I noticed we have a new panel in the Second Life Viewer 3.2.2 (244260) Oct 31 2011. You probably know, if you follow this blog, that Google’s free translation service used by many games is changing to a paid service. That means our translator in the viewer will stop working about the end of this month.
The new panel provides an option to switch to Bing’s free service. It also provides a place to add your Google API key, which you get from Google Translate API. In my article Language Translation in Second Life I estimated my cost of translation services if I had everything I chat translated. I think I could easily get by for US$20 per year. Since I don’t translate everything, it would probably be way less.
To use Microsoft’s free Bing service you need a Windows Live ID. If you have one, you can just put it in. Otherwise, the link in the new panel sends you to the Windows Live ID signup. You can signup and get the ID key you need.
Third Party Translators
There are various free and paid translators in Second Life. Each of those may handle translation differently. Some may use the new Google Paid API. Some will use the free Bing API. Some may use something else. The point here is to pay attention to what translation service any third party translator devices use. If you don’t you could find yourself buying a translator HUD or attachment and also paying to use a translation service.
Free Translation will not end on Dec 1, it will be reduced to zero by Dec 1.
The free translation services are already being throttled. The Symbolic translators is already dead (TOS violation is all it prints), and the one built into the viewer is barely working in some places due to a lack of a proper API key . Even translators that are actually licensed from Google, such as my Free Translator, are already being effected by throttle limits in some areas.
The 2,000 free Bing translations is a bit of a joke, as it is easy to go through that many in a single night. And at $0.10 per chat line after that, or 20 cents if auto detect is used, don’t expect many to use it. Not after the first bill!
Also, your math may be off by 50%. Depending upi which translator you use, each line may be sent twice, once for detection and once for translation. A heavy user, such as a friend of mine, went thru 488,000 chars in their first month by leaving it on. The best thing to do is to turn it off when not in use.
Google at $20 for 1 million characters is a better deal, or you can actually pay a little more but much less in Lindens by renting translations.
Thanks for the information.