Google today announced it will host a ‘Love Your Language’ forum from January 21 to 25 at the Jaipur Literature Festival, in an effort to get Indian languages better represented on the Internet.
Google is inviting participants of the Festival and anyone passionate about Indian languages to contribute to the Google Translate Community. Presently, Google Translate is available for nine out of India’s 22 official languages. But languages that are under-represented on the Internet like Bengali, Telugu, and Tamil could use a little help. With more input from the community, Google Translate can boost the translation of these languages, making content on the Internet more accessible to millions of people.
You can use Google Translate Community on your phone, laptop or computer. Just type, swipe or tap translations in the languages you speak. You have the option to either translate phrases directly, or validate existing translations. And with the Google Indic Keyboard, we’ve made it easier to input Hindi and ten other Indian languages, including Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu, with your Android phone or tablet.
If you’re attending the Jaipur Literature Festival, you can learn more about the Translate Community and the Google Indic Keyboard at a demo zone located at the Google Mughal Tent. Even if you can’t make it to an event, you can still help impove Indian languages online at translate.google.com/community.
Festival visitors can also view highlights of India’s culture and heritage on the Google Cultural Institute and visit the world’s wonders in an immersive experience using Google Cardboard. On this occasion, monuments, artworks, crafts and narratives from across India will be on virtual display at a dedicated space near Durbar Hall.
The Cultural Institute partners with museums and archives from all around the world, helping to make cultural heritage accessible to anyone anywhere, and to preserve it for the future online. In India, we have worked with 29 partner institutions including the Archaeological Survey, the National Museum and the National Gallery of Modern Art.
Globally, the Google Cultural Institute has more than 1000 partners from over 70 countries, and has brought forth technologies like Museum View and Gigapixel. Another highlight of the initiative is its virtual exhibit feature, which enables expert curators to weave rich narratives that combine artworks, archival imagery, video clips, voice-overs and Museum View of monuments and institutions from across the world.
“By putting Google’s tools in the hands of our Indian users, we believe we can help build a web that works for millions around the world. The Jaipur Literature Festival brings together people who are passionate about Indian languages and culture, so we can’t think of a better place to invite people to contribute to the Translate Community and experience Indian heritage online,” said Sapna Chadha, Country Marketing Manager, Google India.