Posted on April 1, 2010 by by valerirojas

Google Maps just got smarter with their new generation of language translation technology (OCCA) developed and tested locally in the Google Sydney office. (OCCA) stands for Optimise for Colloquial Cultural Articulation.

Language and translation is a major focus of our work at Google because it’s so intimately connected to our mission of making the world’s information accessible to all. Australia, with its highly idiomatic local language, was found to be a perfect test bed for the next generation of language translation technology developed locally in the Sydney office. By synthesising millions of aggregated search inputs from Australians as well as scanning 23 seasons of Home and Away scripts, we are able to Optimise for Colloquial Cultural Articulation (OCCA) – which means our products can now be tailored specifically for the typical Strayan user.

To give you an example, we already know that if someone searches for ‘cricket’ in Australia they’re more likely interested in the sport than the insect. With our new OCCA framework, we can now go further and tell that if an Aussie searches on “automatic wiki”, they’re probably referring to the automatic wicket keeper common in backyard cricket and not an automatically updated bulletin board or “wiki”.

OCCA greatly reduces the latency between a user’s thought and ability to pinpoint information; a boon for local users who’d have Buckleys makin’ sense of American English.

Google Maps

Find out more about it at Google  OCCA

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