stuff to read, apparently/april 2010

¿que?

it’s the world wide web so why not speak the language?

Ever noticed that very often johhny foreigner doesn’t speak English properly? They don’t have a proper educational system, that’s the problem.

Well, if you’ve discovered for yourself that shouting doesn’t work and your 30-year old O-Grade French leaves room for (ahem) a little ambiguity in your contract negotiations, I may have the answer.

Actually Google has the answer, I'm just telling you about it, but you can still say ‘thank you Miles.’

‘Live’ translation, with words and everything…

Google’s had a translation service for quite a long time, but recently it’s not only got substantially better, but they’ve added an API (this is nothing to do with wobbly trains, but rather it’s a programming thing).

What this means in simple terms is that I and my chums who speak in acronyms can now integrate multiple language translation into your site in a manner which we refer to as ‘pretty damned slick’ (that’s more programming jargon).

It’s important to stress that this is ‘live’ translation — ie. if you update the site in (presumably) English, the translation is essentially instantaneous. This is obviously far preferable (and a damned sight cheaper) than the old-fashioned method of asking an earnest chap with a beard to translate your content into a variety of local lingos.

My hovercraft is full of eels…

How accurate is it? Well it seems to be pretty good (and getting better). I’ve asked some of my clients using it to check with their local distributors and the general consensus is that while it's not perfect, it’s remarkably close. And the locals seem to appreciate the effort.

Is there a catch? Not really. Google provide it as a free service (shows what they know) but I charge a modest sum to implement it. Hey, you want it for nothing, you learn to write code…

Want an example? Okay, have a quick squint at K& L Ross — apparently the first bite they got from foreign parts more than paid for the implementation, and I’m told there’s been a steady stream of orders from places they have to look up in the atlas.

I was just typing thinking…

corporate + brand identity | graphic design | website design | dog walking

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