Google on Wednesday released free software that lets website operators automatically translate online pages into any of 51 languages.
A "translator gadget" powered by Google Translate offers to transform pages for visitors if the language settings in their browsers are different from the language of a particular website, according to Google product manager Jeff Chin.
"Automatic translation is convenient and helps people get a quick gist of the page," Chin said in a blog post.
"However, it's not a perfect substitute for the art of professional translation."
In August the Internet giant added automatic translation to Google Docs allowing users to translate documents into 42 languages.
The "Tools" menu on Google Docs now includes a "Translate Document" feature which provides a list of the various languages offered, which run from Albanian to Icelandic to Vietnamese.
The Mountain View, California-based company has already built automatic translation features into its popular email program Gmail and into services such as its blog reader.
Agencies
Showing posts with label websites. Show all posts
Showing posts with label websites. Show all posts
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Will Yahoo layoff 700 more jobs?
Yahoo Inc said it would cut 5 per cent of its global workforce (nearly 700 jobs) and reported quarterly results that showed progress towards controlling costs, sending shares higher in an after-hours relief rally.
The Internet company said economic conditions remained challenging, as revenue on Yahoo Websites from both display ads and search ads fell during the first quarter.
But the decline in revenue was offset by better cost controls, as new Chief Executive Carol Bartz seeks to revive Yahoo's fortunes. "People were really looking at the profit structure of the business and for things not to be falling apart," said Kaufman Brothers analyst Jason Avilio.
Yahoo said last October it would cut about one-tenth of its workforce, or about 1,600 jobs. The company finished 2008 with roughly 13,600 employees and said it would take severance charges from the new round of layoffs during the second quarter.
The company also announced in an internal memo to employees on Tuesday that it planned to implement a mandatory shutdown of operations during the holiday week of December 25, 2009 through January 1, 2010.
Yahoo said its operating cash flow, excluding certain items, was $409 million in the first quarter, at the high end of the $365 million to $415 million range it forecast in January.
Yahoo shares were up 54 cents at $14.92 in after-hours trading on Tuesday. The company's stock is up roughly 9 per cent from its Monday close of $13.66.
Yahoo's financial report comes as speculation has mounted that the firm has restarted discussions with software giant Microsoft Corp about an Internet search partnership, following last year's failed merger negotiations.
Bartz, who replaced Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang in the top job in January, declined to comment on anything related to Microsoft during the conference call on Tuesday.
But she reiterated her belief that search is a very valuable part of Yahoo's business.
"I'm well-versed enough in the search business at Yahoo to say it's absolutely critical to Yahoo," Bartz said in response to a question regarding whether she is now familiar enough with the business to respond to an offer for search.
In the first full quarter under Bartz's leadership, Yahoo generated revenue of $1.58 billion, down 13 per cent from the year-ago period. Exclud
ing traffic acquisition costs (TAC), Yahoo's revenue was $1.16 billion, compared with the average analyst expectation of $1.2 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.
The Sunnyvale, California-based company reported a net profit in the first quarter of $118 million, or 8 cents a share -- down from $537 million, or 37 cents a share, a year earlier. Wall Street analysts, on average, had forecast earnings at 8 cents a share, according to Reuters Estimates.
While revenues were "a bit light," Jefferies & Co analyst Youssef Squali said in an email that Yahoo's overall results, particularly on the bottom line, were not bad given the environment.
Yahoo said that revenue from display ads on its owned and operated websites slid 13 per cent year-over-year in the first quarter, with revenue from automotive advertisers down "substantially" and spending by retail advertisers "softened" compared to the year ago period.
Revenue from search-based ads on Yahoo sites were down 3 per cent. And Yahoo said that advertisers were spending less money to bid for the individual keywords that their ads appear alongside, echoing a theme present in results last week from Google Inc, the No.1 US Internet search company.
Yahoo, like Google, stressed the importance of keeping costs in line amid the difficult economy. The new round of job cuts come about two months after Bartz announced a reorganization of Yahoo's internal management structure.
The layoffs, said Bartz, are a "natural outgrowth" of the reorganization, which will allow Yahoo to streamline its operations and eliminate duplication of efforts.
The Internet company said it would also continue to implement unspecified "non-headcount cost reductions," so it can increase its ability to make strategic investments and target hiring in its core operations
"It's crucial that management adjusts the cost structure to the new growth (or lack thereof) realities; so margin protection is paramount to Yahoo right now," said Jefferies analyst Squali. "We think there is potential outperformance on margins."
Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen told Reuters there were "still very dark clouds on the horizon" for the economy.
"I'll try to resist calling the bottom in any way," he said in a telephone interview.
Yahoo projected that sales in the current quarter would range between $1.425 billion and $1.625 billion.
Agencies
The Internet company said economic conditions remained challenging, as revenue on Yahoo Websites from both display ads and search ads fell during the first quarter.
But the decline in revenue was offset by better cost controls, as new Chief Executive Carol Bartz seeks to revive Yahoo's fortunes. "People were really looking at the profit structure of the business and for things not to be falling apart," said Kaufman Brothers analyst Jason Avilio.
Yahoo said last October it would cut about one-tenth of its workforce, or about 1,600 jobs. The company finished 2008 with roughly 13,600 employees and said it would take severance charges from the new round of layoffs during the second quarter.
The company also announced in an internal memo to employees on Tuesday that it planned to implement a mandatory shutdown of operations during the holiday week of December 25, 2009 through January 1, 2010.
Yahoo said its operating cash flow, excluding certain items, was $409 million in the first quarter, at the high end of the $365 million to $415 million range it forecast in January.
Yahoo shares were up 54 cents at $14.92 in after-hours trading on Tuesday. The company's stock is up roughly 9 per cent from its Monday close of $13.66.
Yahoo's financial report comes as speculation has mounted that the firm has restarted discussions with software giant Microsoft Corp about an Internet search partnership, following last year's failed merger negotiations.
Bartz, who replaced Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang in the top job in January, declined to comment on anything related to Microsoft during the conference call on Tuesday.
But she reiterated her belief that search is a very valuable part of Yahoo's business.
"I'm well-versed enough in the search business at Yahoo to say it's absolutely critical to Yahoo," Bartz said in response to a question regarding whether she is now familiar enough with the business to respond to an offer for search.
In the first full quarter under Bartz's leadership, Yahoo generated revenue of $1.58 billion, down 13 per cent from the year-ago period. Exclud
ing traffic acquisition costs (TAC), Yahoo's revenue was $1.16 billion, compared with the average analyst expectation of $1.2 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.
The Sunnyvale, California-based company reported a net profit in the first quarter of $118 million, or 8 cents a share -- down from $537 million, or 37 cents a share, a year earlier. Wall Street analysts, on average, had forecast earnings at 8 cents a share, according to Reuters Estimates.
While revenues were "a bit light," Jefferies & Co analyst Youssef Squali said in an email that Yahoo's overall results, particularly on the bottom line, were not bad given the environment.
Yahoo said that revenue from display ads on its owned and operated websites slid 13 per cent year-over-year in the first quarter, with revenue from automotive advertisers down "substantially" and spending by retail advertisers "softened" compared to the year ago period.
Revenue from search-based ads on Yahoo sites were down 3 per cent. And Yahoo said that advertisers were spending less money to bid for the individual keywords that their ads appear alongside, echoing a theme present in results last week from Google Inc, the No.1 US Internet search company.
Yahoo, like Google, stressed the importance of keeping costs in line amid the difficult economy. The new round of job cuts come about two months after Bartz announced a reorganization of Yahoo's internal management structure.
The layoffs, said Bartz, are a "natural outgrowth" of the reorganization, which will allow Yahoo to streamline its operations and eliminate duplication of efforts.
The Internet company said it would also continue to implement unspecified "non-headcount cost reductions," so it can increase its ability to make strategic investments and target hiring in its core operations
"It's crucial that management adjusts the cost structure to the new growth (or lack thereof) realities; so margin protection is paramount to Yahoo right now," said Jefferies analyst Squali. "We think there is potential outperformance on margins."
Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen told Reuters there were "still very dark clouds on the horizon" for the economy.
"I'll try to resist calling the bottom in any way," he said in a telephone interview.
Yahoo projected that sales in the current quarter would range between $1.425 billion and $1.625 billion.
Agencies
Friday, February 13, 2009
Will Google, Yahoo and Microsoft collaborate to clean up web?
In a rare instance of collaboration among otherwise fierce rivals, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft said they would support a new web standard that will allow millions of publishers to remove duplicate pages from their websites. As a result, search engines would be able to make their search results more comprehensive.
"There is a lot of clutter on the web and with this, publishers will be able to clean up a lot of junk," said Matt Cutts, an engineer who heads Google's spam fighting efforts, the New York Times reported.
"I think it is going to gain traction pretty quickly," said Cutts.
The problem is the following: Many web publishers, especially those that have voluminous sites, like e-commerce companies, have multiple URLs that all point to the same page. This confuses search engines, sometimes causing them to index the same page multiple times. As much as 20 percent of URLs on the web may be duplicates, according to some estimates.
Engineers at Google came up with a simple way for web publishers to indicate when a URL is a duplicate, and if so, which is the principal, or "canonical," URL that search engines should be indexing. Yahoo and Microsoft, the no. 2 and no. 3 search engines, have agreed to support the same standard.
"We are happy that everyone is going to support the same implementation," said Nathan Buggia, a lead programme manager at Microsoft. "This is a clear benefit for publishers as it gives them an opportunity to get more exposure through search engines."
All search engines have developed technologies to detect duplicates that are more or less effective. The so-called Canonical Link Tag, as the standard is known, should make it easier for both publishers and search engines to address the problem, NYT reported Thursday.
"It is an important step because all the search engines are coming out with it," said Priyank Garg, director of product management for web search at Yahoo.
Agencies
"There is a lot of clutter on the web and with this, publishers will be able to clean up a lot of junk," said Matt Cutts, an engineer who heads Google's spam fighting efforts, the New York Times reported.
"I think it is going to gain traction pretty quickly," said Cutts.
The problem is the following: Many web publishers, especially those that have voluminous sites, like e-commerce companies, have multiple URLs that all point to the same page. This confuses search engines, sometimes causing them to index the same page multiple times. As much as 20 percent of URLs on the web may be duplicates, according to some estimates.
Engineers at Google came up with a simple way for web publishers to indicate when a URL is a duplicate, and if so, which is the principal, or "canonical," URL that search engines should be indexing. Yahoo and Microsoft, the no. 2 and no. 3 search engines, have agreed to support the same standard.
"We are happy that everyone is going to support the same implementation," said Nathan Buggia, a lead programme manager at Microsoft. "This is a clear benefit for publishers as it gives them an opportunity to get more exposure through search engines."
All search engines have developed technologies to detect duplicates that are more or less effective. The so-called Canonical Link Tag, as the standard is known, should make it easier for both publishers and search engines to address the problem, NYT reported Thursday.
"It is an important step because all the search engines are coming out with it," said Priyank Garg, director of product management for web search at Yahoo.
Agencies
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)