MeGlobe Gets Lost In Translation

JR — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:23:29 +0000

MeGlobe is a new startup designed to bridge the language gap in the world of instant messaging. The free service lets you chat in real-time with people in 15 different languages, translating their IMs into your default language almost on-the-fly.

The platform is completely web-based and requires no downloads. You only have to fill out a quick form to get started, then its interface opens up within your browser. You can search for people based on name, gender, language, country, or a number of other factors, then initiate auto-translated chats.

The translations are still a bit rough — as the service’s developers readily admit — and that makes any actual conversation prove to be a bit tricky. I chatted with someone who spoke Portuguese and someone who spoke Chinese, and neither conversation really got past basic pleasantries before getting lost in translation.

Right now, MeGlobe supports English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Greek, Swedish, Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Chinese traditional, and Chinese simplified languages. The service launched last month.

Our vote: MeGlobe is a great idea for our global Internet economy. It has interesting social appeal and plenty of potential business applications as well. Right now, though, the rough translations prevent it from being terribly useful. There also just aren’t a whole lot of people on it yet, so the idea of chatting becomes rather limited in that regard, too. Once the translations are improved, MeGlobe would do well to combine its services with a standard IM-based platform such as Meebo so that users wouldn’t be restricted to a small, proprietary community.

MeGlobe Gets Lost In Translation is a post from: The Inquisitr

Twitt’d: Twitter, IM-Style

JR — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 21:56:58 +0000

Twitter is back on IM, thanks to a new utility just launched in beta mode.

Twitt’d is a surprisingly simple little tool that lets you send and receive tweets through several instant messaging platforms. All you do is IM anything to the username “twittd.” An automated response then prompts you for a username and password. Once you provide that information, you’ll start receiving updates from everyone you follow. Any future IMs you send will also be translated into tweets and posted from your account.

There’s not much more to this program, nor does there need to be. It has a few command options that will let you turn the service on or off, update a changed password, or disable the service altogether.

Twitt’d supports Skype, Google Talk/Jabber, Windows Live Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger. AIM, surprisingly enough, is thus far excluded from the list.

We sent a request for an interview to the e-mail address listed on the Twitt’d page four hours prior to publishing this story, but we’ve yet to hear back. The domain is registered to a California hosting company, but no owner information is provided. The parent company, NodeHub, has a web page that’s blank except for text saying: “l8r ”

Our vote: An interesting application, no doubt, and one with the potential to come in quite handy for regular Twitter users. Our one (fairly substantial) concern: Do you want to trust sending your password to a company that we know so little about? The only mention of password security on the Twitt’d page is “sssh! we’ll keep it in secret!” The parent company’s blank web site certainly doesn’t provide reassurance. Twitt’d is an intriguing idea, but its developers need to do a far better job of being transparent about who they are and what kind of security they provide. I wouldn’t send in my password at this point. Would you?

Twitt’d: Twitter, IM-Style is a post from: The Inquisitr

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MeGlobe Gets Lost In Translation

Twitt’d: Twitter, IM-Style