Google makes the world smaller with email translation

The internet search giant Google today announced their intention to combine two of their most used products in an attempt to do their bit to bring the world together. 'Message Translation' combines the popular Google Translate service, which can convert text and web pages from and to any of 41 languages, with Gmail, the company's webmail service which boasts more than 113 million users worldwide.

Allowing users to conduct conversations with each exchange translated into the relevant language is hoped to enable international communication for Gmail users, and is just one of the many weird and wonderful Gmail plugins available to try out through the experimental "Gmail labs" service. Google has already launched services including the option to dissuade drunk emailing by making users answer a maths puzzle before they can send an email, and another to hold messages for a short period before sending so that users can change their mind should they have sent something they may later regret, as well as a variety of others designed to make the service customisable.

Enabling global conversations of this kind has been on the agenda of the search giant over the last few months, after the company also made available a translation function for comments on blogs for users logged into Google Friend Connect. The 'Message Translate' service has been made available worldwide for all Gmail users.