Difference between Yahoo Babelfish and Google Translator
Have you ever browsed to a website but have been disappointed to find that it is in a language you don’t understand? This is quite a frustrating experience indeed but thankfully, help is here in the form of websites such as Yahoo Babelfish and Google Translator. The two sites provide the valuable service of translating the contents of a foreign language website for you so you don’t have to do it manually, but which one is better? Let's take a look!
Profile
Yahoo Babelfish is an application that translates text and even entire web pages from one language into another. This application offers support for several different languages.
Google Translator is a free translation service that serves a similar function to Babelfish, in that it translates text, documents and/or web page from one language into another. Like Babelfish, Translator also offers support for many different languages.
Underlying Technology
The translation technology used by Babelfish comes from SYSTRAN, a company that also provides translation technologies for other sites. Among the languages it can translate are English, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, and Spanish.
Google Translator made its debut in 2007 using its own proprietary system. Before then, Google was dependent on the same SYSTRAN used by other translator services such as Babelfish, AOL, and Yahoo.
In Use
Using Google Translator is relatively easy, and it only requires users to go to a web page in a language that they don't understand, upon which they will be presented with a query to have the page translated. Users will then simply have to click on the "Translate" button, and Translator will automatically convert the text into your the language you specify. This is a more straightforward approach than other translation services, since the foreign language is recognized automatically. That being said, Babelfish isn't that much harder to operate, and you should be able to get a translation with a few mouse clicks.
As for the quality of the translation…well, let's just say that the technology isn't quite perfect yet. While the results that you get from Translator and Babelfish are definitely remarkable, they aren't really 100% accurate. For critical applications and situations wherein word-for-word accuracy is a must, these applications still can't beat out a fully qualified and competent human translator. At best however, these applications provide a good start to a translation task, and they certainly make it easier for you to just do some more thorough translating.
Summary
Babelfish
- An application that translates text and even entire web pages from one language into another
- Translation technology used comes from SYSTRAN
Google Translator
- A free translation service that serves a similar function to Babelfish
- Translates text, documents and/or web page from one language into another
- Offers support for many different languages
- Uses its own proprietary system
- Was previously dependent on the same SYSTRAN used by other translator services
