Google Intros India Labs, Services

Google India has reportedly announced India specific services, including Google Local Search and Google Local Business Centre. The company has also launched an innovation platform for India named Google India Labs.

Google Local Search is meant for Indian users to search for locally relevant information on the Web. With this tool, they can find information on local restaurants, shops, malls, hotels, other businesses by searching on http://local.google.co.in.

Whereas with Google Local Business Centre, even small businesses can add their information to Google Local for free.

The two products are meant to be mutually useful to consumers and businesses; providing one the information, and the latter the required visibility on the Web.

Meanwhile, Google describes it's Google India Labs, launched under the sub-domain labs.google.co.in, as a 'technology playground' for products in the process of development needing market feedback for improvement.

The innovations showcased will be specifically for the Indian market though they might come from any of the Google offices across the globe, the company said. Google says globally, it has 7 such labs panning across the US, China, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and now India.

For starters, Google India Labs will showcase 2 India-centric products.
The one, the Indic On-Screen Keyboard iGoogle Gadget offering users the ability to type search queries in 14 Indic languages.

All they need do is choose letters from an on-screen keyboard by using a mouse. They would be able to add the gadget of their chosen language to their personalized iGoogle home page, and use it to search for content in their language.

The other product, Google Indic Transliteration (http://www.google.com/transliterate/indic/), will allow users type in Hindi by using phonetically equivalent English text entered through an English keyboard. With this product, users can create Hindi content and use it in applications of their choice including mails, documents, and so on.