Google has announced via Google groups that it's withdrawn the opportunity to translate foreign pages. Apparently it's now called 'streamlining' and this enables Google "to focus on creating beautiful technology that will improve people’s lives." I'm in agreement with Karen Blakeman who thinks it's pretty vomit inducing. I was away when this news broke, so I'll point you toward her great update for the skinny on this one.
There are work arounds, but they're not great. You can cut and paste a chunk of text into the Google translate tool but this is very much the poor relation. Or you can do what Google want you to do, which is to move across to Chrome. If you reach a page which is in another language Chrome pops up a dialogue box for you:
You can obviously do this for other pages, but it's a drag. However, that's not Google's problem really, since they don't care about making the user experience better ("beautiful technology" my ****) they want you to use their tools so that they can make more money.
Chrome is a good browser though. It is a shame my workplace does not allow
Posted by: James Rowles | May 18, 2013 at 12:47 PM