On Saturday morning I read WATBlog in Hindi. Funny part is all of us forgot to Blog it! Well, better late than never.

Previously Google enabled search and scraps in Hindi. They also have a tool on blogger, which enables bloggers to write in Hindi. That service is pretty solid and can be compared to counterparts such as Hindi Kalam and Quillpad.

Google had announced that it was working on such translation services about 10 months back.

Frankly speaking, I don’t think Google’s translate service is great. It faces all the roadblocks that other translation services face almost always. It cannot take into account the nuances of language that are idiomatic, cultural, and have complex depth of meaning.

In school, while studying English texts that were originally Russian, my teacher always mentioned to us that the translator HAS to be given as much importance as the author. Evidently, I wouldn’t give Google that credit. Simple words are translated well enough (as on any other service that offers translation tools for various languages such as translationindia.com) but words that are complex often tend to be quite funny.

The good part is that the service allows users to offer alternatives. A crowd sourced model. Hindi site results will now be thrown up in Google Searches.

Jimmy Wales, when speaking at the IIT Techfest early this year said that so far he has not seen any competitive translation tool and does not think that one will be around soon. That’s why Wikipedia looks to get human translators who help it translate existing pages in different languages. Wikipedia is available in 225 languages as of now.

To get students in different countries to update WikiPedia, Wikipedia trains students by setting up specialized centres – students are trained on how to edit Wikipedia. Thus the hope is that Wikipedia will be updated more by cultures all over the World – and that the Internet can move beyond English.

More translation services from Google are expected soon. Despite all the criticism, this is a start. I hope more people can become less ‘frightened’ while using the Internet. Maybe if they see a script that they are comfortable with, they will be less intimidated.

Less than 15% of India speaks English. Some put the figure at 5%. It is a minority nevertheless.

Check out WATBlog in Hindi HERE. Go ahead. Amuse yourself.

Bookmark this post to: