Instantly add 52 language translations to your website
Ivan | Thu, 2009-10-01 03:15
Google enables you to create a translation of your website on the fly. All you have to do is add a piece of code to your html anywhere on the page. Users will be able to select the langauge of their preference and the page will immediately will be translated to the chosen language. Naturally machine made translation is not as good as if it were done by a human, but it's good enough for people who do not speak the original language of the site to be able to understand the content.
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It's great that Google offers this. I agree that direct human translation is better, but maintaining a multilingual site greatly increases the overhead. For small organizations this is often unfeasible.
I'm also glad to see Wordpress and others focusing on this as well.
If one wants human translation, but no resources are available, Facebook's new crowd sourcing option is also available. But of course you need a lot of readers who are willing to put the time in.
http://developers.facebook.com/news.php?blog=1&story=308
Yvan, I have been using it since it's first day out (29 Sept) on two of my sites. I recognize that it is not precise and the human factor is way better (also the fact that automatic translation cannot be certified for ISO - so fear not certified translators!) but it serves its purpose with a disclaimer (see example -scroll down, left hand side- http://www.transdiscal.com/PatientIndications.html ). I have checked with some of our international distributors and they were amazed by its accuracy (checked for Spanish, Ukranian, and Italian). It seems to have the hardest time with French. All in all, Google Translator is not bad at all and easy to install in your pages.