[Darth-Apple]

Personally, I feel like both are pretty bad when it comes to translating text, but out of the two, Google translate far outshines Babble fish. What's your opinion? Be sure to vote in the poll!

[Durfsurn]

Ah in another life...
This reminded me of the Babel Fish from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Anyway I never use Babble Fish so its GT for me.

[Darth-Apple]

Babel Fish actually will throw random characters in the translation sometimes. Other than that they seem to have roughly the same quality of translation, but honestly random characters thrown in my translation is a problem.

[Acko]

Though both translators pretty much fail on the level of grammar, I'll go with Google Translate.

[Darth-Apple]

I always find it entertaining to translate something, and then to translate it back to English. Sometimes it takes on a whole new meaning haha.

[Durfsurn]

[Acko]

For some reason, as said, the results aren't consistent with either translator. It's less trouble even to learn the language yourself.

[Darth-Apple]

That's often the case with the less common languages that translators often mess up. I mean you won't get a great translation, but Spanish/English translations are good enough to be usable. If you are translating to and from Japanese, it's a different story.

[Guardian]

*GRAVEDIGGING*

Years later... we can see Google Translate has the higher popularity of the two, though BabelFish is still alive and kicking.

One thing BabelFish sets itself apart from Google is the ability to communicate with others to get clarification or guidance on their words, usage, etc.

[SpookyZalost]

ah but google translate works like a UT these days, with the ability to translate text on the fly by pointing your phone's camera at it.
and the ability to act as an intermediary translator.

[Guardian]

ah but google translate works like a UT these days, with the ability to translate text on the fly by pointing your phone's camera at it.
and the ability to act as an intermediary translator.

That's true. I still believe overall that Google Translate is far superior in usage and ability. But, for those that need clarification, not so much.

[SpookyZalost]

Honestly I recently setup my grandfather's galaxy 4s with the latest version of translate and showed him how to use it.

he seemed really impressed considering the age of the phone and he's not had a smartphone until recently.

[Kyng]

I use Google Translate - but, mostly out of habit and convenience.

(Of course, even then, it's a very poor substitute for talking to native speakers !)