The web can be a wonderful resource for all kinds of information, but language is as much of a barrier as ever. It doesn't really matter if you can access a piece of information if you can't understand it. Translation tools have been around for years now, and Google is certainly interested in the space. Google Translate is a very useful tool, if not perfect, but, even after the recent update, using it still requires too many steps for most cases. Google knows this, so it took the obvious step, it integrated translation features into the search engine.

“Today, we’re excited to introduce a new "Translated search" tool in the Search Options panel that makes finding and reading content written in other languages easier. Translated search is great because it helps you find information from sites written in other languages. We've offered this feature in Google Translate for a while, but now we're integrating it fully into Google search, making it easier for you to find and read results from pages across the web, even if they weren't written in a language you speak,” Maureen Heymans, technical lead, and Jeff Chin, product manager, wrote.

Among the Search Options available on the search engine there is now a “Translated search” link. This opens up a box on top of the results where you can select the languages in which you want to search. You can add more than one language, after which Google will also search through the pages in those languages to find what you're looking for.

The results from pages written in other languages will be labeled as such, but they will also be translated into your native language. For most queries, this option may not add too much value to the results but for a few specific ones it can be very, very valuable. When searching for information on a particular location or a subject which is of interest to just a particular region it's great to have the ability to search through all the local sites and access them in a language you understand. The feature is in the process of being rolled out and should be available to anyone today.