Brussels, home to the 27-nation European Union, is a linguistic melting pot. The European Union itself has 22 official languages. So when our Vice President for Research and Special Initiatives, Alfred Spector, visited this week, he opened this linguistic window to outline his vision of the future of the Internet. Three years ago, he noted that Google only offered translation in nine languages. We now support 51 languages. Recently, specially excited to announce that we've added additional languages to Google Translate: Afrikaans , Belarusian , Icelandic , Irish , Macedonian , Maltese , Welsh , and Yiddish . Since we can translate between any two of these languages, we offer translation for 2550 language pairs! Are the translations perfect? Would they substitute for an official translation of a European directive? No, Alfred acknowledged. For example, our programs may get translate "le garcon" as "boy" when the correct word should be "waiter." So, as Alfred explained, please don't get mad if "Garcon, apporte-moi un cafe" becomes "Boy, bring me a coffee" instead of "Waiter, bring me a coffee." (Although, we're proud to say that if we add an exclamation point after the word "Garcon," the translation would be perfect!) But the translations are improving regularly and can help you find and translate local restaurant and hotel reviews into your language when planning a vacation abroad, allow you to read the Spanish or French Editions of Google News , communicate with people who speak different languages using Google Translate chat bots , and more. Our growing linguistic dexterity shows how Google is investing in the future of the web, and how we believe technological advances will continue to make the web better and more useful to people. "We will break down communication barriers," Alfred explained. In a growing number of cases, People who speak only "small" languages will gain much greater access to the the Web's wonders. And speakers in one language can search for information in other languages and then have this results translated. "The barriers to information exchange" are being disappearing very rapidly, Alfred argued. (Type "Translated Search" to Google to see this capability.) Translation is another tool that relies on the power of data. Our translation tools are built by comparing existing translations that exist on the web, and we also solicit feedback from users. No human interference is required to conduct a translation. In related fields, Alfred explained how we are working on voice recognition and demonstrated how it has become possible to do searches just by speaking into one's mobile phone. While the capabilities are in various dialects of English now, watch for more... In response to questions, Alfred noted these advances cannot pose privacy concerns - training data collected is anonymous and then aggregated into statistically applied recognition rules -- it is therefore completely untraceable to any individual. Both the use of speech to search from mobile phones and translation are but two examples of many Alfred gave as to how the web will continue to breakdown barriers to communication and understanding. In Brussels, Alfred also gave the keynote speech at a conference titled The Future of Space in Europe . He noted how Google and organisations such as the European Space Agency have much more in common than it may first appear. We are both in the business of setting audacious goals and working over a long time-frame to make them a reality. In both our fields, you cannot possibly anticipate all the challenges you will face, nor predict the innovations engineers will make to overcome them. But one thing is clear: having a bold vision guarantees that huge progress will be made along the way. As they say - "aim for the moon, then even if you miss at least you'll reach the stars"... In our field, we say something similar for how the Internet is allowing us to explore knowledge in surprising, exciting ways- "you ain't seen nothing net." Posted by Bill Echikson, Senior Communications Manager
But wouldn't the working method of the EU be a perfect basis for a refined automatised translation?
ReplyDeleteIf almost every document exists in official translations into up to 21 languages, this should constitute a perfect basis to make translations of EU-related text much better than it is today, don't you think?
I am asking because one of the major problems we eurobloggers are facing is that it is very difficult to establish a European blog discourse without automatised translation that provides us with at least factually correct translations of blog posts and documents written in the different EU languages.