How do you say “What are you doing?” in Spanish, French, Italian, or German? That’s what Twitter wants to know, as it’s asking users to volunteer for a new project to translate the site into multiple languages (it’s currently available in only English and Japanese).
The project sounds quite similar to what Facebook has done to translate its site into more than 70 languages.
Facebook, however, is a far more complex site requiring many more translations than the Twitter project will likely entail.
Here’s how Twitter describes the translation project:
“We are inviting a small group of people to become volunteer translators at first. As more folks volunteer, the translation suggestions should accumulate faster and we’ll have enough material to respond by making Twitter available not only in English and Japanese but also French, Italian, German, and Spanish. We will distribute the translations to Twitter platform developers making it easier for them to offer multiple language support as well.”
Clearly, translations are a huge opportunity for Twitter to expand its reach. Facebook has grown quickly around the world on the heels of its Translation project, and is even starting to make inroads in regions dominated by other social networks, like in Brazil, where Orkut remains top dog.
While Twitter Translations might be invite-only for the moment, we invite you to share your own translations of Twitter features in the comments
[Via]
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