Search Yottalook in 33 Languages!

Today, we launched our beta version of Yottalook Worldwide, which will allow users to search in one of 33 different languages. People from over 160 countries have used Yottalook to date, and we wanted to improve user experience for whom English may not be their first language.

We are using Google Language API to provide translations of search term queries. When you type in a search term in one of 33 different languages supported, Google Language API translates the search string into English. This then gets sent to our Yottalook Images or Journals engine and the results are shown. Once translated, the search terms undergo same query expansion as Yottalook in English.

Following languages are supported:

• Arabic
• Bulgarian
• Chinese (Simplified and Traditional)
• Catalan
• Croatian
• Czech
• Danish
• Dutch
• English
• Finnish
• French
• German
• Greek
• Hebrew
• Hindi
• Indonesian
• Italian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Latvian
• Lithuanian
• Norwegian
• Polish
• Portuguese
• Romanian
• Russian
• Spanish
• Serbian
• Slovak
• Slovenian
• Swedish
• Ukrainian
• Vietnamese

You can type your search term in one of the 33 supported languages in the search box then select your language from the drop-down menu. Once you click on search, your query term(s) will be translated into English and search results will be shown. Your language preference will be saved for each online session. Once in the results page, you can search either in the language you selected previously or in English as the search box will understand both. For Spanish, French and Portuguese, we have implemented additional features. Look for the button; when you mouse over it, you will see translations of the caption appear (please give it a second or so to perform the translation; we are aware that the popup box with translation sometimes does not disappear, if you let it complete its translation process prior to moving your mouse that help preventing this. However, we are looking into having a better solution for this issue).

Same Yottalook Terms of Use and Disclaimer apply. Please note that this is currently in BETA. We are aware of limitations of the Google Language API and are looking for more ways to improve this engine. For example, that is why the button option has been only turned on for 3 languages so far. I have personally tested out Korean and found this feature to be not very helpful. If you are interested in testing out different languages, please contact us as we can generate special links that will allow you to test this feature.

Please help us improve this engine by providing us with your feedback. Despite limitations, we hope many of you will find this new interface useful.

Yottalook! challanges Google, Yahoo and Live search engines

A great review of a unique search engine by Hope Leman of altsearchengines.com. A must read for librarians (especially those building Web sites and who need useful, engaging content to put on them), health science students, middle and high school science teachers and imaging professionals.

read more | digg story

Yottalook Local Exhibit Awarded RSNA 2008 Certificate of Merit

One of our exhibits ("Yottalook Local™: Demonstration of an Enterprise-wide Semantic Search Engine for Patient Information") was awarded Certificate of Merit from RSNA 2008.