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Offering a website, mobile app, or enterprise application in another language can require a laborious and costly development project with specialized translation technology, workflows, and personnel. Some major brands have taken a simpler approach, instead relying on a translation proxy server that works alongside their websites or apps. In this model, the proxy intercepts requests to the application, determines the language, and then turns to a database of stored translations or to machine translation to fulfill the request.
For example, a proxy grabs visible text out of a web page on its way to the browser and swaps it out for the equivalent content in the language of the visitor. In practice, this approach allows a single-language website to be served in any number of other tongues, while retaining the same layout, JavaScript, and other functions. Proxies can also swap out images, videos, links, style sheets – or hidden text such as metadata important for SEO. In short, it responds to requests by pulling a payload of encoded content such as HTML, XML, or JSON then modifies the data and sends it along to the requesting device. Twenty years in the making, the proxy option has earned its place in global content operations for enterprises and LSPs and in the stacks of translation management system (TMS) vendors. Technology vendors such as Qordoba and Smartling include proxies as part of their offering, as do service providers such as MotionPoint, Translations.com, and Venga. Where should the translation proxy server fit in your localization strategy? CSA Research views it as a content connector that can also function as an application programming interface (API) or as a translation management system (TMS).
Despite the initial struggles for early adopters of proxy solutions – now long past – the technology has ensconced itself as an easy and durable choice in the industry, shifting from stopgap to permanent solution in many large-scale deployments. Brands should consider proxy as a standard option, along with API-level integrations and other pre-built content connector types.
Member of the Technology Advisory Board
Focuses on translation management systems and content management technologies
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