Do you know the language distribution of your audience?
If you followed my online rummaging, you know that from the 1990s until early 2000s I kept updating my websites in two languages: English and Italian.
Eventually, I selected only English: keeping a real multilingual online presence was too expensive, and, anyway, my contacts are around the world.
And this implies that, sometimes, English is not the best choice to reach them.
I tried various automated translation systems but, frankly, usually most have just one language couple working properly (e.g. English and, say, Hungarian or French), and manage to create really funny translations in any other language.
So, some time ago I played a little bit with GoogleTranslate.
I know few languages, and understand enough of the syntactic structure of few more to assess the results.
If you use a basic vocabulary, and simple phrase structure, it actually works in both directions (i.e. the translation is reversible).
Of course- my writings *do not* pass the “simplicity” test.
But I like writing. So, I emailed to Google a suggestion: why not create a “powered by GoogleTranslate” badge, for sites who passed a W3C-style test on multilingual visibility.
I mean: it can be done manually (but it would be stupid). Or it can be done automatically (ok, here are my PROLOG memories coming back 
).
As a (manual) experiment, I will start once in a while to publish some postings using my meaningless complex English syntax.
But adding the “GoogleTranslate edition”, so that it will automatically link a simpler edition to the translation system, where you will be able to see the same meaning, but in whatever language you like.
Could become a plugin- or a more intelligent use of GoogleTranslate (if I will have time to re-activate my web-based PROLOG engine 
).
For the time being, it will be just an experiment.
Who knows- maybe Google will build the plugin for all the major OpenSource platforms.
My software idea? Simple. Assuming that your English text passes the syntax and grammar test, a small software could “dumb it down” enough to make it on a par with a multilingual translation.
I mean: remove/replace idioms, or introduce a plain-language equivalent side-by-side with the original, restructure the phrase or split long phrases like this one in their basic subject-verb-complement(s) etc structure.
Why I have been wasting this time thinking about the subject?
Because I have websites whose target audience is highly focused on a single language.
In plain English: they want international contacts, but speak no foreign language, simply because they would find frustrating to be unable to write with the same fluency that they can show in their own mother tongue.
It is more common than we geeks and associated techno-obsessed believe, in “pre-tech” activities.
Writing is a pleasure: if you have to dumb your language down because no translation engine allows readers to understand what you write, it becomes a work.
But, at the same time, I was always surprised when I met actors who could share something with other actors- but cannot, due to the language barrier.
So, once in a while, I will try to test the method, before starting to write the software.
And if you do it before… well, give me the link: re-inventing the wheel is not so exciting (as I said once in a while to some startups)
Tags: google, multilingual, prolog, translation