Inside Search
The official Google Search blog
From Amharic to Xhosa, introducing Translate in 13 new languages -- now over 100 in total!
February 17, 2016
In 2006, we started with machine learning-based translations between English and Arabic, Chinese and Russian. Almost 10 years later, with today’s update, we now offer
103 languages
that cover 99% of the online population.
The 13 new languages — Amharic, Corsican, Frisian, Kyrgyz, Hawaiian, Kurdish (Kurmanji), Luxembourgish, Samoan, Scots Gaelic, Shona, Sindhi, Pashto and Xhosa — help bring a combined 120 million new people to the billions who can already communicate with Translate all over the world.
So what goes into adding a new language? Beyond the basic criteria that it must be a written language, we also need a significant amount of translations in the new language to be available on the web. From there, we use a combination of machine learning,
licensed content
and
Translate Community
.
As we scan the Web for billions of already translated texts, we use machine learning to identify statistical patterns at enormous scale, so our machines can "learn" the language. But, as already existing documents can’t cover the breadth of a language, we also rely on people like you in Translate Community to help improve current Google Translate languages and add new ones, like Frisian and Kyrgyz. So far, over 3 million people have contributed approximately 200 million translated words.
Before you dive into translating, here are a few fun facts about the new languages:
Amharic (Ethiopia) is the second most widely spoken Semitic language after Arabic
Corsican (Island of Corsica, France) is closely related to Italian and was Napoleon's first language
Frisian (Netherlands and Germany) is the native language of over half the inhabitants of the Friesland province of the Netherlands
Kyrgyz (Kyrgyzstan) is the language of the Epic of Manas, which is 20x longer than the Iliad and the Odyssey put together
Hawaiian (Hawaii) has lent several words to the English language, such as ukulele and wiki
Kurdish (Kurmanji) (Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria) is written with Latin letters while the others two varieties of Kurdish are written with Arabic script
Luxembourgish (Luxembourg) completes the list of official EU languages Translate covers
Samoan (Samoa and American Samoa) is written using only 14 letters
Scots Gaelic (Scottish highlands, UK) was introduced by Irish settlers in the 4th century AD
Shona (Zimbabwe) is the most widely spoken of the hundreds of languages in the Bantu family
Sindhi (Pakistan and India) was the native language of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the "Father of the Nation” of Pakistan
Pashto (Afghanistan and Pakistan) is written in Perso-Arabic script with an additional 12 letters, for a total of 44
Xhosa (South Africa) is the second most common native language in the country after Afrikaans and features three kinds of clicks, represented by the letters x, q and c
We’ve come a long way with over 100 languages, but we aren’t done yet. If you want to help, International Mother Language day — just around the corner on February 21 — is a great time to get involved in
Translate Community
. To start, just select the languages you speak; then choose to either translate phrases on your own or validate existing translations. Every contribution helps improve the quality of translation over time. You can also share feedback directly from
Translate.Google.com
, so as you try out the new languages, we’d love to hear your suggestions.
For each new language, we make our translations better over time, both by improving our algorithms and systems and by learning from your translations with Translate Community. Today's update will be rolling out over the coming days.
No matter what language you speak, we hope today’s update makes it easier to communicate with millions of new friends and break language barriers one conversation at a time.
Posted by Sveta Kelman, Senior Program Manager, Google Translate
On the road to the 2016 elections with Google Search
February 1, 2016
As the 2016 primary season officially kicks off with voters across Iowa caucusing for candidates, we’re making a few updates to Google Search to help you stay informed about the elections. Starting today, you can see where candidates stand on key policy issues, follow the nomination races with live results and an ongoing tallying of the delegate counts, and get voting reminders and live result updates in Google Now.
Dive into the issues
To help you learn where candidates stand on the issues that matter to you, you can now find candidate statements on important topics—such as national security, taxes, and immigration—right in search results. In addition to seeing direct statements from the candidates—if they choose to share them—you’ll also see a variety of candidate quotes aggregated from news articles. So now, if you search for a specific candidate (“
Ted Cruz
”) or a specific candidate and issue topic (“
Hillary Clinton economic policies
”) you’ll see statements and quotes from the candidate.
Follow the results
Tracking what’s happening in the primaries and how each candidate is doing state-by-state can be hard. So now when you search for “
primary results
” or “
resultados de la elección primaria
” you’ll not only see the primary election schedule, but you’ll also see live results and an evolving tally of how many delegates each Republican and Democratic nominee has received. This feature works in English and Spanish.
Remember the important things (like voting!)
Google Now cards will keep you up-to-date on the latest elections news. In the Google app, you’ll get cards reminding you to vote in your local primary and others highlighting who won each contest. As with the election results, this works in English and Spanish.
We hope these features make it easier for you to keep up to date on the issues, the delegates and your local primary.
Posted by Jacob Schonberg, Product Manager
Prepare for the next storm with a new weather experience on Android
January 21, 2016
An unexpected snow or rainstorm can put a bit of a damper on your day, so to help keep you dry and ready to take on any weather, we’re introducing an upgraded weather experience on Android phones.
Now when you search for “weather” or ask Google, “will it rain today?” in the Google app on your Android phone, you’ll get a wealth of new information, including: hourly sky conditions and chance of rain, severe weather alerts, a detailed 10-day forecast, air quality, UV index, sunrise and sunset times, and more.
When you tap on the weather result, you can also save your favorite locations by searching for a new location and selecting “Add.” You’ll start seeing your chosen locations in the drop-down in search.
We also have a new design so you can see at a glance what the day has in store with changing background colors that respond to the sky conditions and a new meteorologically inclined friend.
So whether you’re facing a blizzard in Boston, rain in London or unseasonably cold weather in Sydney, you’ll be better prepared to take on the day with Google.
Posted by Lea Stolowicz, Product Manager
Make your holidays a little easier with Now on Tap
December 15, 2015
Between gift shopping, traveling, and party-going and party-hosting, there’s a lot to do this time of year. With Now on Tap on Android phones, everything is a little bit easier. Today we’re making some updates to Now on Tap to help you out during the holiday season and year round.
On airport pick-up duty? If your cousin sends you a text with his flight number, simply tap and hold your phone’s home button to get info on flight status without a separate search. Your text message is still right there, so you can respond easily after a quick peek.
If you need make sure all the last-minute gifts you ordered online will make it under the tree on time, tapping and holding on your confirmation email will display tracking info for your package.
And just because it’s the holidays doesn’t mean the news slows down (well, maybe a little). When reading a news article about Justin Trudeau or Ronda Rousey, tap and hold to get links to related articles so you can learn more. Plus, you’ll now see a share icon when you use Now on Tap to easily share what’s on your screen, without having to leave what you’re doing. You should start seeing all these features over the coming days.
Finally, for those of you French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian or Korean speakers—Now on Tap is now at your fingertips too. Of course, we’ll continue to add more languages and features soon.
Posted by Aneto Okonkwo, Product Manager
7 things to try by voice with the Google app on Android
December 10, 2015
You can talk to more and more of your tech gadgets today, whether it’s your phone or your watch or your car or your TV or … you get the point. For the Google app, that includes things like calling, texting, setting reminders, and for a lot of you, setting your alarm.
Once you’re up at 7 am, you’ve got a lot of time to do even more. So, here are a few of our favorite new ways (some are hot off the press in just the past few weeks) to get help from Google by just speaking.
1. Turn on the tunes.
Whether you’re the DJ at the holiday party or just chilling by the fireside, Google can help. Ask to play music from a specific artist, for your general mood (“party music”), or for the activity you’re doing and you’ll be taken to a curated playlist on Google Play Music. Or, if you want Google to play music from another music app, just specify where (“on Spotify”).
2. Switch off. You can still ask Google to get things done for you while offline.
You can still ask Google to do things for you when you’re offline – or just having a bad (connection) day. Play music, turn up the volume, open apps, dim the screen, or switch Bluetooth and airplane mode on and off.
3.
Ask Google to find and play videos on YouTube.
When you’re in the YouTube app and enable Google to recognize when you
say “Ok Google” from any screen
, you can use voice actions to find what you need, pick out the video you want from a list, skip and more — all hands-free.
4. Book your holiday flights.
The holidays have crept up on you and you haven’t nailed down your plans yet? Ask Google to show you flights, destinations, and prices; then finish the booking on your preferred website. And don’t be shy — ask Google follow-up questions to compare flights on different days and different times of day. Find a nonstop business class flight or one that connects through a specific airport.
5. Get things done in other apps.
Voice actions don’t just work within Google’s apps — we’ve worked with a handful of partners this year to create custom ways for you to command some popular apps. For example, ask Google to “Shazam this song,” “Log 400 calories for lunch on Lose It,” or even “Find a hotel on Orbitz.” Hungry for more? Get some inspiration
here
.
6. Get cooking.
Let’s face it: tapping and typing doesn’t work when your hands are covered in flour or pasta sauce. Try asking Google to find you that recipe you’re looking for by voice, so you can finish off your delicious frittata -- without covering your phone in egg yolk.
7. Be vague. Speak human.
We all make mistakes, Google included. If the Google app transcribes something you said incorrectly, say so! You can either spell the correction out, as in, “no I meant W-A-L-E-S”, or suggest a word be replaced entirely: “what about dolphins?”. Talk to the Google app as naturally as you would if it were human -- it’s designed to understand conversation that way.
We’re not done building out voice features just yet! If you’re ever curious to learn more tricks, just
take a look here
to learn about everything you can ask the Google app.
Posted by Steve Cheng, Director of Product Management
AMP Project’s fast mobile pages coming to Google Search
December 10, 2015
In October, we announced the launch of the
Accelerated Mobile Pages project
, an open source initiative which aims to dramatically improve the performance of the mobile web. We know that on the web speed is critical and
research
shows that 40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load.
Speed is something Google understands at its core and with Google Search, our focus has always been on getting people the right answers to their questions as quickly as possible.
For the past few months we’ve been running a public experiment at
g.co/ampdemo
to demonstrate how AMP pages work in Google search results on a mobile device. During this experiment, we’ve seen tremendous excitement and engagement from the publishing community and are excited to announce that AMP pages will be coming to search for everyone as soon as late February.
Since this is the open web, all you need to get started is to
create your first AMP page
.
Content you publish to your sites today will be eligible to show up in the demo now, and soon in Google search. We encourage publishers to get started today to be ready.
The AMP project is working to make the mobile web experience better for everyone, and it is thrilling to be part of this industry-wide effort to reshape how content is consumed online.
Posted by David Besbris Vice President, Engineering Search
Get more details on your favorite musicians, actors, TV shows and movies
December 4, 2015
Wondering if your favorite singer is playing near you? Or looking for some new music suggestions? Or maybe you’re watching a TV show and can’t remember where you’ve seen that actor before? No matter what music, actors, movies or shows you love, our new update will keep you in the know.
Starting today on your Android phone and tablet (and coming soon to iOS), song recommendations, lyrics, covers and much more are just a tap away.
And for TV shows and movies, it’s easier to explore past and upcoming episodes, get a recommendation on what to watch next, check out the cast and find showtimes near you.
Happy listening, watching and discovering!
Posted by Satyajeet Salgar, Product Manager
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