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History of FreeTranslation.com
The name "FreeTranslation" was selected to reflect two important characteristics of the web site. The basic service was to be free of charge, and computer-generated translations should be considered loose or "free" translations of the source material.
The launch of FreeTranslation.com was officially announced in a press release on 21 June 1999. In fact, the web site had been running in "stealth mode" for several weeks before the official launch. In the initial day of stealth operation, the web site provided approximately 3,500 translations. I still don't know how those first users found out about the web site! During the entire beta period, which lasted six weeks, we performed on average three translations per minute.
Since those early days, FreeTranslation.com has grown explosively. Barely two months after launch, FreeTranslation.com was included in a list of "The Top 100 Web Sites" by PC Magazine. By December 1999, the web site was providing more than 50,000 translations per day. Within a year, the number of translations had surpassed 100,000. In late 2002, we surpassed one million translations each day. Today we are providing nearly three million translations per day.
Another important date in the history of FreeTranslation.com is 15 February 2001, when SDL International acquired FreeTranslation.com and its primary machine-translation technology, TranscendRT. Since then, SDL has invested heavily in the technology and has made automated translation an important part of its product and service offering. We have continually upgraded the hardware that houses FreeTranslation.com. And of course we have worked hard on improving the quality of the translations.
In 2003 we expanded FreeTranslation.com by offering SDLDesktop Translator, which integrates translation capabilities into Microsoft® Office applications. The year 2004 witnessed the launch of the FreeTranslation Platinum Club, which gives members greater translation flexibility. In December 2005, we introduced SDLClipboard Translator, which allows users to translate any text that they can copy to the Windows® clipboard.
And in January 2006, we started this blog!
Bonjour,
je suis rentré dans votre site à partir de mon site www.papman.ma dans lequel j'ai installé une fenètre de votre site de traduction et ce dés 1999; puis en surfant dans votre site, je me suis affilié ( enfin !) puis j'ai lu votre blog avec beaucoup d'intérêt et me suis suis rendu compte que j'ai dû être parmis vos tous premiers utilisateurs. Permettez moi de vous féliciter pour votre success story.
Hakim Iraqui (Morocco)