Google Unveils Message For Japan

http://www.messagesforjapan.com/

by meadhikari • 15 years ago

54 25 15 years ago

messagesforjapan.com

goblin89• 15 years ago

Isn't using automatic translation for this kind of information... a bit risky?

UPD. They say in terms that ‘translation errors may be manually corrected,’ so maybe a human is checking each message.

SoftwareMaven• 15 years ago

More likely they have a way to say how comfortable they are with the translation in the algorithm, and a person is checking those with a low "comfort" value.

zyb09• 15 years ago

Pretty, but seriously, what's the point?

GBKS2• 15 years ago

Drawing attention to the massive problems in Japan, showing that people care around the globe, and of course financial support through the donation options. What's so difficult to understand?

shpxnvz2• 15 years ago

I don't know if this was the point of the post you responded to, and I'm not trying to be antagonistic, but apart from the donations I'll admit that I don't really understand the point. Maybe it's just cynicism on my part, but it seems like a contrivance to let people feel good about themselves for spending a few seconds writing a friendly message that will likely never be read instead of using the time to do something potentially more useful, like contacting their government representatives to voice their support for continued relief efforts. I suppose if the interactiveness actually ends up driving more donations that would be beneficial.

Although, if this is to be believed even the donations may not be as beneficial to Japan as I would have thought:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/world/asia/16charity.html

Smerity• 15 years ago

Google has hosted many humanitarian services. The focus previously was on providing urgent information (Victorian Bush Fires[1]) or re-uniting dislocated people (Google Person Finder[2]) during these disasters.

Messages for Japan instead shows the sorrow and compassion evoked from around the world. Many have lost all that they've ever known or loved; to know you remain connected in this world is so utterly important.

[1] http://www.google.com.au/landing/bushfires/

[2] http://japan.person-finder.appspot.com/?lang=en

hokkos• 15 years ago

Collect more n-grams.

ChrisArchitect• 15 years ago

google translate's always had a strong confidence in its EN -> JP translation abilities. http://translationparty.com/

leoc• 15 years ago

Not too unlike old times:

http://translationparty.com/#9156110

http://translationparty.com/#9156121

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_winter#Machine_translation_a...

ck2• 15 years ago

A+ for effort and thoughtfulness.

C- for the most distracting/annoying UI I've seen in awhile, both front page and the map.

I'm also seeing some questionable stuff in the realtime message display.

mikepink• 15 years ago

It looks like it was designed/created by the same guys that designed the HTC Sense UI: http://www.f-i.com/

Kilimanjaro• 15 years ago

Great design, superb execution.

Kudos to everyone involved.

robertboloc• 15 years ago

a bit off topic, but how come this UI is amazing and all the other google services have such "boring" UI's...

rlivsey• 15 years ago

Because Google didn't build it themselves, the about page [1] says it was built by Fi [2].

They outsource quite a lot of work like this, a friend runs a development agency and has a number of projects on the go at the moment for Google.

[1] http://www.messagesforjapan.com/about/

[2] http://www.f-i.com/

andos3• 15 years ago

You can thank Marissa Mayer for all the boring UIs Google puts out. Engineers making design decisions, you know. (I'm an engineer myself, btw.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/business/01marissa.html

enko• 15 years ago

The japanese I know don't need auto-translated moral support, they need petrol. Or, if north of tokyo, they need petrol and electricity. Or, if even further northeast, they need a time machine so they can go back and tell their past selves not to live anywhere near the damn sea.

I don't know, maybe I'm just cynical, but .. what is the point. This is the equivalent of the school dance committee deciding on a "save the environment" theme. A PR exercise that you can't criticise because how dare you disrespect the dead/the whales/whatever. I just hate this kind of thing.

    Feeling charitable?
            |
           yes
            |
        care about
        visibility?
            |
            |
     |---------------|
    yes              no
     |               |
  make this    buy TB vaccines
   webpage    and mosquito nets
               work to reduce
                  poverty

Husafan• 15 years ago

Yes, terribly cynical. There are prominently displayed donation links. Perhaps they can also use donations?

scott_s• 15 years ago

I was in grad school at Virginia Tech when the shootings happened almost four years (in fact, almost to the day). There was an outpouring of emotional support. Some of it bothered me, some of it was touching. Days after the shootings, I wandered through the student center on campus and it was filled with posters people at elementary, middle, high schools and colleges from around the world had sent to us. And by "filled" I mean nearly every wall and surface on the student center had these posters. The number and diversity was overwhelming.

So, yes, do whatever practical thing you can. But it's a false dichotomy to see it as one-or-the-other. A few years prior, I probably would have felt equally as cynical about sending a poster. I do not know if this webpage makes anyone in Japan feel better, you'd have to ask them. But I know that I was personally touched by similar gestures.

plnewman• 15 years ago

Some of these translations seem surprisingly good for autotranslate. This one in particular caught my eye: http://www.messagesforjapan.com/messages/1194/

So I went to translate.google.com and tried the original English: "After rain the sun is rising, Croatian people are whit you!" and got back different Japanese: "雨の後に太陽が上昇している、クロアチアの人々が聖霊降臨祭のです！"

I tried another one and it matched, so some (most?) are through Google Translate, but it looks like it may have had a helping hand.

samuel1604• 15 years ago

Why google made stuff never have a share on google buzz things?

Google Unveils Message For Japan

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