Mark Tapling, president and CEO of Language Weaver, looks ahead at what is in store for language translation in 2010. With 2009 behind us, he looks at the top translation trends of 2009 and discusses their implications on 2010.

The following is an insert from ‘New Features in Factiva.com- November 2009′ article:

Automated Translation: A Whole New World of Content

Dow Jones Factiva introduces a new, free innovative tool that expands your access to global information from all over the world.

Dow Jones Factiva users may now explore a whole new world of content with our new easy-to-use translation tool. Now, you have quick access to news and information in nine languages providing you with a deeper and more comprehensive view of what’s happening globally.

Global business information is critical to most job roles today. The ability to translate the latest articles from the regions most important to you helps you streamline your research process, improving both the efficiency and the effectiveness of your decision-making processes.

Using advanced technology from Language Weaver, articles are “machine translated” in the language of your choice, providing you with the most complete view of the global business world.

The service will translate articles from English to: Spanish, French, Italian, German, Russian, Chinese (Traditional) and Chinese (Simple).

It will also translate articles from these languages (and Japanese) to English. Currently, translation between these languages (for example, French to Spanish) is not available.

Articles in these languages can be easily found in Factiva News Page and by accessing Dow Jones Intelligent Indexing (DJII), which allows you to search by company, subject, industry, and by region or language.

Automated Translation is quick and easy. It allows you to select your language of choice from a pop-up box to translate the headline and lead paragraph to determine if you are interested in the article. If you wish to continue you may choose to translate the next three paragraphs (or 500 words) or the entire article. The translation process is quick (2,000 words per minute) and this piecemeal approach gives you a choice in how much you wish to translate. It can save you time by avoiding a full article translation only to then discover you are not interested.

To read more, click here or visit: http://factiva.com/whatsnew/factivacom/

Pizzerias, welding shops, tree nurseries: They all need Web sites to pull in customers. Attracting those eyeballs involves seducing the algorithms of Google, Yahoo! and Bing. Americans tap search engines more than 12 billion times a month to find everything from guitar lessons to jambalaya recipes.

Most people don’t wander past the first 10 or so search results. The art of breaking into those rarified ranks is called search engine optimization, or SEO. If this term is new to you, get familiar with it–quick. (For a primer, start here.)

For the rest who want to fortify their online attack while not spending thousands of dollars on an SEO consultant, there are plenty of things to do beyond posting fresh content on your site, making sure to include search keywords and pointing to older links. All those tricks help, but the algorithms evolve constantly, and so must your site to stay near the top.

With that in mind, we’ve compiled some of the latest SEO tricks from those who know them well.

Read More >>

The following article was submitted to IT Business Edge by Mark Tapling, President & CEO of Language Weaver:

In the last two decades, the Web has brought invaluable communication channels for companies of all sizes, and the innovative ways to reach new audiences in new ways just keep on coming. However, there is one basic communication need that has proven to be more challenging to deliver via the Web – language.

When a company launches or updates a Web site, that information is instantly available to a global audience. For some companies, this won’t matter because they are only serving a small local population, but for a growing number of businesses of all sizes, the global nature of the Web is bringing bright opportunities. For these companies, delivering information to their site visitors and customers in their own language is critical to compete in a global market.

According to Common Sense Advisory, more than 50 percent of Web users who purchased online buy only at Web sites where the information is presented in their language. (Going from Simple Translation to Successful Transactions on Global Websites, Common Sense Advisory, March 2007).

To help global companies address the needs of their diverse customer base and encourage them to make purchases, learn the top tips to consider for translating Web content >>