Google's intelligent cloud
developer tools are expanding with the launch of a new Cloud Natural Language
API on Wednesday. The service is aimed at helping developers create
applications that understand human language.
It's
an important move for Google, as public cloud providers are racing to host
new applications built with intelligent capabilities. Natural language
processing allows developers to build apps that can tackle the challenging
task of understanding how humans communicate, and it is key for things like
building intelligent assistants and chat bots.
This API can provide a
bunch of information about a block of text back to an application, including
the overall sentiment of a passage and an analysis of the structure of a
sentence. The system can also identify entities mentioned, including people,
organizations, locations, events, and products.
The
API is based on the same research that Google used to create Parsey
McParseface, an open source parser for English text that the company released earlier
this year.
The natural language API
entered public beta alongside Google's already-announced Speech API, which lets
applications take in recorded voice clips and get text back. By connecting the
two APIs, it's possible for developers to build an app that can listen to a
user's voice and then understand what that person is saying.
By
launching these two services in beta, Google continues its competition against
the likes of Microsoft, Amazon, and IBM, which are also launching intelligent
capabilities in their public cloud platforms.
On
top of all that, Google also launched one of its cloud platform regions in
Oregon, a significant expansion of the company's public cloud capabilities. At
first, customers will be able to use the company's Compute Engine, Cloud
Storage, and Container Engine services, with more capabilities coming later.
Users
in Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles will see a 30 to
80 percent reduction in latency when using applications hosted in the US-West1
region compared to those hosted at Google's US-Central region in Iowa, the
company said.
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