The Norway bombing, foreign languages and real time search
Posted by Celia Walter | 26 Jul, 2011The Norway bombing and shooting shows us that there is a need
for search solutions that let you follow foreign language news and
social web streams in real time.
By Per and Susanne Koch of Pandia
...
Following the news of the attacks from the US has been an interesting experience. And there is a lesson here for the search engines and the social media.
First of all, it turns out that the search engine giant Google has not been our main source of information. Since Google abandoned its deal with Twitter, the search engine’s ability to deliver real time search results has been seriously weakened. Using Google Web search to find up to date news about the bombing and shooting has therefore been less than useful. Google News Norway has been helpful, but the American version — which is relying on traditional English language news sources — was always several hours behind the latest happenings.
Note that Bing continues to deliver search results from Twitter, and that search engine can be used to follow the discussion going on over there.
- SMS texting remains the main means of communication when you are on the other side of the globe, and the police asked the citizens of Oslo to restrain the use of the mobile network. We have used SMS to make sure our friends are OK.
- Susanne has followed Facebook and the exchange of messages over there. Norwegians have been using Facebook to check in and report that they are safe, check in on friends and family and to cope with the trauma. Google+ is too young to make any difference there.
- Twitter has been very useful. A search for Oslo or various tags like #oslo and #osloexpl helped us keep track of the latest development, also regarding which news channels to follow.
- The Norwegian news media was, for obvious reasons, far ahead of the English language media. We therefore accessed the web sites of Norwegian newspapers and TV channels, and listed in to the Web streams of Norwegian radio stations.
The last point brings us to the main message of this post. There is a need for tools that can provide real time translation of foreign language news sources in times of crisis.
Google is getting there. The company has spent a lot of money on improving Google Translate and has even started including non-English search results in English language searches (and in other combinations for non-English language Google sites). The Chrome browser will also ask you if you want a translation if you find an interesting web page in another language.
What we are missing is a way of searching the native language news and social media streams during a crisis. To turn such a feature on permanently would result in too much noise and too much information, but it would be extremely useful when your local media is lagging behind due to language differences...
From Pandia blog
Pandia is a Norwegian project