google_transliterationI have held the view that we need to promote Urdu computing and Urdu on the internet with extensive research and development and practical implementation with more and more content put online that is localised and based on Urdu. Here is Google Labs with a fantastic service called “Indic Transliteration“.

Google Indic Transliteration offers an option for converting Roman characters to the Urdu characters. This lets you type Urdu words phonetically in English script and still have them appear in their correct alphabet. Note that this is not the same as translation — it is the sound of the words that are converted from one alphabet to the other, not their meaning.

For example, typing “shukriya” transliterates into Urdu as:

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