untangling_the_web

DID: 4046925
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Not bad. However, the quality of results varies greatly, in part depending upon the
complexity of queries and in part on how good the translation software works.
Anyone who has used machine translation tools knows they are limited. Here are
some tips that might help make your Babelplex queries more successful.
~ Keep it simple: the query [syllogism] worked very well going from English to
most languages, but [windows operating system] stumped most of the
translation services in pretty much every language.
~ Avoid proper names: proper names probably will not translate; a search for
[quicken] finds ace/ere in Spanish; a search for [bill gates] from English to
simplified Chinese and back to English produced interesting but unhelpful
results.
~ Syntax matters: you will get different results for the translation to Spanish of
the English query [spanish military] versus [military spanish].
~ Use synonyms judiciously: while it might seem intuitively obvious that using
synonyms or related terms might produce better results, it may in fact confuse
matters. If you are searching for information about cows, [cow] produces
better results than [cow cattle bovine steer]. Also, remember that the default
operator for all these search engines is AND, so they will only return
webpages containing all the search terms.
Babelplex has nice user features for viewing results. The split screen shows both the
original query and the query translated into a second language. The left frame
displays the results of the original query and the right frame shows the results in the
language chosen for translation. If no translation of a query is possible, you will see
the translation tool's webpage and will have the option to try the translation and
subsequent search from that page.
Babelplex enters the pantheon of search engine augmentation sites-including
FindForward, Soople, FaganFinder's Ultimate Google Interface-as a welcome and
useful addition.
Finding Online Dictionaries
Foreignword
Language Automation's Glossaries
http://www.foreignword.comlTools/dictsrch.htm
http://www.rahul.netllai/glossaries.html
Martindale's Language and Translation Center
http://www.martindalecenter.com/Language.html
Paderborn University List of Dictionaries
http://www-math.uni-paderborn.de/dictionaries/Dictionaries.html
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