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Google translator
All you need to know about it
In this Google Translator tutorial, we’ll explain everything you need to know about Google’s translator app. Whether on desktop or mobile, we’ll demonstrate the respective advantages of both versions, as well as the pros and cons compared to the competition. So be excited and watch until the end to not miss any fact.
The international eCommerce / online trade
One advantage of online trading is global networking. This brings opportunities, but also challenges.
One of these challenges of international trade is the language barrier. In B2B trade, you can go a long way with English, but when it comes to user-friendliness for non-business customers, i.e. in classic B2C trade, it makes sense to offer your store in other languages as well. That’s why in this in-depth episode, we’re fully engaged with Google Translator. First of all about us – we are eBakery a holistic eCommerce agency, which supports you very gladly with all your challenges in the online trade and marketing. So if you are still missing an expert on your side, feel free to make an appointment directly under this article.
What is Google Translator?
But now let’s start thematically with Google Translator – what is it anyway?
As the name suggests, Google Translator translates words, texts and sometimes even entire websites from the source language into the desired language. This was introduced by Google back in 2006. However, this video will demonstrate that much more is now possible. By the way, 133 languages are supported and the whole thing is free of charge. Thus, this is useful for anyone anywhere, whether a businessman, online merchant, globetrotter or simply on the annual family vacation. But why should it be Google Translator? Here are a few peripheral facts that we will discuss in more detail during the video.
4 Facts about Google Translator
- The translator can be used both in the browser and as an app, both on the desktop and on the smartphone
- This can be used both online but also offline, which is a huge advantage when traveling
- The input is not only limited to text, but can be entered by voice, by cell phone camera, if you want to use e.g. a cell phone. you see a sign in Cyrillic script somewhere and you know absolutely no Russian or you can use it as a real-time speech input
- Single words up to entire websites can be translated
- It follows that Google Translator is also compatible with third parties such as WordPress, Trip Advisor, WhatsApp
I think this is enough for the beginning to convince you and make you curious for more.
The minimum requirements
But what do we need to be able to use Google Translator? Ultimately, just an Internet-enabled device. You are welcome to do the quick test yourself in parallel. In the Incognito browser, enter “translator” as the Google search and you will be shown both the Google translator as the first organic result and the rich snippet in the SERPs.
Now enter a word of your choice, like e.g. “Online trade” and searches out the appropriate language. You will see that you will receive a translation. That means it wouldn’t even require a Google account as a minimum requirement. If you want to use the app, you need a mobile iOs or Android device. We will now demonstrate how to install them, using an iPhone as an example. You just go to your App Store and search for “Google Translator”. Click on “Load” and enter your password. The app is already loaded and can now be used by you. You will immediately see that you are recommended to log in with a Google account, which has the advantage that the search history, for example. and you can access it at a later time. However, this is not obligatory. Now that we’re in the app, let’s go through the individual input options.
Google Translator - The text and voice input
The first is the text input. Again, you select the input language and source language. However, if you don’t know this, you can also let the AI work and select “Recognize language” as the input language. Now you would enter your sentence. Let’s take: “eBakery is a German eCommerce agency for online retailers”. The translator recognizes directly that “eBakery” is a proper name. You could now translate this sentence into any of these languages you see here. Another practical feature is the voice output. You could now have both the German and the English sentence spoken to you. This can be especially useful when traveling. But we have an even better feature for you. But first we come to the voice input. Here it is interesting to see that it is mandatory to select an input language for this, otherwise the microphone is grayed out. So we decide on German and recite our sentence. We now see that the AI reaches its limits with proper names.
But this is absolutely not bad, because we can always adjust the input ourselves. And already we come to the same result. Another feature that could be especially interesting for tablet users is handwriting input. To do this, press this pen icon and write in the black field. As you can see, your handwriting is converted directly into digital text.
Use your phone camera as a translator of your environment
Another option would be to translate texts in the environment. So posters, street signs or simply the translation of a newspaper article. You certainly don’t want to type this one out. This is where the exclusive advantages of the smartphone app come into play. The co-use of the camera.
When you click on the camera icon, your phone camera will be activated and you can hold it on the desired text. We’ll use a language learning video for Russian for once, so that we can have the translation right on top of it and check that as well. And as we can see, the Cyrillic letters are translated in real time and are also almost identical to the given translation.
The Google Translator transcribes entire conversations
But wouldn’t it also be great if you were a sales representative in a country whose language you absolutely don’t speak, but you could still communicate your thoughts and concerns. Quasi like you know it from science fiction movies, in which the native language is translated independently in real time 1:1. Well, that is exactly what is now possible with Google Translator. For this you need to click on entertainment. If the input and output language is correctly selected, speak what you would like to communicate and immediately after that, without much delay, a voice output will be activated that will play back your sentences in the desired language. Your conversation partner could do exactly the same and the Google translator would then translate the sentences into German. If you want to take the whole thing even further and not just a few sentences, but e.g. translated a press conference, then there is the “Transcribe” feature for that. Launch this once and Google Translator will translate entire monologues and dialogues into the desired language in real-time writing.
Interim Summary
So you can see that Google Translator has come quite far since 2006 and a lot is now possible with it. Fittingly, I must not revise a previous statement of mine, but at least express it in a more differentiated way. I said that the minimum requirement is an Internet-enabled device. That’s partly true. In the meantime, Google Translator can also be used offline. Of course, you first need Internet to download the language pack, but if you are now in the desert or the deepest jungle and have no network, but would be dependent on the translator for communication, then this would no longer be a problem, provided you have prepared well. To implement this, look in the language selection and there you will see this download icon behind the language. We’ll do this once for Russian and confirm that we want to download the language pack. This only takes a few seconds and we immediately do the test and go into flight mode. But before that we download the German language pack. You can see the flight mode proof in the upper right corner. And you can see that despite the lack of an Internet connection, translation is taking place. However, it should be explicitly stated that only textual translations are possible with the language pack. This means text input and text output. Neither the voice input, nor the voice output, as well as all the other features we have just presented, require an Internet connection, since the AI is controlled with it. So keep that in mind.
Google Translator App vs. Desktop
But how does the app differ from the desktop variant. On the one hand, the advantages are that you don’t need any storage space on your desktop and can access it from anywhere, regardless of the device. Since you are accessing the translator via the browser. But which features are now supported?
When you get right down to it, the desktop variant is not even that slimmed down. We have the text input, the voice input with a maximum of 5,000 characters, which is not so little, we have the possibility to upload images and documents and have them translated and for this here the option to enter whole websites as a link, which will then be transcribed for us. But let’s test whether we get the same results with the image upload as on the smartphone. We simply take a screenshot on the PC or Mac and upload it. And behold, a direct translation. The same applies to documents, but you could also photograph them with the app and have them translated there.
Translate websites with the desktop version
But more interesting is the website feature. We’ll just have the eBakery website translated into French. Perfect. This means that if you order from China again and come across websites that are only written in Mandarin, you can have them translated into German by simply entering the URL in the translator. Practical or? By the way, if you want to benefit from more practical tips in online trading, then leave a subscription now.
Google Translator Hints
Which is a good segue to things you should definitely keep in mind when using Google Translator. Because as in our AI tool series, the input determines the output. If you enter a prompt that is too short and too imprecise, the result will also be mediocre. It’s exactly the same with Google Translator. You should also know in advance how the translator works in the first place. Because your German sentences will be e.g. not translated directly into Mandarin, but first into English and then into Mandarin. This further increases the probability of errors. Therefore, you should pay attention to the following things.
Important tips that you should keep in mind
- Avoids ambiguity
- Especially in German, there are often words with two meanings, like for example. Bank. Try to avoid such words by finding synonyms or paraphrasing them instead.
- Avoids figurative language
- Many figurative terms are not translated according to their meaning, but simply word for word.
- Uses as long sentences as possible
- This is because the longer the sentence, the more likely the translator is to understand the context and sentence structure. Sentences that are too short reveal less and can therefore be misinterpreted. This can then mean that the translator simply translates word for word, instead of understanding the context of the sentence and then adapting it to the respective language.
- Point number 4 is the linguistic correctness
- This means spelling as well as the correct sentence structure. So subject, predicate, object are obligatory. If shifts occur here, this also affects the translation.
Google Translator Advantages
So there are one or two things to consider in order to generate a good translation. But provided we consider each point, where are the advantages and disadvantages of Google Translator compared to the competition?
What has to be said in comparison to the early days is that the quality has increased significantly. This is characterized, among other things, by the fact that entire sentences can now be translated, which was limited to individual words in the early days. This brings the advantage that we can reproduce grammatically correct sentences instead of just word for word translations. On the other hand, Google Translator is free of charge, which is not quite true for other providers such as DeepL or LEO. In addition, this one is insanely fast. You have just seen for yourselves how fast the real-time translation is. And we are dealing with a wide input spectrum. Whether by keyboard, handwriting/voice or camera input. The great advantage of the app version is that wecan install another keyboard in seconds torender Arabic, Cyrillic or other characters.
Are there also disadvantages?
But in fact, there are also disadvantages. Sometimes it happens that the translator makes grammatical, stylistic and other mistakes. In addition, the translation depends heavily on the language combination. This is due to the fact that there are many more words from English, German and Spanish in the system’s memory than from Romanian or Bulgarian. Therefore, the translations are often incorrect and of lower quality. Another disadvantage is that after the translation you have no possibility to have the translated text additionally checked. Accordingly, Google Translator does not offer proofreading. The fact that the translator works in public is also a disadvantage. Due to the fact that the translator works publicly, all texts that are entered are stored in the system. So think carefully in advance about which texts you want to have translated. Personal data and secret information should therefore rather not be translated. What prevails for you, you must decide independently.
The third party apps
So far, we have only dealt with single use. But just as ChatGPT only unleashed its full potential when linked to third-party apps, it’s also possible to use Google Translator for TripAdvisor, LinkedIn or WhatsApp. Or as a plugin for WordPress. But here there is no one classic Google Translator plugin. Instead, there are several providers that provide a connection to Google Translator with their plugin. These include Google Language Translater, Weglot, G Translate and some others. This allows you to translate your entire website into over 100 different languages. One disadvantage is that you have no control over the translations this way. But the biggest disadvantage is that the content is indexed by Google only in the main language. This means that you will not achieve rankings for other languages. So if you are aiming for a search engine optimized strategy, then you better consult one of our SEO experts. Make an appointment with us directly under the article.
An important SEO tip!
And as a little final tip on our part. Even if you create another language version of your website, you would be rather advised not to adopt it 1:1 from Google Translator. Not only that you can’t be sure whether the translation is successful or not if you don’t know the language, but mainly for SEO reasons. Because this could be classified as automatically generated content and thus have a negative impact on your ranking. You can let the translator do most of it, but then have a native speaker check and slightly rewrite this version. But what is our overall conclusion?
Google Translator - Our conclusion
I think it has become clearer that Google Translator has its raison d’être in both the private and business sectors. We found the feature variety to be very strong. Translating entire conversations in real time or capturing signs, documents, etc. via camera and then translating them in real time are two very useful features when you are abroad.
The entry hurdle is more than low and can in principle be used by everyone. Whether mobile as an app or at home via the browser. And the whole thing is completely free of charge. If you really follow our hints, you will get usable translations. Therefore, our recommendation to you is: You have nothing to lose, try it out for yourself and see for yourself.
Google SEO Agency
However, if there are any questions about this, leave them for us in the comments. We will do our best to answer you there. However, should you wish to be advised otherwise, then we are available to you as an eCommerce, but explicitly also as a Google SEO agency.
Do you have questions or need an individual offer? Do not hesitate to contact us.
Haben Sie Fragen oder brauchen ein individuelles Angebot? Zögern Sie nicht, uns zu kontaktieren.
