Do you speak Google?

I know too well how important is to know languages in order to communicate with people of different cultures. Dreaming about world travels as a child in the former USSR I always wanted to know as many languages as possible.

Languages are my father’s passion and he instilled it in me early on, telling me that knowing languages lets you cross all boundaries even when they are closed.  Now, having lived in 3 countries, I can attest that this hunger to learn helped me a lot in my own life.

Knowing how diverse our audience is I was searching for an effective way to deliver our message in as many languages as we can. As we seek  to attract both buyers and suppliers from all parts of the globe , this ability is crucial. Imagine my amazement when on vacation in Israel I went on the local version of Google -  google.co.il, entered Supplier  Evaluations in the search and realized that right next to the link to our site there is another small link [Translate this page]. Naturally I clicked on the link and ..... I got a full translation of the page in Hebrew!

Then, to my astonishment, I noticed that all the menu items are translated as well. I continued clicking away and, ladies and gentlemen, - the entire site was translated!  Of course I had to go and try it in as many languages as I could think of. Google.ru in Russian, google.es in Spanish, google.fr in French, google.it in Italian all followed. Next, just for kicks, I tried both Japanese and Chinese versions. And Google did not let me down!

Mind you, this is a dynamic machine made translation so you can make the sport out of it and laugh your way through. But in the end, the core meaning of the information on the site was readily available for readers all around the world in their own language at a click of a mouse. All they need to do is to do a search using the same basic terms and they have it. 

Thank you Google and my compatriot Sergey Brin for this amazing achievement!