Google has announced just that for its Google Talk IM service: bots (bot is short for robot, a program that mimics real conversation or serves some task in a chat channel) which will translate whatever you say into another language.
This is how it works: add
en***@bo*.com
as a friend in Google Talk and send it a message. It’s a bot that will translate whatever you say from English to Chinese.
Post the meat of your blog posting here. Make it long. For other languages, add any of the other 29 translation bots: ar2en, bg2en, de2en, de2fr, el2en, en2ar, en2de, en2el, en2es, en2fr, en2it, en2ja, en2ko, en2nl, en2ru, en2zh, es2en, fi2en, fr2de, fr2en, hi2en, hr2en, it2en, ja2en, ko2en, nl2en, ru2en, uk2en, ur2en, zh2en. If the names seem confusing to you, check this list of two-letter language abbreviations for clarification. The syntax is “[from language]2[to language]@bot.talk.google.com”
Now, I must admit that I’m used to talking in English when I’m online in, well, 100% of cases. However, not everyone speaks the language, and people that don’t will probably we overjoyed with this little invention of Google’s. Plus it’s probably a solid way to learn some basics of a language (we’re talking basic stuff here, complex sentences will probably get mutilated by the bot).
[READ: Mashable]
Frank Wilson is a retired teacher with over 30 years of combined experience in the education, small business technology, and real estate business. He now blogs as a hobby and spends most days tinkering with old computers. Wilson is passionate about tech, enjoys fishing, and loves drinking beer.
