| Google Pinyin | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer | Google China |
| Initial release | April 4, 2007; 18 years ago (2007-04-04) |
| Stable release | |
| Preview release | 3.0.1.98 / January 28, 2011; 14 years ago (2011-01-28) |
| Operating system | Windows,Android |
| Available in | Simplified Chinese,Traditional Chinese |
| Type | Input method |
| License | Freeware |
| Website | tools |
Google Pinyin IME (simplified Chinese:谷歌拼音输入法;traditional Chinese:谷歌拼音輸入法;pinyin:Gǔgē Pīnyīn Shūrùfǎ) is a discontinued input method developed byGoogle China Labs. The tool was made publicly available on April 4, 2007. Aside from Pinyin input, it also includesstroke count method input. As of March 2019, Google Pinyin has been discontinued and the download pagetools
As of August 2012[update], Google Pinyin was available forWindows XP,Windows Vista,Windows 7,Windows 8 &Windows 10 version 1511 or below. Both32-bit and64-bit versions were available.
Google released a Pinyin IME system forAndroid 1.5 or newer in March 2009.[2] The Android Pinyin IME supports user dictionary synchronization with the desktop version.
By the end of 2008, more than 20%[citation needed] of Google Pinyin users wanted a Linux version of the input method, which was answered in the FAQ section with a general PR phrase "We always strive to provide a better user experience and we never stop our hard work to fulfill the customer needs".[3]
However, the Linux user community is porting the Android Google Pinyin IME to the non-Android Linux IME frameworkSCIM in thescim-googlepinyin module.
After Christmas 2009, the Google pinyin module for SCIM became also available for theNokia Maemo 5 platform, which meant it could be downloaded to anyNokia N900 phone through the official application repositories.
A closed beta version of Google Pinyin for Mac OS X was leaked on September 14, 2010.[4] A public version was never made available.
After Google Pinyin was initially released in April 2007, it was soon discovered that Google Pinyin's dictionary database contained employee names ofSogou Pinyin, an indication that the dictionary was taken fromSogou, one of Google's competitors in the Chinese Internet market.[5] On April 8, 2007, Google admitted that they used "non-Google database resources". Shortly thereafter, a new version of Google Pinyin was released which no longer appeared to be based on Sogou's database.[6]
Google Pinyin for Windows has been failing to synchronize for years[7] because of the deprecation of Google ClientLogin authentication. A client with an alternative authentication method has not been announced yet. Google Pinyin for Android can still synchronize (within this platform only).
