Google Search Appliance Speaks Money

December 19, 2008

Translating documents from a language most Americans don’t understand to one some Americans understand is big business. For many years, translation specialists made serious money with software that could ingest a document in Spanish and output a sort of English document. AltaVista.com, a company whose DNA exists within the Google, offered “free” online translation. When HP muffed the bunny with AltaVista.com, Google was a safety net, and translation became part of big Google. CNet picked up on Google’s Official Enterprise Blog authored by none other than Cyrus Mistry. Yes, the very Cyrus who accused me of Photoshopping an image of Google’s dossier function. The only problem was that the lousy image came from a Google patent document. Oh, well, Mr. Mistry was uninformed but trying to protect the good name of Googzilla. Anyway, he wrote here:

Now users can search in their native language, but find every document within the enterprise on the topic.  In addition, you can choose to have the results come back in any language and you can even translate the search result snippets (or documents themselves) into any language! Owners of a Google Mini or Google Search Appliance can try Cross-Language Enterprise Search today by visiting Google Enterprise Labs.

The CNet story here adds a much tighter summary of Mr. Mistry’s post. Go for that version. I wonder if I should assert that Google Photoshopped AltaVista.com’s translation feature? Nah, the GOOG is going to add more languages and functionality to the GSA going forward. This is a slam dunk feature that will ding some of the translation tool vendors. And, on a related note, the pricing schedule for the GSA 2009 offers a deal when you upgrade your GB 1001. More documents and translations. Quite a deal if one doesn’t dig too deeply into the GSA pricing schedule.

Stephen Arnold, December 19, 2008

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