Ask Jeeves Machine Translation FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

What is "automatic translation"?
What does it mean when I see "translate this page" next to a search result?
Why don't all the results in translatable languages have the "translate this page" link?
What languages can this service translate into English?
The translation isn't as good as I'd like it to be. Can you make it more accurate?


What is "automatic translation"?
Translations of web sites you are seeing are created on-the-fly and automatically by advanced computer software, and without the intervention of human translators.

What does it mean when I see "translate this page" next to a search result?
Ask Jeeves is proud to offer a free service that automatically translates pages published in languages other than English. Not all languages are translated and not all pages in those languages we do support are translated completely. Text within images and some dynamic content also remain untranslated.

Clicking on the "translate this page" link takes you to a version of the page that has been automatically translated into English. You can choose to view the original page instead by clicking on the "view original".


Why don't all the results in translatable languages have the "translate this page" link?
We only offer the "translate this page" link when we have a high degree of confidence about the language on the selected page. Some pages may contain multiple languages or insufficient text to provide a high degree of certainty about the language in which they were written.


What languages can this service translate into English?
Currently, Ask Jeeves offers English translation from French, German and Spanish, with many more coming.



The translation isn't as good as I'd like it to be. Can you make it more accurate?
Translating languages is a very complex task, and today's most sophisticated technology doesn't match the skill of a professional translator. That's because accurate translation requires an understanding of context, as well as an understanding of the structure and rules of a language.

The automatic translation works best when the text you wish to translate uses proper grammar. Slang, misspelled words, poorly placed punctuation, and complex or lengthy sentences can all cause a page to be translated incorrectly.

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