Ext JS: A reminder that you are not alone Prototype Invest: It is time for more than money and connections
Apr 28

Twitter Translate: Automatically convert tweets to your language

JavaScript, Tech with tags: , , , , Add comments

Twitter Translate

I am having a lot of fun with the AJAX Language API. Last week I talked about the translation bookmarklet that lets you translate anything that you select in the browser.

This time, I whipped up Twitter Translate, which watches the tweets in the page, and if the content isn’t your native tongue automatically converts it and replaces it inline. It then adds a mini logo with “translated from …” which you can click on to see the original text:

Twitter Translate Example

It is probably easiest to quickly see it in action:

I think that I am so excited about this API as it is a vertical service that you can just use for free. Think back on how you would be able to integrate language into your applications in the past. You would either:

  • Have to work on the discipline yourself, which is crazy if it isn’t your core business
  • Find a vendor that has some product that you can use, all of which are very expensive.

Now, we can use this service for free, and the best part? It will keep getting better behind the scenes without us having to do a thing!

13 Responses to “Twitter Translate: Automatically convert tweets to your language”

  1. Thomas Broyer Says:

    Funny how the tweets in the video are so badly translated…

    “Skype m’a planté et Y! est saccadé je me couche bonne nuit à tous !!” approximately means “Skype is down and Y! lags I go to bed good night everybody !!” and “Il n’y a que moi qui ait remarqué le petit crocodile de mary tabarly ?” translates (module the typo: à => a) to “Am I the only one to have noticed mary tabarly’s small crocodile ?”.

    Did you really get it from “Skype me planted and Y! I was choppy layer good night all!” and “There is a mine that had noticed the little crocodile tabarly mary?” ? ;-)

  2. Duncan Says:

    I don’t see a link to the script, and following the link to the google hosted code page doesn’t show any downloads there either… Where is the GM script available at?

  3. Duncan Says:

    FWIW, you didn’t have a link to it on your My Code page either, but following the naming/link structure of your other scripts, it was easy enough to find.. though I don’t expect that is the way you want it done…

  4. Greg Huntoon Says:

    And I’m totally new to this site, so I don’t know the naming/link structure. How do I download a copy of this? I will give you mad props because I’ve been talking about this for so long…this is so needed.

  5. Ye Old Miner Says:

    Yes, it’s oddly hard to get to. Visit http://code.google.com/p/good-translations/source/browse/trunk/twitter-translate/twitter-translate.user.js?spec=svn2 and click on “view raw file”. You will need Greasemonkey ( https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748 ) installed first.

  6. Scott Says:

    Very cool! I’ve created a way to do just simple translation of a tweet by replying to my twitter bot (it uses Google Translate API and PHP). Check out tweetrans.com for usage, but you basically just reply to @tweetrans with a code (like “2es” for “translate this to Spanish”…all the codes are international standards and listed on the site). Maybe someone will find this fun or useful too? :)

  7. Bob Says:

    This doesn’t work at all… I am trying to translate a twitter feed from Norwegian to English.

  8. Umesh Sirsiwal Says:

    Nice job.
    Here is what I did with Google AJAX API. A fully featured iPhone twitter client which does the same thing as you did but only as a native iPhone application.

    Check it out @ http://tidbit.techievarta.com/tag/twitterworld/ or in iTunes

  9. Richard Cooke Says:

    That’s cool. Works nice. Now how about putting some of this sevrer side and making this service available to everyone through a browser (whether desktop or mobile).

  10. JoanWeinberg Says:

    An Israeli startup has a new service, called Twitrans, that can break the language barrier between America and billions of Chinese, Hindi, Japanese, Russian, and even Arabic speakers.

    Developed by the company, One Hour Translation, Twitrans lets you write your message in English, send it to the company for professional translation, and then post it up on your Twitter page.

  11. LT Says:

    Could TwitterTranslate be made to work with Twitter search results?

  12. dan levine Says:

    Love it! Finding this super helpful with the Chile earthquake. I wanted it to do more so I updated the script to work with search results and to work as you paginate through more tweets. I submitted the changes to the google code page, and linked to my tweaked version here: http://dsldsl.tumblr.com/post/415927258/auto-translate-twitter-search-results-greasemonkey

  13. Drew Says:

    Hi you should check out the new chrome extension that will translate your facebook and twitter feeds automatically: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/giljlmclogpacbccpelmggfcjnickhhf

Leave a Reply

Spam is a pain, I am sorry to have to do this to you, but can you answer the question below?

Q: What is the number before 3? (just put in the digit)