As I’m finnish I can tell you that this translate really sucks! I translated cybernetnews and the text goes like this:

Cybernetnews:
A couple of weeks ago I got an email forwarded to me and it was a list of rules that Bill Gates gave in a speech at a High School.

Google translated in finnish:
Pari viikkoa sitten sain sähköpostiviestin välitti minulle ja se oli listan sääntöjä, että Bill Gates piti puheen, joka lukio.

That translation really in english:
A couple of weeks ago I got an email message and it was list’s rules, that Bill Gates gave a speech, that High School.

Bottom line is that finnish is so much richer language than english that it is impossible to make translations automatically that can be undestod correctly.

I know that there are always many mistakes but translations between any other languages I have tested are not even near that horrible

When we used to offer a translation service for CyberNet (using Google), we always got complaints that the translations were terrible which is why we stopped offering them.

For exact translations, you really need someone who speaks the language to manually do it. To get a general idea of what is being said, Google and other translation services work great.

Cybernetnews:
A couple of weeks ago I got an email forwarded to me and it was a list of rules that Bill Gates gave in a speech at a High School.

Google translated in finnish:
Pari viikkoa sitten sain sähköpostiviestin välitti minulle ja se oli listan sääntöjä, että Bill Gates piti puheen, joka lukio.

That translation really in english:
A couple of weeks ago I got an email message and it was list’s rules, that Bill Gates gave a speech, that High School.

Bottom line is that finnish is so much richer language than english that it is impossible to make translations automatically that can be undestod correctly.

I know that there are always many mistakes but translations between any other languages I have tested are not even near that horrible

It feels pretty weird though to read CyberNet articles in Finnish, with the whole page layout changed.

“Of course we know that the translations any automated service offers aren’t perfect, and in fact, sometimes they’re way “off.””

I once had to translate a website and used Google. When I was on the site, I had the option of clicking the English text (which was translated from the original language) and I could edit it if it wasn’t the correct translation. A little pop-up balloon thing came up (like on Google Maps) and I was able to submit the revision for approval by Google. So that’s definitely something that’s very helpful.

I noticed that today when I was playing around with it and it’s definitely a nice feature. It’s also a good way for Google to put users to work for them (a way for Google to improve the service without needing to pay employees to do it) — which is smart.

I once had to translate a website and used Google. When I was on the site, I had the option of clicking the English text (which was translated from the original language) and I could edit it if it wasn’t the correct translation. A little pop-up balloon thing came up (like on Google Maps) and I was able to submit the revision for approval by Google. So that’s definitely something that’s very helpful.