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Google integrates multi-language virtual keyboards into search

May 2, 2010

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If you are trying to search the web using a language other than English and you don't have the correct keyboard handy, well, there's bound to be a problem. Google has come up with a solution by integrating virtual keyboards into its search engine. Now up and running in 35 languages, the on-screen keyboards allow input in a local language script without any additional software and no matter what computer you are using.

The on-screen keyboards are accessed via a small keyboard icon beside the search bar and appear automatically in any of the languages to which the function is attached. Search terms can be entered using on-screen input or by hitting the corresponding keys on your real keyboard.

A virtual keyboard on www.google.am to input Armenian text (the query term is [armenia])

The current 35 languages (from Albanian to Uzbek) include non-Latin scripts and languages where just a few letters differ from English... like the ö in Eyjafjallajökull.

The move follows the launch of a virtual keyboard API for developers last year and Google says it will expand the function based on feedback from users. If your language isn't yet covered, you can vote for its inclusion.

Via: Google.

About the Author

After a misspent youth at law school, Noel began to dabble in tech research, writing and things with wheels that go fast. This bus dropped him at the door of a freshly sprouted Gizmag.com in 2002. He has been Gizmag's Editor-in-Chief since 2007. All articles by Noel McKeegan