Similar to how Facebook has let users translate its site into more than 65 languages, the company is releasing a new version of its crowd-sourced translation tool so third parties can let users translate their sites, Facebook applications or web widgets. Facebook has more than 300 million monthly active users around the world, and some 70 percent of these people are outside the US. By making it easier for companies to reach many of these users in their native languages and dialects, Facebook may spur further adoption of Connect and its other services around the world.Here’s more, from the company blog post on the announcement:You can start integrating Translations for Facebook Connect into your site with an HTML file and a few lines of JavaScript in less than an hour. Whether you want to translate an application, a social widget, or an entire website, you have complete control over every aspect of the translation process. After you choose what languages you want your site or application to support, you can get help from the Facebook community to translate your site, as we did, or you can do the translation yourself, or make a specific person the administrator of the process. To start translating your site, read the documentation on the Developer Wiki.Facebook’s translation service has enabled applications with passionate fan bases outside the developers’ region to translate the service into their local languages and grow. We could see the same thing start to happen with websites as well with the expansion of Facebook’s translation service through Connect. Facebook has been growing by leaps and bounds in many popular European and South American countries for the last year and a half, and is now growing in many Asian and Middle Eastern markets more recently.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Do-It-Yourself Translations Through Facebook Connect
Similar to how Facebook has let users translate its site into more than 65 languages, the company is releasing a new version of its crowd-sourced translation tool so third parties can let users translate their sites, Facebook applications or web widgets. Facebook has more than 300 million monthly active users around the world, and some 70 percent of these people are outside the US. By making it easier for companies to reach many of these users in their native languages and dialects, Facebook may spur further adoption of Connect and its other services around the world.Here’s more, from the company blog post on the announcement:You can start integrating Translations for Facebook Connect into your site with an HTML file and a few lines of JavaScript in less than an hour. Whether you want to translate an application, a social widget, or an entire website, you have complete control over every aspect of the translation process. After you choose what languages you want your site or application to support, you can get help from the Facebook community to translate your site, as we did, or you can do the translation yourself, or make a specific person the administrator of the process. To start translating your site, read the documentation on the Developer Wiki.Facebook’s translation service has enabled applications with passionate fan bases outside the developers’ region to translate the service into their local languages and grow. We could see the same thing start to happen with websites as well with the expansion of Facebook’s translation service through Connect. Facebook has been growing by leaps and bounds in many popular European and South American countries for the last year and a half, and is now growing in many Asian and Middle Eastern markets more recently.