In recognition of the ongoing regional integration and growing prominence of local languages on the internet, Google on Wednesday unveiled localized versions of Gmail, Google Maps and Google Chrome, bringing Swahili to each of these products.

Google’s announcement coincides with the commencement of the East Africa Community Common Market, a significant milestone for the people of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi, which will create new opportunities for the free movement of capital, goods, services and persons across East Africa.

“The Internet offers so many opportunities, and we want to make the Internet more relevant and useful to East Africans. Being able to use products like Chrome, Gmail and Maps in Swahili means that our users will now have a much better experience of the web in their day-to-day lives,” Joe Mucheru, Google Lead for Sub Saharan Africa said in Nairobi on Wednesday.

The Chairman of the Kiswahili and African Languages Department at Kenyatta University in Nairobi , Dr Leonard Chacha Mwita, said that Swahili accounts for the over 120 million speakers in the common markets, or nearly 20 percent of indigenous language speakers in Africa.

“Swahili uniquely conveys much of our shared culture, is the lingua franca used in day-to-day interaction across borders, is one of the languages of the African Union and is becoming an increasingly important part of the internet fabric in Africa,” added Chacha at same function.

“Such locally-relevant web tools will no doubt foster integration by enabling East Africans to communicate, learn and work together with greater ease,” he added.

Google said is focusing on making the internet more relevant and useful to Africans by creating more African content online; raising awareness among consumers and businesses about the opportunities offered by the internet; and developing products that are locally meaningful.

The company said that efforts in the past year to strengthen web developer communities include training for hundreds of developers and entrepreneurs at Google events in Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria and Mauritius.

Google currently has offices in Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal.

Joseph Kimani