[bananaflag]

> Google Translate (launched in 2006)

You know, Google has Orwellian-retconned the fact that Translate was available in 2004 (based on my memory and Internet Archive), no idea why. I remember using it in December 2004 to translate winhistory.de.

[duggelz]

Technically true but misleading. translate.google.com was launched in beta in 2001. But it took until 2005ish to convince Larry and Sergey that "Google Translate" was a better name than "translate.google.com". They had a lot of strong ideas about branding but never did think of a better name. Source: I wrote translate.google.com starting in 2000. Sergey told me it would take "a couple months" when I was hired. Also the Wayback machine shows a version from August 2002 so you don't have to trust a rando on the internet. I entirely agree that it wasn't any good until I handed it off to people who actually knew what they were doing.

[101008]

Wow, I'd love to read your stories from that time, writing Google Translate from the ground.

[jazzypants]

Yeah, you seem to remember correctly. Apparently, it just didn't reached its "public beta" until 2006 so that's when they date it's beginning.

https://translatepress.com/history-of-google-translate/

[ghaff]

I’m guessing it may have been available in 2004 in some form but the official launch seems to been in 2006 so the quote seems accurate.