Babylon

2.0 stars

"Very good product; Not free!"

June 9, 2013  |   By Raubhautz88

Version: Babylon 10.0

Pros

I found Babylon to be excellent with translating words, and fairly good with translating sentences(+). Giving them a break on this one because of the way German (and other languages) handle sentence structure and use of pronouns (among other things) than the English language. The ability to translate web pages was okay, but effective enough to work with, and the document translator is unknown as this is not a free service, and no trials were provided for.

Cons

Customer service does not respond. Period. I originally installed the program in January, and after a couple of uses, I made some support requests. Never returned the messages. So I would have to rate their support as low. I am not sure what support CNET used for their rating, but maybe if I put CNET as my business they would have replied? The worst thing is that with all the hype about being a free program (technically, I see now that they say FREE DOWNLOAD) but then after I started to actually use it (probably the last 4 translations I used in the last week as I was in need) it suddenly stopped and informed me that I exceeded my 8 free translations and I could now pay about $10/mo. for the product. If for no other reason, I refuse to use a product who uses skullduggery as a platform for sales. The last thing on this con list is the programs that it wants to parasite onto your computer (tool-bars etc.) Fortunately, I did not accept that option, and to its credit, the program worked.

Summary

A translation program that works well; wants to install a bunch of ancillary programs that are not necessary to operate.

Single word translations are excellent; sentence structure/grammar is acceptable, but would not be used in formal documents (I was testing in German). To obtain documents, you can use their support services, at an additional cost. I did not even go there after failing to get a response from their 'support team'.

As I was starting to say, Babylon's support is not existent. I thought that companies were interested in making customers happy... I suppose those were the OLD days.

My real beef with this software is the false-advertising. Though it claims to be free, and I note that we have all the 'happy users' being 5-star raters on this site seem to qualify that point; it is NOT free! Use it 8 times and you will get a friendly message that you can pay, '...starting @ $9.20/Mo. ...' That is not free in my book, and works out to around $110.00/yr. USD. I do not find it even worth that price.

It is too bad that the overall rating is getting killed in my review, as the core product is very good. Improve on the marketing, the support and the pricing - you would have a 4-5 star product.

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2.0 stars

"Very poor support"

May 14, 2013  |   By zappa32

Version: Babylon 10.0

Pros

Popular product, Babylon offers all the bells and whistles

Cons

If you need some support, they send some obscured emails and let you down. I just counted 16 emails for and back and the problem is not saved jet.
Babylon takes over you browser which is a bit scaring.

Summary

I must be out of mind to keep communicate with Babylon. The best Program is nothing worth if the support is not working.

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5.0 stars

"Good translations and it's free - great combination"

May 7, 2013  |   By albertinem_18anz

Version: Babylon 10.0

Pros

Good translations, easy to use, nice interface, it's free!

Cons

A few funny translations

Summary

I work in an import / export company and I wanted a program that could help with some basic translation for documents etc. I downloaded Babylon about 2 weeks ago, and so far I have been really satisfied. Besides a couple of funny translations, it works really well, is easy to use, and of course free. I definitely recommend it.

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4.0 stars

"A great tool for business"

April 10, 2013  |   By beckiekrauth23_

Version: Babylon 10.0

Pros

Smart interface, a large number of supported languages, excellent resources, the basic version is free

Cons

None so far

Summary

I frequently have to work with foreign clients and I have definitely found it to be a useful tool. I have used both the free and premium versions of Babylon 10 and they are both excellent for what they are. The free and premium versions work the same way, but you get more features with the paid version. The results are as good if not better than any other computer based translation, and I also like that they include dictionary and Wikipedia results.

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1.0 stars

"INVASIVE program"

April 5, 2013  |   By Beckfield

Version: Babylon 10.0

Pros

Didn't take time to find out. Once I realized how thoroughly this program tried to take over my computer, all efforts went into getting rid of it. I'm still trying.

Cons

Invasive program tries to take over everything from my browser homepage to default search engine to what gets loaded when I open a new browser tab. I still have an icon on my QuickLaunch toolbar that I can't get rid of. Their uninstall doesn't uninstall very much, and it doesn't undo all the things it took over, so I'm left with a bunch of non-functioning features that I'm still trying to weed out.

Summary

Given how thoroughly this program invaded my computer, and how difficult it has been to get rid of it, I consider Babylon Translator to be MALWARE.

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5.0 stars

"Well integrated and easy to use translator"

April 2, 2013  |   By katherynburley

Version: Babylon 10.0

Pros

Works well in every browser, with word documents, and with every major software program I have tried.
You don't have to switch between programs or open a new window
Easy to use interface
A broad range of information that goes beyond translation - I particularly like the Wikipedia results
Useful text to speech function

Cons

An occasional awkward translation

Summary

My experience with Babylon 10 has been quite good. I have been using it for a little over a month now, and I have found it incredibly helpful in terms of translation as well as easy to access definitions and Wikipedia information. The interface they have created is really intuitive and allows me to keep my work open instead of having to search around for information. I have gotten an occasional odd translation, but I have found that's true of any computer based translator.

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4.0 stars

"Just downloaded the new Babylon 10"

March 27, 2013  |   By judithscholl1980

Version: Babylon 10.0

Pros

it's free now
the translation quality seems to be good

Cons

at the moment, didn't find any

Summary

download and try for yourself, it's free anyway.

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1.0 stars

"Must allow it to be default search provider"

March 25, 2013  |   By vomako2012

Version: Babylon 10.0

Pros

A program that allows easy translation of words.

Cons

Must allow it to be default search provider to install it

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4.0 stars

"Great translation, no Spam in current version (10.0)"

February 3, 2013  |   By orshahaf

Version: Babylon 10.0

Pros

It gives detailed and comprehensible translations, pronounces word well and generally does what it should better than other free softwares.

Cons

• Volume is too low even after it's set to maximum, and word pronunciation is not always accurate or full in the free version (It pronounces "row" only as a horizontal line - the pronunciation for the word when it means "rebuke, scold, reprimand" is missing. The pronunciation of "designated" is discontinuous).
• You have to decline a lot of requests of allowing "designated experience" (more accurately: Spam).

Summary

Worth downloading.

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