Universal Translator for Twitter?

Posted on May 22, 2007

Messages traveling back and forth on Twitter occur in multiple languages. This results in a lot of posts that people see on Twitter -- like in the public timeline or on Twittervision -- that they can't read.

David Troy, creator of the popular Twittervision website, may be contemplating a solution. Troy told journalist Andrew Childers in a recent article that he is planning on creating a universal translator for Twitter.

For his next project, he plans to craft a universal translator to allow him to pry into the thoughts of foreign Twitterers.
"It's sort of a Babel kind of thing," he said.

It would be interesting to be able to read translated Twitter posts from all over the world. Of course there would probably be some "lost in translation" confusion. David Troy translated a few posts and found the Japanese Twitter conversations to be similar in context.

"I've been seeing all the Japanese posts and I didn't know what they mean, and I translated them and they were just as stupid," Mr. Troy said, laughing.

The downside for Twitter addicts might be that a functional universal translator on Twitter might make the website that much more addictive. David Troy also created the Flickrvision app for the popular photosharing website Flickr. David Troy shouldn't have any trouble finding people to try out the new Twitter apps he comes up with -- he has over 6,000 followers on his Twitter page: @davetroy.