Protecting against rogue MT

Website visitors regularly use free machine translation to read content that’s not in their native language. Corporate translation buyers worry that this practice of using “rogue MT” – output generated by sites not under their company’s control – undermines their carefully crafted customer experience.

Text by Donald A. DePalma

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Protecting against rogue MT

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How common is this problem? CSA Research’s survey of 3,002 consumers in non-Anglophone countries found that most visitors sometimes use free MT when they visit English-language websites. That means that many international visitors who can’t read English click away from English-language websites to get free translation from Baidu, Bing, Google, or Yandex – and thereby break the continuity of the customer experience (CX). It’s not just English content that gets machine-translated: Web users around the world do the same thing, jumping to free MT when they cannot read what they encounter.

Companies around the world have been increasing their investment in building powerful online experiences as they craft a rich dialogue with prospects and customers. They first target their home market, then move on to other countries. CSA Research’s 2013 study of web globalization found that 60% of the ...