Facebook Translation Crowdsourcing
Social networking giant Facebook has taken a somewhat novel approach to providing its service in other languages. It is employing crowdsourcing, or community-based design, to take popular phrases from the site (tag a photo, nudge a friend) and translate Facebook into more than 65 other languages.
When the Facebook application first appeared, it only took the masses two weeks to produce Facebook in Spanish. Using that momentum, users created French Facebook in 1 day. The application is known as Translations for Facebook Connect, and allows users to submit suggested translations to Facebook, whose staff then allows users to vote on which translations they like the best.
The translations are intended to draw more and more people to the networking service, and with over 320 million current users in 2009, it appears that Facebook is truly taking over the globe.