In recognition of the ongoing regional integration and growing prominence of local languages on the internet, Google recently unveiled localized versions of Gmail, Google Maps and Google Chrome, bringing Swahili to each of these products.  Gmail is a free search-based webmail service that has evolved into a popular messaging platform with a passionate user base who love innovations such as conversation grouping of messages, voice and video chat, mobile access and recent Gmail to SMS service.  With this new development, Swahili speakers will be able to ‘dress’ their Gmail display in their language, and even automatically detect and translate foreign-language messages into Swahili.  To try out Gmail, users can go to http://mail.google.com/mail/signup from a PC. Once signed in to Gmail, users can change their language by clicking the settings link, then changing the Gmail display language to Kiswahili.

Regarded as the the world’s fastest browser, Chrome now offers a Swahili version, available on Windows, Mac and Linux. Chrome in Swahili gives new users access to Google Search in Swahili, and will even detect and translate pages in foreign languages into Swahili. Google Chrome can be downloaded for free by visiting www.google.com/chrome and selecting Swahili from the language dropdown options.

Google Maps is a free web mapping service application that allows users to search for business listings, driving directions, and even share their own personal maps with their friends.  Swahili users can now feel at home browsing locations and creating maps of their own in Swahili.  To use Google Maps in Kiswahili, visit http://maps.google.co.ke/

Just in time

Google’s announcement coincides with the commencement of the East Africa Community Common Market, a significant milestone for the people of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi, which will create new opportunities for the free movement of capital, goods, services and persons across East Africa.

Joe Mucheru, Google Lead for Sub Saharan Africa, said, “The Internet offers so many opportunities, and we want to make the Internet more relevant and useful to East Africans.  Being able to use products like Chrome, Gmail and Maps in Swahili means that our users will now have a much better experience of the web in their day-to-day lives. And this is just the beginning.”

Commenting on what Google’s announcement means for East Africans, Chairman of the Kiswahili and African Languages Department at Kenyatta University, Dr Leonard Chacha Mwita, said, “Swahili accounts for the over 120  million speakers in the common market, or nearly 20 per cent of indigenous language speakers in Africa.  Swahili uniquely conveys much of our shared culture, is the lingua franca used in day-to-day interaction across borders, is one of the languages of the African Union and is becoming an increasingly important part of the internet fabric in Africa."  Added Dr Chacha, "Such locally-relevant web tools will no doubt foster integration by enabling East Africans to communicate, learn and work together with greater ease.”
This week, Google has also made localized versions of Gmail and Maps available in Amharic.
In Africa, Google is focusing on making the internet more relevant and useful to Africans by creating more African content online; raising awareness among consumers and businesses about the opportunities offered by the internet; and developing products that are locally meaningful. Efforts in the past year to strengthen web developer communities include training for hundreds of developers and entrepreneurs at Google events in Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria and Mauritius.  Google currently has offices in Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal.