Google Flu Trends expands to 16 additional countries

If you're like us, you're probably thinking a lot about how this year's flu season might affect you and your community. To help you out, we at <a href="http://www.google.org/">Google.org</a> are excited to announce the expansion of <a href="http://www.google.org/flutrends/">Google Flu Trends</a> to 16 additional countries, including much of Europe. We've also made the site available in 37 languages. Flu is a global threat, affecting millions worldwide each year, so we're pleased to make this tool available in more regions and languages.<br /><br /><a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/tracking-flu-trends.html">Last November</a>, we launched Google Flu Trends in the United States after finding a close relationship between how many people search for flu-related topics and how many people actually have flu symptoms. By tracking the popularity of certain Google search queries, we are able to estimate the level of flu, in near real-time. While some traditional flu surveillance systems may take days or weeks to collect and release data, Google search queries can be counted immediately. Google Flu Trends provides an additional surveillance tool that may help public health officials and the public make more informed decisions about preparing for the flu season.<br /><br />In the past year, we've expanded our coverage to include Mexico, New Zealand and Australia and have continued to see a good correspondence between our estimates and official flu activity data. In fact, our analysis of last season shows that Google Flu Trends had a close 0.92 correlation with official U.S. flu data.<br /><br />An important aspect of Google Flu Trends is that we filter out terms that may be popular because people hear about them in the news. What we do not use in the models is a term like [swine flu] since people are more likely to type that into Google because they want to know more information about it, given the news headlines, and not because they actually have H1N1 or swine flu. For more information about how we built this model, take a peek at this video:<br /><br /><object height="340" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/6111nS66Dpk&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/6111nS66Dpk&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object><br /><br />If you visit Google Flu Trends for the U.S., you'll notice that the flu season is starting early this year. For tips on how to stay healthy this season, please visit our friends at the <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/preventing.htm">U.S. CDC</a> and <a href="http://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/healthtopics/Pages/Influenza_A%28H1N1%29_Outbreak.aspx">the ECDC</a>.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Matt Mohebbi and Dan Vanderkam, Software Engineers</span>

Google Flu Trends expands to 16 additional countries

If you're like us, you're probably thinking a lot about how this year's flu season might affect you and your community. To help you out, we at Google.org are excited to announce the expansion of Googl…

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YouTube in 9 more domains

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Sakina Arsiwala, International Manager, YouTube</span><br /><br />The YouTube community began life speaking English, but thanks to the uniquely expressive medium of video, today there is a global village of content makers and viewers. With a noteworthy number of YouTube visitors now coming from outside the U.S., it's high time we go multilingual.<br /><br />Today at a Google press event in Paris, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen are announcing the launch of nine new domains in <a href="http://www.youtube.com.br/">Brazil</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.fr/">France</a>, <a href="http://it.youtube.com/">Italy</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.jp/">Japan</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.nl/">the Netherlands</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.pl/">Poland</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.es/">Spain</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.ie/">Ireland</a>, and the <a href="http://www.youtube.co.uk/">UK</a>.<br /><br />In response to many requests, each new site is fully translated and localized for each country including content (Featured Videos, Director Videos, Promotions), as well as the interfaces, search, user support, and such community features as video ratings, sharing, and content flagging. And these new localized versions are built using Google search technology, so you can quickly find more of what you want to see. Perhaps best of all, you can continue to use <a href="http://www.youtube.com/">youtube.com</a>, or move to one of these localized sites -- and switch seamlessly between the two. Happy creating, viewing and sharing!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Update:</span> Removed link to user content.

YouTube in 9 more domains

Posted by Sakina Arsiwala, International Manager, YouTubeThe YouTube community began life speaking English, but thanks to the uniquely expressive medium of video, today there is a global village of co…

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A picture's worth a thousand clicks

<font class="byline-author">Posted by John Hanke, Director for Maps, Earth and Local</font><br /><br />I am pleased to tell you that we've agreed to purchase <a href="http://www.panoramio.com/">Panoramio</a>, a website based in Spain that links millions of photos with the exact geographical location where they were taken. (<a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/annc/annc_panoramio.html">Our FAQ</a> has all the details.)<br /><br />Panoramio is a community photos website that enables digital photographers to geo-locate, store and organize their photographs -- and to view those photographs in Google Earth. Other users can search and browse Panoramio photos and suggest edits to the metadata associated with the photos. Panoramio also offers an API that enables web developers to embed Panoramio functionality into their websites.<br /><br />Those of you already using Google Earth have no doubt noticed Panoramio's striking images documenting settings from all over the world, like <a href="http://www.panoramio.com/photo/901470">moonscapes in Croatia</a>, <a title="http://www.panoramio.com/photo/1578881" href="http://www.panoramio.com/photo/1578881">dramatic sunsets in Australia</a>, and innovative <a href="http://www.panoramio.com/photo/91375">architecture in the United Arab Emirates</a>.<br /><br />We've been working with Panoramio for some time -- its photos have been a default layer in Google Earth since the beginning of the year. This layer will remain in place as our teams work together toward further integrating this amazing content, generated by many, into our mapping technologies.

A picture's worth a thousand clicks

Posted by John Hanke, Director for Maps, Earth and LocalI am pleased to tell you that we've agreed to purchase Panoramio, a website based in Spain that links millions of photos with the exact geograph…

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Webmasters, Google Sprechen Deutsch

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Vanessa Fox</span><br /><br />We love our webmaster community, and with <a href="http://www.google.com/webmasters">Webmaster Central</a>, we provide as much information and interaction about how Google crawls and indexes websites<span> as we can, in 18 languages. We also regularly provide information and tips in our <a href="http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/03/brand-new-german-webmaster-central.html">webmaster blog</a>. The blog has been available only in English. Until now. We're very happy to launch our first non-English webmaster blog: the <a href="http://googlewebmastercentral-de.blogspot.com/">German Webmaster-Zentrale Blog</a>. If you speak German, head there to read German versions of the English blog posts, as well as news and tips specifically for the German market. Willkommen!

Webmasters, Google Sprechen Deutsch

Posted by Vanessa FoxWe love our webmaster community, and with Webmaster Central, we provide as much information and interaction about how Google crawls and indexes websites as we can, in 18 languages…

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Mapping Europe

<span class="byline-author">Posted by John Hanke, Director, Google Earth & Maps</span><br /><br />As part of our ongoing effort to connect people to information about the world -- or perhaps le monde, die welt, el mundo -- around them, I'm pleased to tell you about the addition of a new team to Google. Today we acquired <a href="http://www.Endoxon.com">Endoxon</a>, an Internet mapping solutions company based in Lucerne, Switzerland.<br /><br />The Endoxon team has demonstrated passion and innovation in online mapping and has developed compelling technology that will enhance our Google geo products worldwide. We're also excited about having a dedicated team in Europe that can bring a distinctively European focus to our Maps products in those markets.

Mapping Europe

Posted by John Hanke, Director, Google Earth & MapsAs part of our ongoing effort to connect people to information about the world -- or perhaps le monde, die welt, el mundo -- around them, I'm pleased…

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Google News in Scandinavia

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Petter Wedum and Håvard Husevåg Garnes, Google interns</span><br /><br />After months of hard work, the day is finally here: we've released Google News in <a href="http://news.google.no/">Norway</a> and <a href="http://news.google.se/">Sweden</a>.<br /><br />At Google News, we cut to the bone -- er, to the core -- searching to get you the freshest takes. We gather the latest news headlines in your language and present a summary of links to you in one single page, freshly ranked by relevance and popularity. Then you just dash off to the sites to read the news stories that take your fancy.<br /><br />The two of us worked as summer interns with Google in Trondheim earlier this year, with plenty of help from our Swedish colleague Jonas Yngvesson, who's based in Google's Zurich office. Now after some months of public silence, we can finally tell our friends and you all about our work on Google News Scandinavia. It has kind of become our baby. We've cared for it, looked after it, yelled at it and corrected it, and we've come to love it. We hope you will appreciate it as much as we do.<br /><br />In addition to taming the news, we've enjoyed free lunches and had a chance to learn from some of the best engineers Trondheim and the rest of the world have to offer. Perhaps best of all, we were trusted to work on release-level code for Norway and Sweden. If like us you want to have a say in the inner workings of the world's biggest search company -- to discuss algorithm problems with the guy who wrote your algorithm textbook at college -- you should know that Google wants interns all over the world. Check out the <a href="http://www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/static.py?page=studentseu.html">Google Interns site</a>.<br /><br />Before we go, we would like to thank all the Googlers who have helped us and encouraged us and cared for us throughout our internship. Bosses, colleagues, recruiters and caterers, thank you! Our summer would not have been the same without your help.

Google News in Scandinavia

Posted by Petter Wedum and Håvard Husevåg Garnes, Google internsAfter months of hard work, the day is finally here: we've released Google News in Norway and Sweden.At Google News, we cut to the bone -…

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History is cool for school

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Oliver Rickman, UK Corporate Communications Team, and Kate Hammond, UK Product Marketing Team</span><br /><br />You might be thinking most kids are only interested in celebrities and the next cool thing -- but not 15,000 British kids. This lot, between the ages of 4 and 18, ditched celebrity-watching in favour of good old-fashioned historical figures when they sent in their drawings to our <a href="http://www.google.co.uk/doodle4google">Doodle 4 Google competition</a>. (You may recall our informal name for this contest was <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/04/day-off-for-dennis.html">"Day Off for Dennis."</a>) Given the theme of ‘My Britain’ as their inspiration, school children up and down the UK got creative with the Google logo, hoping to see their entry on the Google homepage. Nearly half (45%) of their entries included monuments and historical figures from Big Ben to the Blackpool tower, and from the Queen to Shakespeare. Everyone at the London Googleplex was really impressed with how passionate the kids were about Britain, not to mention their talent. <br /><br />And though some of you may laugh about British food, we were proud to see that a quarter of entries featured <a href="http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=fish+and+chips&btnG=Search+Images">fish and chips</a>, proving what we all already knew – that you can’t beat traditional British grub!<br /><br />On Monday and Tuesday, we met thousands of children whose entries made it into the finals at the Science Museum in London. The wrapup gave them a chance to check out each others' designs and talk about their Doodles -- and of course it gave us the exciting job of announcing and congratulating the fantastic winner, 13-year-old Katherine Chisnall, from the South West of England. Aside from her day of fame on the Google.co.uk homepage, Katherine and her family will be soon be visiting our <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=&btnG=Search+Images&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=il">world headquarters</a> in Mountain View, California. The whole event was great fun, and who knows? Maybe we've identified some rising stars for Dennis' crew. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7609/900/1600/UK_doodle_winner.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7609/900/320/UK_doodle_winner.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a>

History is cool for school

Posted by Oliver Rickman, UK Corporate Communications Team, and Kate Hammond, UK Product Marketing TeamYou might be thinking most kids are only interested in celebrities and the next cool thing -- but…

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Code Jamming in Dublin

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Jeanne Williams and Anne Driscoll, Staffing Programs Team</span><br /><br />On June 29th, Google Dublin hosted the onsite finals for <a href="http://www.google.com/codejameurope/">Code Jam Europe 2006</a>. This is the third of four code competitions slated for this year, with <a href="http://www.topcoder.com/pl/?d1=gccj05&d2=EN_overview">China </a>in January, <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/04/this-years-india-code-jam.html">India</a> in April and a Global Code Jam this fall.<br /><br />After nearly 10,000 registrants and three intense online rounds, the top 50 finalists persevered and flew to Dublin for the final challenge. ACM members also joined the coding community fun, traveling from countries as far afield as Kazakhstan, Russia, Sweden, Egypt, Spain, France, Poland and Bulgaria to celebrate the success of the finalists. Several of the ACMers had qualified for the Code Jam Finals in their own right, and having them in Dublin added a real buzz to the proceedings.<br /><br />Over 15 countries were represented in the finals, and 31 of the top 50 are from Eastern Europe. We celebrate the success of the top finishers: Tomasz Czajka from Poland took home the €2500 grand prize; second- and third-prize winners were Petr Mitricheve and Roman Elizarov, both from Russia, who won €1000 each.<br /><br />Watch the fun that defined Code Jam Europe in this <a href="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6784270562651759742">short clip</a> from the 3-day event -- and keep on coding to prepare for the next one!

Code Jamming in Dublin

Posted by Jeanne Williams and Anne Driscoll, Staffing Programs TeamOn June 29th, Google Dublin hosted the onsite finals for Code Jam Europe 2006. This is the third of four code competitions slated for…

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Google Maps in Europe

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Steven Crossan, Product Manager, Google Maps Europe</span><br /><br />We're excited to announce that we have just launched beta versions of Google Maps for <a href="http://maps.google.fr/">France</a>, <a href="http://maps.google.de/">Germany</a>, <a href="http://maps.google.it/">Italy</a>, and <a href="http://maps.google.es/">Spain</a>. These sites include the full suite of interactive street maps, driving directions, and integrated local business search. This has been a global effort with Google teams in Paris, Hamburg, Milan, Madrid, New York, Mountain View, Kirkland, Sydney, London, Dublin, and Zurich working together for much of the past year to build a truly "local" product.<br /><br />Accompanying this release, we have greatly improved high resolution imagery coverage for Europe in both Google Maps and <a href="http://earth.google.com/">Google Earth</a>. Check out the <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=eiffel+tower&ll=48.858278,2.294442&spn=0.001475,0.002835&t=k&om=0 ">Eiffel Tower</a> in Paris, <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=berlin&ll=52.514722,13.239491&spn=0.002223,0.00375&t=k&om=0">Olympiastadion</a> in Berlin, and the <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=venezia&t=k&amp;amp;om=0&ll=45.437023,12.333977&spn=0.004118,0.01123">Grand Canal</a> in Venice.<br /><br />To give you a preview of what's to come, we've also rendered street maps for many other countries in Europe. Developers, you can incorporate these maps and imagery into your own websites using the free <a href="http://www.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/">Google Maps API Version 2</a>. <p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p>

Google Maps in Europe

Posted by Steven Crossan, Product Manager, Google Maps EuropeWe're excited to announce that we have just launched beta versions of Google Maps for France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. These sites includ…

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Day off for Dennis

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Rupert van Millingen, Google UK</span><br /><br />From time to time, we like to reflect the world we live in through the logo designs on our home page. These <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/holidaylogos.html">Google 'doodles'</a> are designed exclusively by the original Doodler, <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2004/06/oodles-of-doodles.html">Dennis Hwang</a>. Here in the UK, we wanted to let Dennis have the day off and give someone local the chance to get their artwork in front of millions. After a successful <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/11/thanks-victoria-doodlers.html">pilot competition</a> in 2005, we're pleased to tell you that our 2006 "Doodle 4 Google - My Britain" competition is now open and accepting doodles from pupils ages 4-18 in all schools across the UK.<br /><br />A panel of experts will judge, narrowing the submissions down to a Top 30 and the public will vote for their favorites. The winning doodle will be hosted on the <a href="http://www.google.co.uk">Google.co.uk</a> home page for a day, and also bag the artist a trip for four to the Googleplex in Mountain View, California. To get your (again, UK) school involved, please check out <a href="http://www.google.co.uk/doodle4google">Doodle 4 Google - My Britain</a>.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/UK_doodle_paintpot-756541.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/UK_doodle_paintpot-745709.JPG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a>

Day off for Dennis

Posted by Rupert van Millingen, Google UKFrom time to time, we like to reflect the world we live in through the logo designs on our home page. These Google 'doodles' are designed exclusively by the or…

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Thanks Victoria doodlers!

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Dennis Hwang, Webmaster and <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2004/06/oodles-of-doodles.html">Google Doodler</a>.</span><br /><br />Last week Google opened our new office in the Victoria area of London, and to mark the occasion we invited students from nearby schools to create their own Google Doodles from our logo. My fellow judges and I were basically considering three qualities: the originality of the doodle idea or topic; integration of the design with the Google logo; and sheer creativity. We received hundreds of entries with all sorts of themes, ranging from serious topics like the Asian tsunami and the Battle of Trafalgar to an entire logo transformed into a bunch of eyes staring at each other. In the end, we chose <a href="http://www.google.com/events/doodle4google.html">these five finalists</a>. And our winner, which graced our <a href="http://www.google.co.uk/">U.K. home page</a> for a full day, was this charming doodle from 11-year-old Lisa Waiwaina:<br /><br /><img alt="" border="0" src="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/uk_doodle4google-772374.gif" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left;" /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />In the end, I was simply blown away by the amazing quality of the work, especially from younger artists up to around age 11 (the bunnies drawn by 5-year-olds were simply awesome). It was a good reminder that staying in touch with one’s inner child can be a key to creativity. Now, back to my secret agenda of searching for a young apprentice...

Thanks Victoria doodlers!

Posted by Dennis Hwang, Webmaster and Google Doodler.Last week Google opened our new office in the Victoria area of London, and to mark the occasion we invited students from nearby schools to create t…

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Get News in Portuguese

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Bruno Fonseca, Software Engineer</span><br /><br />We've just launched two different editions of <a href="http://news.google.com/">Google News</a>: one for <a href="http://news.google.com.br/">Brazil</a> and one for <a href="http://news.google.pt/">Portugal</a>. Google News gathers stories from more than 200 news sources in Portuguese worldwide, and automatically arranges them to present the most relevant news first. We're very pleased to be able to help Brazilian and Portuguese readers stay informed about the issues that matter most to them. <a href="http://news.google.com.br/intl/pt-BR_ALL/about_google_news.html">Read more (in Portuguese)</a> about this launch.<br /><br />For a group of Google Engineers, it's especially exciting, because in July, we <a href="http://www.google.com.br/press/pressrel/akwan.html">opened an engineering office in Brazil</a>. These Google News Portuguese editions are the first launches our team in Belo Horizonte has participated in. Here's to many more!<br /><br />Of course, Google News Brazil and Google News Portugal are small steps towards our mission. You can help by sending your <a href="http://www.google.com/support/news?hl=pt_BR">feedback, thoughts and ideas</a>. Divirta-se!

Get News in Portuguese

Posted by Bruno Fonseca, Software EngineerWe've just launched two different editions of Google News: one for Brazil and one for Portugal. Google News gathers stories from more than 200 news sources in…

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Mini goes Euro

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Rajen Sheth, Google Mini Product Manager</span><br /><br />Turns out that businesses in London, Madrid and Dusseldorf have the same headaches as those in Chicago or Vancouver: they can't find that sales presentation on the company intranet. Or customers fill up the support line with calls for info that's actually on the website. <a href="http://www.google.co.uk/enterprise/">Google Mini</a> to the rescue. So now it's <a href="http://www.google-store.com/appliance/product_info.php?products_id=1">for sale in the UK and throughout the EU</a>.

Mini goes Euro

Posted by Rajen Sheth, Google Mini Product ManagerTurns out that businesses in London, Madrid and Dusseldorf have the same headaches as those in Chicago or Vancouver: they can't find that sales presen…

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One more way to access Local UK

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Abhijit Kalamkar, Software Engineer</span><br /><br />We were on a roll after we launched <a href="http://local.google.co.uk/">Google Local UK</a> last month, and went on to build a mobile web browser version of Google Local for our UK users. Users can now access Local on their mobile by going straight to the <a href="http://mobile.google.co.uk/local">Local </a>home page (that's <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">http://mobile.google.co.uk/local</span>) or the <a href="http://www.google.co.uk/">Google UK</a> home page (a.k.a. <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">http://www.google.co.uk/xhtml</span>). So we say: step away from that computer. Click a few buttons on your keypad and head to that new Thai restaurant near Piccadilly Circus. If you're slightly disoriented once away from the screen, Local gives you Google Maps and driving directions too.<br /><br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Updated with visible URLs.</span>

One more way to access Local UK

Posted by Abhijit Kalamkar, Software EngineerWe were on a roll after we launched Google Local UK last month, and went on to build a mobile web browser version of Google Local for our UK users. Users c…

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Google does Grimsby, Gateshead and Glasgow

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Richard Boardman, Usability Analyst<br /><br /></span>Sometimes it's hard being a Brit in Silicon Valley. Have you tried to find a decent pint, authentic fish and chips or well-made bowler hats in northern California lately? (Okay, the last one isn't a priority.) There's also that feeling of being left out when new technology gets launched in the U.S. before it reaches the rest of the world.<br /><br />Take <a href="http://local.google.com">Google Local</a> and <a href="http://maps.google.com">Google Maps</a>, for example - innovative local business search and beautiful interactive maps. However, as per the barrage of emails I got from mates back home: New Orleans, Anchorage and Beverly Hills are all very well, but what about London, Cardiff, and Belfast?<br /><br />I guess my colleagues got tired of my moaning, so I'm delighted to introduce <a href="http://local.google.co.uk/">Google Local UK</a> and <a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/">Google Maps UK</a>. The Google UK office and a few of us homesick Brits in California have been helping out with the development.<br /><br /> <span style="font-style:italic;">Engineer</span>: Why are the streets in the UK such a mess?<br /><br /> <span style="font-style:italic;">Me:</span> Sadly, the ancient Britons, Romans and Vikings had a different idea of urban planning than do we moderns.<br /><br /> <span style="font-style:italic;">Product Manager:</span> Manchester's not that important, is it?<br /><br /> <span style="font-style:italic;">Me:</span> It is if you're a Mancunian! (So watch it, lad.)<br /><br />Give it a go: your <a href="http://local.google.co.uk/local?q=fish+and+chips&near=Plymouth">fish and chips in Plymouth</a>, <a href="http://local.google.co.uk/local?q=theatres&near=Piccadilly+Circus">theatres near Piccadilly Circus</a>, and <a href="http://local.google.co.uk/local?q=haggis&near=Inverness">haggis in Inverness</a> await.<br /><br />P.S. We Brits also love our text messaging, so all this info (and more) can be found on the go by texting your (UK) queries via <a href="http://sms.google.co.uk/">Google SMS</a>.

Google does Grimsby, Gateshead and Glasgow

Posted by Richard Boardman, Usability AnalystSometimes it's hard being a Brit in Silicon Valley. Have you tried to find a decent pint, authentic fish and chips or well-made bowler hats in northern Cal…

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A bun gartetg!

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Sascha Brawer, Software Engineer, Zurich</span><br /><br />Google is already available in <a href="http://www.google.com/help/customize.html#searchlang">104</a> languages, from <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/af/">Afrikaans</a> to <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/zu/">Zulu</a>, but we had no Romansh. It's an old tongue that's still spoken in valleys in the Swiss Alps. Only about one percent of Swiss people can speak it, but even so it's one of the country's four official languages. Romansh is in the same family as Spanish or Italian, but looks more daunting because of the long sequences of consonants. For example, "image search" becomes "tschertga da maletgs."<br /><br />So we threw a party in <a href="http://www.google.ch/jobs/">Zurich</a> and asked people fluent in Romansh to translate text like "I'm feeling lucky." (They found this particularly hard to translate, and settled on "A bun gartetg," which is more or less "on good luck"). And now there is <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/rm/">Google in Romansh</a>. Why do we bother? Call us obsessive, but we like it when everyone can use Google in their native language.

A bun gartetg!

Posted by Sascha Brawer, Software Engineer, ZurichGoogle is already available in 104 languages, from Afrikaans to Zulu, but we had no Romansh. It's an old tongue that's still spoken in valleys in the …

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