---
title: Google search in Tamil
date: "2006-10-06T12:00:00Z"
lastmod: "2009-03-23T15:35:45Z"
categories:
  - how-i-do-things
  - tools
wp_id: 190
description: I built a Google gadget for Tamil search and transliteration to solve my spelling difficulties. I used the wisdom of crowds by comparing Google hit counts for different spellings and shared my phonetic mapping table for easy typing.
keywords: [tamil, transliteration, google search, google gadget, phonetics, spell-checking]
---

<p>When I wrote my <a href="/blog/tamil-song-lyrics-quiz-2000s/">Tamil song lyrics quizzes</a>, I had two problems:</p><ol>
<li>I can't write in Tamil (not on paper, nor on a computer)</li>
<li><b>I can't spell right in Tamil</b> (&#2984; vs &#2985;, &#2992; vs &#2993;)</li>
</ol>
<p>I overcame the first using a <a href="/blog/tamil-transliterator/">Tamil transliterator</a>. I write in English, and you see it in Tamil.</p>
<p>The problem of &#2984; vs &#2985; was simple. &#2984; occurs as the first letter of a word, and just before &#2980;. Nowhere else. (Is this always true?)</p>
<p>But &#2992; vs &#2993; can't be solved except through experience, and I'm short of that. So, rather than bother my family with every quiz, I used the wisdom of crowds. I googled both spellings of the word. <b>The correct spelling has more Google hits than the incorrect one</b>.</p>
<p>I did this so often, I made a Google gadget out of it.</p>
<script src="http://gmodules.com/ig/ifr?url=http://www.s-anand.net/a/tamilsearchgadget.xml&synd=open&w=320&h=400&title=Tamil+Google+Search&border=http%3A%2F%2Fgmodules.com%2Fig%2Fimages%2F&output=js"></script>
<p>Just <b>type the word in English, click 'Search', and my gadget will search in tamil</b>. It's amazing how much stuff there is in Tamil on the Web, from song lyrics to texts (thirukkuraL, for example).</p>
<p>You can add this gadget to:</p><ul>
<li>your desktop (in the Search Gadgets box, type "http://www.s-anand.net/a/tamilsearchgadget.xml")</li>
<li>your website or blog (<a href="http://gmodules.com/ig/creator?synd=open&url=http://www.s-anand.net/a/tamilsearchgadget.xml">click here for the code</a>)</li>
<li>Google Reader. <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?feedurl=http%3A//www.s-anand.net/a/tamilsearchgadget.xml"><img src="http://buttons.googlesyndication.com/fusion/add.gif" width="104" height="17" border="0" alt="Add to Google"></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Here's the transliteration table:</p>
<table class="numbers lines">
<tr><th>Tamil</th><th>English</th></tr>
<tr><td>&#2949;</td><td>a               </td></tr>
<tr><td>&#2950;</td><td>A or aa </td></tr>
<tr><td>&#2951;</td><td>i               </td></tr>
<tr><td>&#2952;</td><td>I or ee </td></tr>
<tr><td>&#2953;</td><td>u               </td></tr>
<tr><td>&#2954;</td><td>U or oo </td></tr>
<tr><td>&#2958;</td><td>e               </td></tr>
<tr><td>&#2959;</td><td>E               </td></tr>
<tr><td>&#2960;</td><td>ai              </td></tr>
<tr><td>&#2962;</td><td>o               </td></tr>
<tr><td>&#2963;</td><td>O               </td></tr>
<tr><td>&#2964;</td><td>au              </td></tr>
<tr><td>&#2965;</td><td>k or g  </td></tr>
<tr><td>&#2969;</td><td>n               </td></tr>
<tr><td>&#2970;</td><td>ch or s </td></tr>
<tr><td>&#2972;</td><td>j               </td></tr>
<tr><td>&#2974;</td><td>n               </td></tr>
<tr><td>&#2975;</td><td>t or d  </td></tr>
<tr><td>&#2979;</td><td>N               </td></tr>
<tr><td>&#2980;</td><td>th or dh</td></tr>
<tr><td>&#2984;</td><td>n               </td></tr>
<tr><td>&#2986;</td><td>p or b  </td></tr>
<tr><td>&#2990;</td><td>m               </td></tr>
<tr><td>&#2991;</td><td>y               </td></tr>
<tr><td>&#2992;</td><td>r               </td></tr>
<tr><td>&#2994;</td><td>l               </td></tr>
<tr><td>&#2997;</td><td>v               </td></tr>
<tr><td>&#2996;</td><td>zh              </td></tr>
<tr><td>&#2995;</td><td>L               </td></tr>
<tr><td>&#2993;</td><td>R               </td></tr>
<tr><td>&#2999;</td><td>sh              </td></tr>
<tr><td>&#3000;</td><td>S               </td></tr>
<tr><td>&#3001;</td><td>h               </td></tr>
</table>

---

## Comments

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- **Madhu** _7 Oct 2006 6:27 am_:
  You should be at google:) and google is now considering buying youtube - remember when i posted a comment once, you said why will they buy:)
- **S Anand** _7 Oct 2006 11:01 am_:
  Yeah, I remember the comment. Good call! Guess YOU're the one who should be at Google :-)
- **oskar lewis** _7 Oct 2006 12:57 pm_:
  I' ve put some links on my blog that can help you translating... http://www.oskarlewis.com/weblog/archives/1317
- **Vasant** _7 Oct 2006 5:39 pm_:
  Hi, guess something's wrong with your RSS feeds.. they don't seem to reflect your latest posts
- **S Anand** _7 Oct 2006 6:20 pm_:
  Vasant, I subscribe to my own RSS feeds. They seem fine. Are you subscribing to http://feeds.feedburner.com/sanand? Which RSS reader are you using? And what's the latest post you see?
- **Vasant** _8 Oct 2006 4:43 am_:
  I was subscribing to http://www.geocities.com/root\_node/sanand.xml. Works fine with the other URL. Will change - Thanks
- **Madhu** _9 Oct 2006 11:40 am_:
  Not able to download the gadget though. not available in google gadgets as well. would you have a link? Hope google scans ur page and reports that youtube was my idea and look at my email and automatically send me an offer;)
- **S Anand** _9 Oct 2006 12:02 pm_:
  That's funny, the links in the post work for me... [This link](http://gmodules.com/ig/creator?synd=open&url=http://www.s-anand.net/a/tamilsearchgadget.xml) should add it to your Google home page. Don't think you can "download" it, though. You can at best add it to Google Desktop.
- **Madhu** _12 Oct 2006 8:18 am_:
  Ok. Am able to download it as a gadget though. It says add to webpage.
- **Madhu** _17 Oct 2006 11:01 am_:
  This is an interesting website - www.blinkx.com, unlike youtube and google video you can search for a variety of video sources here. Might be bought out by one of the GYM companies soon!
- **Kesavan.M** _30 Oct 2006 10:05 am_:
  Thanks.., No more words
- **Sudar** _4 Jan 2007 10:15 am_:
  It is fine that you did this gadget. I liked it very much. Any such project it pipeline. Can you give this transliteration table in table form?
- **Sanjai Gandhi** _14 Feb 2007 1:53 pm_:
  its a genius thing...amazing...
- **Sathuragiri vEL** _26 Feb 2007 4:30 am_:
  You can have a look at www.tise.velirs.com. We use a simialar approach but has made it more simpler.
- **saravanan** _18 Mar 2007 5:10 am_:
  please help me how to conducts seminar about liver enzymes in liver cancer help from introduction to conclution
- **ரவிசங்கர்** _4 May 2007 5:25 pm_:
  நல்ல Gadget. ஆனா, பலம்-பழம், கள - கல் போன்ற வேறுபாடுகளை அறிய இந்த கூகுள் அணுகுமுறை உதவாது :) தமிழ் அகரமுதலிகள் தான் உதவும். பார்க்க - http://blog.ravidreams.net/?p=152
- **thuvan** _30 Oct 2008 12:29 pm_:
  we can't convert from Tamil word to English word
- **tamil priyan** _21 May 2009 7:09 pm_:
  Check out http://kandupidi.com/editor . It supports both google tranliteration as well as english phonetic typing as well which many people prefer. There is a gadget for this as well.
- **[John Francis](http://donthave)** _25 Oct 2011 11:34 am_:
  finding very hard to browse in tamil and i wish to have DEMO SCREEN TO download the steps to use them immeaditely

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