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Google Translate Gets Shiny New Coat of Paint

Paul Lilly — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:15:17 -0600

The multilingual engineers at Google have been busy tweaking the company's Google Translate feature and on Monday launched three new features, plus a new, shinier look and feel.

Underneath the new aesthetic, the biggest change is real-time translation. You can forget about hitting the 'Translate' button because Google now displays your translated text as you type. It's pretty fun to play around and experiment with, not to mention pretty useful for anyone composing letters which need to appear in a different language.

Another awesome feature is the ability to read just about any language, regardless of whether you understand the characters or not. If translating Chinese text, for example, you would mash the "Show romanization" link to read the text written phonetically in English. Before long, you'll know exactly how to say, "Where is the restroom?" and "Are you single?," two important phrases when traveling abroad.

There's also a new input translation feature for Arabic, Persian, and Hindi - just type the words as they sound and Google will convert them to their native script -- as well as a text-to-speech feature when translating into English.

Video Demonstration

Google Adds In-Page Translation to Firefox Toolbar

Paul Lilly — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:44:16 -0500

In addition to the heavily touted Sidewiki feature in the new Google Toolbar, the browser add-on also includes Google's advanced in-page translation for Firefox users, "making it easy to read a webpage in another language with the click of a button," Google said in a blog post.

Throwing another bone to Firefox users, the updated toolbar works in sync with Firefox version 3.5's Private Browsing Mode and will not record your search box history when maneuvering stealthily around the Web. PageRank, Web History, and Sidewiki are also turned off, freeing users up to visit the Detroit Lions support group without leaving any embarrassing traces behind.

Google Toolbar Download

New Gmail Labs Feature Lets You Translate Your Mail

Andy Salisbury — Wed, 20 May 2009 16:55:57 -0500

Google’s translation tool, which makes translating entire web sites extremely easy, is making its way to Gmail labs this month. Finally, you can find out exactly what those Japanese “happy pill” emails in your junk folder say!

The translation tool reportedly works in just a few seconds, and will translate both the subject and the body of the email while keeping the original intact. You can swap between both versions of your message by clicking a link.

Translated items won’t stay translated though; you’ll have to re-translate a message every time you wish to read it. And, the translated words don’t get cycled into Gmail’s search engine, so if you’re trying to track down a foreign email, make sure you remember how to type the characters type a required key word.

Image Credit: CNET