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Saturday
Sep122009
Translation Technology Can Open Your Eyes to a Global Social Web
Young Urban Professional
As more of us around the world join the web, a lot content is going to start to be produced in non-English languages. This hasn't been a factor for a lot of us, but I suspect it will as we begin to discover content-rich resources and individuals we want to interact with.
Case in point. Recently I started reading a German blog that covers technology. It has a lot rich content, like for example the latest build of a portable version of Google Chrome - but it's all in German.
I was delighted to discover that not only can Google Reader translate RSS but it remembers this setting on a feed-by-feed basis. Even though the translation is Yoda-like it's incredibly handy and is opening up my eyes to new voices. I hope that the big social networks like Twitter and Facebook can one day follow suit.
Reader Comments (7)
Excellent topic, thanks for note on google reader, will check it w/ some skinny french books I've wanted to read. I use tweetdeck to translate w/ french and spanish friends. not sure if I have tried japanese or chinese. a very useful tool.
good point.. one could say.. the current lack of a message translation setting for twitter and fb hinders their growth. i personally have removed contacts on both twitter and fb only because most of the users messages were in different languages and it was distracting. what about ads.. if ads were translated and companies can run a global ad campaign on facebook in as many languages as they prefer, where they prefer, with a few clicks in their settings. it's gotta be in the works.. and it cant work on "yoda" translations, lol
Dude, just this week I found a post on my Twine, and with Ubiquity at my fingertips, discovered an amazing human being named Sergio Storch http://twitter.com/silverton/statuses/3919728999 Thanks to your tip here, I can add Sergio to the stream! The Global Cognition Grid of sci-fi lore is indeed booting up. Next, I want to really begin diving into Feedly's "Annotation" mode, powered by Open Calais http://www.opencalais.com/
Thank you, Steve!! As someone who speaks three languages and reads a couple more, I have noticed that we are not fully opening ourselves to the culture that is freely available to us. I take part in international networks and am blown away. I sincerely appreciate this post, muchas gracias!
Thanks for the info. This means that definitely have to become versed in as many languages as we possibly can. This is a perfect example of true learning never ends. With the direction the world is moving we definitely have to stay on top of our game.
Great point. I'm from Spain but I travel a lot to the US, so I find myself between two languages. It's very uncomfortable because, as Jeff says, choosing a language means that you are giving up on some people. Sometimes you can post in two languages, but it's not efficient as to be a solution.
I completely agree. One of the issues that I face is to find blogs that I would like in other languages. If anyone can share a list of popular feeds in languages other than english (like Google released a list of feeds power users subscribe to), it would be easier to access information.I posted a similar idea to Google 10/100 project. Breaking down the language barrier would fundamentally change how we connect to each other.