I logged on to Google Reader recently and found the article: Is Your Web Truly World-Wide very interesting. The "Google Translate Team" has been hard at work creating technology that translates internet content into various languages.
The premise behind the Goggle Translator is that when you log in to Google Reader and you find an interesting feed in another language you can check off "translate into my language" and the feed will automatically be translated and sent to you. The setting would also be saved so if you found one particular blog or information source that you would like to read frequently. You would always receive the feed in your language. The potential for increased internet access and exploration of foreign internet content is now limitless!
The article does not say how many languages the translator will work for. One of my first friends here at BC was a second year student who described a similar project that he was working on for his MP class. In his project, the "translator" translated Arabic to English and vice versa. I thought the concept sounded cutting edge but apparently Google has already thought of it! I hope for my friends sake they are able to sell a piece of the business to Google. Regardless, I think the idea is brilliant.
My final thought about the language translating feature that Google is promoting is how revolutionary it will be for traveling! I fly for free working for United Airlines and grew up abroad so needless to say I love to travel. I am intersted to see where they take this technology. It would impressive if you could set your entire internet to automatic translator so you could see translated articles regardless of whether or not you are using Google Reader. There would certainly be a lot more articles that populate for a search but wouldn't it be great to "Google" something while traveling in Japan and have Japanese reviews or articles populate about what you are searching. Maybe there could be an on and off funtion?
This is what I perceive to be a huge advancement in Web 2.0 technology. The world will only be that much flatter with the Google Translate team on the job! And yet, what will be the implications for future generations need to learn another language? And will something be lost in the translation? I'll be interested to see where Google takes the technology and how they apply it to other applications. I'll also be routing for my first business school friend in hopes that he can sell his translator to Google and retire early!
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