Microsoft's Live Search now offers translation, powered by Microsoft Translator technology. Additionally, the Windows Live Toolbar and Internet Explorer 8 have translation technology as well. Even Windows Messenger is getting a translation bot.
Supported languages are:
English to/from:
- Arabic
- Chinese Simplified
- Chinese Traditional
- Dutch
- French
- German
- Italian
- Japanese
- Korean
- Portuguese
- Russian (Russian to English only)
- Spanish
Chinese Simplified to/from Chinese Traditional is also supported.
Microsoft is responding to a boom in non-English speaking web users. Writing on the Live Search blog, Lane Rau, Marketing Manager, Microsoft Research Machine Translation team said:
Now that the Web is more worldwide than ever, the number of non-native English speakers going online has ballooned, and yet online content in English still dominates. For these users, free translation services mean that an entire world of information can now actually be at their fingertips. We're doing something to help them out.
Adding translation is just the most recent of several updates to Live Search this year. Read about other updates by clicking on the links below:
Microsoft Adds Image Hotspots to Live Search Design
Live Search Displays Paragraph Under Wikipedia Results
Microsoft to Bring Advertising to Live Search Mobile
Microsoft Launches Live Search Cashback and Live Search Farecast
