6 ms·

Human translation blackbox now has API

36 points by cmod 16y ago

LiveTheDream 16y ago
That's pretty awesome for developers. The rates are really low for the translators, but I guess that is the sweet spot for simple content.
- Betsy_B 16y ago
  I beg to differ. As a translator, I can say the rates are fair, considering the simple content, the well designed job management system, and the reliable, fast paycheck.
rgrieselhuber 16y ago
This is one of my favorite startups and they're right here in Tokyo.
- fookyong 16y ago
  indeed. good to see great work coming out of Tokyo - it's a surprisingly small community here...
  - robert_mygengo 16y ago
    Small but we work damn hard :) And fewer distractions unless you count gyoza.
    - bemmu 16y ago
      Isn't it difficult for a translator to work just based on text? I took a look at the job posting api and could only see space for a block of text. When I wanted strings in my app to be translated, I included screenshots so that the translator would understand the context. Otherwise it might be impossible to guess what a very small string is supposed to represent. For a while I was working as a manga translator, and in that case it would have been doubly important to see more context. Actually it probably wouldn't even work to split a translation task for multiple translators, since each might decide to translate something inconsistently. For example speaking style, naming of things etc. This will probably work best for longer pieces of text like business text where you can easily guess the meaning without seeing any context and where you don't need to make decisions that might affect text that comes a hundred pages later. This is a very interesting startup, if you want more gyoza distractions I'll be travelling in Tokyo until 3rd of May.
      - robert_mygengo 16y ago
        Thanks for the comments! The context problem is a continual issue with translation - but most of the time our customers handle it by adding comments to jobs. We do allow you to attach comments to the job call - so you can add context there and also links to related material if required. We're considering adding an option to attach files too. You can also group jobs together if you want them to be handled by a single translator - this obviously takes longer but makes sense for all-in-one projects.
  - IanLewis 16y ago
    Even smaller if you don't count Japanese startups.
angrydicemoose 16y ago
Great stuff, great for developers.
hussong 16y ago
Smart move. On the wordpress side of things, integration of multi-language plugins with translation services has become standard: WPML ties into icanlocalize and qTranslate uses web-translations.com. Sending translation jobs directly from the CRM (and getting it back in there with all formatting preserved) can save a lot of time and money for long-tail multilingual sites. The pricing of mygengo looks very competitive, icanlocalize comes in at $0.07/word (value) and web-translations around $.025 (professional).
- robert_mygengo 16y ago
  (Disclosure: I'm CEO of myGengo) I'd say the distinction we have over other services is that we offer a completely transparent solution - all our translators are tested and rated to ensure they meet a consistent quality standard, so you don't have to pick and choose them as you do with others. So you can literally treat us like a machine, which hasn't been true when I've tested those other services (I got bombarded with emails from translators asking me to pick them for my jobs, which really annoyed me). We think that's pretty compelling for developers, and makes us a much more scalable solution :)
  - Loic 16y ago
    Very short question here as it may be of interest for other HN readers. How would you send a .pot file to be translated through your API? Removing everything but the text and send a kind of one page work? Are you splitting the work in the background in smaller chunks if long? Edit: They have the solution for .po files: http://mygengo.com/string/about http://mygengo.com/string/about
  - c1sc0 16y ago
    Have you considered using machine translation to speed up the process? Tokenize > Machine Translation > Human Correction
    - robert_mygengo 16y ago
      We're considering options, but actually optimizing the interface for translators seems to be less controversial (some translators HATE machine pre-translation) and potentially better for performance and quality. But not ruling it out.
amr 16y ago
What other languages are you planning to offer? (Dropdown on translation form says more languages are coming soon)
- robert_mygengo 16y ago
  Our focus is on Asian<>European language pairs. The next to appear will be Korean<>English, Korean<>Japanese, Chinese<>Japanese. But other European languages like Portuguese are coming soon too. A full roadmap is in the works.

36 points by cmod 16y ago

That's pretty awesome for developers. The rates are really low for the translators, but I guess that is the sweet spot for simple content.

Betsy_B 16y ago
I beg to differ. As a translator, I can say the rates are fair, considering the simple content, the well designed job management system, and the reliable, fast paycheck.

rgrieselhuber 16y ago

This is one of my favorite startups and they're right here in Tokyo.

fookyong 16y ago
indeed. good to see great work coming out of Tokyo - it's a surprisingly small community here...
- robert_mygengo 16y ago
  Small but we work damn hard :) And fewer distractions unless you count gyoza.
  - bemmu 16y ago
    Isn't it difficult for a translator to work just based on text? I took a look at the job posting api and could only see space for a block of text. When I wanted strings in my app to be translated, I included screenshots so that the translator would understand the context. Otherwise it might be impossible to guess what a very small string is supposed to represent. For a while I was working as a manga translator, and in that case it would have been doubly important to see more context. Actually it probably wouldn't even work to split a translation task for multiple translators, since each might decide to translate something inconsistently. For example speaking style, naming of things etc. This will probably work best for longer pieces of text like business text where you can easily guess the meaning without seeing any context and where you don't need to make decisions that might affect text that comes a hundred pages later. This is a very interesting startup, if you want more gyoza distractions I'll be travelling in Tokyo until 3rd of May.
    - robert_mygengo 16y ago
      Thanks for the comments! The context problem is a continual issue with translation - but most of the time our customers handle it by adding comments to jobs. We do allow you to attach comments to the job call - so you can add context there and also links to related material if required. We're considering adding an option to attach files too. You can also group jobs together if you want them to be handled by a single translator - this obviously takes longer but makes sense for all-in-one projects.
- IanLewis 16y ago
  Even smaller if you don't count Japanese startups.

angrydicemoose 16y ago

Great stuff, great for developers.

hussong 16y ago

Smart move. On the wordpress side of things, integration of multi-language plugins with translation services has become standard: WPML ties into icanlocalize and qTranslate uses web-translations.com. Sending translation jobs directly from the CRM (and getting it back in there with all formatting preserved) can save a lot of time and money for long-tail multilingual sites. The pricing of mygengo looks very competitive, icanlocalize comes in at $0.07/word (value) and web-translations around $.025 (professional).

robert_mygengo 16y ago
(Disclosure: I'm CEO of myGengo) I'd say the distinction we have over other services is that we offer a completely transparent solution - all our translators are tested and rated to ensure they meet a consistent quality standard, so you don't have to pick and choose them as you do with others. So you can literally treat us like a machine, which hasn't been true when I've tested those other services (I got bombarded with emails from translators asking me to pick them for my jobs, which really annoyed me). We think that's pretty compelling for developers, and makes us a much more scalable solution :)
- Loic 16y ago
  Very short question here as it may be of interest for other HN readers. How would you send a .pot file to be translated through your API? Removing everything but the text and send a kind of one page work? Are you splitting the work in the background in smaller chunks if long? Edit: They have the solution for .po files: http://mygengo.com/string/about http://mygengo.com/string/about
- c1sc0 16y ago
  Have you considered using machine translation to speed up the process? Tokenize > Machine Translation > Human Correction
  - robert_mygengo 16y ago
    We're considering options, but actually optimizing the interface for translators seems to be less controversial (some translators HATE machine pre-translation) and potentially better for performance and quality. But not ruling it out.

amr 16y ago

What other languages are you planning to offer? (Dropdown on translation form says more languages are coming soon)

robert_mygengo 16y ago
Our focus is on Asian<>European language pairs. The next to appear will be Korean<>English, Korean<>Japanese, Chinese<>Japanese. But other European languages like Portuguese are coming soon too. A full roadmap is in the works.