Babel Fish (website)
Type of site | Translation service |
|---|---|
| Owner | Yahoo! |
| URL | babelfish |
| Commercial | No |
| Launched | December 9, 1997; 27 years ago (1997年12月09日) |
| Current status | Defunct |
Yahoo! Babel Fish was a free Web-based machine translation service by Yahoo!. In May 2012 it was replaced by Bing Translator (now Microsoft Translator), to which queries were redirected.[1] Although Yahoo! has transitioned its Babel Fish translation services to Bing Translator, it did not sell its translation application to Microsoft outright.[2] [3] As the oldest free online language translator,[4] the service translated text or Web pages in 36 pairs between 13 languages,[4] including English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.
The internet service derived its name from the Babel fish, a fictional species in Douglas Adams's book and radio series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy that could instantly translate languages.[5] In turn, the name of the fictional creature refers to the biblical account of the confusion of languages that arose in the city of Babel.
History
[edit ]On December 9, 1997, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) and SYSTRAN S.A. launched AltaVista Translation Service at babelfish.altavista.com,[6] which was developed by a team of researchers at DEC.[4] [7] In February 2003, AltaVista was bought by Overture Services, Inc. [8] In July 2003, Overture, in turn, was taken over by Yahoo!.[9]
The web address for Babel Fish remained at babelfish.altavista.com until May 9, 2008, when the address changed to babelfish.yahoo.com.[10]
In 2012, the Web address changed again, this time redirecting babelfish.yahoo.com to www.microsofttranslator.com when Microsoft's Bing Translator replaced Yahoo Babel Fish.[11]
As of June 2013, babelfish.yahoo.com no longer redirects to the Microsoft Bing Translator. Instead, it refers directly back to the main Yahoo.com page.[12]
See also
[edit ]
References
[edit ]- ^ "Welcoming Yahoo! Babel Fish users!". Bing Translator blog. 2012年05月31日. Archived from the original on 2012年06月02日. Retrieved 2012年05月31日.
- ^ "Welcoming Yahoo! Babel Fish users!". Bing Translator blog. 2012年05月30日. Archived from the original on 2012年06月16日. Retrieved 2012年05月31日.
- ^ "Yahoo's Babel Fish replaced with Bing Translator". Neowin.net, June 3, 2012, Jon Callaham.
- ^ a b c "Yahoo Launches Babel Fish". Techshout.com, April 2006. 28 April 2006.
- ^ Switzer, Kyle (October 21, 2024). "The Rise and Fall of Babel Fish: What Happened to the Revolutionary Translation Tool?". AudioChamps. Retrieved 26 October 2024.
- ^ "Babelfish: English". 1999年04月27日. Archived from the original on 1999年04月27日. Retrieved 2018年07月22日.
- ^ "BabelFish on the move - Business Edge News Magazine Archives". Businessedge.ca. 2003年05月15日. Archived from the original on 2011年09月29日. Retrieved 2012年09月20日.
- ^ Hansell, Saul (February 19, 2003), "Overture Services to Buy AltaVista for 140ドル Million", The New York Times
- ^ "Yahoo to acquire Overture". July 13, 2003. Archived from the original on July 8, 2007.
- ^ "AltaVista history". Websearchworkshop.co.uk. 1995年12月15日. Retrieved 2012年09月20日.
- ^ "Welcoming Yahoo! Babel Fish users!". Microsoft Translator (and Bing Translator) Official Team Blog. Retrieved 2012年06月22日.
- ^ "Yahoo! Babelfish - redirects to Yahoo!". babelfish.yahoo.com. Archived from the original on 2006年05月04日. Retrieved 2023年12月02日.