Whether you’re on YouTube watching a historically significant news video or a video of kittens in a box, it helps to know what the people in the clip are saying. YouTube gives us access to millions of videos from around the world, so we often find ourselves watching those in foreign languages. Instead of clicking away to find an English equivalent, Google has developed a solution for this problem so that you can watch and understand YouTube videos in any language. You’ll now be able to read subtitles to any video in the language of your choice. Whether you need a Spanish, German, French, or Chinese translation, the service is available in any language.
Translations Will Help Both Viewers and Video Creators
Obviously, the real-time translation services by Google are helpful to YouTube viewers because they can finally figure out what the people in their favorite videos are saying. They also will not feel limited when they’re interested in a foreign news story, as any story from around the world will be translatable. However, the translations will also benefit the people uploading these videos. When you uploaded a video to YouTube before, your audience was enormous, but also limited to the people who spoke the same language. Now, anyone in the world who can read his or her own native language can understand your video. This is particularly outstanding for marketers and people just trying to get their word out there, because they will no longer need to create videos in multiple languages.
Crowdsourcing Option Available for the Translation
Though the translations designed by Google are automated and based on the closed captioning of the original video, there will also be an option for a crowdsourced translation. In other words, users can develop their own translation and share it with other users, who can also tweak it until it is perfect. Crowd sourced translations are more accurate than automated ones because, like professional translators, the viewers can take the context of each word into account.
The translations that will soon be available for YouTube videos will open up the community of online videos so that it is even larger, and people can share videos without language barriers. However, if your company is thinking of releasing a promotional video for global viewers, you should seriously consider using a professional translation service so that your message is clear and accurate for everyone.