I list my preferences for online translators in The Best Reference Websites For English Language Learners, along with sharing research from The New York Times on which ones do a better job. I list Google as the best.
Ethan Shen has just done a research project comparing Google Translate, Babelfish and Bing Translator. Here are his conclusions:
The final data reveals that while Google Translate is widely preferred when translating long passages, Microsoft Bing Translator and Yahoo Babelfish often produce better translations for phrases below 140 characters.
Does that reflect your own experience?
Haven’t tried Microsoft Bing Translator or Yahoo Babelfish…
I use Google for most of my translation, Chrome web browser also allow some translation…not brilliantly, probably because some of the translation are written as spoken colloquially.
Online translators are still relatively new, room for improvement.
Thank you for the post…
None of the online translator robots satisfies me, specially if you are dealing with a literary text. Online translators are good enough for translating isolated words, technical jargon, but when you dive in a literary text, that’s hillarious to say the least.