Thursday, October 16, 2008

New experimental feature: Language translation

Left bar now features Google's language translation gadget. The gadget (but not rest of the page) is supposed to always display in reader's language, as set in local browser, rather than English.

So one click to desired language. Links are also automatically translated before opening (including any external links).

Test translation I did to Hindi was far less than perfect. It even translated "Clement" of "Hal Clement"! But I see some visitors often doing online translation - so hopefully some will find it helpful.

Gadget display appears a bit buggy - a small lower part of its display can get cut, or display partly invisible explanation text under its window - apparently depending on your screen resolution. This seems to be a bug common to most Google gadgets, including their flagship AdSense gadgets!

Displayed page also features irritating pop-ups if you mouse over translated text. This is meant to be helpful display of original English text, but I find it very irritating. For the moment, I don't know how to switch it off - but I may do some investigating when I find time.

Will take down the gadget if its work appears more trouble than value. Let me know your experiences. So, far the moment, it's only experimental.

2 comments:

Blue Tyson said...

I noticed you have a couple of comics in your feed.

You could maybe look at Warren Ellis' Freakangels which comes out weekly, and see if you can whack that in your free sf gathering robot - as this is SF.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Blue Tyson. Will look at it during next code update - usually weekends.