Tim Wang's eLearning Blog

Ok, first the “Desktop Search)”, then “Input Method Editor”, Google really wants a piece of Microsoft's OS pie. It's "Desktop Strategy" is helping Google to gain ground in the client-side applications. Google China launched the Google Chinese Input Method Editor (IME) to allow users to input Chinese without using the OS built-in inputing system. It's a free software which can be downloaded as any other standard Google tools. Input method editors allow writers to write in Chinese characters using the alphabet keyboard. According to Google China officials, Google is considering to develop IMEs for other languages at the moment.

According to Google, the Google Chinese IME will benefit from millions of searched keywords on Google to deliver more precise and versatile character combinations. This means it would save valuable correction time when typing Chinese using standard alphabet keyboard.

One unique feature of the Google Chinese IME is that it can be linked to a Gmail account, enabling users to customize a Chinese IME and have a personal dictionary that can follow them even when they log on from other computers.

The tool was made available yesterday afternoon and it was immediately tested by many users. So far the users find Google Chinese IME is quite advanced in the following areas:

- Precise character delivers when typing long sentences in Pinyin (Chinese Alphabet Pronunciation System). Some Chinese IMEs are weak when typing character combinations that are long than 4 characters.

- Its vast database of keywords, accumulated from its search services include many modern vocabularies really makes the typing more efficient.

- Google Chinese IME has a unique error correction function which helps to correct human errors when typing the alphabets (e.g. A miss-typed Pinyin like “tign” will be automatically corrected to “ting”).

- The fuzzy logic behind the inputing is more intelligent than other Chinese IMEs.

- It supports inputs for both simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese characters.

- Users can create “customized shortcuts” to get the often used character combinations.

- It also support stroke inputing methods in case users don't know the exact Pinyin for the desired word.

- Its English/Chinese dictionary is quite powerful.