Online chatting can be a fun way to pass the time. But, it wouldn’t be so if there is language barrier. There would be no point if the person at the other end of the web does not understand what you are talking about. Even though English is the universal language, there are still a lot who cannot understand and express themselves in this language. This could be overcome pretty soon with SpeakLike’s on the spot IM translation service. A beta version of SpeakLike was launched at the end of January this year and is only available on by invitation only.

In order to deliver real-time translation, SpeakLike is going to combine machine and human translators for the job. The human translators are bilingual and can translate conversations effectively. This made me think - granted that the translation is accurate; would it be really made in real-time using these resources?

Right now the beta version is only available in English, Spanish and Simplified Chinese. SpeakLike will not be for free once it gets out of beta testing. Introductory price is US$0.10 for every short message translated.

I’m sure a lot of you out there make use of instant messaging for keeping contact with friends and for making new ones. What do you think of SpeakLike’s technology?