Google Search will shortly offer translations for local news coverage

Today, Google revealed upcoming features in Search that will enable users to translate news articles directly from their search results. Beginning from 2023, when users look for news, they will have the option to access translated articles from international news outlets alongside those in their preferred language.

Imagine you're keen to understand the experiences of people in Mexico after a major earthquake with a magnitude greater than 7, as Itamar Snir, the product manager for Google News, and Lauren Clark, the product manager for Google Search, pointed out in a blog entry. This new functionality would allow you to search for news and find headlines from Mexican publishers translated into your language while still having access to content written in languages you understand. Thus, readers can obtain comprehensive and authentic reports from local journalists, offering insights into the events from those living through them.

Leveraging its earlier advancements in translation technology, Google's new feature will initially provide translations for headlines and full articles from French, German, and Spanish into English on both mobile devices and desktop computers.

Google has previously tinkered with news translation, rolling out a feature three years ago in the Google News app that showcased news content in two languages simultaneously. However, Google has largely relied on users to translate pages themselves using tools such as the built-in translation function in Chrome and the Google Translate service. With the positive reception of the Google Search news translation feature, it is expected that Google will expand the service to include additional languages going forward.