translation

So just how do you say "poke" in Latin? It's "puncti," according to Facebook's newest language translation. The supposedly "dead" language--O.K., so the Others on "Lost" speak it sometimes--debuted as an official translation on the social network on Friday.

"Latin has joined the more than 70 languages we've made available on the site in the past two years, including some which have launched just today--Azeri, Faroese, Georgian and Nepali," a post on the company blog by Facebook's Elizabeth Linder read. "Some of these … Read more

Google is offering Web publishers a free tool for providing translation services on their pages.

Lots of big companies based outside the U.S. offer English-language versions of their Web site with a click of a button, but Google's new service actually detects the home language of a visitor to your site and offers them a translated version of the page based on their browser settings. Fifty-one languages will be supported by the service, which Webmasters can offer by pasting a bit of code into their pages.

Such a service is only as useful as its accuracy, however. Google … Read more

Facebook made a dual set of announcements this week pertaining to Facebook Connect, the universal-log-in product that it offers to third-party developers and Web sites. Both are aimed at making Connect more ubiquitous: first, a tool called "Translations for Facebook Connect" that simplifies the process of translating the product into international languages, and second, the "Facebook Connect Wizard" for incorporating the product into a site with little developer expertise required.

Facebook first announced that Connect would be available in a multilingual format this summer. Now, the tool can be used to translate any site into the … Read more

Google on Monday announced that it had added nine new languages to its Translate service.

Included in the update (which actually went live early last week) are Afrikaans, Belarusian, Icelandic, Irish, Macedonian, Malay, Swahili, Welsh, and Yiddish. This brings the total number of languages the service is able to translate to 51.

Like other Google Translate updates, these changes will eventually go out to other services where the machine translation is used, including Google Friend Connect, Google Talk, Gmail, and most recently Google Docs. However, the new languages have not shown up on any of those services just yet.

In … Read more

Google continues to move language translation into more and more of its products. On Thursday, it became a feature of Google Docs, letting anyone do an on-the-spot translation into one of 42 languages.

The new feature, tucked away in a settings menu, has the smarts to automatically detect in which language the original document is written. It then opens the translated version in a new window, allowing you to compare and contrast the two side by side, more easily checking whether the translation has bungled any words or phrasing.

This new version can then either replace the original or be … Read more

Tagalog Translator is a basic program that lets users look up words in English and Tagalog and get translations. Although the program works, its interface could be better, and some of its extra features are a waste of time.

The program's interface is basic; not particularly attractive, but easy enough to understand. The dictionary contains lists of words in English and Tagalog, and users enter the word they're looking for and search to find the translation. The problem with this approach is that results are returned if the word in question matches any portion of any word. For … Read more

Translate.net aggregates translation resources from all over the Internet and lets users access them with one interface. Although the program is potentially very useful, it has extra features that seem totally irrelevant.

The program's interface is basic and not entirely intuitive; it took us a moment to figure out where to enter the text that we wanted to translate. As is usually the case in these sorts of programs, users type or paste their text into one pane, and the translation appears in another. A list of available languages appears to the right, making it easy to select … Read more

ImTranslator Plugin for Internet Explorer is a multifeatured translator that allows users to highlight text and translate it by right-clicking. The program's many features make it a great option for quick online translations.

The program's interface is fairly simple, with a box for entering text and another below it where the translation appears. Small graphical buttons give users access to the program's other features, such as a dictionary and virtual keyboard. Everything is very intuitive, allowing users to translate text without interrupting the flow of their Web browsing. The program's features are impressive. Using Google Translate, … Read more

Facebook announced Tuesday in a post on its developer blog that Facebook Connect--its universal-login product used by more than 15,000 third-party sites--is now available in an array of international languages.

"Developers who've implemented Facebook Connect, including those who have installed social widgets like the Fan Box, now have the ability to decide in which language they want their Facebook Connect features rendered," the post by Facebook's James Lezsczenski read. "When a user first connects to your site, or publishes something back to Facebook, the Facebook Connect content will appear in the language you specify. … Read more