May 23rd, 2007
Google makes web more accessible for non-English speakers
And for those who don’t speak it natively…And for those who do but really want to access non-English websites.According to the Google Blog entry on the topic:
“While machine translation is not perfect, it’s usually good enough for you to obtain the gist of information in a language you might otherwise be unable to access. We think this feature will be particularly useful for our international users since although the majority of Internet users out there are non English speakers, a majority of the content on the internet is still in English. “
Imagine American students (since we’re about the only country in the world that doesn’t value multi-lingualism) now being able to research German politics using German websites or Norwegian-Americans being able to research their culture and heritage on websites published in Norway (and written in Norwegian). My 8th grade cultural fair project would have been much cooler if this Norwegian would have had access to a tool like the new and improved Google Translate. Of course, Google didn’t even exist then, but I wish it had.
However, this will be of the greatest value to the English language learners in our schools. These students will now be able to research in their native language and access both English and native translations of English websites. A few screenshots follow, but this will be a real asset for the ELD teachers in our schools.
Searching Spanish websites:
And the results (in English and Spanish):
Follow Chris Dawson on Twitter! Christopher Dawson is the technology director for the Athol-Royalston School District in northern Massachusetts and a member of the Internet Press Guild. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations, but always keep in mind that the opinions expressed here are his own and not those of his daytime employer, even if he talks incessantly about his day job.
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