Google Transliteration IME to support 14 Indic languages

The search engine giant Google on Thursday released a desktop Transliteration IME, an Input Method Editor which aids users to type in 14 Indic languages using Roman keyboard accessible in online or offline mode. The service was previously available by the name Google Indic Transliteration as an online service.

Users can type words phonetically using Latin characters and the Google Transliteration IME would convert the word to its native script.

The Google Transliteration IME was developed at Indian R&D center in Bangalore which is available in 14 languages like Arabic, Bengali, Farsi (Persian), Greek, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.

For the time being, the IME engine is compatible with Windows 7/Vista/XP and can be downloaded for free. The tool also has features like personalized choices, word completion, quick search, easy-to-use keyboard and various other neccessary required options.

The IME enables businesses, students and teachers to author content and share views in their local languages and also helps users to use the feature with Gmail, Orkut, Blogger and Knol.

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Google guns for MS Office with billboard campaign

Mountain View plans to slap Google Apps adverts on billboards in major US cities from today in its latest attempt to woo businesses away from Microsoft’s Office suite.

The search giant, which has been stretching its tentacles into more and more areas comfortably occupied by Redmond, will promote its $50 per worker, per annum Google Apps suite in New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Boston.

Google shies away from advertising its core search product, so it’s uncharacteristic to see the firm punting its other services.

However, in many ways it’s also a savvy biz move given the hot potato contest that’s been taking place at the rival MS and Google camps in recent weeks.

One big announcement (Microsoft’s Bing search deal with Yahoo!) has followed after another (Google Chrome OS) as the two tech titans continue to clash heads.

Of course, behind the scenes Google is desperate to be taken seriously in the corporate world, where customers remain reluctant to switch from Microsoft’s desktop Office suite in favour of a cloudier option such as Google Apps.

Microsoft latest Office suite – 2010 – is due next year. Google may be hoping to steal a march on its veteran rival, but it’s worth remembering that Microsoft has been doing this sort of thing for years, and has no compunction of pouring millions into flashy advertising – something the whizz kids at Google have never had to consider.

Popularity: 2% [?]