When you click the link, you are taken to a page that provides a split-screen look at the same page in both languages, where you are provided with more translation options. You can switch to different views as well as type in a specific URL to translate.
Like most online translation services, there are some accuracy issues. For example, when I tried to translate the front page of murdok from English to Chinese Simplified, it changed a headline from "NBC Decides Not to Miss Out On the Apple Pie" to "NBC you decide not to Miss out on the Apple foot". Admittedly, I am not fluent in Chinese, but something tells me that is not right.
The languages it translates are as follows:
English to/from:
- Arabic
- Chinese Simplified
- Chinese Traditional
- Dutch
- French
- German
- Italian
- Japanese
- Korean
- Portuguese
- Russian (Russian to English only)
- Spanish
and Chinese Simplified to/from Chinese Traditional.
Microsoft says it will offer more languages in the coming months. The whole thing is a response to an increase in non-English speaking Internet users, they say. They want to give these users "an entire world of information can now actually be at their fingertips."
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