Twitter Quietly Rolls Out New Language Translation Tool
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}CAIRO, EGYPT - JANUARY 27: A man looks at a laptop computer displaying Twitter in a cafe on January 27, 2011 in Cairo, Egypt. People across Egypt have used Twitter and other social media to mass organise protests with the searchable hashtag, #jan25. Thousands of police are on the streets of the capital and hundreds of arrests have been made in an attempt to quell anti-government demonstrations. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images) (2011 Getty Images)
Want to know what Turkish citizens are tweeting in their own language about the protests sweeping their country?
What about Argentinean Beliebers tweeting in Spanish about the pop star’s concert in Buenos Aires?
Now you can, even if you don't know Turkish or Spanish.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Twitter is taking steps to better connect you with people from around the world, overcoming linguistic obstacles.
The social media supergiant is slowly and quietly implementing a translation tool for tweets written in foreign languages on its website, with services provided by Microsoft’s search engine, Bing.
Bing is not yet available for all Twitter users, but even if you have access to the translator, it isn’t immediately apparent. Only once you have clicked on the time stamp of the tweet and moved to the tweet’s individual page can you see the “View translation” option.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}After clicking on it, a smaller, translated version of the tweet appears below the original with the “Translated from [language] by bing Translator” label.
The social media company didn't have much to say about the new linguistic tool.
“To make it easier for people around the world to connect with each other, we are beginning to experiment with Tweet text translation,” Twitter spokeswoman Christina Thiry told Fox News Latino.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}She declined further comment on the issue.
Bing offers its tweet translation services for various languages, including Spanish, Turkish, Portuguese, French, Russian, Arabic, Chinese and others.
Basically, the button automatically does the translating work that you might have done manually before. Instead of having to copy text from a foreign language tweet, open a new tab with a translating service and then paste the text, Twitter allows you to do all of that with one click of the mouse.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In other words, the translation is no different than a regular Bing translation.
Last week, Twitter took a similar step by incorporating a translate feature in its app on Windows Phones.