Google+

Ok, I will be first person to admit I wasn't the biggest fan of Google+ when it came out. But despite all criticism thrown at it, it seems to have come out of that early phase and is slowly and steadily increasing its user base. With the addition of Google Pages, business of all size and popular websites are creating their pages on it. Looks like Google+ is here to stay. But how long before companies start touting their Google addresses publicly, in advertisements, in theaters, on TV? Google still has a long way to before it catches up with Facebook, but do we even know if its gaining on it? For example, how many of you have dumped Facebook in favor of Google+ yet? Not many I bet. The only reason I've seen people *really* switch is because they can't stand Facebook, and it's ok. Having 1000+ friends and gradually becoming overly-social can take its toll. But those users are a minority.

What Google+ is great at, admittedly, is gathering new followers. People add me almost daily over there. How many of them are spam bots, I'm not sure though. I love Google as a platform. I love Gmail, I use it all the time. Google Calendar is what drives my iPhone. Google Reader, Images, Videos, Scholar, you name it I use it. But what innovation will Google bring via Google+ that Facebook won't replicate soon, and present it to its much larger user base? But I bet Google has a great plan for it going forward. We'll just have to wait and watch.

Google launches Urdu transliteration service

I found out about the Google's Urdu Transliteration service today via a tweet from Badar Khushnood. I spent some time using it, and must say it does an excellent job of converting roman urdu into the native script. Some phrases that were converted flawlessly were:

Dekh magar pyar se - دیکھ مگر پیار سے

Naach na jaanay aangan tairha - ناچ نہ جانے آنگن ٹھیڑھا

Dil kay behlanay to Ghalib yeh khayaal acha hay - دل کے بہلانے کو غالب یہ خیال اچھا ہے

Daant tor diyay yaar - دانت توڑ دیے یار

No pattern to the aforementioned phrases btw, just some stuff I wrote off the top of my head :)

Interestingly, when you write "Daant tor" and specifically "tor" it converts it to a tor with a TOEY (ط) and not a TAY(ت). Pressing backspace, it offers more options ... one of which is tor with a TAY. Try it. Cool stuff. There were, however, some inconsistencies. For example, Umer works fine (عمر), Umar doesn't (امر); Abbas converts to ابباس; Nisar converts to نصر; but like I said, if you press backspace it offers more options including the correct one.

Some minor glitches, but nothing that cannot be improved upon later. For the most part, the transliteration engine rocks and converts most common phrases and words without a problem (case in point, bhains ki taang - بھینس کی ٹانگ) lol ! All in all, nicely done Google.