Filling the void
While investigating why my computer seems to be using more memory than usual, I zeroed in on the google toolbar which came preinstalled on my computer.
It did not seem to be taking up too much memory, nonetheless, I targeted it for uninstallation. Prior to uninstalling it, I decided to see what features and options it offered (I never used it - which was another good reason for uninstalling it). In doing so, I noticed that it offered a translation feature (disabled by default): by hovering over a word, it would translate the word into your language of choice, or you could send the whole web page for translation.
Several weeks back, I had a similar idea, I thought how great it would be to have a dictionary plugin for the browser which would allow you to (1) translate words from one language to another, (2) provide thesaurus functionality, (3) allow spell checking. I envisioned it working by either hovering the mouse over the word to get a list of translations (which is how google's feature works) or right clicking on a word or selected passage to invoke more advanced language tools.
It seemed a fairly obvious void and was surprised that I was not immediately aware of any popular tools in this regard (aside from altavista's BabelFish - which I think is the best online translation tool available. I have found Google to be more transliterative than Babelfish). I suppose I could have done some research to see if others had noticed this missing functionality, but it was not a priority.
Now I know that someone else has started to fill the void I observed a few weeks back.
It did not seem to be taking up too much memory, nonetheless, I targeted it for uninstallation. Prior to uninstalling it, I decided to see what features and options it offered (I never used it - which was another good reason for uninstalling it). In doing so, I noticed that it offered a translation feature (disabled by default): by hovering over a word, it would translate the word into your language of choice, or you could send the whole web page for translation.
Several weeks back, I had a similar idea, I thought how great it would be to have a dictionary plugin for the browser which would allow you to (1) translate words from one language to another, (2) provide thesaurus functionality, (3) allow spell checking. I envisioned it working by either hovering the mouse over the word to get a list of translations (which is how google's feature works) or right clicking on a word or selected passage to invoke more advanced language tools.
It seemed a fairly obvious void and was surprised that I was not immediately aware of any popular tools in this regard (aside from altavista's BabelFish - which I think is the best online translation tool available. I have found Google to be more transliterative than Babelfish). I suppose I could have done some research to see if others had noticed this missing functionality, but it was not a priority.
Now I know that someone else has started to fill the void I observed a few weeks back.
Comments
Im only aware of Babel fish,too.,though,its not that useful i think,well,some of the readers use it but never came back i think,LOL!
i need that spelling checker,haha!I blog mostly at night(alwats sleepy),so i found out in the morning that i mispelled some words or names but too lazy to correct them.oh well...
You never know what your hidden potential is unless you actively unleashed it.
elvina: thanks! Maybe I need to hire you are my personal coach / manager. I need someone who is a good people / networking person.
barbara: originality is not really a necessity, if you look at most products they are really the same old, same old just dressed up in new packaging. Innovation comes in new ways of thinking and doing things, but that means getting people to change their habits. IT produces lots of lousy user interfaces because they don't think like people do. A few years back I insisted that a medical product I was working on did not expose files to the user - instead we just show patient records (there was a whole lot of file management going on behind the scenes, but this was hidden from the doctors). I absolutely hate products like word and excel which ask the user to select a file - instead they should be showing the user a list of available documents, without allowing the user to root around the harddrive. The interface is designed wrong, users are not interested in files and directories, they are interested in documents and possibly folders.
rennyba: I don't recall the google toolbar offering translations to Norwegian (I think they only did French, Spanish and German).