You can even make translation the default, so it happens automatically. When you use Chrome to go to a page in any language other than English (or whatever your default happens to be) the software notices as much and asks if you'd like the page translated. Google Translate works in any browser, of course, but it's best in Google's own Chrome. Which is better than the koan offered by a teammate: "The goal of Switzerland has reached carom." In all but the worst cases, you'll at least have a general idea of the topic at hand, even if the translated sentence isn't anything like what would be said in English-like how Google rendered El Pais' quote from a Spanish player on the psychological impact of the loss: "It's a blow, hit me on the side and made me a bit of damage, but nothing serious." Start with the Proustian text of a Le Monde dispatch, or even the staccato slang of the average blog user comment anywhere in the world, and the result will be a muddle. Move away from that middle ground, towards more dissimilar languages-English and Chinese, say-or toward greater semantic complexity and the usefulness drops off sharply. On account of the state of the art of computer translation, Google's translation program gives the best results with simple, declarative sentences that are being translated between similar language pairs, like English and Spanish. Specifically, it will be as though the Tower of Babel never happened you'll be able to read every Web page, no matter what language it's written in. And you should, too, as they will change the way you use the Internet. Translation tools, reading about world events in the language of the people living them, be they World Cup upsets or controversies at Chinese high-tech manufacturing plants. I have, though, become something of a power user of
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