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April 27, 2006

Yahoo Adds Babel Fish

Yahoo has integrated the classic Alta Vista Babel Fish into Yahoo Search. The service should now be available at http://babelfish.yahoo.com/, if it is not, it should be live shortly.

I am told;

You can translate a block of text up to 150 words and conduct a search based on translated text. Users can also enter any URL into a "Translate a Web Page" box to convert the text of an entire Web page. In both instances, users select from an extensive list of 38 language pair choices. In addition, Babel Fish one click translation is available through the a button that can be added to the Yahoo! Toolbar.

In addition, Yahoo said they have made enhancements to the translations technology that enables "Simplified Chinese to be translated into Traditional Chinese and vice versa with high accuracy." Also, France and Germany users have an additional feature named "Search Translator," a feature that "searcher's queries and looks across the entire Web in multiple languages to find the most comprehensive set of relevant results. Yahoo! Search results are returned on one multi-lingual page."

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 12:01 AM | Permalink

December 20, 2005

Ask Jeeves Adds Translations, Pronunciations & Synonym Lookups

Word from Oakland today that Ask Jeeves has just added page translation, easier synonym lookups and definitions with pronunciations. Details and examples have just been posted on the AJ Blog.

What's New?

+ Page translations Note the 2nd and 3rd listings on the results page tbat have new "translate the page" links next to the title. Translation is powered by Reverso Translation software. Like with all mechanical translations, caveat emptor.

+ Improved Dictionary Smart Answers Definitions now come The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Terms like define [foo] or what does [foo] mean, trigger the dictionary feature. In some cases, you'll also find a direct link to a thesaurus for the term.

Also, clicking the hyperlink for any term you're defining will take you to even more definitions and info about the word. Ask calls these full reference pages.

Synonyms Along with the link to a theasurus available via the dictionary, you can access synonyms directly by using trigger words like: + Another word for run * Synonyms for travel * speaker synonyms Each synonym is hyperlinked to a dictionary definition of the term. Synonyms also have full "reference pages."

Pronunciations + Along with reading a text definition, AJ allows you to hear each word pronounced (assuming your computer has a sound card and speakers/headphones). Click the sound icon and you'll hear the term delivered as a wave file.

Let's hope 2006 as is strong of a year for AJ's Smart Answers as 2005 was.

Posted by Gary Price at 8:36 PM | Permalink

July 14, 2005

Yahoo Search Translator Released

The Yahoo Search Blog and a News.com article: Parlez vous Deutsche, provide a look at the new Yahoo Search Translator.

This new service takes search queries submitted in German, translates the query into English and French, and then allows the searcher to quickly find and read not only German language material but also English language content that has been mechanically translated into German.

Why are they doing this?

Via the Yahoo Search Blog: If you can't read English, you can't make use of more than half of the web's information. For example, a searcher in Germany can only access less than 10% of the web in German.

Technology from Systran powers the translation. Systran also powers Yahoo's Babelfish translation service.

If you don't speak German, YSB offers a couple of examples to see precisely how the service operates.

Yahoo's Eckart Walther told News.com that Yahoo Search Translator for French content is in the works with other languages becoming available within the next year.

Smart move by Yahoo pointing out on their blog that mechanical translation is good but far from perfect.

Nevertheless, it's an interesting and potentially very powerful idea.

Back in January I posted a brief item about Babelplex. This service leverages Google's translation software to translate queries from one language to another. Users can then click and translate entire web pages if necessary.

Btw, Yahoo Search also launched their new German language blog today.

Posted by Gary Price at 10:22 AM | Permalink

June 2, 2005

A Look at Machine Translation from Google and Others

Google Blogoscoped points to a Christian Science Monitor article that takes a look at some of the machine translation work that Google and others are working on.

Systran, the company whose technology is used Yahoo's Babelfish and other sites (including Google's) are mentioned.

Another company doing work in an area related to mechanical translation is Basis Technology. According to this article, Google also uses Basis technology.

Finally, if you're interested in quickly comparing a bunch of online translation programs, Michael Fagan's Translation Wizard, is very useful.

Posted by Gary Price at 1:29 PM | Permalink

April 4, 2005

Babelplex Translates Queries For Google

Need to search for something in a language you don't know, say "digital cameras" in German? Babelplex lets you enter the words you want to search for, then pick the language to translate them into, then lets you view the results side-by-side on Google.

For example with the above query, enter "digital camera" into Babelplex, choose to translate from English to German, and the English results from Google show up on the left-hand side of the screen. On the right side, you're shown the Google Translate results for "digitale kameras." Push the Google Search button under that translation, and your German results will appear.

Remember, automated translation is often prone to inaccuracies. Nevertheless, if for some reason you needed a quick way to translate, you might try the tool. You can also do this directly via Google by making use of the Language Tools link on the Google home page. Enter what you want in the Translate box, translate it, then you can easily do a Google web search. What Babelplex does that's different is give you a side-by-side view.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 6:57 AM | Permalink

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