Facebook has been translated into many different languages not by professionals, but rather by its members, who volunteer their time to help translate the website. When doing this, a user is shown a phrase used somewhere within Facebook in one language and then shown some possible options for translating that phrase into a second language. The user can then vote for the translation that he thinks is best.
TechCrunch reports that Facebook is now attempting to patent this method, which is now being employed by other websites after having seen how well it worked for Facebook. Should Facebook obtain this patent, other websites would no longer be allowed to use this method. An obstacle standing in Facebook’s way is that other sites, such as Meebo, had been using a similar method to have members assist in the translation of their webpages before Facebook’s program.
The patent application can be viewed here.
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