Is your site reaching audiences that would probably rather content in their native language? we’ll there’s a simple solution which models itself on the popular social sharing site AddThis. TranslateThis developed by Jon Raasch, a front-end web programmer from Portland, OR is a very easy to implement translation solution that uses the Google Language API and AJAX to translate your page content on the fly.

Why is it good?

It has several advantages over using the Google translate widget the main one being that TranslateThis processes the page right on the page in front of you without redirecting you to Google. Secondly its customisable allowing you to add specific languages to the initial drop down and change the button as well as add your own Google analytics code to track which languages are popular. You can even disable the cookie that the plugin drops so it only translates one page at a time rather than automatically changing the language to your preferred setting.

I think this is a great piece of code that can easily translate your site, the code it both lightweight and optimised and comes in at a little under 19kb’s in size. It’s of course compatible with all major browsers including IE6, 7 and 8, FireFox, Safari and Chrome The code will gracefully degrade to any previous browsers.