A little over a week and a half ago, a number of bloggers spotted a new feature in Google search for languages that use non-Latin scripts: virtual keyboards that make typing search queries in these languages easier. Today, Google officially announced that it will make virtual keyboards a default feature on Google search for 35 languages, including Russian, Turkish, Persian, Greek, Thai, Icelandic, Finnish and Swedish.
According to Google product manager Manish Bhargava, these virtual keyboards don’t just come in handy when your real keyboard is broken. The company’s research has shown that many users are “are more comfortable formulating search queries in their own language but have difficulty typing these queries into Google.” Today, many users who use keyboards that weren’t designed for typing in their language end up copying and pasting terms from other sites.
Now, Google will put a virtual keyboard next to the search bar on 35 non-English versions of its search engine. This will make it a lot easier for Google’s users to search in their native languages, even if they are using a standard keyboard that is meant to be used for writing in English, for example. You can find a full list of the 35 supported languages here.
If your language isn’t supported yet (there are no virtual keyboards for Nepali and Scottish Gaelic yet, for example), you can vote for your own language here.
