Qwika Searches Multiple Wikis, Provides Translated Pages

So when something just searches multiple wikis, what is that? Metawik? Something else? Though the machine translation looks pretty bumpy, I like Qwika, which searches across Wikipedia articles in several different languages and provides machine-translated versions of pages which are not in the language in which you're searching. It's in beta at http://www.qwika.com.

Qwika allows you to specify keywords and then provide the language in which you want to receive results. (Languages include English, German, French, Chinese, Italian, and Dutch.) Currently Wikipedias in several different languages are indexed, as well as WikiTravel, but plans are afoot to index sizable Wikis.

I did a search for "Pablo Neruda" and got 392 results. Results include page name, snippet, URL (URL is handy so you can tell which Wikipedia you're getting the information from), page size, and cache link. In the cases when you're viewing pages from Wikis in a different language, you also have the option of viewing a cached version of the page in its original language as well as directly link to the page in its original language. A "Similar pages" link is available for all results as well.

Machine translation is not ideal, but it's better than nothing. I looked at the translated article on Neruda from the Spanish-language Wikipedia. Its article on Neruda seemed more a timeline than the English-language version, and though it was a little tough to read, it could be followed. Clicking on Wikipedia links within the translated articles twice took me to 404 errors and once gave me a translated page. I think the idea is that you're always supposed to get a translated page.

Posted to Internet-Technology-Translation | TrackBack