Google Talk - Expanding Our Language Skills On Its Own

The internet connects all kinds of people. Just as sure as you could be talking to the creepy guy who lives down the street, you could also be talking to someone who lives in a different country and speaks another language. You'll find that in many European countries it's highly (forcibly?) suggested that children learn the languages surrounding them while in America we would rather make up our own language then learn a different one, fo shizzle. Google's got our backs though.

Google Talk features an auto translation to all your instant messages. You must choose the languages (English to French, French to English, etc) you want to convert and voila, you can speak French without ever learning a single phrase on your own. It has 24 language bots currently available which leads me to wonder if that means 24 bots total or 24 languages.

I think this is an awesome idea. It will make many people happy but I having this nagging feeling it's going to be a babel fish fiasco and confusion will ensue.

Google Talk does on-the-fly translations [via CrunchGear]