Swahili Facebook launched.
Facebook has launched a Swahili language version of its super popular social network this week. Swahili is spoken by over 100 million people in Eastern and Central Africa making it one of the largest languages on the continent. This continues the trend for technology companies like Google and Microsoft who have also built Swahili versions of their offerings. It also means that Facebook, which is one of the most popular web sites in Africa is making sure it reaches as many users as possible, globally. Facebook is already available in over 50 other languages to-date, and growing. In my opinion, Facebook could easily become a preferrred internet-based platform for Swahili language content, on a global basis. In Kenya, where Swahili is widely spoken, Facebook is already the 4th most popular web site – this is bound to increase as more Swahili speakers go online to access the web site. For the full story on BBC, go here>
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4 Comments
How cool it is to have swahili recognised globally like this
Good article, will be very ncie to chat and have a social tool in our home language. I’ve been ploughin through the net trying to find out how i can access Swahili Facebook but no success. I’ve checked my Facebook language settings, but swahili isn’t on the ‘drop down’ list.
Anyone help???
We noted that there was need for harmonization of the terminology especially for acceptability of the the same by the target users. We thus released the pre-verified version and sought verification from the target through crowdsourcing. To access it, click on Settings , click on My ACcount, Click on Language, the translation apllication. Click Allow then on the page that opens, choose Kiswahili. To revert to English, use the translation application which appears as a tool at the Facebook Applications Bar (Near the Status Bar).
Techno-people come up with great ideas recently! Translating Fb into Swahili is one of them and another one is creating mobile translation. I use the internet on my phone and not on my home PC and it is quite nice to translate texts and send emails by using one and the same Interlecta (that is the application I use).