Edelman and Technorati to Announce Multilanguage Platform on Monday

Rumor has it that Edelman and Technorati will formally announce on Monday the details of "a system that will work across seven languages -- PR agencies willl be able to watch seven languages, real time, for your clients," according to Richard Edelman.

By that I believe he means you'll be able to see translations of blog posts in seven languages. The question is, will they be machine or certified translations by literate humans? Machine translations are pretty laughable at this point.

Edelman told Dave Weinberger about it during an interview at Syndicate earlier this week.

Related Posts:
- SRF Global Translations Demonstrates the Difference Between Machine and Human Translations

- Incorrectly Translated Blog Posts Can Be PR Landmines

I think this will be an immediate hit. Just today, I received a comment on one of my blog posts -- from someone in Holland. The post was completely Dutch. I had to contact some of my business associates to help determine that it was a legitimate comment. I'm thrilled about the international uptake on my blog, but I certainly don't have time to do this kind of legwork each time this happens. Also, my blog has been picked up in Thailand, and is being translated there through one of the business schools. It would be great to know that their translations are accurate. Hooray for Edelman and Technorati!

As I said, it will depend on how these translations are done. Follow the related links in this post for an example of the difference between a machine and human translation. It is highly doubtful that free translation by literate humans can be provided without charge in six languages. We'll see what they say on Monday.