Facebook testing 'translate' for comments?

Social networking site Facebook may be testing a translate feature for comments on its pages, a Facebook enthusiast site has said. The "Inside Facebook" site said Facebook members had seen "Translate" buttons in some parts of the site that have other languages. "In tests that we and others are now seeing on some parts of the site (only on Pages, at this point), comments in languages other than your account’s current one now include 'Translate' button next to them. If you click on the button, the comment is automatically translated to your account language. The Translate button is then replaced by 'Original,' which if clicked will untranslate the comment," it said. So far, it said the translate function appears to be available only in a few languages such as Spanish, French, Hebrew and Chinese. The site also noted the function at this time does not always recognize the comments. Error messages such as “There is no translation available for this story at the moment" greet members in some cases. "But in testing that we’ve done or had reported by readers, it appears to be familiar with slang," it added. According to the site, Facebook - which has 750 million users - has crowdsourced the translation of its site to dozens of languages. It said there are potentially "very big use cases" for translate, especially for page owners, especially for popular international icons. "Chances are (visitors to pages) don’t understand everything every fan has been saying, so they’ve had to rely on Google Translate or other tools instead. As the feature is only working for Pages now, Facebook seems to be focusing on solving that problem," the Inside Facebook site said. Also, it said rolling out this feature to personal profiles can benefit immigrant families who speak more than one language and who often have generational communication divides. With such a feature, the site said they will "now have an easier time using Facebook to relate to each other." On the other hand, it said social gamers with international friends could have a much easier time collaborating to get more points in a game, organize protests, or anything else. But also, it said users might use this feature to better understand each others’ flames, particular on Pages for controversial topics. "The feature could have far-reaching consequences for how people use Facebook, if not how they understand the rest of the world. We’ll see how the company decides to expand it from here," it said. — LBG, GMA News