Tech giant Google announces second edition of Indian languages programme

Tech giant Google on Thursday announced the second edition of its Indian languages programme (ILP) with a focus on providing next-generation tools for newsrooms working with Indic languages.

The ILP 2.0 will be delivered in nine languages including English, Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Malayalam, Gujarati, and Marathi, and will have eight sessions featuring guest speakers, success stories, and product-focused training.

It will also have personalised assessment and guidance for all selected news publishers.

Google has partnered with Gurugram-based content distribution and digital services firm Mediology for the initiative.

The Indian Languages Programme 1.0 sought to modernise the online presence of Indian language news publishers and enhance user experiences across web, app, and video formats.

Launched in 2023, the Indian Languages Programme supported local news publications in India. Google provided technical support, access to training, and funding to improve digital operations and maximise the digital reach of regional publications.

The second edition of the programme will now introduce the news consumer insights and real-time content insights dashboards, helping publishers with real-time audience analysis and in delivering data-driven content.

Further, the initiative will also provide a pinpoint research tool for journalists, enabling them to harness Google's search and AI technology to explore vast document collections.

For its cloud customers, the programme will also provide an option to optimise news publisher content and enhance discoverability through generative artificial intelligence-based automatic categorisation and tagging.

Under ILP 2.0, the tech giant said that it will focus on “minimising the impact on website functionality and advertising by addressing the phasing out of third-party cookies.”

Google said that the first edition of the programme led to a 56 per cent surge in digital ad revenue and a 53 per cent increase in total page views for news publishers.

The ILP 1.0 also created a 30 per cent growth in active users for these platforms and an improved user experience with a 91 per cent surge in page speed insights, said the company.

“A 100 per cent of news publishers are now using analytics, enabling data-driven decision-making,” said Google elaborating on the success of the first edition of the programme.