Sogou cloud Chinese pinyin is a Google Chrome extension that allows you to enter Chinese characters inside text boxes using the pinyin method (as opposed to writing each ’stroke’ of a character). The extension itself works to synchronize the visibility of the Sogou cloud pinyin input bar across all tabs of the browser.
You can see an example of it in action here:
As it is in its first iteration, it is quite basic, however it seems to have a wide range of vocabulary stored already, and accessibility for China is an extremely important step towards Google’s world domination. It will also be really helpful for various other sites, such as PartyPoker (partypoker.com 中文), as it should bring in a whole range of new clients. This is an interesting plugin as it may pave the way for input methods to be removed from the operating system, and as Google plan to release its Chrome OS late next year, they will need to have a number of options available for non-English writers and speakers to access their languages.
Google itself have a standalone product for inputting Chinese via pinyin, however that is tethered to the Windows operating system. This sort of option could be an excellent way for them to move away from the Microsoft dominated product.
The plugin itself should be properly tried and tested, but for now it is exceptionally promising!
Sogou Cloud Chinese Pinyin
Homepage: https://code.google.com/p/sogou-pinyin-chrome-extension
Download: http://sogou-pinyin-chrome-extension.googlecode.com/files/sogou-pinyin-extension-0.0.1.crx [Mirror]
