displayed. The symbiotic products have been launched after many Indian firms have come up with their versions, such as Guruji.com and AskLaila.com.

Google Labs is a country-focussed programme where developers will continuously work on innovations relevant to local markets. Google has seven such labs in the US, China, Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain.

The lab will offer users a peek into Google’s future offerings.