Translate your website with Google: Expand your audience globally

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

This has been cross-posted from the
Official Google Blog

How long would it take to translate all the world’s web content into 50 languages? Even if all of
the translators in the world worked around the clock, with the current growth rate of content
being created online and the sheer amount of data on the web, it would take hundreds of years to
make even a small dent.

Today, we’re happy to announce a new
website translator gadget
powered by Google Translate that enables you to make your site’s content available in 51
languages. Now, when people visit your page, if their language (as determined by their browser
settings) is different than the language of your page, they’ll be prompted to automatically
translate the page into their own language. If the visitor’s language is the same as the language
of your page, no translation banner will appear.

After clicking the Translate button, the automatic translations are shown directly on your page.

It’s easy to install—all you have to do is cut and paste a short snippet into your webpage
to increase the global reach of your blog or website.

Automatic translation is convenient and helps people get a quick gist of the page. However, it’s
not a perfect substitute for the art of professional translation. Today happens to be
International Translation Day, and we’d like to take the opportunity to celebrate the
contributions of translators all over the world. These translators play an essential role in
enabling global communication, and with the rapid growth and ease of access to digital content,
the need for them is greater than ever. We hope that professional translators, along with
translation tools such as
Google Translator Toolkit
and this
Translate gadget,
will continue to help make the world’s content more accessible to everyone.

Posted by Jeff Chin, Product Manager, Google Translate