Free Translation Services – A Gift or a Curse

By: Rabia Tanveer Posted on Thu, 08-10-2015

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Translation services are proving to be a goldmine in today’s business. Not only are these translation companies making a generous amount of money, this opportunity has also allowed people with respectable talent in the translation services to earn money and recognition for their talent. However, this is a digital age, there is always an “easy solution” for everything.

It all started in 2006 when Google launched its Translation service. It was nothing short of phenomenal, and people all across the globe took great advantage of this service. But just like every good thing, this too had its drawbacks. There are hundred other online translation services for free and they all are doing a great job, but they have their boundaries. For example, the translation service is limited.

These services are great if you want to understand a foreign text or get the general idea of the context, however, if you need in-depth or fluid translation then this might not work for you. All these translation services have a limitation on how many paragraphs you can translate (Google Translate allows you to translate whole documents – but Google is in a league of its own), how many technical terms you can translate and how many alternative words you can choose.

These free translation services have proven to be a great companion (and a great teacher in my case) to work with. But here’s the thing: when it comes to translating whole websites, legal documents and so on, you need to be careful. When you place your text in the translation box, your information is on the internet forever. Anyone can take it, use it and misuse it. Company data or company contracts are very sensitive, these materials need to be protected. And using an online machine to do it is not safe.

Yes, these services are great, but their greatness can be used and stretched only too far. Being careful is always good for the future. So be smart and always use a professional translation service to get these sensitive documents translated. They protect your information and make sure that the translated document is not full of errors and read fluidly (a thing that even Google has not perfected yet).