Just a few years after launching Google Search in Kiswahili, Google has now launched Google Search in Somali.
Google seeks to enable more Somali speakers to use the Google Search service and this comes just after Somalia elected its first president.
Google has been working with Somali speakers and through Somali translators seeks to keep the translations up to date.
Somali speakers have a huge presence in East Africa, especially Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya. Both Kenya and Ethiopia have regions that are predominantly occupied by the Somali people, in particular the North Eastern province of Kenya and the Ogaden region of Ethiopia.
After the 1991 Somalia Civil war, many Somalis moved to North America and Europe, where they settled. Its estimated that a million plus Somali speaking people live and work in Canada and the USA only. Most of them also happen to communicate with their family and friends back in Somalia via chat especially MSN.
To switch to Google Search in Somali, do the followimg:
- For Somali speakers in Somalia, Ethipia and Djibouti use your country specific domains, i.e. www.google.so/ for Somalia, www.google.com.et/ for Ethiopia and http://www.google.dj/ for Djibouti.
- For speakers of the Somali language in other regions, use the 3 easy steps below:
- Visit www.google.com/preferences and select languages. (Alternatively via your country domain, for example for users in Kenya, www.google.co.ke/preferences )
2. Now select “Somali” from the list of available languages.
3. Save to capture the new language settings.
With this new product, the Google team hopes to increase the value of writing in Somali while providing an opportunity for growth of the Somali language on the internet.
Somalia has a population of about 10 million people, most of who are ethnic Somalis. Interesting to note is that the official languages of Somalia are both Arabic and Somali.
If you would like to switch back to Google Search in English, pick “Ingiriisi” from the list of languages. To switch back to Google Search in Kiswahili look for “Sawaaxili” from the languages list.
Google Search is already available in a number of other African languages, including Yoruba of Nigeria and Zulu of South Africa.
