CNET Editors' review
The ancient city of Babylon was a crossroads of cultures and languages, and the program Babylon makes good on its linguistic heritage. It can translate 31 languages from your desktop, offers a huge gallery of glossary add-ons, and gives direct access to Wikipedia results in 20 languages. In addition to deeper language libraries, the latest version introduces a new, streamlined interface, single-click document and Web site translation, and a new language detection-feature that recognizes languages without user input.
Babylon translates individual words and phrases on the fly by highlighting and right-clicking or using a hot-key combination that can be adjusted in the Settings menu. Babylon 8 also introduces a "globe" option that keeps the program running in the background and available on your desktop. You can listen to a computerized voice pronounce words in English, but you'll need to add more text-to-speech engines to hear words in other languages. Another helpful feature lets you quickly convert currency, measurements, or time zones, and you can create your own personalized glossaries with links and embedded images.
If you regularly need translations across all your programs and Web surfing, Babylon's default setting to load at start-up will probably seem like a boon. If that's not what you're looking for, you can adjust it under the Miscellaneous tab in Settings. Resource usage spiked when translating full documents, but not overly so--it worked rapidly and didn't interfere with a simultaneously running media player. The full-featured 30-day trial offers plenty of time to decide whether Babylon is valuable to you. The wide array of features and impressive options for adding custom content help this reference tool earn a top rating.
Publisher's Description
From Babylon:
Babylon is the ultimate all-in-one translation solution operated by a single click on your mouse. Simply click on a word or text in any desktop application and get instant translation results into 75 languages. Translation of full texts, Web pages and comprehensive documents is supported by 31 languages. All these features and more, like the integration into Microsoft Office Speller menu, contextual access, language detection, currencies and units conversion, are accessible without interrupting your work flow. Babylon 8 comes with a new dictionary pack, including updated Babylon dictionaries and 17 new Wikipedia titles. You may enhance your translation experience with premium content dictionaries from acclaimed publishing houses such as Oxford, Britannica, Merriam-Webster, Larousse, Vox, Langenscheidt, Pons, and Duden. With Babylon , understanding, reading and writing in all languages is easier, faster, and more efficient than ever before.
What's new in this version: Version 9.0.3 added live Translation Community ,spelling and Proofreading and human Voice.
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All versions:
3.0 starsout of 214 votes
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Current version:
1.6 starsout of 16 votes
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My rating:
Write review
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"Like herpes for you internet browser"
Version: Babylon 9.0.3r23
Pros
Great if you want to spend your evening struggling to remove all fragments of this malware laiden program from your computer.
Cons
It's basically malware, I installed it by accident and it took forever to get rid of, and there is probably still some it left in some dark corner of my computer.
Summary
Boycott this company at all costs they are evil.
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"be aware of Babylon phone People"
Version: Babylon 9.0.3r23
Pros
Babylon is good software and company for people who need to translate
Cons
don't fall into trap with aggrasive phone people after downloading , my brother has
Summary
Excuse me for my bad English, it not my native language, i want to send a message in spanish but it will not let me ,
Warning to all customers of Babylon, take care of a salesman named Ariel Rivadira (i am not sure of full name)
My brother has bought with Ariel and I have met others who were victims of a similar situation with this person.
After acquiring the translator on the website, Ariel has called my brother and asked to confirm his information (including his credit card), as we trust in the company without hesitation, he gave that information, that person immediately set it up, with a complementary package that arrived at an amount close to 800 euros(european currency), that without giving a chance to talk about, my brother is an educated, patient and good listener, but this way managed to confuse him, especially with the currency, we in Central America do not use euros and payment at the site of Babylon did in Mexican pesos. After that he try to place it in his personal email but did not succeed.
I want to clarify that we do not distrust the company, my brother and I will buy this because its products are of quality and the people we talked until then were honest and gave us excellent service. I invite everyone to spread this message, to keep buying in Babylon but beware of Ariel A. -
""unnecessarily" heavier than the 8 versions!"
Version: Babylon 9.0.3r23
Pros
No pros compared to the 8 versions!
Cons
No necessary and significant improvement compared to the 8 versions.
The UI (in 9 versions) has got some extra superfluous features that have caused more Memory and CPU Usage than ever!Summary
Although Babylon has always had some unique and noteworthy features (e.g. Babylon glossaries), the new versions (9 series) impose redundant pressures on the operating system that make this software more obstructive than useful!
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"BABYLON TRANSLATION SERVICE"
Version: Babylon 9.0.3r23
Pros
None!! this people are total rip offs!!
Cons
This people rip me off 150.00 dollars!!
Summary
They sent mi this CDs that do not work with out a return address, so I was not able to send them back, I called my bank who was not able to do nothing because I was still in possession of their product, the bank gave me a phone number to contac Babylon and this people put me on hold for 45 minutes, no body ever came to the phone!! Be careful with this thiefs!!
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"Talk about HUTZPA (having some nerves)"
Version: Babylon 9.0.3r23
Pros
I like to like this software and use it a lot. It easy, ctrl+right click, boom, definition pops up.
Cons
SERVICE one of the worst.
Summary
I bought Babylon 8 in Sep 2010, a few month later Firefox 4 was released, so now Babylon wasn't working properly. When I pressed ctrl + right-click it doesn't copy the full word, only a single letter.
I emailed support (April 2011), and they said "...we will contact you when it will be fix, you need to wait with those version and downgrade them..." No one ever contacted me when it was fixed. Why? because it wasn't fixed (as far as I know).
I waited 3 months, and email them again. This time this is the answer I got "... Please be aware that Babylon 8 does not support IE 9 & Firefox 4/5. Please try to downgrade to Firefox 3.6... Babylon 8 and below will not be patched to work with these applications. But we want to offer you a 20% upgrade to make it work. If you would like to purchase an upgrade to Babylon 9 with 20% discount, please go to the link below..."
So it came out to me purchasing a product, and only being able to use it a few months. And instead of releasing an update, they tried to make me buy the newer version (another 50-60 dollars after discount).
Every other company out there would have released some patch to fix the issues with their software. I never heard anyone asking me to downgrade my browser or buy a new version of their software. I mean, if this happens with Babylon 8, what's stopping them from doing this again with Babylon 9 if a new update for my browser is released and then Babylon 9 doesn't work? what then? buy babylon 10? -
"Force You to Upgrade That You Don't Want to"
Version: Babylon 9.0.3r23
Pros
A Convenient tool for dictionary and translation
Cons
Babylon 8 stop working after Windows 7. It could not correctly paste the word indicated by pressing <Ctrl><Right Mouse Button> into Babylon window. The tech. support said I have to upgrade to Babylon 9 to make it work for Windows 7.
The comapany should correct the problem for Bablyon 8. If they don't want to spend time to correct the older version, they should allow users to get a free upgrade.Summary
I don't like the way that the company is doing business. They are forcing you to upgrade that you don't really want to.
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"If I could give it less than 1 star I would."
Version: Babylon 9.0.3r23
Pros
There is nothing good about this product. It's like having bed bugs....it never goes away!!!!
Cons
Everything. you can never get rid of it. Whenever you want to do a search, it pops up. I have no idea where it is or how to get rid of it, but you can forget using another search engine, because Babylon pops up. It's HORRIBLE!!!
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"Almost useless"
Version: Babylon 9.0.3r23
Pros
None that I can see
Cons
Garbled translation, mistranslating basic vocabulary and even failing to translate simple words.
Summary
Don't waste your money!
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"DO NOT BUY!!! HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE"
Version: Babylon 9.0.3r23
Pros
Nothing good to say.
Cons
They require your phone number when you buy. I tried to download the software but it was conflicting with the software from the trial edition. Just then they called me on the phone. The guy did not even try to help me download it. He just wanted to sell me more. Then I discovered they had added two additional unwanted items to my order. I kept trying to have those charges removed - he would say he could do that but then kept trying to tell me that I should keep those products and get me to buy even more. After about 20 minutes of trying - very forcefully - he still would not stop trying to sell me more. I demanded twice to speak with a supervisor. She then continued along the same spiel trying to sell me more. I then demanded repeatedly that they cancel my entire order. In the face of that she CONTINUED to try to sell me additional products. TRAINED ROBOTS. Never let the customer off the phone until they buy something new.
Overall, A HORRIBLE EXPERIENCESummary
I WILL NEVER EVER DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY AGAIN. I FINALLY HAD TO DISPUTE THE CHARGE WITH MY CREDIT CARD COMPANY.
I wish i had gone online and looked for reviews before I bought it. I did after and found many many people with bad experiences. -
"Good Software, but very buggy!"
Version: Babylon 9.0.3r23
Pros
- Point to any word and translate with a single click.
- Add a large variety of free dictionaries from online library.
- Built in measurements and currency converters (updated regularly).Cons
- The main feature which is supposed to be one of it's best pros, meaning OCR, is also the buggiest! Only works from within a browser, and doesn't work with latest Firefox *AT ALL* (I have FF8). Doesn't work in the windows environment, notepad etc. (as opposed to previous version).
- BUG: Can only work in MS Word if you enable Babylon button on the top of every window (annoying). If you disable it, doesn't work in MS Word. Babylon guys know this, but are very slow to fix this bug.
- There's a 3-5 seconds delay from the moment you click to open Babylon, until the moment it actually opens. Quite annoying to say the least. Should be immediate without any delay.
- No skin and/or color customization support (as opposed to the previous version, Babylon 8).
- New Babylon window design is pretty ugly and old fashioned.Summary
Overall Babylon kind of missed the mark with this one. The previous version, 8.0, was much better, only lacking in OCR capabilities in the new Windows 7 environment. This version, which was released to address that, is slower, more buggy, and just doesn't offer any substantial improvement. The main justification for this version is the added support for OCR in windows 7, but even that is partial and really buggy. Works from within browsers, but not latest Firefox. Supposed to work for MS Word (but only if Babylon button is enabled). Doesn't work at all in windows environment (not just OCR, you can't even call it by using the mouse activation if clicking somewhere in windows environment). Other than that version 9 is slower to respond, feels more "heavy" when compared to the light weight fast app which was Babylon 8, and it even fails in small things such as the fact that they removed the option to color customize the Babylon window like you could do in version 8.
I gave it 3/5 just because if they address these issues it could be a great program, but at it's current state it just falls short.
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