January 6, 2010: By Stephen E. Arnold
Several years ago, I took a look at Language Weaver, founded in 2002 by some wizards from the Univ3rsity of Southern California. The company’s technology struck me as more up to date than Systran, the engine that powers Yahoo’s Babelfish. In-Q-Tel pumped some money into the firm as well. Then Language Weaver caught my attention with its 2008 estimate that the machine translation market would tap into a $67 billion market. I remember watching an interview with Mark Tapling on Fox. The video is still available here. There were not too many details, but the number not long after the start of the financial meltdown in 2008 was an eye catcher.
Language Weaver provides trusted automated translation solutions for high-value, dynamic digital information to improve human communications. Delivering a trusted level of translation quality, Language Weaver ensures that organizations maintain and extend brand voice across global media types and audiences.
The company now has a Wikipedia entry which strikes me as quite useful. You can read it here, and I won’t recycle that information. The company offers translation for about two dozen languages, and it offers what I think is an interesting software method that aligns translated documents at the segment or chunk level. This works, in my opinion, a bit like a knowledge base with some semi autonomous functions improving the core translation system.
The system can handle rich media; that is, “listening” to a podcast and translating the content. Language Weaver uses algorithmic methods. As computing horsepower creeps up, the system improves. The underlying method is statistical, so fast computers yield better translations.
I was able to access an article by CEO Mark Tapling called “Building Loyalty after the Sale with Customer Driven Support Channels and Languages.” and “Dissolving Customer Support Communication Barriers.”
Like other search and content processing firms, the one-size-fits-all solution seems to be expressed in terms of solutions that solve specific problems; for example, voice of the customer or customer support problems.
When I reviewed various links on the company’s Web site, I located a list of the firm’s partners. This was interesting to me and included a number of firms whose marketing people had neglected to tell me that their employers’ translation functionality was licensed from Language Weaver. You can find this list on the Language Weaver current partners page.
Several surprises for me were the inclusion of Attensity, BBN, Right Now, SPSS, and ZyLAB. Other licensees include:
The company has a Web log, it features a post every week. You can access the blog here.
My view is that Language Weaver has a method that struck me as having some similarities to the one I explored in my Google monographs. The question becomes, “Can a company like Language Weaver continue to thrive when Google offers increasingly robust translation services without charge?”
I don’t know the answer to this question, but Language Weaver may become an outfit that offers an alternative to Google. Microsoft is moving forward with translation functionality . Will another outfit step up and buy Language Weaver? My hunch is that there will be some companies willing to pay for a non Google solution for now.
As Google’s translation system gains traction, will Language Weaver’s value ratchet upwards, or will it like other translation services hit a glass ceiling? I don’t know the answer. More information when I have it.
For original article, click here or visit: http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/2010/01/06/language-weaver-in-the-world-of-google-translation/