Firefox users get a native translation option soon
One of the main disadvantages of the Firefox web browser is that it lacks native translate functionality. Not every Firefox user needs it, but those who do, need to become active and download an extension to add the functionality.
Work on a privacy-friendly translation service started in late 2019. It was funded by the European Union and developers created a Firefox Translations to bring the translate feature to the web browser.
Funding was renewed once, and the extension, called Firefox Translations, is still available. Support for additional languages was added multiple times, but the number of supported languages is still lacking, especially when compared to Google Translate or Microsoft Translate.
One of the core differences is that Firefox Translations handles translate jobs without contacting a server in the cloud that does the heavy lifting. Once a language pack has been downloaded, translations are processed locally.
Mozilla plans to integrate Firefox Translations directly into the Firefox web browser. Firefox Nightly users may enable a preview version of the integration already.
This is done in the following way:
- Load about:config in the Firefox address bar.
- Confirm the warning page to proceed.
- Search for browser.translations.enable and set the preference to TRUE.
- Firefox users who want content auto-translated may also set the preference browser.translations.autoTranslate to TRUE.
- A restart of the browser is required.
Firefox displays a translate icon in the browser's address bar, if a webpage is opened that uses a language that is not listed as one of the webpage languages in the browser's settings.
Note that Firefox Translations support for languages is limited. It won't display the translate icon on pages if the webpage language is not supported.
Load about:preferences#general in the browser's address bar and activate the choose button next to Language to display the list of integrated languages.
A click on the language icon in the browser's address bar displays the translate dialog. It displays the source language and the target language; both can be changed. A click on the translate button processes the page and displays its text in the target language.
The integration is not complete and it is likely that certain elements will change before the release in Firefox Stable. Firefox Translations extensions user may notice that some features are not yet implemented; this is going to happen later though.
Mozilla has not set a release date for the launch of the native translate feature in Firefox, but it could launch as early as in this quarter. There is also a chance that the translate feature could find its way into the Thunderbird email client, so that Thunderbird users may translate emails using it.
Now You: do you use a translate service? (via Sören Hentzschel)
It works great here on FF Nightly (Linux). I tested in Russian, German and Ukrainian. Thanks Mozilla.
This feature is hype, hopefully Japanese translation come soon!
Yes I do use translation services at times, both Google and Microsoft.
It would be nice to let my PC do the work instead of invading my privacy with uneeded cloud services.
Remember when humans landed on the moon? The computer in the spaceship they flew there was far less powerful then todays average mobile phone.
“We” don’t need cloud services to do the ‘heavy lifting’. “They need” us to use them in order to gather our data.
@Tachy, well said, I fully agree. Yet there are processes which require a considerable amount of data, scripts, algorithms which require space : having it all included in a browser may reduce them to the strict necessary with, i.e a built-in translator lesser rendering quality, lesser managed languages. I’m not sure that a local, browser built-in Firefox Translator will provide as high quality translations as a DeepL Translator, even as a Google Translation : both must have far more than a few MBs in their data centers to provide the results we know. Wait and see.
@Tom Hawack, not sure if these are correct for Chromium?
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ghacks.net##:is(.hentry,a.home-category-post):has-text(Jesus)
ghacks.net##:is(.hentry,a.home-category-post):has-text(Shaun)
ghacks.net##:is(.hentry,a.home-category-post):has-text(Leri Koen)
ghacks.net##:is(.hentry,a.home-category-post):has-text(Emre Çitak)
ghacks.net##:is(.hentry,a.home-category-post):has-text(Kerem Gülen)
ghacks.net##:is(.hentry,a.home-category-post):has-text(Eray Eliaçik)
ghacks.net##:is(.hentry,a.home-category-post):has-text(Onur Demirkol)
ghacks.net##:is(.hentry,a.home-category-post):has-text(Carol van Zyl)
ghacks.net##:is(.hentry,a.home-category-post):has-text(Russell Kidson)
ghacks.net##:is(.hentry,a.home-category-post):has-text(Helena Bosnjak)
ghacks.net##:is(.hentry,a.home-category-post):has-text(Trevor Monteiro)
ghacks.net##:is(.hentry,a.home-category-post):has-text(Zakhi Mgutshini)
ghacks.net##:is(.hentry,a.home-category-post):has-text(Priyanka Monteiro)
ghacks.net##:is(.hentry,a.home-category-post):has-text(Sponsored Content)
]
After less than 1 minute the bot will delete my opinion again. :}}}
@sal, as John G. mentioned it above, the uBO filter meant to hide all Ghacks authors except Martin Brinkmann | Mike Turcotte | Ashwin should be replaced by the one proposed by @Cassette :
[https://www.ghacks.net/2023/04/15/windows-11-search-may-soon-open-on-hover/#comment-4563998] :
! Block articles from any author other than : Martin Brinkmann | Mike Turcotte | Ashwin :
ghacks.net##.hentry,.home-posts,.home-category-post:not(:has-text(/Martin Brinkmann|Mike Turcotte|Ashwin/))
!
1.1- @Cassette’s filter will block any author other than Martin Brinkmann | Mike Turcotte | Ashwin
1.2- The filter I had proposed blocked ONLY the mentioned authors and not any new one.
2.1- A uBO filter should work on any browser accepting uBO.
2.2- Encountering the issue that a filter doesn’t make it is odd for two reasons : A) – uBO underlines filters which it doesn’t accept, B) – the filter works for others.
3. If you encounter such a non-efficient uBO filter … maybe clean up the cache : pages are cached which may explain why the filter doesn’t make it, though it seems odd.
> “After less than 1 minute the bot will delete my opinion again. :}}}”
There is no bot here. Clean your cache, cookies … my feeling is that your browser may be suffering from a digestive discomfort aka indigestion. Many problems are related to overfed browsers.
People should be able to express freely their opinions and recommendations.
The best filter is the one provided by @Cassette.
“”””””
@Tom Hawack, not sure if these are correct for Chromium?
ghacks.net##:is(.hentry,a.home-category-post):has-text(Jesus)
ghacks.net##:is(.hentry,a.home-category-post):has-text(Shaun)
ghacks.net##:is(.hentry,a.home-category-post):has-text(Leri Koen)
ghacks.net##:is(.hentry,a.home-category-post):has-text(Emre Çitak)
ghacks.net##:is(.hentry,a.home-category-post):has-text(Kerem Gülen)
ghacks.net##:is(.hentry,a.home-category-post):has-text(Eray Eliaçik)
ghacks.net##:is(.hentry,a.home-category-post):has-text(Onur Demirkol)
ghacks.net##:is(.hentry,a.home-category-post):has-text(Carol van Zyl)
ghacks.net##:is(.hentry,a.home-category-post):has-text(Russell Kidson)
ghacks.net##:is(.hentry,a.home-category-post):has-text(Helena Bosnjak)
ghacks.net##:is(.hentry,a.home-category-post):has-text(Trevor Monteiro)
ghacks.net##:is(.hentry,a.home-category-post):has-text(Zakhi Mgutshini)
ghacks.net##:is(.hentry,a.home-category-post):has-text(Priyanka Monteiro)
ghacks.net##:is(.hentry,a.home-category-post):has-text(Sponsored Content)
]
After less than 1 minute the bot will delete my opinion again. :}}}”””
I rarely use translation, but when i do, i use Edge. Mostly when visiting Russian warez sites
Quoting the article, “Firefox displays a translate icon in the browser’s address bar, if a webpage is opened that uses a language that is not listed as one of the webpage languages in the browser’s settings.”
What if an opened webpage uses a language that IS listed as one of the webpage languages in the browser’s settings but that the user wishes nevertheless a translation? The user may wish to translate such a page even if he understands it. Personally I happen to visit pages written in English for which I wish nevertheless a translation to French : “English (United States) [en-us]” and “English [en]” are included in my Firefox language settings therefor EN written webpages wouldn’t be handled by Firefox Translation if I understand correctly the article. Lack of flexibility as i see it.
I use presently the ‘TWP – Translate Web Pages’ Firefox extension but only for translating pages in-content, together with ‘DeepL Translate’ for sentences, paragraphs; also, a ‘SimplyTranslate’ instance which calls by itself (as a proxy) Google Translate to process sentences, paragraphs.
Nevertheless a locally served translation service, moreover natively built such as this announced Firefox Translation is welcomed especially that as (almost) always with Firefox a simple on/off switch is included in its about:config settings. I’ll try it and if it appears cumbersome, rigid, incomplete then disabled it’ll go.
This Offline Translation feature is really great, honestly! It’s private, no data is sent to Google or 3rd party services.
Recently Firefox added so any useful features (First Party Isolation, Container, Cookie Banner Block…) and this, I feel like we’re going in the right direction again!
Pics are worth a thousand words : for sentences, paragraphs this is the way I do it at this time : [https://img.justpaste.me/image/6957] – NOTE : ‘Contextlets’ is a Firefox extension.
Interesting. Of course it would have been more useful instead of repeating that the language selection is so limited to just list what languages are supported. If they’re truly that limited it wouldn’t have even taken up that much space.
Something that Vivaldi got a long time ago and developed much faster without EU funding ?
browser.translations.enable
enable, not enabled , delete d
Thanks!
Wonderful and useful upcoming feature! Thanks for the article. :]
*yawns*
We’ve never seen this before: An article about something from Mozilla (something really great by the way) and the first comment is a troll comment. But really: *yawns*
A Saturday Night’s Fever following morning perhaps. Hopefully the morning only :=)
Coffee anyone, Anonymous? “Strong, no sugar no milk, plus an aspirin?”- Waiter, please , friend needs it”. LOL.