Gmail, जीमेल, ಜಿಮೇಲ್, ജിമെയില്, ஜிமெயில், జిమెయిల్, now in five Indian languages too!
Sidin Vadukut -
Tuesday, March 31, 2009 1:28 PM
Splendid news for all those looking to add a little ethnic spice to their emails. Gmail has just announced that:
When you compose a new mail in Gmail, you should now see an icon with an Indian character, as the screenshot below shows. This feature is enabled by default for Gmail users in India. If you do not see this function enabled by default, you will need to go the "Settings" page and enable this option in the "Language" section
When you click the Indian languages icon, you can type words the way they sound in English and Gmail will automatically convert the word to its Indian local language equivalent. For example, if a Hindi speaker types "namaste" we will transliterate this to "नमस्ते." Similarly, "vanakkam" in Tamil will become "வணக்கம்." We currently support five Indian languages -- Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam -- and you can select the language of your choice from the drop-down list next to the icon.
Not only that you can even use the application to create text in these languages and then cut and paste them in other places. Like blog headlines.
Much merriment to be had in all this no doubt.
P.S. No doubt that Gmail has done this because of Slumdog Millionaire's gritty, authentic, brass tacks Indian impact.