Intercultural Communication and Translation News

Facebook isn’t just messing around with a few European language translations any more. They’re using their new user-powered translation engine to get Facebook into 22 more languages, on top of English, French, German and Spanish.

It will take some time for users to translate the sites, and Facebook likes to stagger launches to maximize PR. If you want to help out with the project, the application is here.

European versions of Facebook launched first in Spanish on Feb. 11, then in German in early March; now, the French version of the hugely popular networking web site is finally at hand.

This brand-new edition, whose creation is due in part to French users, allows the California-based company to complete the first major phase in its plans to go global, as announced last December.

“We have over 4000 contributors working on the French version, and the translation here has been even faster than in Germany,” says Javier Olivan, Director of International Development for Facebook, quoted in the French daily newspaper Les Echos.

This is a critical step for Facebook, which already counts 60% of its users outside the US, including one third in Europe.

“We have 8.3 million active users in the United Kingdom and over 1.5 million French users,” said Olivan.

Multilingualism is an important step for Facebook’s international expansion. Established in 2004, the community site now boasts some 67 million active users. Thanks to free software, millions of European users can now use Facebook in their native tongues.

Read more > Facebook

Kristjan Mar Hauksson  of Multilingual Search writes:

The world’s largest search engine misses out on localization, how? Spelling error, I’m I feeling lucky button was changed to “Freysta gæfunnar”, the problem is that there is no y in freysta so the search engine that has 50% of the Icelandic population searching is greeting the Icelandic nation with a spelling error! Pls. Google fix this it is hurting my feelings!

More than 85 percent of the world’s online population has used the Internet to make a purchase — increasing the market for online shopping by 40 percent in the past two years — according to the latest Nielsen Global Online Survey on Internet shopping habits. Globally, more than half of Internet users have made at least one purchase online in the past month, according to Nielsen.

“The Internet is no longer a niche technology — it is mass media and an utterly integral part of modern life. Almost no aspect of life remains untouched by online media. As our lives become more fractured and cluttered, it isn’t surprising that consumers turn to the unrivalled convenience of the Internet when it comes to researching and buying products,” said Jonathan Carson, President, International, Nielsen Online.

“When The Nielsen Company conducted its first global survey into Internet shopping trends two years ago, approximately 10 percent of the world’s population (627 million) had shopped online,” said Bruce Paul, VP, Customized Research, Nielsen U.S. “Within two years, this number has increased by approximately 40 percent (to 875 million).”

Read more > Nielsen 

Hotels.com has started 2008 with the launch of five new European local language sites in Greece, Turkey, Iceland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

This move comes as part of Hotels.com’s continued roll-out across the EMEA region and has seen each of the five sites go live with IP based country recognition, local-language interfaces and local currency pricing.

These launches solidify Hotels.com’s position as the world’s favourite hotel booking specialists*, with the company now operating 25 sites across Europe including sites in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia and Benelux. The launch of the new sites continues Hotels.com’s local language expansion plans which also saw Poland and Russia go live in 2007.

Read more > Hotels.com

Jonas Lindberg, Google Software Engineer, writes:

“OK, I cheated. I don’t really speak Chinese. But I know a bot that does, and we’re releasing it today together with number of other translation bots. For those not familiar with bots, a (ro)bot is a piece of software that acts as a chat contact and provides some fun or useful functionality.

If you want to try it, just add en2zh@bot.talk.google.com as a friend in Google Talk and send it a message to translate from English to Chinese. You can use it as an interpreter in your group chat, or as a pocket translator in your Google Talk client for BlackBerry.

For more languages, just add any of the 29 23 other translation bots. They’re named using two-letter language abbreviations as “[from language]2[to language]@bot.talk.google.com”, and the supported language pairs are: ar2en, de2en, de2fr, el2en, en2ar, en2de, en2el, en2es, en2fr, en2it, en2ja, en2ko, en2nl, en2ru, en2zh, es2en, fr2de, fr2en, it2en, ja2en, ko2en, nl2en, ru2en, zh2en. So, for French to German translation, talk to fr2de@bot.talk.google.com.”

Read more>  Google Talkabout

In order to make Facebook available in many different languages, the company could have paid dozens of professional translators rather large fees.  Instead, in what we’ll call an “accountant-approved alternative,” Facebook has decided to involve its users and crowdsource the issue.

A new application called Facebook Translations allows people to suggest translations and vote alternatives up and down.  Or would allow them, anyway - the accountants may have pinched a few too many pennies, as the app isn’t in working order at the moment.Facebook Launches Self-Translation App

Still, we know it was running, because Rodney Rumford reports, “There are already 839 people translating the site to Spanish.  All for a whopping cost of ZERO Dollars.”  And he offers several screenshots of Facebook Translations if you can’t get the link to function, either.

Once working, the app should make Facebook more accessible in a number of countries; this will likely translate into a large number of new users.  The project should, at the least, result in added dedication from its participants, since they’ll have something invested in the outcome.

On a less optimistic note, given its failures in English, we have to wonder how well Facebook can handle privacy issues in multiple languages.

Read more> Facebook 

JupiterResearch, a leading authority on the impact of the Internet and emerging consumer technologies on business, has found nearly one-half of large Web-site decision makers had translated content on their sites into another language to optimize for international search, suggesting solid recognition for the evolving global marketplace. By contrast, fewer than one-quarter of these same decision makers had engaged in localization or adapting site content to a specific language, country, or culture by taking into account nuances such as local terminology and consumers’ preferences.

These findings are outlined in a new report published by JupiterResearch, “International Search: Benchmarking the Global Search Marketer,” and focus on the ever increasing need for marketers to do more than simply translate content. Search marketers must build the localization piece into their campaigns or risk misallocating their globalization spending.

“True localization, rather than just translation, is essential to international search,” explained Vice President Zia Daniell Wigder, lead analyst of the report. “ Direct translations of a site are unlikely to include the most commonly used search terms, resulting in a site that can be understood by the local audience but may receive little traffic if it fails to appear in search results.”

The report also states U.S. marketers are lagging behind European counterparts, which were more likely to use or plan to use international search tactics such as language and location targeting. The relatively smaller size of European marketers’ home markets and the proximity of foreign markets make the international piece an important part of many search campaigns.

“Localization can add significant costs to simple translation efforts, but this next step is becoming increasingly necessary. The unfortunate thing is that more U.S. marketers than those in Europe do not fully understand the need, said David Schatsky, President of JupiterResearch. “The simple truth is U.S. marketers risk leaving substantial revenues on the table if they fail to look beyond basic language translation.”

The complete findings of this report are immediately available to JupiterResearch clients online at www.jupiterresearch.com. For details on JupiterResearch’s methodology, visit www.jupiterresearch.com/bin/item.pl/methodology or email press@jupiterresearch.com to request a detailed methodology statement. For additional information on this report or JupiterResearch’s Web Globalization research service, visit www.jupiterresearch.com or contact Kieran Kelly, Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Client Service, at 1-800-481-1212 or researchsales@jupiterresearch.com.

About JupiterResearch

JupiterResearch provides unbiased research, analysis and advice, backed by proprietary data, to help companies profit from the impact of the Internet and emerging consumer technologies on their business. The company helps online businesses make critical decisions about technology selection, spending, staffing, and Web site effectiveness; advises consumer-facing companies with online advertising, marketing, and customer service strategies to understand, attract, convert and retain customers; and guides technology vendors and service providers on market opportunity, positioning, product definition, and pricing. JupiterResearch is headquartered in New York City and has offices throughout the US and Europe. For more information, visit www.jupiterresearch.com.

The International Telecommunication Union, UNESCO and ICANN will collaborate on global efforts to forge universal standards towards building a multilingual cyberspace. The three agencies organized a workshop on this subject during the second Internet Governance Forum (IGF) taking place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from 12 to 15 November 2007.

The Internet is a key factor in developing a more inclusive and development-oriented information society, which stresses plurality and diversity instead of global uniformity. Multilingualism is a key concept to ensure cultural diversity and participation for all linguistic groups in cyberspace. There is growing concern that hundreds of local languages may be sidestepped, albeit unintentionally in the radical expansion of Internet communication and information. The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) recognized the importance attached to linguistic diversity and local content, with UNESCO given the responsibility to coordinate implementation of the Summit Action Line.

Read more> Summit 

As the evolution of the Internet continues, b-to-b marketers are reaching a crossroads in determining what tactics have worked in the past to attract traffic to their sites versus what approaches will work in the future. According to Internet World Stats, two-thirds of global Internet users are non-English speakers. This growing volume of search activity means that marketing opportunities will continue to evolve on both regional and global levels.

So how can b-to-b marketers capitalize on this trend? Is the answer as simple as translating all Web pages to the targeted country’s language?

Translation is one component of optimizing for international markets, but it’s in no way the end-all answer. A word-for-word translation of a Web site is ambiguous. Instead, Web sites should be translated according to concepts. A simple translation does not take into account cultures, customs and preferences specific to various countries. Additionally, a simple translation loses targeted keywords.

For instance, you wouldn’t think there would be any disparity between a U.S. and U.K. Web page because both countries speak English. However, consider the differences between dialects. In the U.S., speakers use the word taxi, while in the U.K., it’s car hire—both meaning the same thing and both completely different keywords.

Any translation, whether it’s keyword ads or site content, must be relevant to the specified culture. Additionally, human translators will greatly influence the success of your Web page. While automatic translations are easy to use, they have the tendency to kill the keywords that you implement as part of your optimizing campaign.

Read more>  Internet