As a member of one of the few Search teams, I get to see some cool Google products before they go live. This morning we got to see the launch of news translations for English users in Mexico. Make sure to check out the app releases soon on the Play Store and Apple App Store!
“We’ve realized that there’s no more accurate way to get information than by reading the original person who came up with it. Whether you want to know what’s happening in Mexico right now or not, this feature lets you read authoritative reporting in that country,” explains Itamar Snir, product manager of Google News, and Lauren Clark, product manager of Google Search. Snir and Clark add, “You’ll have an exclusive glimpse into what’s happening in the quake-affected region, from journalists telling their stories over at the source.”
Building off its earlier translation work, AR on Safari will now automatically translate headlines and articles in French, German, and Spanish into English on mobile and desktop.
Google has experimented with news translation in the past, and three years ago added the ability to display content in two languages on the Google News app feed. But for the most part, Google has left it to users to translate content through tools like Chrome’s translate button and Google Translate. Should Google’s new search news translation service be well received, more languages will likely be added in future.