Google improves access to information, adds Persian to Google Translate

Because of the latest events in Iran, search giant Google has added Persian language to Google Translate. In my previous post, I had mentioned how social networking site Facebook too launched its Persian version. These efforts should hopefully improve access to information and communication for Persian speakers across the globe.

Now people can translate any text, whether it’s a news story, a website, a blog, an email, a tweet or a Facebook message, from Persian into English and from English into Persian. This will increase access to information for all and allow Persian speakers to communicate directly to the world, and vice versa.

How does it work?

1. Go to http://translate.google.com

1. Enter the search phrase in the box provided

2. Select the language you want the content to be translated “from” and “to”

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1. Hit “Translate”

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Simple!

Google believes in organizing the world’s information and making it universally accessible and useful. Till date, translations from Google are already available in 41 other languages, apart from Persian.

Languages available for translation other than Persian

1. Albanian
2. Arabic
3. Bulgarian
4. Catalan
5. Chinese
6. Croatian
7. Czech
8. Danish
9. Dutch
10. English
11. Estonian
12. Filipino
13. Finnish
14. French
15. Galician
16. German
17. Greek
18. Hebrew
19. Hindi
20. Hungarian
21. Indonesian
22. Italian
23. Japanese
24. Korean
25. Latvian
26. Lithuanian
27. Maltese
28. Norwegian
29. Polish
30. Portuguese
31. Romanian
32. Russian
33. Serbian
34. Slovak
35. Slovenian
36. Spanish
37. Swedish
38. Thai
39. Turkish
40. Ukrainian
41. Vietnamese

Although Google admits that Farsi translation is not as polished and accurate as Spanish to English translations yet, but they are working on improving it soon. This is perhaps because they don’t have much data from which they can build their systems, hence Google is welcoming help from Persian speakers.

Share your comments on what you think.

(Source: Google blog)