Google launches alliance for Indian language content on the Web

Google Inc on Tuesday launched the Indian Language Internet Alliance — a partnership involving dozens of publishers — in an aim to boost Indic language content that would boost demand for the internet and indirectly aid its search business.

Google Inc on Tuesday launched the Indian Language Internet Alliance (ILIA) — a partnership involving dozens of publishers — in an aim to boost Indic language content that would boost demand for the internet and indirectly aid its search business. ILIA aims to serve by 2017 as many as 300 million more Internet users. The current Indian count is estimated at 200 million.

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Rajan Anandan, Google India’s MD said India is poised to overtake the US as the world’s second-biggest Internet market after China in the next 12 months. The alliance will boost everything from “access to content to fonts to monetization,” he added.

Working groups under the alliance are expected to discuss industry standards and partnerships. Google officials clarified there was no commercial agreements under the alliance, and it was open for membership.

The search giant is simultaneously boosting mobile and voice search enabled for Hindi and other languages, said Google’s Indian-born senior vice-president and head of search, Amit Singhal.

Google also launched a new website (www.hindiweb.com), a one-stop portal for Hindi content.