So, do you blog in Indic Languages ? I do, at times. I was using Blogger.com for this, because, only blogger had the transliteration feature. Now, that we have this extremely useful plugin for wordpress, I can leave blogspot and come back to WordPress.

What is Google’s Transliteration ?

Google Indic Transliteration offers an option for converting Roman characters to the Devanāgarī characters used in Hindi. This lets you type Hindi 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 “hamesha” transliterates into Hindi as:

Yes, you heard it right. You type it in Hinglish or Manglish, google will transliterate it in to Hindi, or Malayalam. You do not need to know anything about typing in those languages. ( Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu )

Google Indic Transliteration WordPress Plugin

So, here is the plugin. It’s called “Google Indic Transliteration WordPress Plugin”. The plugin is still under development, it works only on HTML mode ( on your wordpress dashboard ) at the moment. But, wait for more, you will see it getting better soon.

Author’s Website Plugin Homepage Download Now

Languages Supported : Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu

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I know I don’t have enough experience in Malayalam blogging to actually get in to writing a review about it. These are my random thoughts on writing in Malayalam or few notes on what I am doing there.

(1) I am still trying to learn to type in good Manglish that Blogger will understand, in order to transliterate it in to Malayalam words.

(2) I do not know how Google will index blogs in Mayalam or any language other than English. I am still at zero on SEO ( Search Engine Optimization ) in Indic languages including Malayalam.

(3) 99% of Malayalam blogs are on blogger.com ( or blogspot ) and there are only very few people who actually try it with WordPress.com or wordpress.org

(4) There is a good community of Malayalam bloggers.

(5) There is lot of serious blogging happening. They are discussing politics,history,international issues,poetry,culture.. and lot of serious topics.

(6) Malayalam blogging community is trying everything possible to get more people in to Malayalam blogging.

(7) Most of the Malayalam blogs are 100% in Malayalam.

(8) I am yet to see someone who is trying to make money through blogging.

(9) I need to personally ask Malayalam bloggers if they are satisfied with what they get on Blogger.com

(10) I will try to bring them to WordPress.