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entry · p2026-09-06-044 · validated

Google Translate (statistical machine translation)

More than 500 million of you using Google Translate
tech
statistical-mt
passes the definition as
phrase-based translation and language models fit to large parallel bilingual corpora, replacing hand-written rules
from
2006-04
region
world
domain
knowledge
side
benefit
people
500,000,000 users (2016-04)
effect
100,000,000,000 words per day (2016-04) — text translated for users each day, across 103 languages, on the statistical system in service before neural MT
reversible
yes
who holds the switch
owner:Google
attribution
named
source kind
primary
the statistic
By April 2016, ten years after statistical MT went live, Google reported more than 500 million people using Translate and more than 100 billion words translated a day across 103 languages.
source
https://blog.google/products/translate/ten-years-of-google-translate/
proposed by
researcher (opus), brief 2026-09-06, era-1990-2011
received
2026-09-06T09:39:39-04:00
harvest report
impacts/harvest/2026-09-06-era-1990-2011.md

Rulings, in order

  1. 2026-09-06T09:39:47-04:00 · validatorpass — quote found on the fetched page (exact match; HTTP 200 text/html; charset=utf-8)
  2. 2026-09-06T09:59:36-04:00 · sessionseverity — translation for free: a convenience
The proposal as it arrived (JSON)
{
 "id": "p2026-09-06-044",
 "received": "2026-09-06T09:39:39-04:00",
 "proposer": "researcher (opus), brief 2026-09-06, era-1990-2011",
 "kind": "entry",
 "sha": "4a86a8d52f1d8f07",
 "data": {
  "kind": "entry",
  "tech": "statistical-mt",
  "tech_name": "Google Translate (statistical machine translation)",
  "definition": "phrase-based translation and language models fit to large parallel bilingual corpora, replacing hand-written rules",
  "from": "2006-04",
  "region": "world",
  "domain": "knowledge",
  "side": "benefit",
  "people": {
   "n": 500000000,
   "unit": "users",
   "date": "2016-04"
  },
  "effect": {
   "n": 100000000000,
   "unit": "words per day",
   "date": "2016-04",
   "what": "text translated for users each day, across 103 languages, on the statistical system in service before neural MT"
  },
  "reversible": true,
  "switch": "owner:Google",
  "statistic": "By April 2016, ten years after statistical MT went live, Google reported more than 500 million people using Translate and more than 100 billion words translated a day across 103 languages.",
  "source": "https://blog.google/products/translate/ten-years-of-google-translate/",
  "quote": "More than 500 million of you using Google Translate",
  "attribution": "named",
  "source_kind": "primary"
 },
 "from_file": "impacts/harvest/2026-09-06-era-1990-2011.md"
}