hi5 Launches Answer to Facebook’s Translation App

Last night hi5 announced the release of a new translations application which is compatible with the OpenSocial standard. The new service is being promoted as the first major translation tool using the OpenSocial standard. I’m not quite sure why the release was phrased this way to be honest. The reality is that this is simply a translations application for hi5.

Given hi5’s international reach, it makes it much more easier to find users willing to translate applications abroad. Two companies that are immediately taking advantage of this new service is RockYou and iLike. While it makes all OpenSocial applications more easily translated, it requires the applications to be accessible on hi5 in order to have them translated.

This application is currently not available on other platforms. hi5 continues to make announcements regarding them being the first to release specific features related to OpenSocial (including the first to implement version 0.8 of the OpenSocial standard) but developers have been complaining. While features are being released, they aren’t always usable and hi5 has been somewhat delayed in rolling out fixes to any issues on the platform.

hi5 continues to roll out new features though and it’s clear that they are taking the platform seriously. If you have an OpenSocial application and are looking to have it translated, you may want to test out hi5’s new translation service.