Google's imminent launch of its free-for-all Translation Centre raises some questions. Why is Google doing this? How can it be free? Should I start using it? What are the alternatives? What's next? This article brings some answers and serves as a springboard for a discussion.
Why is Google doing this?
Translation is the key to growth for Google (as it is for many companies). The stack of information waiting to be translated is perhaps a thousand times bigger than what the localization industry can produce. The Translation Centre helps Google to reach out to non-professional translators (the ‘crowd'), and it taps into live good quality translations which help Google to train its own machine translation engines.
How can it be free?
It can be free because the accumulated data - the live translations - are much more valuable than the software. Machine translation technology needs data, a lot of data, to learn and improve its output. The only way to get reliable language data is by mobilizing the professional work force. Using quality translations from trusted sources Google can vastly improve the performance of its machine translation engines. It is leveraging like in translation memory, except the productivity factor lies a hundred times higher.
Should I start using it?
The localization industry should consider its ethical responsibilities. Google's altruism comes with a price tag. The power of the market is undeniable. Private companies will always seek world domination and customer lock-in. As a professional in the translation industry, the Google Translation Centre may help you on the short-term, but you only help Google long-term and you don't help the world at all. Ultimately we pay the price for putting all translated words and sentences in the possession of a single company.
What are the alternatives?
The revelation that language data potentially represent a greater value than the technology that is using the data, has already resulted in various new commercial ventures, such as Asia Online and Lingotek. Language service providers such as Lionbride, Elanex and many more make no secret about their plans to distill value from the collections of language data they manage for their customers. In the coming year we will surely see the emergence of several more platforms presenting themselves as safe havens for translated words and sentences. Some will act in stealth mode (like Google), others will be explicit about their intentions.
What's next?
Google gives the localization industry a tremendous boost, first with its recognition that translation is really the key to growth and second with its appreciation for the tremendous value of good quality translations. May this result in a rise of self-confidence of the global localization community and renewed energy to support and promote innovation and collaboration that stimulates the industry at large. The TAUS Data Association (TDA) is a good example of an industry-wide collaborative platform for sharing language data. TDA is supported by many of the leading players in the localization industry and almost all of the global IT companies.