TransRio en Ingles

Last month I listed Language Weaver as a close-second-place to Google in translation quality. I had read that by purchasing Babylon’s software I could get access to the Language Weaver engine. So I tried it out (the software is cheap) and found out that oops, there’s a catch. Just to be sure I traded quick e-mails with both companies; but at least for now, here’s where it’s at. Babylon is limited (probably by contract) to a 300-letter translation block. That’s right, letters, not words. Basically unworkable except to gist a single sentence. Windows Live accepts 500 words, and Google appears to be unlimited.

So Language Weaver is only for big guys. The company is very nice people, though. They cheerfully answered my questions even though I’m but a guppy in their client pool. They did say they are looking into pricing plans which might work for smaller customers in the future. So I’ll be keeping my eye on them. I’ll report it here of course if something pops up. They do have an interesting partner program, so it’s possible that a partner company might repackage Language Weaver translations in a format that small companies can use.

This is actually something you see a lot. Much is written about how large enterprises are incorporating cheap and familiar Web 2.0 collaboration tools into their everyday workflow. That’s fun to talk about, but the reality, in my experience, is mostly the opposite. It’s really more common to see beautiful industrial-strength tools you wish you could get your hands on, but which are only used by people inside large enterprises. Those products seldom get repackaged for the general public. It’s like there are these two separate tracks of innovation, inside and outside the enterprise, with much less mixing than you would expect.

So that’s that. Google outside, Language Weaver inside.

Filed by Pete under Knowledge mgt,Language
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