Clash of the Titans: Google vs Microsoft vs Yahoo Translations

Thursday, 11 March 2010 07:56

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As long as we do not have nanobots that can enter the body, map the brain, and program a computer to behave similarly, no translation software will be able to match the preciseness of a good human translator. Regardless of this fact, automated translation is still big business -- after all, even if computers can't replace us (just yet), they sure can help us in our efforts and save us valuable time.

However, there are so many automatic translators out there, whom should we trust? NYTimes.com attempted such a comparison this morning in their post titled "Putting Google to the Test in Translation". In this post, they've compared translations of a few passages from several languages in English using the translators available from Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft Bing.

While short excerpts cannot possibly provide a comprehensive comparison of technology as complex as automatic translation, the results seem to tell quite a story. Here's a example:

Original Text: French "Le Petit Prince" ("The Little Prince"), By Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Le premier soir je me suis donc endormi sur le sable à mille milles de toute terre habitée. J'étais bien plus isolé qu'un naufragé sur un radeau au milieu de l'océan. Alors vous imaginez ma surprise, au lever du jour, quand une drôle de petite voix m'a réveillé. Elle disait: -S'il vous plaît... dessine-moi un mouton!

Human Translation: found in Wordsworth Children's Classics, 1995

On the first night, I fell asleep on the sand, a thousand miles from any human habitation. I was far more isolated than a shipwrecked sailor on a raft in the middle of the ocean. So you can imagine my surprise at sunrise when an odd little voice woke me up. It said: "Please … draw me a sheep."

Google Translate:

The first night I went to sleep on the sand a thousand miles from any human habitation. I was more isolated than a shipwrecked sailor on a raft in the middle of the ocean. So imagine my surprise at daybreak, when a funny little voice woke me. She said: "If it pleases you ... draw me a sheep!"

Yahoo Babel Fish via Systran:

The first evening I thus fell asleep on sand with thousand miles of any inhabited ground. J' stays much more insulated qu' a shipwrecked man on a raft in the middle of l' ocean. Then you imagine my surprise, at daybreak, when funny of small voice m' awoke. She said: - S' you like it… draws to me a sheep!

Microsoft Bing Translator:

The first evening I thus fell asleep one thousand miles of any ground inhabited with sand. I stays much more insulated was shipwrecked man on a raft in the middle of the ocean. Then you can imagine my surprise, at daybreak, when black of small voice I awoke. She said:-If you like it... draws to a me sheep!

Of course, as mentioned before, this alone cannot serve as a conclusive proof of Google's superiority. If you find any other comparisons that can shed some more light, please feel free to send them over to us, and we'll publish them on this blog.

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