Google Japanese IME

[Jean-Christophe Helary]

After trying Google Japanese IME for a few days and I think I'm going to revert to Kotoeri.

I suppose my needs are not the same as those of a native speakers of Japanese so I'd like to know what such users think about it before totally abandoning it.



Jean-Christophe Helary
---------------------------------
fun: mac4translators.blogspot.com
work: www.doublet.jp (ja/en > fr)
tweets: @brandelune

[Fred Uleman]

Idle curiosity:

If your needs are not the same, why do you care how useful they find it?

-- -- -- -- -- --
Fred Uleman, translator emeritus

[Graham Chave]

Fred Uleman said on 12/10/2009 2:11 PM:

> Idle curiosity:
>
> If your needs are not the same, why do you care how useful they find it?

Because it's interesting... :-p

Although not a native speaker of Japanese, I have found it very intelligent in its suggestions, but one problem I've noticed is that it doesn't seem to support the use of the 変換 key when used to change the suggested kanji, etc. of text that has already been input. For example when highlighting a search term in google, to switch between 取り組み and 取組. At the moment, I need to re-input the search string from scratch by typing とりくみ. This may of course be attributable to my setup, and I'd be very pleased to hear about a fix.

FWIW.

Graham Chave

[Jean-Christophe Helary]

On 10 déc. 09, at 14:11, Fred Uleman wrote:

> Idle curiosity:
>
> If your needs are not the same, why do you care how useful they find it?

Because I may be missing something obvious since my angle of approach is different.

For ex. When I type a compound and I'm not sure whether it is the correct conversion (like 聞く/聴く/訊く) I like to have the 国語辞典 data as reference and native would use that feature much less often I suppose. Similarly, Kotoeri offers a reverse conversion where Google does not, here again a native speaker has probably less use for such a feature. And most importantly, the conversion I get from Google are not always that bright in my non native opinion...

[Fred Uleman]

Thanks for the enlightening responses to my idle-curiosity question.

[Jim Lockhart]

On Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:09:16 +0900
Fred Uleman wrote:

> Thanks for the enlightening responses to my idle-curiosity question.

Now for mine:

What Google IME? And where can I get it? (Or is it solely for the Chrome
OS?)

I used to test IMEs out all the time (for the reason JCH cited as well
as just out of curiosity, to see how they differed) but finally settled
on MS-IME 2000 (I find the newer versions more annoying than helpful).

--Jim Lockhart
Hachioji, Tokyo

[Jean-Christophe Helary]

On 10 déc. 09, at 15:38, Jim Lockhart wrote:

>> Thanks for the enlightening responses to my idle-curiosity question.
>
> Now for mine:
>
> What Google IME? And where can I get it? (Or is it solely for the Chrome
> OS?)

http://www.google.com/intl/ja/ime/index-mac.html

It seems to be for Mac and Windows only for now. I did not see a Linux version anywhere.

It was discussed here last week when it was first announced.

[Aaron Madlon-Kay]

I can't answer your call for native speakers' opinions, but I'll give
my $0.02.

I use it on Windows at work, and I like the suggestions and the
ability to quickly input proper nouns (especially media-related items,
like game titles).

I also installed it on my Mac at home, but I find it very inconvenient
because it doesn't support switching modes with the caps lock key (my
Mac has a US English keyboard with no dedicated 変換-related keys;
Kotoeri allows me to switch between 半角英数 and ひらがな with the caps lock
key).

Incidentally the Google Chinese IME (for Windows only, unfortunately)
is quite good.

-Aaron Madlon-Kay


On 12月10日, 午後2:01, Jean-Christophe Helary

[Richard Thieme]

I got it just by typing in Google IME on google.

I have just recently started having problems with Word 2003 crashing at
irregular intervals, however, and it started about the same time as I
installed Google IME. I haven't had time to troubleshoot, but I wonder if
anyone else has had this experience (it could well be something else, I am
in need of doing an upgrade, as I have noticed quite a few things out of
whack).

Regards,

Richard Thieme

[Carl Freire]

Jean-Christophe Helary <jean.christ...@gmail.com> wrote:

has probably less use for such a feature. And most importantly, the conversion I get from Google are not always that bright in my non native opinion...

Just for laughs, type in こんにちは and look at the second suggestion on the list.

Assuming it hasn't changed in the last three days.

Carl

 

*****

Carl Freire
cfr...@ix.netcom.com
carlp...@ybb.ne.jp

 

[Jean-Christophe Helary]

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[Shinya Suzuki]

Jim Lockhart wrote:

> I used to test IMEs out all the time (for the reason JCH cited as well
> as just out of curiosity, to see how they differed) but finally settled
> on MS-IME 2000 (I find the newer versions more annoying than helpful).

For a starter, the following webpages may be useful.

http://gigazine.net/index.php?/news/comments/20091203_google_japanese_input/
http://hitoxu.com/01005

Shinya Suzuki

[Jim Lockhart]

On Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:15:01 +0900
Shinya Suzuki wrote:

> For a starter, the following webpages may be useful.
>
> http://gigazine.net/index.php?/news/comments/20091203_google_japanese_input/
> http://hitoxu.com/01005

Thanks, Shinya.

I have to say that after a day of using the Google IME, I'm rather
impressed with its speed. And it got even faster when I imported the
user dictionary from my usual IME. It seems to work more like the IMEs
on Japanese cell phones than what we're used to on the PC, by which I
mean that with commonly used expressions, it frequently anticipates what
you're after on the first syllable or at least by the second or third.

--Jim Lockhart
Hachioji, Tokyo