You will soon be able to write in your mother tongue on your tablet or smartphone to search something on the Internet. Internet search major Google has launched a tool that allows Hindi-knowing people to write their search query on any part of the screen. You can use this on your PC, laptop and tablets as well.

Google’s Bangalore team has played a major role in developing this tool.

“We believe you should be able to use the Internet in Hindi as easily as you read and write today. No matter what kind of handwriting you have, Google can help you find exactly what you’re looking for,” Lalitesh Katragadda, Google’s Head of Product for India, said.

Google said it noticed the paradox of media consumption in India. “It has often confounded us that less than 10 per cent of 300 million net users are in Indian languages while in the offline world more than 90 per cent of newspaper readers or TV viewers are using these media in Indian languages,” it said.

Getting started

To use the app, you need to tap on ‘Settings’ at the bottom of google’s home page and then go to Search Settings and enable ‘Handwrite’. Change language in Google products to Hindi. Also add Hindi as a language of search results.

“If you’re on your computer, you can Handwrite Hindi script into any site on the Web using the handy Google Input Tools Chrome Extension. Whenever you activate this tool, your computer’s trackpad will turn into a writing pad. You can write Hindi script using freehand. Then the tool will recognise your handwriting and convert it to text, which can be inserted into text fields on any website,” he said.

kurmanath.kanchi@thehindu.co.in

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