Google comes to SA

BTTB

BTTB

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http://www.news24.com/News24/Technology/News/0,,2-13-1443_1647463,00.html

Google comes to SA
14/01/2005 14:48 - (SA)

Cape Town - Google has launched a South African version of its popular search service.

South African users typing www.google.com into their browsers now get redirected to www.google.co.za, offering search results in English, Afrikaans, Sesotho, Zulu and Xhosa.

The new service allows users to conduct keyword searches of the entire world web, or pages on South African websites only.

Search results can also be delivered in the language of the user's choice.

The new development is likely to put pressure on local web directories and search engine services, which up until now have survived unchallenged by large international search engines.

Google spokespeople were not immediately available for comment.
 
I noticed that today, so I changed my bookmark to http://216.239.39.99 and added google.co.za and searched on both. I concluded that there's no difference except the fact that the google.co.za local search seems a lot better than local search engine offerings.

Interesting stuff - but didn't much like the hi-jack of the domain name using obviously a local top level DNS entry. Very clever, but not very trustworthy.
 
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I could not agree more, I have often thought the reason Google didn't have a .za arm is somehow largely due to Telkom and their overcharging for bandwidth - especially when some of our closest neighbours (like swaziland .sz) have had local google for yonks.

I gave up on the likes of ananzi ages back when it was obvious they were not keeping things updated, so I started googling using
+site:co.za
+site:za
and similar variations. The problem is, it fails when you have an SA site with tld of .com, .net, .biz, .info... Hopefully google.co.za will solve that problem.
 
BTTB said:
The new development is likely to put pressure on local web directories and search engine services, which up until now have survived unchallenged by large international search engines.
Click to expand...

Uh "pressure" is an understatement. Google will gain 90%+ market share very quickly.
 
I'm Feeling Lucky translated as 'Kansvatterkortpad' LOL!

And it didn't automatically redirect me, it gave me a big option on the google homepage.

" Xhousea " - what the hell is Xhousea? IGoogle ayikwazi ukubhala...
 
Finally, we can all walk around with our WiFi'd-PDAs & 3G phones, homepage set to www.google.co.za, and we can attempt to translate to/from the other official languages.

Now that I made the mistake of clicking on "Xhousea", I seem to be stuck in a language that I don't understand, all the buttons say things I don't understand, must I search & destroy that cockie bcos it is stuck there after a reload & completely new window...

<really_confused>
Bonisa amacebiso nemiyalezo ye Google kwi: Bork,bork,bork!
Click to expand...
That's from the languages drop-down in incomprehensible options, what language is "Bork,bork,bork!" ??? :confused:​
</really_confused>
 
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Google will never host here, since they don't even host any datacenters outside the US. Over the SAT-3 link its pretty fast anyways.
 
Seriously need some help, do you see English somewhere in this lot?

:eek:
Code: 
Armenian
Bork,bork,bork!
Breton
Elmer Fudd
Guarani
Hacker
Interlingua
Isi-Albania
Isi-Amharic
Isi-Arabic
Isi-Azerbaijani
Isi-Basque
Isi-Belarusian
Isi-Bengali
Isi-Bihari
Isi-Bosnia
Isi-Bulgaria
Isi-Calatan
Isi-Chinese (Esenziwe lula)
Isi-Chinese (Sesiko)
Isi-Croatia cs">Isi-Czech 
Isi-Danish 
Isi-Dutch 
Isi-Esperanto 
Isi-Estonian 
Isi-Faroese 
Isi-Finnish 
Isi-French 
Isi-Frisian 
Isi-Galician 
Isi-Georgia 
Isi-German 
Isi-Greek 
Isi-Gujarati 
Isi-Hebrew 
Isi-Hindi 
Isi-Hungarian 
Isi-Icelandic 
Isi-Indonesian 
Isi-Irish 
Isi-Italian 
Isi-Japanese 
Isi-Javanese 
Isi-Kannada 
Isi-Korean 
Isi-Latin 
Isi-Latvian 
Isi-Lithuanian 
Isi-Macedonian 
Isi-Malay 
Isi-Malayalam 
Isi-Maltese 
Isi-Marathi 
Isi-Nepali 
Isi-Norwegia (Nynorsk) 
Isi-Norwegian 
Isi-Persia 
Isi-Polish 
Isi-Portuguese (Portugal) 
Isi-Punjabi 
Isi-Romanian 
Isi-Russian 
Isi-Serbia 
Isi-Sinhalese 
Isi-Slovak 
Isi-Slovenian 
Isi-Spanish 
Isi-Sudanese 
Isi-Swahili 
Isi-Swedish 
Isi-Taglog 
Isi-Tamil 
Isi-Telegu 
Isi-Thai 
Isi-Tigrinya 
Isi-Turkish 
Isi-Ukranian 
Isi-Uzbek 
Isi-Vietnamese 
Isi-Welsh 
Isibhulu 
Isingesi 
Iso-Occitan 
Klingon 
Kurdish 
Kyrgyz 
Laothian 
Mongolian 
Oriya 
Pig Latin 
portokugusseee 
Scots Gaelic 
Serbo-Croatian 
Sesotho 
Sindhi 
Somali 
Turkmen 
Twi 
Uighur 
Urdu 
Xhousea 
Yiddish 
ZOuloa
 
Isingesi is English, isibhulu is afrikaans.

Bork, bork, bork is ripping off some accent, but I can't tell which. Irish maybe?
 
Ok thanks, it is now comprehensible again

Flippit Isingesi is indeed English :) thank all that is good in this world, I can understand Google again :) Certainly a mistake I will avoid making again.

Xhousea == Xhosa?
 
wamatt said:
Google will never host here, since they don't even host any datacenters outside the US. Over the SAT-3 link its pretty fast anyways.
Click to expand...
Ok, do Telkom make an exception then for some sites (i.e. Google.com) when international ADSL cap kicks in, yes?

I hope WBS are listening to what I hope the answer will be...
 
stepper said:
They probably had a yank to do that page and he/she didn't bother to get the right spelling.
Click to expand...
Ok, that explains it then.

I know I would struggle to search the web if I didn't google in English, but access to information (well apart from affordable access to the internet itself) will be so much easier now with google support for more official languages, a major leap forward I hope :)
 
Heh no problem ic, although google in xhosa would have taught you some basics of the language, and that's always useful, isn't it?

Xa uyandiqonda, bhala ngaphantsi. Ndifuna ukubona abantu abangaphi ababhala.

Hope that's right?
 
Flippit said:
...Xa uyandiqonda, bhala ngaphantsi. Ndifuna ukubona abantu abangaphi ababhala...
Click to expand...
1 small problem Google's language tools doesn't have Xhosa<-->English, please translate.

Maybe one day when I'm Feewing Wucky, I will try learning new languages, just a bit early in the morning to start right now ;)

PS: Who actually understands Klingon?
 
Flippit said:
Xa uyandiqonda, bhala ngaphantsi. Ndifuna ukubona abantu abangaphi ababhala.

Hope that's right?
Click to expand...

Direct translation: If u understand me, write below (or under). I want to see how many people write

U wanted to say: Xa undiqonda, bhala phantsi. Ndifuna ukubona bangaganani abantu ababhalayo isiXhosa.

I hope its what u wanted to say in the first place.
PS: Not Xhosa myself!
 
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