Google Releases Online Translator Bot

Have you always wondered how to tell someone to get out of your cube… in Chinese? Google announced the release of a translation bot that works with Google Talk and its mobile and Blackberry IM modules. You are just a simple chat message away from seeming fluent in 23 languages.

Up until now I've gone to clunky BabelFish when I have a tricky translation problem that isn't in one of the two languages I speak, English or Spanish. If I want to understand something in another language, or say something simple in a language I am unfamiliar with, there haven't been many easy to use or free solutions to the problem.

Google has stepped in with a simple way to speak globally. Simply add one of the 23 language chat IDs to your Google Talk, and start using the bot. It's that easy. Each of the 23 languages has a two letter code, plus 2zh@bot.talk.google.com, that you add as a contact in Google Talk. Once you add the desired language bot as a contact, simply typing your message and hitting send will net you a translation.

To see how well it worked, I decided to try it in English to Spanish format, since those are two languages I am familiar with. The translation it shot back at me was a bit more formal than I would normally choose to speak to someone in Spanish, reading a bit like a textbook. Other than that slightly stilted delivery, it was 100% accurate. I tried again with a more complex sentence, and again got back a translation that was a bit formal, but right on the money as far as meaning.

Not only does Google's translation bot seem to offer a handy online solution to a simple problem, they are also encouraging you to create your own bot for other tasks:

For those of you into programming, why not build your own bot? Maybe a weather service or a rock/paper/scissors game. The Google Talk service uses an open protocol called XMPP, and it's easy to find client libraries and code samples that will give you a flying start. For Java users, check out Ignite Realtime's Smack library. Please note that the Google Talk service enforces traffic limitations on user accounts, so if you want to support more than a few thousand Google Talk users on your bot, connect using the server-to-server protocol (either by making your bot act as an XMPP server or by hosting the bot on your own XMPP server).

All in all I'd say this little bot is a welcome solution to a pesky problem. Plus, the ability to build other bots to work within the GoogleTalk application is appealing on a number of levels. Think of the automated solutions for offices and other groups of people who need to work together using common information. While Google can sometimes creep me out with the way they are creeping slowly across the technosphere, this type of thing always brings me back into their corner again.