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Translate As You Type, But Why?

18 November 2009
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Google recently made a change to Google Translate. They have made changes to the layout and added a new feature. The old layout wasn’t too bad, but the new layout is a little flashier and possibly user friendly.

The first thing you notice is that to switch the language translation direction Google has added a button. It used to be a very small text-link that simply said ‘swap’. Google possibly came to the conclusion that the new layout is easier to understand and is a little bit more intuitive.

The other cool update is that instead of translating when you clicked the ‘translate’ button (or when you hit ‘enter’) anything you type is translated as you type it. And instead of being displayed in the old ugly courier style to the right of the input box the results are displayed below.

However, the usefulness of the translate-as-you-type update can be questioned. The feature is kind of cool, but it doesn’t really add to the usability.

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