Windows Live Translator Launches – gut oder nicht so gut? w/video!

Microsoft has launched translations 2.0 with Windows Live Translator. It’s pretty groovy actually and seems a step ahead of what Google does and even the great babelfish! Translate text in a variety of langugages including: German, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese Simplified and Chinese Traditional. I used German for my video demo below because that is the language I am currently learning.

The site has a few good features:

• Translating text is the same as the other online translators
• Translating a Web page is where the new translation 2.0 features are
• You can view the original language plus the translated language in a left-right or top-bottom panes.
• There is a hover feature as well whereby one language is shown with hovers for translated strings

What would make this tool excellent is if the Web pages moved with you. See my video for an example but basically when you move in one language, the other does not move which means double work trying to sync both up. Also, the hover feature is great, why not offer it as a browser plug-in. Click it and instantly you can hover text to see the other languages. Google Operating System has a good overview of the technology behind the translations.

Here is my video review of the Windows Live Translator: