Google announced on Thursday that its popular language translator service Google Translate now boasts 200 million monthly users, many of whom are accessing it outside the U.S. and via mobile devices.
The news — which comes just two days before Google Translate’s sixth anniversary — shows an increasing desire to communicate with others regardless of language, not only online but offline too.
More consumers are also accessing Google Translate while traveling than ever before. The company reported its mobile traffic to the service has more than quadrupled year over year. Meanwhile, more than 92% of traffic from Google Translate comes from international users outside the U.S.
Usage is so high that it translates the equivalent of 1 million books each day. More.
See: Mashable
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Polonia
Local time: 18:44
din engleză în poloneză
+ ...
...quite a lot
Is it along the lines of paying peanuts and getting monkeys?
Piotr
Spania
Local time: 18:44
Membru (2005)
din engleză în spaniolă
+ ...
To me, this is very good news. The desire (and need) to communicate internationally will increase the amount of work available for professional translators, since generally people are not stupid and know that they need translators for their important matters.
Spania
Local time: 18:44
din spaniolă în engleză
+ ...
It is indeed a handy tool for basic comprehension and communication, and the fact you can use it free of charge is a bonus.
However, It would be interesting to know what percentage of these users are professionals and manage to come up with anything other than a dog's breakfast; I'd guess around 10-20%...
Local time: 19:44
Membru (2006)
din engleză în rusă
+ ...
to come up with anything other than a dog's breakfast
Depends on what you translate. Google Translate is excellent when it comes to usual marketing nonsense used by many companies to show off.
Regatul Unit
Local time: 17:44
din ebraică în engleză
Google Translate is excellent when it comes to usual marketing nonsense used by many companies to show off.
Depends on what language pair. For Hebrew and Greek at the very least, it always - without fail - produces gobbledygook. Especially for more "flowery" texts.
[Edited at 2012-04-28 08:10 GMT]
Local time: 18:44
din italiană în engleză
For my Hebrew homework (studying at the moment) and have found it very useful for giving me an idea of what a sentence means. But it is by no means grammatically correct. I can see how a company would use it to understand what that e-mail they just received means but I would not recommend using it to send back a reply.
Regatul Unit
Local time: 17:44
din ebraică în engleză
For my Hebrew homework (studying at the moment) and have found it very useful for giving me an idea of what a sentence means. But it is by no means grammatically correct. I can see how a company would use it to understand what that e-mail they just received means but I would not recommend using it to send back a reply.
Yes, grammatially it's awful for Hebrew. Wrong tenses, it ignores negative particles producing positive sentences. When it encounters most abbreviations it nearly has a heart attack.
An example:
"המפרטים הכלליים המצוינים לעיל, שלא צורפו למכרז / חוזה זה ואינם ברשותו של הקבלן, ניתנים לרכישה לאיתור באינטרנט,אתר משהב"ש http://www.online.mod.gov.il (מידע לספק-בינוי-מפרטי בינוי)."
"General specifications listed above, not attached to the tender / contract and are not in possession of the contractor, may be purchased for online, site Mshb"s http://www.online.mod.gov.il (information supply - Construction - Construction Mfrrti)."
I think it does have its uses, but it can also be dangerous in the hands of someone who isn't exactly knowledgeable about language/translation.
I use it when I want to get the gist of something in a language I don't speak. However, it doesn't even always fit this limited purpose.
[Edited at 2012-04-28 08:56 GMT]
Federaţia Rusă
Local time: 19:44
din italiană în rusă
+ ...
a company would use it to understand what that e-mail they just received means but I would not recommend using it to send back a reply.
Great!!!
Ucraina
Local time: 19:44
Membru (2008)
din engleză în rusă
+ ...
To me, this is very good news. The desire (and need) to communicate internationally will increase the amount of work available for professional translators, since generally people are not stupid and know that they need translators for their important matters.
Agree with you!
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