Thread: Launch of Google Translator Toolkit

I just tested out the latest translation tool by Google. It's a great tool! Read about it: Google Translator Toolkit.

The tool translates documents from English into a number Indian languages such as Hindi, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu. You can translate documents from a variety of sources:

- upload a document
- enter the url of a web page
- enter the url of a Wikipedia article
- enter the url of a Knol

The tool will translate the document/article into the language of your choice. You can then edit the document. It's also possible to publish translations to Wikipedia and Knol.

View the YouTube Video, or read more information here.

Google is working very hard on producing translation and transliteration tools. This is great news as more people will be able to access information in their own native language. Bloggers can translate their own blog posts, which will hopefully bring in more readers.

A comment by a reader on Digital Inspiration got me to take a second look at the Google Translator Toolkit. The reader states that Google gets to keep and use a copy of your translated document.

I just checked the toolkit terms of service and sure enough it states:

Use of your Content

By submitting your content through the Service, you grant Google the permission to use your content permanently to promote, improve or offer the Services. If Google publicly displays any of the content you submitted through the Service, Google will display only portion(s) and not the entirety of the content at one time.

The above highlights how important it is to read the small print! I have no doubt that many people will inadvertently overlook this term of service.

So if you translate a document through the toolkit, you must be willing to accept that part of the document might be used by Google to promote its services (and that Google gets to keep a copy of your translated document).