(Excerpts)
by Ethan Shen
Which is the best online translation tool for language learners and general users of freeware? A recent research paper evaluates the quality of the three popular online translation tools Google Translate, Bing (Microsoft) Translator, and Yahoo Babelfish. Among other findings, the data reveals that while Google Translate is widely preferred when translating long passages, Microsoft Bing Translator and Yahoo Babelfish often produce better translations for phrases below 140 characters. Also, in general Babelfish performs well in East Asian Languages such as Chinese and Korean and Bing Translator performs well in Spanish, German, and Italian.
The research project was created to answer a simple question I’ve had since using Babelfish.com to help with my Spanish homework many years ago: Which translation engine works best?
Since the research was intended for the general user of such online tools – rather than for professional translators – survey takers were drawn from the general multilingual internet population and quality measures were based on direct comparison, rather than subjective rating scales.
Instead of providing a pre-determined set of phrases, our survey tool was built to dynamically produce translation results to any text provided by the survey taker. The experiment strove to replicate the experience of the average student or casual reader using online translation tools.
Click here to read the rest of this comparative study
it is only a matter of time before Bing Microsoft acquires Yahoo search engine’,*
I’d like to have read this (it is the article’s birthday, after all) but the link is dead…
James, sorry for the poor user experience but that’s a risk we always take when we respect the intellectually property rights of other authors and give a link to their articles instead of just reprinting them (unless they specifically give us the permission to do so). Unfortunately some web sites delete their link pages (which is out of our control) after a while and the link then doesn’t work. Since we’ve got thousands of posts in TCC such mishaps happen once in a while. So we both thank you for your diligence and kind feedback and also take refuge in your understanding and tolerance. We may end up deleting this post altogether to prevent similar disappointments in the future. All the best, Ugur
It absolutely was nice to learn using your posting. I actually loved the couple of minutes which i spent reading it and needed to leave a comment to state that….Regards
Corwin, thanks! Glad to have you visit TCC. Ugur