Add Google Translate Widget to Blogger Blog

Few days back I stumbled up on Matt Cutts’s Blog. If you are into blogging you may have heard/read: “Matt Cutts is a God”. True, Matt Cutts is like a God for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and online marketers. This Google Engineer has the final say in any of the SEO debates about Google search. I found a Google Translate plug in in his WordPress powered blog.

Off-the-track observation: Unfortunate for the Blogger platform as even Google’s crème-de-la-crème is not using his own product!

I liked the features provided by Google Translate. I started looking for a widget/gadgets, So that I can easily add it to my Blogger powered blog. After few hours of search I found that there’s no easy plug-in for Google translator. Indeed there are loads of information on adding Google Translator with respective country’s flag thumbnail but I stayed away from them as it may have significantly increased the loading time of my blog post. I also found many posts prompting me to manually Copy/Paste various HTML/JavaScript code, even a seasoned blogger will mess up his layout.

I wanted a simple dropdown which looked just like what I had seen in Matt’s blog. May be WordPress has it by default as a plug-in. I’ve no clue.

Update: Now you can also use Microsoft's Bing Translator Widget to your Blog

I browsed through Google’s advanced use documentation and assembled the code to create a single click fully automated installation of the Google Translate, directly from this post to your Blogger’s blog. The impatient ones can directly scroll to the end of this post to click and install it.
What Google Translate can do?
It can translate a web page into your chosen language with a single click within a few seconds!
How many languages are supported by Google Translate?
As of now 50 languages.The list of supported languages follows:

• Afrikaans
• Albanian
• Arabic
• Belarusian
• Bulgarian
• Catalan
• Chinese (Simplified)
• Chinese (Traditional)
• Croatian
• Czech
• Danish
• Dutch
• English Estonian
• Filipino
• Finnish
• French
• Galician
• German
• Greek
• Hebrew
• Hindi
• Hungarian
• Icelandic
• Indonesian
• Irish Italian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Latvian
• Lithuanian
• Macedonian
• Malay
• Maltese
• Norwegian
• Persian
• Polish
• Portuguese
• Romanian
• Russian
• Serbian
• Slovak
• Slovenian
• Spanish
• Swahili
• Swedish
• Thai
• Turkish
• Ukrainian
• Vietnamese
• Welsh
• Yiddish

Why you need Google Translate?

I was thinking I’ll never need it. Cause, English is the only global lingua franca. What percentage of World population speaks English?

If statistics are to be believed the number of people who can understand or speak English is not more than *20%. In India it’s at a meager *8%, if Wikipedia & Indian census data is to be believed. Today the Internet is yet to gain the popularity but it’s at a threshold of becoming the single largest mass medium of the world (Overtaking TV). Perhaps this is the time when the language of the masses will be mandatory for any successful Internet venture. Of course, Google has sensed this opportunity!

*[Statistics Source mentioned in Reference at the end of the post]
How it looks like?

You may’ve seen it in some of the Blogger and WordPress blogs. You can check my blog’s top right hand side column for a look & feel as well as a practical demo. Select any language from the dropdown box and the translated page is instantly available for you. I agree it has some limitations and some of the translations will definitely make you roll on floor laughing but still it’s the best option available for on the fly online translation for your blog or website. May be in due course Google will come up with a close to perfect translator.

How to auto-install Google Translator to your Blogger blog

• It’ll take 2 mouse clicks and 10 seconds or so to install.
• Click on the [+Add to Blogger] image button below at the end of the post before References
• If you’re not logged into your Blogger account, it will prompt you to log into your account. After logging in you’ll find the following interface:

1. You can select any of your blog from the dropdown list (if you’ve multiple blogs)
2. You can addedit the Title of the widget / gadget.
3. Click the ADD WIDGET button as shown in screen shot above.
4. You will find the widget added in your Layout > Page Elements > somewhere at the top in side column
5. View your blog and translate it to the language of your choice.

Note: In above screen shot in Edit Content link, No need to change. But if you are comfortable enough, you can experiment a bit with it. This is the place where customization is needed if you don’t want all the languages to be displayed in the dropdown list.

How to remove Google translator
In case you didn’t like it, remove it in the same way as you would remove any other widget.
Go to Layout > Page Elements > Click Widget’s Edit > Click Remove.
Enjoy playing around with world languages and Online translation, Powered by Google! Contact me for any query…
Now click the following [+Add to Blogger] and proceed for auto-installation of Google Translate to your Blogger blog. Do give me your feedback.

<div id="google_translate_element"></div><script> function googleTranslateElementInit() { new google.translate.TranslateElement({ pageLanguage: 'en' }, 'google_translate_element'); } </script><script src="http://translate.google.com/translate_a/element.js?cb=googleTranslateElementInit"></script>

References

• Wikipedia
• Answerbag
• Matt Cutts
• Google Translate

Update
Now you can also install Microsoft Bing Translator to your blogger blog. Visit the following link for a click once fully automated installation of Microsoft Bing Translator. Check the following Link:
Add Microsoft Bing Translator Widget to your Blog/Website