| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Google Wave for translators? Thread poster: Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
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Dear colleagues,
I have watched this developer presentation of Google Wave, a Google development that will be launched in some time from now.
I feel that something that could be vastly improved in our profession is communication with customers and within teams. We all spend tons of time (it could easily be two hours in my case) reading emails, res... See more Dear colleagues,
I have watched this developer presentation of Google Wave, a Google development that will be launched in some time from now.
I feel that something that could be vastly improved in our profession is communication with customers and within teams. We all spend tons of time (it could easily be two hours in my case) reading emails, responding to emails, forwarding stuff, asking for more information or more files for the job, etc. etc. Even the tiniest, easiest of jobs requires 5 emails on an average (enquiry from customer, OK from translator, go-ahead from client with a PO, delivery from translator, thanks from customer). And then more and more emails if there is the tiniest of questions or queries between the parties. There is a high potential of losing some piece of vital information in this bulky exchange of emails.
With Google Wave I see a much simpler life in our communications with our customers, as well as a professional possibility of "translating in Wave". Yes, of course Google Translate will be also a feature of Wave, but acting as a "Wave translator" could be an additional business opportunity for us translators.
Watch the video and tell me what you think about it!
See you guys!
Tomás ▲ Collapse
| | | | Damian Harrison (X)
Germany
Local time: 08:37
German to English
Still watching, but it looks pretty stunning. No doubt this will be a very useful tool for translation teams.
[Edited at 2009-06-04 10:16 GMT]
| | | | Sarah Wood 
United Kingdom
Local time: 07:37
French to English
Great link Tomás! The youtube viewer comments are interesting too.
Many thanks for this,
Sarah
| | | | Laurent KRAULAND (X)
France
Local time: 08:37
French to German
+ ...
| Don't be excessively enthusiastic | Jun 4, 2009 |
It is not the first time that the G. firm comes with a "revolutionary" feature or programme. Let me see, how many of those do you currently use: the search engine, the online storage, the e-mail account, the IM system, the MT feature, the free webhosting, the ad nonsense offer - and so on, and so on? All from the same provider, and all Internet-based...
Great for you if you like the feeling of more and more depending from one single source, but it is definitively not my cup of tea... See more It is not the first time that the G. firm comes with a "revolutionary" feature or programme. Let me see, how many of those do you currently use: the search engine, the online storage, the e-mail account, the IM system, the MT feature, the free webhosting, the ad nonsense offer - and so on, and so on? All from the same provider, and all Internet-based...
Great for you if you like the feeling of more and more depending from one single source, but it is definitively not my cup of tea.:(
Remember: There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.
Laurent K.
PS: oh, I forget the web browser, and the blogging system, and... (sorry, just kidding).
[Edited at 2009-06-04 12:42 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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| "Big Bad Corporate America, Inc."? | Jun 4, 2009 |
ScottishWildCat wrote:
Great for you if you like the feeling of more and more depending from one single source, but it is definitively not my cup of tea.:(
Indeed I don't use all services Google has to offer, but as a translator some of them are a must to me (Google searches, images in searches and Google Maps).
Honestly I think your apparent distrust of big software corporations like Google might be blurring the view: this kind of tool would be tremendously useful in translation.
Let me ask you this: If this was the idea of «John Doe», an open-source programmer working from a garage in Alaska, sorrounded by empty pizza boxes and a permanent smell of fish processing plants, would you be this skeptical about Wave?
| | | | Laurent KRAULAND (X)
France
Local time: 08:37
French to German
+ ...
| To be more precise... | Jun 4, 2009 |
Tomas,
1) "you" was generic and not personal.
2) I don't believe in Big Bad Corporate America, Inc.
3) I don't believe in the "John Doe" description.
But I would say that I am able and willing to wait until any (preferably US ) competitor offers me this or a similar service in the same way e.g. E-Fax or YouSendIt do it for their services, i.e.: basic functions for free, accounts w... See more Tomas,
1) "you" was generic and not personal.
2) I don't believe in Big Bad Corporate America, Inc.
3) I don't believe in the "John Doe" description.
But I would say that I am able and willing to wait until any (preferably US) competitor offers me this or a similar service in the same way e.g. E-Fax or YouSendIt do it for their services, i.e.: basic functions for free, accounts with more features subject to fees.
Nothing more, nothing less.
Laurent K
[Edited at 2009-06-04 11:44 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Not even the smelly factories? | Jun 4, 2009 |
ScottishWildCat wrote: 3) I don't believe in the "John Doe" description. But I would say that I am able and willing to wait until any ( preferably US) competitor offers me this or a similar service in the same way e.g. E-Fax or YouSendIt do it for their services, i.e.: basic functions for free, accounts with more features subject to fees.
I know, I know. However, wasn't the smelly factory thing quite an appealing image?
Yes, I agree that competition is always good. But when Google Wave gets out in the open, I might use it immediately in my team and --if they finally charge for it, something we don't know at this stage-- start compensating Google for all the good they have done to my work. I have been using quite good services for a decade without forking out a single penny! I would agree to pay this time. And I would probably encourage the use of Google Wave among my customers and colleagues.
| | | | Laurent KRAULAND (X)
France
Local time: 08:37
French to German
+ ...
Tomás Cano Binder, CT wrote: I know, I know. However, wasn't the smelly factory thing quite an appealing image?
Certainly for my new avatar,. Joke aside, I will just wait and see what happens next. LTGTBT for the moment, as I am not much of a team worker anyway.
Laurent K.
[Edited at 2009-06-04 11:54 GMT]
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Aniello Scognamiglio (X)
Germany
Local time: 08:37
English to German
+ ...
| The "waves" will gradually decrease in size and the lake will become calm again. | Jun 4, 2009 |
Hype or future?
Let's wait and see.
At present "Google Wave" is no less than a developer preview.
"For now, Google is rolling out Wave as a developer preview and will launch to the public later. The company is looking for 3,000 adventurous, early adopter developers to “tinker” with the system and figure out “what else can we do with this?” And that’s where I stumble." says it all.
Read the whole art... See more Hype or future?
Let's wait and see.
At present "Google Wave" is no less than a developer preview.
"For now, Google is rolling out Wave as a developer preview and will launch to the public later. The company is looking for 3,000 adventurous, early adopter developers to “tinker” with the system and figure out “what else can we do with this?” And that’s where I stumble." says it all.
Read the whole article:
http://gigaom.com/2009/05/28/google-climbs-to-new-heights-of-arrogance-with-wave/ ▲ Collapse
| | | | | OK, but... what is your opinion? | Jun 4, 2009 |
Aniello Scognamiglio wrote:
Hype or future?
Let's wait and see.
At present "Google Wave" is no less than a developer preview.
Indeed as we are not developers we will have to wait and see. I can only say that, where some of other Google proposals were very uninteresting to me, this Wave got me completely enthusiastic. If this worked and only half of my customers adopted it, it would mean saving up to 1,5/2 hours of my time every day. It would also be very nice within my work team here in the office.
Now Aniello: Did you have a chance to watch the video? What do you think of it (momentarily forgetting your considerations about Google as a company)? Do you see advantages or disadvantages for your work if this replaced your email?
| | | | Marina Soldati
Argentina
Local time: 03:37
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
+ ...
| Thank you, Tomás! | Jun 4, 2009 |
Hi!
Thanks for sharing.
I don´t have time to watch the whole video right now, but, for what I´ve seen, it looks very promising.
Let´s wait and see what is finally released.
Regards from cloudy Tandil,
Marina
| | | | Olaf (X)
Local time: 08:37
English to German
| Great for social networking but not much else | Jun 4, 2009 |
I watched the video and didn't see any revolutionary concepts. All they did was combine existing technology (albeit in a cool way) and slapped the Google brand on it.
I'm not overly optimistic that this will catch on. After all it's coming from a company whose E-Mail interface still doesn't allow the user to sort e-mails by sender, which is an elementary feature in pretty much every other web-based E-Mail service.
Olaf
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Olaf wrote:
I watched the video and didn't see any revolutionary concepts. All they did was combine existing technology (albeit in a cool way) and slapped the Google brand on it.
I'm not overly optimistic that this will catch on. After all it's coming from a company whose E-Mail interface still doesn't allow the user to sort e-mails by sender, which is an elementary feature in pretty much every other web-based E-Mail service.
Maybe they don't care much about their email because they want you to get Wave...
I would never think of using Google Mail for professional work anyway and believe that having your own domain and server with an ISP works a lot better. Of course Wave might make me change my mind about hosted communications..
Thanks for your opinion Olaf!
| | | | Kaspars Melkis
United Kingdom
Local time: 07:37
English to Latvian
+ ...
Tomás Cano Binder, CT wrote:
I would never think of using Google Mail for professional work anyway and believe that having your own domain and server with an ISP works a lot better. Of course Wave might make me change my mind about hosted communications..
Actually you can use Google mail with your domain very easily by using Google Apps. You can even create up to 25 users for your domain for free on http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/group/index.html
And all e-mails by sender can be easily selected by searching with from: tag.
I only just started to watch the video but the conversation type e-mail systems are not a new thing. I know an international company that had developed such system for their own internal use even before the POP3 e-mail became popular. At that time even the web was practically non-existent, and it used Telnet for sending and getting the mail. It was a pity that the industry later settled on the lowest common denominator. I will continue to watch the presentation and actually looking forward to the idea that Google may have recycled an old idea successfully.
For me the most irritating thing is the lack of connection between e-mail and file system. When a client sends a new job with attached files, I have to make several, in my mind unnecessary, actions:
1) download attached files (usually go to predefined folder)
2) create a folder for this project (usually sorted by client name, etc.)
This involves going back to e-mail to see what was the project name or ID.
3) unzip and copy downloaded files into this folder
I would also prefer to mark this folder as current job but there are no gmail-like labels in WindowsXP.
Then I do the translation, proofreading or whatever is required.
When done, I open gmail again, write a message and
4) return to the folder to zip the files
5) return to gmail to press Attach a file
6) Navigate through folder structure again to find the file and attach it
It becomes PITA and a source of confusion when working with many small projects.
I would really like to have a system where the e-mail conversation is a place of project files as well. So that when you receive a message with the attached files you don't have to navigate any folder structure. Rather below the e-mail there would be the project directory created automatically and I would simply need to drag and drop the files from e-mail to folder and in reverse. When I am ready to work on a particular job I would just need to open a respective e-mail conversation and all the work files would be there. The manual downloading/uploading is just unnecessary drudgery.
[Edited at 2009-06-05 06:01 GMT]
| | | | | Thanks a lot! | Jun 5, 2009 |
Kaspars Melkis wrote:
I would really like to have a system where the e-mail conversation is a place of project files as well. So that when you receive a message with the attached files you don't have to navigate any folder structure. Rather below the e-mail there would be the project directory created automatically and I would simply need to drag and drop the files from e-mail to folder and in reverse. When I am ready to work on a particular job I would just need to open a respective e-mail conversation and all the work files would be there. The manual downloading/uploading is just unnecessary drudgery.
Indeed! It's just so cumbersome and slow to have to create folders all over the shop and attach/deattach al day long! I completely agree with your statement.
Thanks for sharing your opinion Kaspars!
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