Search giant Google today announced the launch of Google Maps in Hindi, on its India blog. The Hindi maps will be available on the latest Google Maps app on Android and via desktop browsers. Users will now be able to read name labels of historical monuments, localities, important roads, public parks, schools, etc in both Hindi and English. At present the Hindi labels visible on Google Maps were generated by transliterating the English names into Hindi. Google claims that efforts were made to ensure the text resonates with local dialects. To try out the new maps, desktops users can change their language preferences to Hindi on the Google account settings page or by selecting the “Hindi” option at the bottom of the page on the google.co.in homepage. As for Android users this update applies to Android 4.3 and above. Users need to update the Google Maps app, then select the Hindi option from the “Language and Input” menu in the phone’s settings. The Hindi name labels will be visible directly on the map for cities, localities, important roads, and other popular points of interest like public parks and schools. In the blog post Google mentions that transliteration isn't the most accurate method to capture the nuances of a language, and encourages users to submit corrections through the Report a problem link, visible on the bottom right-hand side of Google Maps or via Google Map Maker. While Google has officially launched Hindi maps today, it looks like Google had been experimenting with this back in 2012.…
