Facebook, which is available in 65 languages, is now offering its collaboration translation tools to others. Websites or apps that uses Facebook Connect can now use the Facebook Platform to get help translating their sites/apps into any language that Facebook Translations supports. In the September 20, 2009 article in The New York Times, “Facebook Offers Translation Tool to Other Sites,” columnist Brad Stone interviewed Ethan Beard, the head of platform at Facebook. Beard addressed the human element of translation and the importance of the understanding of cultural values and idioms. Stone commented that “translation done by people is significantly better than what you would get otherwise.” In other words, using humans as translators is more affective and accurate than translating your website or documents via Machine Translation (MT) services.

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