Google Transliteration IME: How To Type in 14 Languages Using Roman Keyboard
By Jayita, Gaea News NetworkFriday, January 29, 2010
BANGALORE, INDIA (GaeaTimes.com) — It seems Google has been successful igniting the flame of cold war with its arch-rival Apple. With the announcement of Apple’s iPad yesterday, Google has been in hurry to launch their new product - Transliteration IME. It’s a desktop application that allows users to type in 14 languages, with the help of a Roman keyboard, with or without Internet connection.
Google Transliteration Input Method Editor (IME) assists you with dictionary based word completions for prefixes. The application remembers your corrections while editing, so that next time you start typing the same word, the editor will show you your last selection from the list. This feature helps you to enter rare and complex words.
“Users type the word the way it sounds using Latin Characters and Google Transliteration IME will convert the word to its native script”, authorities of the most popular Internet search engine said in a statement.
Google Transliteration IME was conceptualized and developed at Google’s R&D Centre here in India. It is currently available in 14 languages — Arabic, Bengali, Farsi (Persian), Greek, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.
IME is enabled for an application like notepad and when you start typing, IME displays the edit window with the typed text and the corresponding word choices in IME language. In the below example, user has typed ‘googl’ and the IME has displayed five choices numbered 1 to 5.
When you type a word, the choices are displayed in the edit window. Intuitive partial word choices for the typed content are displayed in BLACK color. If there are any better dictionary-based word completions for the typed content, they are displayed in BLUE color and grouped on the right side.
The Google Transliteration IME currently supports Windows 7/Vista/XP. IME offers features including offline support, word completion, personalised choices, easy-to-use keyboard, quick search and customisation options.
IME will enable Indian users specially businessesman, students, or teachers to create content and communicate effectively in their local language, according to Rahul Roy Chowdhury, Senior Product Manager of Google India.
You can take the example of a teacher preparing question paper in Bengali. She can easily do it using Google’s IME. A businessman could create marketing material or email their customers or suppliers in their local language in the same way.
Doesn’t you feel like having another tech toy in your hand? So what are you waiting for? Stay Online and download it. Google Transliteration IME is currently available as a free download in Gmail, orkut, Blogger, Knol and as a bookmarklet.
