Sunday, April 26, 2009

781 visits used 21 languages

Recently I started using Google Analytics to get the big picture regarding visits to my blog.  I was startled to see that people had visited who were using 21 different languages.  I take it for granted when I do a search that most of what I find will be in English.  Ocassionally, however, I have had ocassion to use Google Translate to read a page in a language I don't know.  For example,  I can read my daughter and son-in-law's Norwegian language blog using the translate feature.  Generally speaking, the translation comes out pretty well.

A few months ago I was searching for potential Chinese manufacturers of wheelbarrows.  I was astounded when I saw that Google could translate an entire page of Chinese characters into passable English.  And it does it really fast.

I already think that it is very cool that the world is so interconnected via the internet.  Now it occurs to me that automated translation is good enough to facilitate communication between folks who do not share a common language.  

Amazing.

1 comment:

Bethany Fegles Photography said...

Wow, that is amazing. I had no idea Google did that!