GTS Blog

I just noticed that Google Translate spell checks the text you enter for translation. If it detects a spelling error it suggests an alternate spelling. This is displayed in a similar way as in the Google Search (which also provides spell checking of the search string).

Spell checking is not supported for all languages, but is supported for the major European languages which I tested, including English, Spanish, German, French and Italian.

Preparing content for machine translation can improve results and save time in the post-edit process. This was discussed in a previous GTS blog post. Google has done it again and is the first to market with this important feature.

Google has released its own phone, Nexus One. It runs Google’s own mobile operation system, Android. And the Google Chrome has already surpassed Apple’s Safari in browser usage. So how long will it take for Google to open an online music store and take away market share from iTunes?

The iTunes store has generated Billions of dollars in sales since it launched in 2003. The iTunes store is currently generating over US$100 Million in sales per month and that number is growing exponentially (see graph). This is a hugely profitable area which Google can compete in.

Google has already made several moves in this direction, and seems poised to become an online music retailer.

• Google has launched a music search service which streams music and offers links to other online music sites.  
• BusinessWeek magazine recently stated that Google has already entered the Online Retailing business (read article here).
• Various sources have reported that Google is in talks with online music retailer Spotify to launch a partnership in online music retail.

Google has been very active in the machine translation space with new languages and language tools being rolled out at frequent intervals. But Microsoft has been busy too, as it appears, and is not ready to concede this key vertical to Google. The Microsoft Translator (http://www.microsofttranslator.com/) has been updated with new language pairs and now includes Hebrew which did not exist previously. It also presents web pages that were translated in Bing in side-by-side format and allows you to translate the same page into any of the languages offered by the service without reloading. 

Microsoft Translator side-by-side view

It is encouraging to see that the major search engine companies are trying hard to make the Internet a global place by making content available in many languages. Of course what is foremost on their minds is maximizing the amount of content delivered to users in order to boost advertising revenues.