Soon, a search engine with onscreen keyboard

Come January and the country's regional language population would be able to cross over to a new frontier - the English centric world of Internet.

A new software that is being developed promises that even a school drop-out mother can educate her child through Internet and browse millions of Web pages to confirm the advice of her local village `hakim' or find out how she can exercise her rights. Instead of waiting for keyboards to be launched in regional languages, Delhi- based Indicus NetLabs Pvt Ltd has initiated project Raftaar, a search engine in the Hindi language with an inbuilt on-screen Hindi keyboard. This makes it easier for semi literate people to click the mouse on the corresponding Hindi alphabets on the screen. In time, Raftaar has the potential to become the language version of Google.

While search engines in various languages have been introduced earlier, the need for users to be adept in English renders them practically of little value to those they are targeted at. With the new software, all one needs to do is log on to the Web site after which the on-screen keyboard in the Indian language will take its users into the digital world of information.

Tie-ups

The company has already tied up with the matrimonial Web site `Jeevan Sathi' to use its tool and is also in talks with other service providers. It is also in talks with the Government to use its software, which could provide the users all the information within the specific department as well as other data that is applicable to the search. While Hindi is the first language it is to be introduced in, Indicus plans to have the software available in other languages soon.

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