It's been 10 years since Google launched its language translation service, Google Translate, on April 28, 2006.
Since then, Google Translate has grown in leaps and bounds, from two languages to 103, while sticking to its main goal of making the world a more accessible place by breaking language barriers.
The makers say that through the company's first 10 years, the service has become an established go-to tool after Google improved its features by understanding the needs, listening to what people had to say, speaking to them, holding active conversations, and even setting up the Google Community in 2011, which sought help from language enthusiasts to improve the translation quality.
Of the 500 million users worldwide, 92 percent stay outside of the U.S., which generates translation of more than 100 billion words a day. The most common language translation happens between English and Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and Indonesian. Brazil tops the list of countries that are largely dependent on the digital linguist.
The service has come a long way from only typing out a word or a phrase and waiting for the screen to throw up the translation. It now has added features which make life so much easier. There's the Word Lens which shows instant translation (in 28 languages) of the words picked off the street sign boards and food menus, along with another app that makes bilingual conversation (in 32 languages) possible by recognizing the language when you are speaking.
Of course, the company has thought of countries with poor or no Internet connectivity. For them, Word Lens translates signs and menus offline both on Android and iOS, while typed text gets translated offline only on Android for now.
If your device is still without this app, head straight to Google Play Store to install the handy little app because you never know when you're going to need it.
