I would be very interested in seeing how many developers would pay for the Translate API if Google had decided to monetize it instead of deprecating it then shutting it down as some of the commentors on the blog had suggested. At the same time if the Google Translate API is such a popular service then maybe there is enough demand to support a startup providing a Translate API ;)
Starting a startup to replace Google Translate wouldn't be a simple proposition. Google's translation algorithms are considered best-of-breed and involve highly sophisticated statistical machine learning trained over a significant portion of their web crawl corpus data. Their staff scientists and engineers working on Translate are some of the best in the field, and the complexity here should not be underestimated. That said: yes, there's very obviously an opportunity here for the right team; but that opportunity is so big, its been there this entire time, even with the Google Translate API around.
Right... Some problems are fine just throwing resources at them, some problems need experience and knowledge, and in my opinion, you're not going to get the intellectual capital you really need for something like this, especially with a lean startup, unless you are the intellectual capital.
I wonder how much work it would be for Google to build a "Translation appliance" people could buy? I'd wager they'd do $100million in government sales alone the first year.
I commented on a different story about the API changes (specifically Translate) and thought I'd been stupid to miss a big "DEPRECATED" message when I started out several months ago. Seems there was nothing to miss!
I (or more specifically, the client) would certainly pay for something like this. If anyone does have a replacement that is roughly as simple to use and isn't £1000/mo then you have a customer right now.
I would pay for what I use which isn't a whole lot, but it will be hard to find a programmable replacement like the Translate API. It's also a little hard to believe that it was a "financial burden" for one of the richest corporations in the world.
They have something like 37 Billion dollars in retained earning and don't pay a dividend. They didn't get that mountain of cash by losing money on things.
Assure yourself, if you are using a free google-anything, somehow or other, it adds to their income.
