Google translates Bangla languages

Google has expanded its free internet translation service to include Bangla, one of the most spoken languages in the world, reports AFP.

Bangla language is spoken in Bangladesh, West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam.

Translation of the newly added language was in "alpha" form meaning that there was polishing to be done, Google research scientist Ashish Venugopal said in a blog post.

"If you notice incorrect or missing translations for any of our languages, please correct us; we enjoy learning from our mistakes and your feedback helps us graduate new languages from alpha status," Venugopal said.

Gujarati, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu languages, spoken in India, were also added to Google Translate, bringing to 63 the number of languages supported by the California-based firm's online service.

"We hope that the launch of these new alpha languages will help you better understand the Indic web and encourage the publication of new content in Indic languages," he added.

Google also made software for fonts used in the languages available for download.

Web address boom could be search engine boon

Afp, San Francisco

The decision to open the internet to a flood of Web addresses ending in anything from company names to social movements could prove a boon to search engines.

The internet's global coordinator on Monday approved the creation of website addresses ending in just about any word, triggering one of the biggest ever shake-ups in how the web operates.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) voted overwhelmingly for the proposal at a meeting in Singapore despite fears the shift would cause some confusion and favor large companies.

The change shouldn't make it tougher to scour the internet for what people seek, according to internet search giant Google and its rival Bing.

"Google is experienced in ranking and returning web pages, regardless of top-level domain (TLD)," Google told AFP, referring to the code after the second dot in web addresses, such as .com, .gov and .org.

"If the best result is on a non-traditional domain, we still intend to return that page to our users," the California-based firm said.

Microsoft online services division senior director Adam Sohn said that freeing constraints on the endings of Web addresses will have "not much" of an impact on the company's Bing search engine.

"When you look at how search is done, the domains do not have a big impact... On the consumer side, people search using keywords or names, not domains," he said.

On the back end, or indexing side, search services examine content, links, and myriad other "signals" to rank pages in search results.

The new domain names could drive more traffic to search engines, as more users rely on them to navigate the amalgam of domain names.

"We feel that the decision to allow anyone to start their own top-level domain has the potential for widespread user confusion," Google said.

"In order to sort out this confusion, TLDs might actually cause users to turn to search engines more often."

The $185,000 price for companies or organizations to apply for generic TLDs of their choosing could reduce the explosion of Web addresses.

However, companies will be under pressure to buy the domain names just to make sure they control Web addresses related to their brands or images.

ICANN chairman Peter Thrush told reporters the new naming system will be a "tremendous opportunity for people to take control of this aspect of their branding and develop it in their own way."

Industry observers say global giants such as Apple, Toyota and BMW could be in the vanguard of launching websites with their own domain names, ending in ".apple", ".toyota" and ".bmw". Cities or trademark holders may do the same.

"Bottom line -- the new names will almost certainly mean nothing special to search engines," Danny Sullivan of news blog Search Engine Land said in an online post. "They won't have any super ranking powers."

ICANN has spent years crafting a guide for approving applications for any suggested top level domains.

The process encountered controversy after the United States expressed interest in having veto power to preclude the creation of top level domains such as .gay that might be blocked in some countries.

"It was a suggestion by one government that was never picked up by the others," he told AFP. "It never got out of the gossip phase."

One concern was that countries blocking entire domains could lead to a balkanization of the Internet.

But Thrush dismissed the worry, reasoning that adult content is on the Internet regardless of what letters come at the end of websites.

"The issue is the content, which is exactly the same," Thrush said. "It doesn't change if a website becomes .gay."

YouTube India to Showcase One Blockbuster Movie Every Month

Google India today announced Box Office, a new YouTube channel that where you’ll be able to watch a new blockbuster movie every month.
The movie channel is now live at youtube.com/boxoffice .
Google made a relatively low-key announcement on Twitter this afternoon about Box Office but it is still an important development.

YouTube Box Office provides Indian viewers an opportunity to watch the new and popular Bollywood movies in full HD (1080p) from anywhere – you don’t need a credit card, movies never expire and all you need is adecent Internet connection and abrowser with Flash player (sorry iPad users).
The movie producers should be feeling lucky as well because of all the advertising dollars that Google must be sharing with the them.

The Box Office channel is sponsored by Intel and, unlike any other video on YouTube, these movies include 15-second video ads that play after every 10 minutes of the movie. Thus, a 2-hour long movie (Indian films are often longer) can easily have 10-12 ad breaks and you cannot skip, pause or hide these ads. Good for advertisers and the viewers won’t necessarily mind these short ads.

YouTube India had earlier partnered with Reliance Big Picture to showcase Salman Khanstarrer Dabangg on YouTube – the experiment was mostly a success but the movie is no longer available on YouTube.

How to Upload a Video to YouTube

Do you want to be able to share your videos with friends, family, and perfect strangers? Well you can with the video sharing website Youtube. Here's how to do it.

• Go to YouTube
• Create an account if you do not already have one. Or go onto the next step if you already have an account.
• Log into your account.
• Click the "Upload" button on the top of the homepage. It's to the right of the search bar, next to Browse.
• Choose a video file. YouTube currently (4/11/2009) accepts these video formats:

.AVI (Audio Video Interleaved)
.3GP (cell phones)
.MOV (Mac)
.MP4 (iPod/PSP)
.MPEG or .MPG (Motion Picture Experts Group)
.FLV (Adobe Flash)
.SWF (Shockwave Flash)
.M4V (h.264)
.WMV (Windows Media Video)

•  Click the Upload Video button. Click "Browse" to search for a video on your computer. When you find the video file, click Upload Video.
• Enter the details required, the title of the video, the description of the video, what category the video should be in and the tags. Optionally, you can fill in the Broadcast Options, the Date and Map Options and the Sharing Options.
• Hit Save button and your title, description, etc. will be saved when your video has completed uploading. When the bar fills, you have posted a video on YouTube!

 

How to Save & Edit YouTube Videos

YouTube is one of the most popular websites in the world today. It is even the second biggest search engine, with millions of people using the site to learn how to do things. It is quite easy to save and edit your favorite YouTube videos. Download YouTube Downloader, Freecorder 4 or YouTube Grabber (see References) and install the program. These free tools will allow you to download YouTube videos.

Go to YouTube and select a video you want to save and edit.

Go to the "Start" menu on your computer and open up the YouTube Downloader or one of the other programs mentioned. The URL of the video will appear in the application. Click "OK." The video will download to your computer.
 

Click on "Convert Video" on the YouTube Downloader, find the video on your desktop, select "WMV" and click "OK." It is necessary that you do this so that the clip works with the movie editing program that you have on your computer. 

Wait for the video to convert. It should take a few minutes depending on the size of the video you have downloaded.

Go to the "Start" menu and select "Windows Movie Maker." Select "File" and "Import Video." Find the video that you converted.

Select the video from the list of files. Drag and drop the video to the timeline below. After the file is at the timeline, you can simply drag the cursor to the desired location and split your video into sections. You can add text to the video, clip the video or combine it with another one.

select a video you want to save and edit.

Go to the "Start" menu on your computer and open up the YouTube Downloader or one of the other programs mentioned. The URL of the video will appear in the application. Click "OK." The video will download to your computer.
 

Click on "Convert Video" on the YouTube Downloader, find the video on your desktop, select "WMV" and click "OK." It is necessary that you do this so that the clip works with the movie editing program that you have on your computer.
 

Wait for the video to convert. It should take a few minutes depending on the size of the video you have downloaded.

Go to the "Start" menu and select "Windows Movie Maker." Select "File" and "Import Video." Find the video that you converted. 

Select the video from the list of files. Drag and drop the video to the timeline below. After the file is at the timeline, you can simply drag the cursor to the desired location and split your video into sections. You can add text to the video, clip the video or combine it with another one.

Save YouTube Videos to Your Favorites

Save YouTube Videos to Your Favorites

 

Load a video page that you want to save.

Click 'Save to Favorites.' 

 

Make sure the 'Favorites' box is checked, and then hit 'OK'. You may also choose Playlist from the pull-down menu and save the video to a specific Favorites category you have previously created. If you need more help understanding Favorites and Playlists, visit the YouTube Help Center 'How Do I Make A Playlist?' page.
 Click 'My Account' followed by 'Favorite Videos' at any time to access all your saved content.

Save YouTube Videos to Your QuickList

Go to the YouTube home page(see the Resources section below.)

Click 'Log In' and type in your account information.

Browse the vast array of video content. When you find a video that interests you, click either the image or the text to load the video's page.

Click the '+' symbol that appears in the video. This automatically saves the video to a 'QuickList.' You can file videos in your 'QuickList' into 'Favorites' or other Playlist categories at a later date. A QuickList just allows you to quickly bookmark and save the video.