Irish speakers will now be able to work more easily in their chosen language following the unveiling today of an Irish edition of the Microsoft search portal.
MSN Search allows users search the Internet in Irish and follows the Microsoft move to make Windows XP and Office 2003 available in Irish this summer.
Microsoft also announced the introduction of Community Glossary, a key foundational reference for the work, today.
The Community Glossary initiative allowed the Irish-speaking community the opportunity to make comments or contributions on the use of technical terminology. A key feature of the language pack is an Irish spell checker.
Microsoft and Foras na Gaeilge undertook the full localisation, development and translation of over 600,000 terms across both products.
Microsoft employees initially volunteered their time and expertise to do the localisation work that would enable versions of the product to be available in Irish.
However, Microsoft subsequently used employee time from a number of different operations, in Ireland and Seattle, on developing the "Language Interface Packs".
