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It's really too bad. The Translate API was super, super fun to play with. I made myself a cute little interface to translate JavaScript or CSV arrays into mul

by dstein 15y ago

It's really too bad. The Translate API was super, super fun to play with. I made myself a cute little interface to translate JavaScript or CSV arrays into multiple languages simultaneously. I envisioned being able to build fully self-translating web applications. And there's no other company providing this type of technology in this fashion. If there's any startup working in this area, here's your chance.

cookiecaper 15y ago
Agreed. This is a great opportunity for a startup to swoop in, clone the Google API so the only change necessary is authentication tokens and URI, and get everyone to switch to their (paid) platform.
- jan_g 15y ago
  It's hard for a startup to "swoop in", because Google uses statistical analysis in it's translation software if I understand correctly various articles about this topic. This means that they have thousands of correctly translated documents from which the software learns. And (so they say) it gets better and better with time, because they feed it more and more documents in various languages. I'm sure I've overly simplified the Google's implementation and there's a lot more to it, but I'm trying to make a point :) In short, it takes considerable amount of resources to make it work on a Google translate level.
  - cookiecaper 15y ago
    Sure, but a business that depends on this functionality would probably take "somewhat worse translation quality" over "completely dead translation capability". As the startup gets funding and customers, they can focus on performing the same kind of analysis and focusing specifically on translation, instead of the buckshot approach taken by Google. I am completely confident that a startup staffed with talented people can match Google Translate's quality in a reasonable amount of development time, and in the meantime, something is better than nothing.

by dstein 15y ago

cookiecaper 15y ago

Agreed. This is a great opportunity for a startup to swoop in, clone the Google API so the only change necessary is authentication tokens and URI, and get everyone to switch to their (paid) platform.

jan_g 15y ago
It's hard for a startup to "swoop in", because Google uses statistical analysis in it's translation software if I understand correctly various articles about this topic. This means that they have thousands of correctly translated documents from which the software learns. And (so they say) it gets better and better with time, because they feed it more and more documents in various languages. I'm sure I've overly simplified the Google's implementation and there's a lot more to it, but I'm trying to make a point :) In short, it takes considerable amount of resources to make it work on a Google translate level.
- cookiecaper 15y ago
  Sure, but a business that depends on this functionality would probably take "somewhat worse translation quality" over "completely dead translation capability". As the startup gets funding and customers, they can focus on performing the same kind of analysis and focusing specifically on translation, instead of the buckshot approach taken by Google. I am completely confident that a startup staffed with talented people can match Google Translate's quality in a reasonable amount of development time, and in the meantime, something is better than nothing.