Gmail's translation feature will let people from around the world converse in their own language
I have mixed feelings on the usefulness of Gmail’s new translation feature launched today: would I do business or have a relationship with someone I can not communicate with?
Personally I won’t. And I know I will receive a lot of flak because of what I just said.
Yes, I’m cutting myself off from probably most of humanity that don’t either speak English, French or Spanish or a mix of all three i.e. Italian, German (French is the most Germanic of the all the romance languages)…
Should I care? For my line of work (tracking innovation in Silicon Valley), not really. For my personal enrichment, sure!
Anyway, Google’s automatic message translation feature – which is an extension of Google Translate service – would definitely come in handy for people learning a language (although I’m not sure you can see the translated email before sending it), or absolutely needing to do business in a foreign language or just for fun or in my case, when family members just don’t speak the same language but still want to communicate which each other (yes, I admit, it happens!).
Here’s how it works (from Google):
Simply enable “Message Translation” from the Labs tab under Settings, and when you receive an email in a language other than your own, Gmail will help you translate it into a language you can understand. In one click.
If all parties are using Gmail, you can have entire conversations in multiple languages with each participant reading the messages in whatever language is most comfortable for them.
