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mobility in Thailand
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mobility in Thailand
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Google had also been looking at language and has undertaken a large transliteration project that offers the ability to search in one language, and have answers in another, he said. A lot of the focus has been on the English language, "but when you think of the great Russian or Chinese texts or whatever, if you could go and search in any language for any topic, it gives you a much different window on information."
This was a very complex project, he said, noting that there were two ways you can do it - using a human translator, or using a machine. Google had been working actively on machine translation. "Obviously it's an extremely complex computational problem, and I think the results are encouraging, but not perfect," he said. Asked whether Google was looking at translating to or from Thai, he said "not at this point, but we will. Obviously, for us there's tweaking that has to be done on the rules engine, and so on, but it is something we're experimenting with, but not actually working on now."
Google is also offering mobile search, including SMS search, which is not offered here yet - although he said "we'd better get cracking on this" - as well as map search and search around local listings and local activities. Google has also been promoting a mobile phone platform based on the Linux operating system called Android and has been engaged in bidding for the VHF radio spectrum in the US. A team of Thai developers at the Software Park are working on developing applications for the Android platform, which Kimber characterised as being "where developers can develop open applications for a mobile device in the Thai language."
This would be powerful and will "not require, necessarily, any big companies to come up with the solutions, and as soon as the platform is released you'll have some real Thai applications to work with. And they'll be carrier-independent, operator-independent and device-independent, theoretically. And I think all of those concepts are pretty unusual," he said.
"So, in effect, it's taking the Internet and applying it to the mobile phone. Which will be quite interesting, because I think when you look at how that whole space has been moved and evolved, to be able to have an open platform on mobile will create tremendous innovation and the beauty of it is that it's not just Google doing the innovating, you've got developers out there effectively working on this.
It was the foundation of why the Internet became so great, and open source. It wasn't one particular company having its own way of doing things. It's just really an open set of protocols and away you go.
Calling the spectrum bid in the US "another interesting development", Kimber said "I think a lot of what we're thinking to promote there is the right kind of infrastructure, and the right kind of bid ... so we'll see how we go, but ultimately it's about steering the policy towards a more open world where we can have more innovation and less constraints and lower barriers to entry."
Google has been criticised for agreeing to China's demands for censorship, and I asked Kimber to comment on this: "We have a set of principles and ideals that we value, and then we take a very close look at the local environment and try to work as closely as we can with the local authorities. So, it's a balance between our desire to be as open as possible and the local rules and regulations of any given country. So, for us it's a balance, and we're very keen to operate in all the countries of the world.
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