Okay, now Facebook is just showing off. Having translated Facebook into more than 70 languages, including “Pirate,” it’s run out of living languages and the site is now available in Latin. What’s next, Klingon?
Actually, what’s next is whatever Facebook’s users want it to be because they are the ones doing the translating. Facebook crowdsources the translation of its site. During the protests in Iran this summer, Facebook was quickly translated into Farsi. This approach has been so successful that Facebook is now making its translation tools available to any other site or app which uses Facebook Connect.
And that’s sort of the point. There should be no language barriers on the Web. Any page should be available in any language. That’s an ideal, of course, but Facebook’s ability to tap into native speakers and amateur translators around the world makes that goal slightly less daunting. Even Google Translate doesn’t offer Latin.
(Photo credit: Flickr/Rachel Scott Halls)
I thought Latin was never spoken?
I await elven.
regular latin or stupid church latin?
um, Facebook Latin
did they officially patent their process of crowdsourcing translations? or is that still pending
How do you say “poke” in latin?
“pungere”.. I think that means “to punch”.
lol, stupid church latin. as a sub genre of latin classic.
english or stupid church english can work here too.
wat else umm
Dear Brendan,
Sorry bud, but you need an intellectual slap in the head.
“Stupid church [sic] Latin”? Come on, brother; you can’t be that much of an ignoramus.
St. Thomas Aquinas would have some choice words as well.
All in good fun.
Regards,
Dennis
i was just looking for a reason to say “stupid church” i know quite well that most of the distinctions come in the form of pronunciation… hard “c” vs soft “ch” sound for example…
Mihi placet.
A bunch of us want to translate Facebook into Klingon (we’ve been asking for a couple of years now) but Facebook won’t let us.
So it seems that while the users do the actual translations, the languages are picked by Facebook.
When your company is not making any money, it is really important to focus all your efforts on useless features that no-one will use.
Wolfgram +1
There is the practical side of things, and the spiritual side of things. Let’s wait a year before making that judgment, okay?
What are you talking about? I had FB translated to pirate for a whole week.
But Google Translate has Yiddish, which Facebook still lacks.
Quidquid Latine dictum sit altum videtur…
Google has had Elmer Fudd, Klingon, Hacker, Pirate, and Pig Latin translation for years.
Face it, nothing Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc do will be 100% unique … Google has already done it!
Latin is considerably more involved than than an algorithm that changes Rs into Ws a la Elmer Fudd. But I agree, it’s not that new.
Google has had Latin for years as well …
‘Crowdsourcing’ translation isn’t a new concept. The Fedora Project has been doing that for quite a while:
https://transla...oraproject.org/
I doubt they just let people do translation without checking them at all. It probably ends up taking them the same or even more effort to do crowd translation than doing it in-house themselves. I think what they gain is not a reduction in effort, but rather very good PR and some creative translation ideas from their users.
I want Facebook in ancient Greek…
So do I…
Did Zuckerberg do the actual translation? In court papers filed (connectU law-suit), there were transcripts or application to Harvard, etc. I remember seeing that Mark had taken 3-4 years of Latin – may be he did the translation himself just to prove he did some “coding” for Facebook!!!!
Run out of living languages? You’ve got to be kidding–they’re not trying hard enough. There are over 4,000 languages, so I don’t think 70 scratches that amount much.
they need cockney next
too many languages = many users = too slow facebook. always disconnecting even if internet is good.
I knew someone in France (now in his 60s/70s) who learned English as if it were a dead language…(of course..) and Latin as if it were a living language..he claims to still be fluent in Latin, because it was taught conversationally. Whereas English..
I love how the facebook brand includes the concept of user-generated ideas, applications, etc. But an even more fundamental feature of the facebook brand is that of keeping control in the hands of the users. (I think that facebook has the most elaborate system of privacy settings I have seen on any social networking site.)
Reports that users’ pictures have been used on a jailbait site have been met with apathy by Facebook…, just as when facebook received complaints from users after its last major over-haul, it disregarded its target market’s concerns.
This attitude does Not represent a good marketing strategy.
Hey you can post requests for anything you want to be read out in Latin on Cinnaminta.
http://www.cinn...minta/what01.pl