Google has evolved mighty quickly over the past twenty years.  It has gone from being a university project to dominating every aspect of the World Wide Web.  In fact everything we write on our websites, blog posts and social media pages is written with Google in mind.  Google even provide a free online translation service which is great if you want to communicate with friends across the world but can cause major problems if you are using it in the business world.  Google lacks the contextual and cultural knowledge that professional translation services provide.  Here are five reasons why you should choose professional translation services rather than Google for your business translations.

Google Needs To Use Professional Translation Services

Google translates by using an algorithm which accesses a database bursting with millions of translations in thousands of languages.  Every translation has been entered by a human.  The algorithm works by finding patterns in the translations and applying them to the inputted translation.  If a language is well represented, the translation is pretty accurate.  However more obscure languages are likely to produce bizarre translations because the algorithm has less data in which to find a pattern.  Google therefore needs professional translation services to make sure that its data is correct.

Even Google Admit They Are Not Always Accurate

“Quality translations help bring cultures and languages online, preserving them for their own people through the web, and promoting them to the world. But our algorithms can only go so far. Since translations are generated by machines, they won’t always be perfect,” Google communications manager Meghan Casserly (source: ZDnet).  As you can see even Google do not claim to be able to provide accurate translations and in this battle of man versus machine it looks like humans are still in the lead.

Professional Translators Have Lived And Breathed The Language

There is no better way to gain a greater understanding of a language than immersing yourself in the culture and cuisine of the country you want to become an expert in.  Our professional translators have lived and worked in the countries that they provide translations for.  Business and technical translations have to be accurate otherwise whole contracts could become invalid or you could provide the wrong technical information.  Choosing professional translation services over Google ensures they any communication you have is accurate and in context.

Professional translation Services Never Get Server Errors

The major problem of relying on an algorithm to translate for you is that they can encounter server errors.  A human will be able to improvise in order to translate your work, as long as they have a torch and a hard copy of the text they can translate using torchlight.  However computers have less stamina and will give up at the first hurdle making it impossible to get your work translated.  This is good news for professional translation services and reassurance that computers are not ready to conquer the world.

Professional Translation Services Don’t Over Generalise

During the Egyptian presidential elections in 2011/12 Google Translate caused controversy when, According to, Voice Of America, the sentence “I will respect Egypt’s future president” turned into “I will respect President Hosni Mubarak” in Arabic once Google’s automated translation algorithm had its way with it. (K-International).  This had the effect of making google look as if it was biased towards Hosni Mubarak.  The reason given for this mishap was due to the fact that Hosni Mubarak had been president of Egypt between 1981 and 2011 so Google simply assumed that this was a given fact.  Anyway the issue was resolved and we see once again that when it comes to important translations, a professional translation service would not have made the same mistake. So the bottomline that if you want to communicate in a different language on an informal basis Google would be sufficient.  However if the error could cost you billions you should employ professional translation services.