6 ms·

Google improves its Translation Tool

26 points by anderzole 17y ago

Groxx 17y ago
Google is awesome. And frightening. And frighteningly awesome. But I guess that's partly the status of anyone with that kind of computing power just lying around. "While many translation systems like Google’s use up to a billion words of text to create a model of a language, Google went much bigger: a few hundred billion English words. “The models become better and better the more text you process,” Mr. Och said." "Last month, for example, it said it was working to combine its translation tool with image analysis, allowing a person to, say, take a cellphone photo of a menu in German and get an instant English translation." Simply awesome. Add that to the Youtube transcribing they've been fiddling with for a while now.
- martythemaniak 17y ago
  Not only massive computing power, but also some pretty smart and creative folks too. I sometimes wonder where Google will be in 10 years.
  - groaner 17y ago
    Couldn't help but recall this pic I saw a while ago: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thevoyagers/518750492/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/thevoyagers/518750492/
    - Groxx 17y ago
      Fark generates some fun stuff :) And while it'd be a privacy nightmare, I'm sure nearly everyone would love a search that indexed their house. Think of it: never lose anything, ever again. I could use that pretty often, especially with roommates and cats :D (guess which cause more lost items)
trevelyan 17y ago
I've admired Franz Och for quite some time now. Giza++ is an impressive piece of software that has really put SMT on the map. Nice to see the man finally get some press recognition.
- barrkel 17y ago
  For context: SMT here is statistical machine translation, not simultaneous multi-threading.
  - deleted 17y ago
    [deleted]
- sgk284 17y ago
  I had the good fortune of working under Franz on the translation team when I was at Google. Brilliant guy, but also one of the funniest bastards I've ever met. Great guy to grab a drink with if you ever get an opportunity.
flipbrad 17y ago
It's good, but I clicked through hoping it was actually announcing some new feature/power - this really is nothing but a PR statement and a nice but oh-so-cursory introduction to Franz Och. I'm a little suspicious. I note that Google serves the ads on the site. And now look at that author's list of recent articles - it's almost entirely Google. And articles about the Buzz cockup, for example, start ("Google moved quickly over the weekend to try to contain mounting criticism of Buzz") and finish ("“I suspect Google might have a minor hit on its hands already,” he said.") on quite positive notes. I don't want to step up any allegations of dishonesty, it's more likely to be lax or fanboyish journalism, but it's really quite poor stuff from that journalist.

26 points by anderzole 17y ago

Groxx 17y ago

Google is awesome. And frightening. And frighteningly awesome. But I guess that's partly the status of anyone with that kind of computing power just lying around. "While many translation systems like Google’s use up to a billion words of text to create a model of a language, Google went much bigger: a few hundred billion English words. “The models become better and better the more text you process,” Mr. Och said." "Last month, for example, it said it was working to combine its translation tool with image analysis, allowing a person to, say, take a cellphone photo of a menu in German and get an instant English translation." Simply awesome. Add that to the Youtube transcribing they've been fiddling with for a while now.

martythemaniak 17y ago
Not only massive computing power, but also some pretty smart and creative folks too. I sometimes wonder where Google will be in 10 years.
- groaner 17y ago
  Couldn't help but recall this pic I saw a while ago: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thevoyagers/518750492/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/thevoyagers/518750492/
  - Groxx 17y ago
    Fark generates some fun stuff :) And while it'd be a privacy nightmare, I'm sure nearly everyone would love a search that indexed their house. Think of it: never lose anything, ever again. I could use that pretty often, especially with roommates and cats :D (guess which cause more lost items)

trevelyan 17y ago

I've admired Franz Och for quite some time now. Giza++ is an impressive piece of software that has really put SMT on the map. Nice to see the man finally get some press recognition.

barrkel 17y ago
For context: SMT here is statistical machine translation, not simultaneous multi-threading.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
sgk284 17y ago
I had the good fortune of working under Franz on the translation team when I was at Google. Brilliant guy, but also one of the funniest bastards I've ever met. Great guy to grab a drink with if you ever get an opportunity.

flipbrad 17y ago

It's good, but I clicked through hoping it was actually announcing some new feature/power - this really is nothing but a PR statement and a nice but oh-so-cursory introduction to Franz Och. I'm a little suspicious. I note that Google serves the ads on the site. And now look at that author's list of recent articles - it's almost entirely Google. And articles about the Buzz cockup, for example, start ("Google moved quickly over the weekend to try to contain mounting criticism of Buzz") and finish ("“I suspect Google might have a minor hit on its hands already,” he said.") on quite positive notes. I don't want to step up any allegations of dishonesty, it's more likely to be lax or fanboyish journalism, but it's really quite poor stuff from that journalist.