Blogger goes multilingual

The Blogger Web-logging service broke away from its English-only status on Monday, becoming available in 9 other languages in what Google Inc. is calling the first phase of the service's internationalization.

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Now, key Blogger sections, such as its sign-in and account pages, are available in Japanese, traditional Chinese, simplified Chinese, Korean, French, Italian, Spanish, German and Brazilian Portuguese, Google announced.

The Blogger posting interface will be translated into these 9 languages "soon," as Blogger's international expansion continues in coming months, Google said.

Google acquired the Blogger service last year when it bought the service's creator, Pyra Labs Inc.

Google, which operates the world's most widely-used Internet search engine, has been busy building up a suite of complementary Internet services, such as the Gmail Web mail service and the Picasa image management and sharing tool.

Industry observers have pointed out that by offering services that complement its core Internet search engine, Google can build more loyal and lasting relationships with users, something that will be key for Google to complete against rivals Microsoft Corp., America Online Inc. and Yahoo Inc. in the consumer Internet services market.