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Babylon includes its in-house proprietary dictionaries, community-created dictionaries and glossaries ([[UGC]]), which comprise of general and technical glossaries and dictionariesnati, language and monolingual dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopedias and lexicons in every imaginable language. They are indexed in 400 categories covering the arts, business, computers, health, law, entertainment, sports and much more, representing a variety of levels and sources, from amateur to professional, from private to corporate.<ref>[http://www.babylon.com/define/ Free Dictionary Lookup by Babylon]. Babylon.com (2001-08-02). Retrieved on 9 November 2010.</ref>
Babylon includes its in-house proprietary dictionaries, community-created dictionaries and glossaries ([[UGC]]), which comprise of general and technical glossaries and dictionariesnati, language and monolingual dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopedias and lexicons in every imaginable language. They are indexed in 400 categories covering the arts, business, computers, health, law, entertainment, sports and much more, representing a variety of levels and sources, from amateur to professional, from private to corporate.<ref>[http://www.babylon.com/define/ Free Dictionary Lookup by Babylon]. Babylon.com (2001-08-02). Retrieved on 9 November 2010.</ref>
The program also uses a [[text-to-speech]] agent so users hear the proper native pronunciation of words and text. Babylon Ltd. has developed 38 English-based proprietary dictionaries in 21 languages ([[English language|English]], [[Arabic]], [[Simplified Chinese]], [[Traditional Chinese]], [[Czech language|Czech]], [[Danish language|Danish]], [[Dutch language|Dutch]], [[French language|French]], [[German language|German]], [[Greek language|Greek]], [[Hebrew]], [[Italian language|Italian]], [[Japanese language|Japanese]], [[Korean language|Korean]], [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]], [[Polish language|Polish]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], [[Russian language|Russian]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[Swedish language|Swedish]] and [[Turkish language|Turkish]]) that are free of charge to purchasers of the software. Each one of these dictionaries comprise between 60,000 to 200,000 lemmas, phrases, acronyms and abbreviations. These Babylon proprietary dictionaries are enabled with a morphological engine which facilitates recognition of all inflected forms of single words and phrases, provides all forms of terms that include prefixes and extensions and supplies a solution for all formats of writing. Babylon's [[Linguistic]] Department is responsible for the extensive and excellent content and information database which is a significant component of Babylon’s Product and is much appreciated by its global users.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jobs-israel.com/content.aspx?Category=605 |title=Babylon&nbsp;– There's Nothing Like Experience |first=Shuki |last=Stauber |publisher=Jobs-israel.com |accessdate=16 September 2011}}</ref>
The program also uses a [[text-to-speech]] agent so users hear the proper native pronunciation of words and text. Babylon Ltd. has developed 38 English-based proprietary dictionaries in 21 languages ([[English language|English]], [[Arabic]], [[Simplified Chinese]], [[Traditional Chinese]], [[Czech language|Czech]], [[Danish language|Danish]], [[Dutch language|Dutch]], [[French language|French]], [[German language|German]], [[Greek language|Greek]], [[Hebrew]], [[Italian language|Italian]], [[Japanese language|Japanese]], [[Korean language|Korean]], [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]], [[Polish language|Polish]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], [[Russian language|Russian]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[Swedish language|Swedish]] and [[Turkish language|Turkish]]) that are free of charge to purchasers of the software. Each one of these dictionaries comprises between 60,000 to 200,000 lemmas, phrases, acronyms and abbreviations. These Babylon proprietary dictionaries are enabled with a morphological engine which facilitates recognition of all inflected forms of single words and phrases, provides all forms of terms that include prefixes and extensions and supplies a solution for all formats of writing. Babylon's [[Linguistic]] Department is responsible for the extensive and excellent content and information database which is a significant component of Babylon’s Product and is much appreciated by its global users.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jobs-israel.com/content.aspx?Category=605 |title=Babylon&nbsp;– There's Nothing Like Experience |first=Shuki |last=Stauber |publisher=Jobs-israel.com |accessdate=16 September 2011}}</ref>


==Awards and recognition==
==Awards and recognition==

Revision as of 10:28, 20 November 2012

Babylon
Developer(s)Babylon Ltd.
Stable release
Windows11.0.1.6 / 22 June 2021; 3 years ago (2021-06-22)
Android4.1.2 / 16 December 2016; 7 years ago (2016-12-16)[1]
iOS2.0.1 / 14 February 2013; 11 years ago (2013-02-14)[2]
Windows Phone1.0 / 18 January 2012; 12 years ago (2012-01-18)[3]
Operating systemMicrosoft Windows
TypeDictionary, machine translator and spell checker
LicenseProprietary commercial software
Websitewww.babylon.com

Babylon is a leading global provider of language and search solutions. Babylon Ltd. is an Israeli public company (TASE: BBYL).[4] based in Or Yehuda.

History

In 1995, Israeli entrepreneur Amnon Ovadia began a project for an online English–Hebrew dictionary which would not interrupt the reading process. As a result, Babylon Ltd. was founded in 1997 and launched the first version of Babylon. On 25 September 1997, the company filed a patent for text recognition and translation.[5] In 1998, a year following its launch date, Babylon had two million users, mostly in Germany and Brazil,[6] growing from 420,000 to 2.5 million users in the course of that year. In the same year, Formula Systems, headed by Dan Goldstein, acquired Mashov Computers and became the largest shareholder in the company. By 2000, the product had over 4 million users.[7]In the spring of 2000, Babylon Ltd. failed to raise $20 million in a private placement and lost NIS 15 million.[8] Further stress came with the collapse of the Dot-com bubble. In 2001, Babylon Ltd. continued shedding money, with the company costing its parent company Formula Vision NIS 4.7 million.[9]

Since 2007, Babylon Ltd. (TASE: BBYL) has been a publicly traded company. Its IPO took place in February 2007; Israeli businessman Noam Lanir purchased controlling interests in the company for $10.5 million, sharing management with second majority shareholder Reed Elsevier[10] and the Company founder Amnon Ovadia. According to Globes magazine in January 2011, Lanir received an offer for his stake from a foreign private equity fund that valued the company at NIS 248 million (approximately 70 million dollars).[11]

In 2010 and 2011, Babylon reported revenues of NIS 31.7 million and 62.4 million, respectively.

Product features

A single click on any text using the right mouse button or combination of the right mouse button and a keyboard modifier, and the Babylon window appears providing a translation and definition of the clicked term.[12][13] Babylon is a tool used for translation and conversion of currencies, measurements and time, and for obtaining other contextual information. Babylon has a patented OCR technology and a single-click activation that works in any Microsoft Windows application, such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Excel, Internet Explorer and Adobe Reader. When activated, Babylon opens a small popup window that displays the translation or definition. Babylon provides full text translation, full Web page and full document translation in many languages and supports integration with Microsoft Office. Babylon enables the translation of Microsoft Word documents and plain text files. It offers results from a database of over 1,700 sources in over 77 languages.[14]

Dictionaries and encyclopedias

Babylon includes its in-house proprietary dictionaries, community-created dictionaries and glossaries (UGC), which comprise of general and technical glossaries and dictionariesnati, language and monolingual dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopedias and lexicons in every imaginable language. They are indexed in 400 categories covering the arts, business, computers, health, law, entertainment, sports and much more, representing a variety of levels and sources, from amateur to professional, from private to corporate.[15]

The program also uses a text-to-speech agent so users hear the proper native pronunciation of words and text. Babylon Ltd. has developed 38 English-based proprietary dictionaries in 21 languages (English, Arabic, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish) that are free of charge to purchasers of the software. Each one of these dictionaries comprises between 60,000 to 200,000 lemmas, phrases, acronyms and abbreviations. These Babylon proprietary dictionaries are enabled with a morphological engine which facilitates recognition of all inflected forms of single words and phrases, provides all forms of terms that include prefixes and extensions and supplies a solution for all formats of writing. Babylon's Linguistic Department is responsible for the extensive and excellent content and information database which is a significant component of Babylon’s Product and is much appreciated by its global users.[16]

Awards and recognition

In July 2011, Babylon set a Guinness World Record® for the most downloads of a translation software.[17][18][19]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Babylon Translator". Google Play. Google. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  2. ^ "iBabylon". iTunes Store. Apple. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  3. ^ "Babylon Translator". Microsoft Store. Microsoft. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  4. ^ Schultz, Fred (2000). Education 01/02. McGraw-Hill Higher Education. p. 204. ISBN 978-0-07-243317-3.
  5. ^ "Recognition and translation system". Google Patents. Google. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
  6. ^ "Babble on". Salon Media Group, Inc. 2 November 1999. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
  7. ^ Blackburn, Nicky (2002). "By The Users of Babylon". Formula Vision. Formula Vision Technologies Ltd. Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 18 September 2011. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  8. ^ Formula Vision Technologies
  9. ^ TheStreet.com : Formula Vision lost NIS 33.6 million in 2001 | TheMarker.com
  10. ^ Noam Lanir buys into Babylon, YNet
  11. ^ Ackerman, Gwen (19 January 2011). "Babylon Shareholder gets offer for majority stake, Globes says". Bloomberg. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
  12. ^ PC World. 19 (4–6): 123. 2001. {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  13. ^ Huber, Jeffrey T; Boorkman, Jo Anne; Blackwell, Jean (2008). Introduction to reference sources in the health sciences. Neal-Schuman Publishers. p. 127. ISBN 978-1-55570-636-4.
  14. ^ "About Babylon – Simply Translate". Babylon Ltd. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
  15. ^ Free Dictionary Lookup by Babylon. Babylon.com (2001-08-02). Retrieved on 9 November 2010.
  16. ^ Stauber, Shuki. "Babylon – There's Nothing Like Experience". Jobs-israel.com. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
  17. ^ "Most downloaded desktop translation software". Guinness World Records. 22 June 2011. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
  18. ^ Israeli firm Babylon celebrates record number of downloads. Jerusalem Post
  19. ^ Translation co Babylon sets new Guinness record for downloads. Globes. Roy Goldenberg. 14 July 2011

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