14 DAY TRIAL // Twitter has completed the first round of translations it announced a couple of months ago with the introduction of a German-language version of the site. It is the last of the FIGS ( French, Italian, German and Spanish) languages it initially set out to release and the last translation for 2009 apparently. It has been available in just English and Japanese for quite a while, but has recently introduced Italian, French, and Spanish versions of the site.
As was the norm, Twitter announced the new translation in the native language, in this case German, lucky Google Translate does a decent job at getting the message out for those of us who don't speak the language. “German is one of the most widespread languages of the EU and is the last language we introduced in 2009 on Twitter.com,” Twitter's Jenna Sampson wrote.
“With the indispensable help of our many fantastic translators and translators, we have five new languages in less than two months introduced - a huge achievement for our international group. The faster we can make available to Twitter for people all over the world, influencing the faster the different cultures of the world, the global conversation on Twitter,” she added.
To enable the new interface language go to the Settings section, scroll down to language and select German, or whatever language you need, from the drop-down list and the site entire site will then be presented in the desired language. As before, Twitter left it to the users to translate the site, an approach pioneered in a way by Facebook which is actually much more suited to Twitter's usual manner of leaving the users decide what features want and what to do with the site. The first round of translations may be over, but Twitter has bigger ambitions and will continue to roll out new languages in the coming year, relying on volunteers to do the heavy lifting. Judging by how much success Facebook has had with this strategy, there should be plenty of new languages for Twitter in 2010.
