Google Goggles & the Best Online Translator –

Contenders: Google, Bing & Yahoo

With the internet being increasingly used by people all over the world, some
hope it will be the medium that can unite us all. However, one challenge remains
and that is the language barrier. It is without a doubt the hardest challenge in
history. Wars have been fought due to miscommunication. Now, the internet
giants are fighting head to head to create the best translation tool in the world.
Microsoft Bing, Google translate and Yahoo Babel Fish are battling it out.

Google has raised its game by introducing translation software within Google
Goggles. They announced this new feature on their Official Google Mobile Blog
recently. Google Goggles is in a nut shell an application that allows you to take a
photo of an unknown place or item, and will use it to compare with the
information on the internet. It will then return to you all the related information
of that unknown place or item. What Google is doing now is to enable you to
take a photo of a Spanish text in the real world, and then show you the
translated text (e.g. in English). Imagine the dilemma you faced when you are at
a Polish restaurant with a Polish language-only menu. So, with this new function,
you will be able to point your phone camera to the menu, and get the English
translation back in seconds. How cool is that?

Why We Are So Frantically Looking For a Language Translation

Solution?
All of us have longed for universal translators such as those seen in Star Trek.
Most of us believe if we can understand each other perfectly, we will have lasting
peace. Many scientists have been working on the technology to make it possible.
Research has been going on for a long period of time, but we are not getting any
closer. Recently, American language researchers predict that we will have a
translation program that will understand what we say in the next 10 years.
However, the program will only be capable of translating a specific field of
subject such as tennis or driving directions. The technology is still based on
statistics. What it means is that the program will compare what you have just
said to the million entries in its database. From there, it can narrow down to
identify what you really meant. So I guess the Star Trek universal translators will
have to wait for a while longer.

The next question: Why is it so hard to create a technology that can translate
perfectly? The answer lies, firstly, in how we use the language. The use of
language is always changing. It is this constant evolution of language that makes
it almost impossible to create such software. It remains possible if we can create
an Artificial Intelligence that is on par with the human brain. Secondly, is the use
of grammar. Words can be put together in millions of combinations. Different
combinations also carry different meanings. That is the reason why you always
get some sentences that make no sense from the internet translation software.
However, when it comes to the single word translation, the software is absolutely
spot-on. Therefore, the lesson here is that the translation software is a
marvelous dictionary, but not at all great in interpreting sentences.

A Little Translation Experiment

In order to prove my point, I have devised a little test. I used the following
sentence as the original text “This article is about how translation software is
being used to transform our world in ways we cannot imagine.”

Translation Original text to Spanish Translated Spanish back

software
Google Translate Este artículo trata sobre
cómo el software de
traducción está siendo
utilizado para transformar
nuestro mundo en formas
que no podemos imaginar.
to English
This article is about how the
translation software is being
used to transform our world
in ways we can not imagine.

Microsoft Bing Este artículo es sobre cómo
el software de traducción se
está utilizando para
transformar nuestro mundo
de maneras que podemos
imaginar.
This article is about how the
translation software is being
used to transform our world
in ways that we can
imagine.

Yahoo Babel Fish Este artículo está sobre
cómo el software de la
traducción se está utilizando
para transformar nuestro
mundo de maneras que no
podemos imaginarnos.
This article is envelope how
the software of the
translation is being used to
transform our world of
ways that we cannot
imagine to us.

Accordingly, you can see that Yahoo Babel Fish is seriously flawed in the
grammar. Microsoft Bing is giving us the wrong and totally contradictory
meaning. However, Google did quite ok except a spelling error. So, who is the
winner? I will let you decide whether you will entrust all of your business
translations to the internet translation software.

Conclusion
Unfortunately, the solution that exists and has a proven track record is the
human translator. This should be perfectly clear as the United Nation still
employs thousands of professional translators to act as the bridge between
nation leaders. If you want to get a translation done properly, humans will almost
certainly be part of the equation.