Google, the world’s top search engine, has quietly launched a local version of its website. Since Friday last week, South African web users can now search in four local languages: Afrikaans, Sesotho, isiZulu and Xhosa (but spelled “Xhousea”). It is also possible to search only South African sites, instead of the whole internet.
When you go to Google.com from any computer in South Africa, you will be redirected to Google.co.za.
The site looks very similar to its global sister. It is also possible to search only South African sites, instead of the whole internet.
How it works
“This will not make much difference on the result of the search. The only difference is that the Google page itself appears in, for example, isiZulu,” said Arthur Goldstuck, MD of technology research organisation World Wide Worx.
If you search for the isiZulu word inkomo (cow) on the isiZulu version, you will find the same websites as when the English version is used. The only difference is that the isiZulu site finds two websites from the Czech Republic that do not appear on the English site.
When you look for a recipe for boerewors on the Afrikaans site, Google will still direct you to English sites that feature recipes for the South African delicacy.
Some of the search-engine terms have been interestingly translated. The button “I feel lucky”, which can be used to try to find the right website immediately, is translated as “Kansvatterkortpad” in Afrikaans.
Service or branding?
“The launch of Google South Africa is part of our ongoing effort to make its search services available to people throughout the world,” a Google spokesperson told the Mail & Guardian Online.
The site can now be read in 97 languages, including Thai, Slovenian and Gaelic.
“It is our aim to provide the world’s best search experience on the web, which includes helping users to narrow a search to their home country only, as they can with this new local interface,” the spokesperson said.
“The launch of the South African version is part of Google’s brand-building strategy,” said Goldstuck.
“For a long time, Google has been working on the improvement of their brand in many countries. The fact that they have developed a search bar that can be operated from other websites is part of this strategy.
“For Google, it is quite easy to adapt their site for the South African market. They basically do not have to change their product, but only the language in which their product is brought.
“For other sites, for example eBay [the internet-based auction store], it would be a lot more difficult. They would simply not have the money to adapt their product and their marketing strategy in order to gain profit on the South African market,” Goldstuck said.
According to Goldstuck, it is unlikely that other South African search engines, such as Ananzi and Aardvark, will feel the competition of the South African version of Google.
“There will be some effects, especially for Ananzi, but I think it will be minimal, since Ananzi mainly operates as a web portal,” Goldstuck said.
“I do not think the launch of Google South Africa will have any effect on Aardvark. Aardvark has never been a mayor player and it uses Google technology.”
Google
Google is said to be the largest search engine, used by 81,9-million people every month, and offers users access to eight billion URLs, or web addresses.
It was founded as a small company based in two dorm rooms at Stanford University in California, United States, by Sergey Brin and Larry Page.
The name came from the word “googol”, which is the mathematical term for 1 followed by 100 zeros. Google chose this word as inspiration, because the company has the ambition to organise the immense amount of information available on the web.
At the start of 1998, Google answered 10Â 000 queries a day. A year later, this had grown to 500Â 000 queries a day, and by the end of 2000 this had shot up to 60-million searches a day.
Oddly enough, even cartoon characters can now search the web: Google’s language options also allow for “Elmer Fudd”, with terms translated as “Gwoups” and “Diwectowy”.