http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/10/07/language.facebook.google/
Who's the better translator: Machines or humans?
By John D. Sutter
CNN
(CNN) -- One of the Internet's great promises is that it's the
ultimate democratizer. It's open to everyone and allows all people to
communicate.
But, so far, there have been several hitches in that plan. Not
everyone has access to a computer and a broadband connection. Some
governments still censor the Internet. And of course, we don't all
speak the same language.
For the World Wide Web to be truly global, shouldn't Chinese speakers
be able to chat online with people who only speak Spanish? And why
should an English speaker be barred from reading blogs written in
Malagasy or Zulu?
Facebook Inc. and Google Inc. are two Web companies trying
particularly hard to make this happen, and they've released a number
of updates to their translation services in recent weeks.
The two online giants are going about the process in different ways.
Facebook aims to translate the Web using an army of volunteers and
some hired professional translators. Meanwhile, Google plans to let
computers do most of the work.
Which method will ultimately prevail remains to be seen.
But for now, here's a look at the latest language features from both
companies, and some background on how their translation services work.
(Feel free to add your own Internet translation tips -- and fun
translation bloopers -- in the comments section at the bottom of the
story):
Facebook's human translation
Many tech bloggers think Facebook's method of human translation seems
promising. After all, the American-born social networking site
introduced non-English languages for the first time only in January
2008. Now about 70 percent of Facebook's 300 million users are outside
of the United States.
How it works: Real people are at the heart of Facebook translation
plan. They suggest translated phrases and vote on translations that
others have submitted. These crowd-sourced edits -- which work kind of
like Wikipedia -- make Facebook's translation service smarter over
time. Go to Facebook's translation page to check it out or to
participate.
Size: More than 65 languages function on Facebook now, according to
Facebook's statistics. At least another 30 languages are in the works,
meaning Facebook needs help working out the kinks on those languages
before they're put to use.
What's new? Facebook announced in a blog post on September 30 that the
social network has made its crowd-sourced translation technology
available to other sites on the Web. The update allows sites to
install a translation gadget on their sites through Facebook Connect,
a service that lets Facebook users sign in on other Web pages.
Facebook also added some new languages, including Latin and "Pirate,"
which translates the Facebooky word "share" as "blabber t'yer mates!"
Pros and cons: People are good at knowing idioms and slang, so
Facebook tends to get these right, but there are limited numbers of
multi-lingual volunteers who want to spend time helping Facebook
translate things.
Also, Facebook's site is available in many languages, but its human
translators don't touch wall posts, photo comments and other user-
submitted items, which is a big con if you want to have friends who
don't share a common language with you. People who use Facebook
Connect to translate their sites can choose which text they want users
to help translate, according to Facebook spokeswoman Malorie Lucich.
Craig Ulliott, founder of whereivebeen.com, said he's excited about
Facebook's translation application, but it would be too much to ask
his site's users to translate user-submitted material.
Google's 'mechanical' translation
Google uses mathematical equations to try to translate the Web's
content. This fits in line with the company's mission, which is to
organize the world's information and make it useful and accessible to
all.
How it works: Google's computers learn how to be translators by
examining text that's already on the Web, and from professional Web
translations posted online, said Franz Och, a principal scientist at
Google. The more text is out there, the more Google learns and the
better its translations become. The search-engine company currently
translates documents, search results and full Web pages.
Size: Google claims to be the largest free language translation
service online. It covers 51 languages and more than 2,500 language
pairs. The site's interface has been translated, with the help of
Google users, into 130 languages.
What's new?: Google recently created a widget that any Web developer
can put on his or her page to offer up Google translations. So, say
you're a blogger who writes about music. You might get some Brazilian
readers if you offered up a button to translate your site into
Portuguese.
Google also recently unveiled a translation service for Google Docs,
which lets anyone upload a document to the Web and have it translated
into a number of languages for free. And there's a new Firefox add-on
from Google to help people translate the Web more quickly.
Och said real-time translation of Internet chats is on the horizon, as
are more languages and increased quality as Google's computers get
smarter.
Pros and cons: Google's computerized approach means it can translate
tons of content -- and fast. But computers aren't quite up to speed
with ever-evolving modern speech, so reports of translation errors are
fairly common.
On the plus side, the service has been vastly improved in the last
five years, Och said. Also, Google lets people spot translation
errors, suggest new wordings and translate its interface into
languages Google's computers don't speak just yet.
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