Facebook users translate the site again, this time to German

By Tim Conneally | Published March 3, 2008, 2:43 PM

The translation project that was only announced at the beginning of the year for Facebook has already made massive progress with only the help of volunteers.

Early in February of this year, the social networking site announced that a team of 1,500 volunteers had translated the entire site to Spanish in just under four weeks.

Now, through the same Translations application designed for Facebook, the site has announced that 2,000 volunteers completed the entire German translation project in just under two weeks.

A rough estimate by Facebook's VP of product management states that German-speaking nations (Germany, Austria, Belgium, Lichtenstein, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Argentina) have over a million active users accessing the site. Users from these countries will automatically access the newly-translated site, others will have to alter their preferences.

French is the next language to be completed, and if this growth trend is any indicator, the project could be finished in as little as a week's time.

After these principal languages are available, Turkish, Swedish, and Italian will be the three most useful languages into which the site could be translated, as Turkey, Sweden and Italy are some of the top Facebook-accessing countries. Furthermore, competing social network MySpace already offers an Italian mirror site, so by adding that language, Facebook can at least achieve full penetration where MySpace has.

Comments

Nice, good job facebook.

I guess when you have a few million users you find a few thousand users who speak a certain language and are willing to help.

Man I wonder how much a facebook translation project would be on GetAFreelancer.com, assuming they want to pay for translation:
Translation of Website into Swedish - $10,000.

Haha!

Score: 0

|

Facebook - die. Mainstream crap.

Score: 0

|

makes it easy to find people though...

Score: 0

|

Silverlight 3 goes live on Microsoft's servers

Microsoft's answer to Adobe's Flash is (unofficially) here, with prospects of higher-speed, higher-resolution video and for the first time, 3D.

Three Android phones on the way from T-Mobile in 2009

T-Mobile's myTouch 3G, launched Wednesday, will be followed by two more Android phones later this year, but neither of them will be HTC's Hero.

Best Buy-brand TVs to get TiVo

A new alliance will place the retailer's own brand alongide the manufacturers, and could also lead to future partnerships on services.

LTE still lacks a voice

The 4G Wireless standard that Verizon hopes to show off before this year is out is still at a loss for (spoken) words.

Data sharing among online advertisers: Is sanity in sight?

Lockdown with Angela Gunn In the middle of a 15-page plea not to get regulated, a spark of smart thinking.

T-Mobile's strategy to combat Apple's iPhone with Android

With a trio of Android phones now in the pipeline for 2009, T-Mobile hopes to break the iPhone's emerging stranglehold.

EC's Reding: Government should act as broker for media downloads

If Internet media services don't step up and build an attractive way for users to start paying for downloads, a commissioner says, government may do the job instead.

Sony TVs get Netflix, still no PS3

Though it's coming in behind LG, Samsung, and Microsoft, Sony will begin to offer Netflix streaming, too.

Google Chrome OS: Too little, too early

Carmi Levy: Wide Angle Zoom Don't start the revolution just yet, says Carmi, who isn't so certain Chrome OS will be the "Windows Killer."

GAO pen test brings the hammer down on federal rent-a-cops

But are the computers to blame for the contract-guard fiasco at FPS?

What's Next: Chrome OS will have at least some friends in high places

Also: South Korea takes another round of DDoS abuse, and Neelie Kroes and Steve Ballmer may shake hands before she exits stage left.

Report: Evidence of further creativity with Windows 7 upgrade prices

A ZDNet blogger did some serious digging for clues as to a reported price break on multiple Windows 7 Home Premium licenses, and may have found it.