Longdo: Thailand's all-knowing website

Dictionaries, law, maps, traffic and now floods, all parts of an online knowledge empire created by two Thai computer programmers with web mashups.

You can discuss longdo on their popular facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/longdocom  And you can discuss anything with us on our own popular facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/bangkokpostlearning

Click button to listen to Longdo Dictionary and Flood Website to download

Do it online, Metamedia Technology adds translation service to its burgeoning repertoire by Sasiwimon Boonruang

Apart from searching for information, another key area where the internet is proving increasingly handy is translation service thanks to websites like Longdo.com that was created to make life easy for their developers.

Longdo Flood is awash with information, supported by maps, on floods now ravaging the country.

Created by two Thai developers, Longdo.com is a prominent translation website which has more than 500,000 page views a day.

The work of Pattara Kiatisevi and Vuthichai Ampornaramveth, it was conceived in 2003, when Pattara was pursuing his PhD in Japan. Reading a great deal of papers led him to the idea of an online translation service along the lines of leo.org, a German dictionary, that had proved quite useful when Pattara was pursuing a master's degree in Germany.

Vuthichai, meanwhile, was conducting a research project on Japanese-Thai translation in Japan. Both of them then worked together to create the online dictionary and set up a company here, Metamedia Technology, in 2005, and Longdo Dict (http://dict.longdo.com) was the first service they launched, available in three languages: English-Thai, Japanese-Thai, German-Thai. The service was later expanded to include French and Chinese.

Besides being an online dictionary, another useful feature called Longdo PopThai was developed to help users understand foreign words on websites they were reading. Users just need to put the URL of that web on the Longdo website, for example www.bangkokpost.com, and while reading the news and if they don't know the meaning of any word, they just click on that word and the meaning will show up. The service is supported in English, Japanese and German languages.

In addition, users can input new words - in any language not just English. The system supports 20 languages. 

Longdo today has around 70,000 members (including Dict and Map) who have special access to its service where they can look up new words appearing almost every day which fail to find a mention in the dictionaries.

Longdo Dict is a dictionary compiled from various freely available sources such as NECTEC's Lexitron, Ding in German and e-Dict in Japanese.

The company launched Longdo Map (map.longdo.com) in 2006 with data sourced from NuMAP, a local outfit. Longdo Map serves users with more information in greater detail. The company applied the map to develop Longdo Traffic (http://traffic.longdo.com) with traffic data from Intelligent Traffic Information Center Foundation (Itic).

Longdo Law (http://law.longdo.com), meanwhile, is meant to assist people in all matters legal, with the information supplied by the Office of the Council of State. It makes efficient use of technology to structure the laws for easy reading. 

"My father got sued over a land deal. At the time we have no idea about the law, so I studied the matter thoroughly and put the information on the website," Pattara said, adding that all Longdo services were developed based on his fundamental requirements.

The most recent addition is Longdo Flood (http://flood.longdo.com or http://flood.longdo.com/en) which, according to Pattara, offers detailed coverage of the floods now ravaging the country backed with maps. It is a mash-up of various services including Longdo Map, Longdo Traffic and data from the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA), as well as tweets from #thaiflood.

Apart from the website, Metamedia has developed mobile applications running on iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone, and Java phone: Longdo Mobile (location-based mobile app w/traffic info), Longdo Traffic (traffic info), and Longdo Card (E-membership software) which boast more than 200,000 total mobile installations and over 70,000 registered users.

All Longdo services are free of charge. Pattara believes income will come later if the services are good and popular among consumers.

The major source of Metamedia revenue is software development where it boasts clients such as Department of Rural Roads, Royal Thai Air Force, banks and insurance companies.

The strengths of Longdo Dict are fast online search and rich content sourced from various freely available dictionaries.

(Source: Bangkok Post, Do it online, Metamedia Technology adds translation service to its burgeoning repertoire, 18/10/2011, Sasiwimon Boonruang, link)

Website Mashup Vocabulary

Longdo.com - the best online bilingual English-Thai dictionary plus many other applications (See website)

Longdo Dict - (See website)
Longdo PopThai - pop-up word definitions when reading webpages (See website)
Longdo Map - (See website)
Longdo Traffic - (See website)
Longdo Flood - (See website in Thai language and English language)
Longdo Law - (See website)
Longdo Mobile - apps for use with mobile phones (See website)
Longdo Card - e-membership software  (See website)

mash-up - a website or app that combines data from different sources to create a new service: "The main characteristics of the mashup are combination, visualization, and aggregation. It is important to make existing data more useful, moreover for personal and professional use... In the past years, more and more Web applications have published APIs that enable software developers to easily integrate data and functions instead of building them by themselves" (See Wikipedia)

mash-up of various services as well as tweets from #thaiflood.

twitter - the popular social networking site in which people send short messages (tweets) out to people who "follow" them (See Wikipedia)
tweets - the short messages that a twitter member sends out to their followers

online dictionary - a dictionary available through the internet that can be used through a person's web browser (See Wikipedia List)
launched - began เริ่ม started เริ่มต้นดำเนินการ
launch online dictionary - to start a dictionary website that people can use from the internet
the system supports 20 languages
input - enter data or text into a computer (typing, word processing, data entry)
users can input new words - people who use the dictionary can put new words into the online dictionary database (to use themselves and for others) 
bilingual dictionary - a dictionary used to translate words or phrases from one language to another, for example: Thai-English, English-Thai, also called a "translation dictionary" (See Wikipedia)

translation - rewriting a text or document in another language to communicate the meaning of the text (See Wikipedia)
machine translation - when a computer program is used to translation a text from one language to another (See Wikipedia and List and mobile translation)
online - connected to the internet
online translation service - a service for translating from one language to another available through the internet (See Wikipedia)
along the lines of - similar (working in the same way, offering the same kinds of service)
online translation service along the lines of leo.org
leo.org - online translation of German language (See Wikipedia)

NECTEC - a government agency supporting research in computing and telecommunications technologies, under the Ministry of Science and Technology, full name: Thailand National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (See website and Wikipedia)
NECTEC's Lexitron - a large bilingual dictionary (Thai-English, English-Thai) freely available to the public (See Wikipedia)
e-Dict - a freely available Japanese dictionary file that can be used in computer programs (See website)

mobile applications - mobile apps, computer programs that you can use on your mobile phone to do useful things
mobile installations - when a person "installs" a computer program on their mobile phone (puts the program on their phone so they can use it)

X boasts Y - X has Y (and Y is a very good thing that X can be proud of and "boast" about)
boast more than 200,000 total mobile installations

registered - officially recorded as part of a group (in computer systems means they have become a member of the sight and login each time they visit)
70,000 registered users - 70,000 members of the website (recorded in the login database of the website)

coverage - how much something covers (example: insurance coverage is what accidents your insurance "covers", "news coverage" is all the events "covered" on the news)
backed - supported ให้การสนับสนุน
detailed coverage of the floods backed with maps

Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA) - (See Wikipedia)

data - facts or information used for making calculations or decisions ข้อมูล
data source - a place or database where you can get the data you need
source data from Y - to get the data you need from database Y
data sourced from NuMAP

compile - bring together information from different documents or sources to one central document
compile X from Y, Z, ... - create document X that brings together the information in documents Y, Z, ... etc
compiled from various freely available sources

traffic - the number traveling to a place during a period of time (people, aircraft, ships, trains, cars, trucks, webpages being viewed, etc.) ความหนาแน่นของจำนวนคน หรือยานพาหนะในช่วงเวลาใดช่วงเวลาหนึ่ง

Intelligent Traffic Information Center Foundation (Itic) - a non-profit organization  started in 2010 that "collects public traffic data from both government and private sources in order to develop into high quality real time traffic report. The service of iTIC is established to minimize traffic congestion, increase road safety and improve efficiency of logistic system in Thailand" (See Wikipedia)

access - the ability to get something สิทธิหรือโอกาสในการใช้
special access to its service - when people get to use the service in some special way (when they become members or pay a fee, for example)

page view - the loading of a single webpage from a website: "On the World Wide Web a 'page' request would result from a web surfer clicking on a link on another 'page' pointing to the 'page' in question. This should be contrasted with a hit, which refers to a request for any file from a web server. There may therefore be many hits per 'page' view since an html 'page' can be made up of multiple files... For the owner of the site this information can be useful to see if any change in the 'page' (such as the information or the way it is presented) results in more visits. If there are any advertisements on the page, the publishers would also be interested in the number of page views to determine their expected revenue from the ads. For this reason it is a term that is used widely for Internet based marketing and advertising" (See Wikipedia)

500,000 page views a day

URL - the website location (http://www.bangkokpost.com) entered into the top of your browser (Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer) (See Wikipedia)

General Vocabulary

burgeoning - growing or developing quickly
repertoire - all the music or plays, etc. that you can do or perform or that you know บทเพลงซึ่งเป็นที่รู้จักดี
burgeoning repertoire - a growing number of things that you can do (websites that you are offering, music that an orchestra can play for the public)

key - important สำคัญ
handy - useful
come in handy - useful in a situation
proving to be handy - is useful in a situation (but only learned this after you started using it) 

key area where the internet is proving increasingly handy

awash with information - has very large amounts of information
ravaging the country - doing great damage to the country

prominent - important and well known สำคัญ, มีชื่อเสียง, เด่น

conceived in 2003 - the dream or idea of creating (the website) first came to them in 2003

pursuing a master's degree studying at a university for an extra one or two years to get a masters degree
pursuing his PhD in Japan - studying at a university for an extra 4 or more years to get a PhD degree (after which they can put "Dr." meaning "doctor" in fron of their name) 

conducting a research project

local - in or related to the area that you live, or to the particular area that you are talking about ท้องถิ่น
local outfit - a company or organization from the local area that you live in

matters - affairs, a situation that you must deal with that has problems
assist people in all matters legal

Council of State - the group of legal scholars that advises the Prime Minister and the cabinet on whether proposed laws are ok or not (follow the constitution, acceptable laws)

efficient - produces a lot from few resources; doing a task with no waste of time, money or energy
makes efficient use of technology to structure the laws for easy reading. 

sue - bring a legal case against another person for damage they caused you ฟ้องร้อง
sued over a land deal

matter - a situation or subject which is being dealt with or considered เรื่อง, ภารกิจ, งาน
studied the matter thoroughly

fundamental - very important and essential พื้นฐาน รากฐานที่สำคัญ
fundamental requirements - the things you really need

free of charge - free
income - money that people receive from work or some other source, used for household consumption and savings

consumers - people who buy things or services (individuals and families)
popular among consumers.

rich - interesting, with a lot of different qualities, experiences or events อุดมไปด้วย
content - the subject, ideas, or story that a piece of writing or a radio or television programme deals with เนื้อหา,สาระ
the strengths of Longdo Dict are fast online search and rich content
rich content sourced from various freely available dictionaries

revenue - income from taxes or business activities รายได้
source - the place or person something comes from or starts at, or the cause of something ต้นกำเนิด, แหล่งกำเนิด
revenue source - some business activity that makes money (money coming into the company)
software development - writing computer programs (See Wikipedia)
the major source of Metamedia revenue is software development

clients - (formal) customer ลูกค้า
boasts clients such as Department of Rural Roads, Royal Thai Air Force, banks and insurance companies.
insurance - a system of protection against loss, a person pays money every month (premiums) for a guarantee that the company will pay them money if they or their property is damaged or lost (See Wikipedia) การประกันภัย

search - to look somewhere carefully in order to find something ค้นหา
online search - searching for information in webpages located on the internet (where everyone can see them)
search engine - google is the most commonly used search engine now (See Wikipedia)