Until about two weeks ago, Google Translate worked fine on German --> English. It seems a bug has been introduced, as the translator stopped understanding German (üöäß) and extended characters (curly quotation marks, em-dashes, etc.). As a result, the translations it returns are gibberish. This is not a browser display problem, as the characters initially display correctly when pasted into the translate box, and the translation is OK if all the extended characters are replaced by their simple alternatives (ü --> ue, ß --? ss, etc.) It seems that the translation engine has stopped interpreting these characters correctly, which has rendered it completely useless.
I have tested this on several machines running Windows 7 32-bit and 64- bit, German and English interfaces, Firefox and IE browsers, with the same results (Google Translate worked well before, and w does not). (Bing Translate also works as expected.) For example: Original text Lokführer im Ausstand Landesbahn-Züge stehen weiter still Current Google Translate translation (makes no sense) Lokfà Guide in the country's rail strike Zurich, GE continues to stand still Google Translate translation with German letters removed (expected GT translation, gives some idea of the original) Train drivers' strike in the country's railway trains stand still further -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "General" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/google-translate-general?hl=en.
