Google Translate is a free service that translates multiple languages from one to the other. The service is pretty cool, allowing you to convert German, to English, Arabic to Spanish etc. However, until now there have been some noticeable omissions. Google Translate is changing that today with its addition of African languages. According to theguardian.com:
“Google is planning to add Somali, Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba and Zulu to its list of language options on Google Translate, the search engine giant’s free automatic translation service.
“A post published yesterday on the Google Africa page on Google+ called on users to evaluate the translation quality of the five languages. After assessing passages that are translated into English and vice versa, users can rate them as Excellent, Good, Fair or Poor.”
This is great news from Google, and has already been met with warm reception in the African community. It is sure to break down more language barriers, allowing greater involvement in the global community.
Google is well-known for its freebies, which come at the cost of users’ personal information for ad sales. While this may not always turn out well, as evidenced by Gmail users’ lack of privacy within the app. These types of products can be very useful for countless people, especially since they are free. Coupled with Google Chairman Eric Schmidt’s vision of worldwide Internet access, Translate’s African language additions are groundbreaking indeed.
Check out the new additions on Google Translate’s page.
