WebProNews

There are all sorts of reasons for English speakers to view foreign websites (for info on the latest performance car parts available in Japan, for example, or for local coverage of any news event), and presumably a few people who don't speak English would like to see our sites, too.  Google's introduced a translation gadget to help them.

A post on the Official Google Blog explained that the "new website translator gadget powered by Google Translate . . . enables you to make your site's content available in 51 languages.  Now, when people visit your page, if their language (as determined by their browser settings) is different than the language of your page, they'll be prompted to automatically translate the page into their own language." 

It's difficult to imagine a much simpler option from a user's point of view.  Google's not making things too hard on sites' owners, either.  They only need to copy and paste a snippet of code that's about 300 characters in length into the blog or site.

It's important to note, of course, that Google isn't promising perfect translations.  If the subject of a site is highly technical, the translation gadget might not do anyone except the most rabid disciples (see the car parts example above) much good.

Still, since Google's making it so easy to cater to a global audience, there seems to be little reason not to give its new gadget a chance.