Google have released thier own web browser. It is called Google Chrome.
I am writing this blog using Google chrome as my browser. For the last few days the interntional media have been busy discussing Google Chrome and reviewing it. So i will just make a quick observation that i find it visually appealing with its modern looks. In good old Google style there is little clutter and it has the essentials and looks good.
Konrad is already looking at localising the interface into Māori, as i would imagine many other groups around the world are who are not automatically included in the default 48 languages.
There are copious articles on the web describing the possible strategic direction that Google is taking to become a dominant player in that area and even possibly seriously compete with Microsoft. As an observer, this has been obvious for many years with all of Googles web apps and initiatives.
In light of the internatioanl requirements to have localisation of software and the highly difficult task to localise, i see Google Chrome will quickly become the dominant web browser for non English speaking cultures.
Google Chrome is currently still in Beta, so it will not be too long before Google intergrates the translation pools into localised versions of Chrome thus offering a fully browser, search engine and a myriad of web apps all available in localised languages. Considering the following statistics Microsoft should be worried.
There are over 6,911 non English languages spoken in the world. In ASia Pacific alone, more than half of the worlds languages 3579 are spoken.
One just needs to consider the top 14 languages spoken in the world.
Mandarin 873 million
Hindi 450 million
English 341 million
Spanish 320 million
Arabic 250 million
Portuguese 177.5 million
Bengali 171 million
Japanese 122 million
German 100 million
Punjabi 88 million
French 79,572,000
Javanese 75. 5 million
Korean 74 million
Vietnamese 67.4 million
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