Google Products

Although I am a frequent google user (Picasa, Maps, Gmail, Websearch, Scholar, Books, Talk, and now Blog), I was not familiar with Earth or some other ones listed under "more" and "even more". I checked out one service new to me called "Translator". It gave me the option to type in text, list an URL, or upload a document and listed 50+ languages, to which I could translate. As an example, I used the CPL's website and translated it into German. It gave me a fair bit of accurate information in the target language, but whenever I would navigate the webpage, it would switch back to English. In other words, you would need to translate each page separatly, after using a link. This could be a nuisance, depending how much navigation you would need to do. And, of course as I expected, the translator translates word for word, therefore sometimes out of context and simply wrong. Overall, I would recommend this site to newcomers for orienting themselves on the net, however, I would not recommend it as a good language learning tool.

By the way, the google lab is working on a "city tour" function. It was not working for me, but I am excited about this possible resource, as it would allow anybody to plan a walking tour of any place. How cool is that?!?