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Microsoft To Add Yammer Translation Capability
Microsoft plans to deliver translation capabilities to its Yammer enterprise social networking application by "late spring," according to an announcement issued by the company today.
About 200,000 organizations around the world collaborate using Yammer, which supports 39 languages. However, most (65 percent) of Yammer's current seven million users are located outside the United States.
Microsoft will engineer its Translator application to work with Yammer. When a message arrives in a language other than the default language of the user, a "Translate" option will appear in the body of the message. Clicking that link will translate the message. There also will be a button to revert the message back to its original language.
Adam Pisoni, Yammer's cofounder and general manager of engineering at the Microsoft Office Division, described the translation capability as an example of how Yammer is adding value.
"Removing language as a barrier to cross-company collaboration can be a competitive game changer for multinational organizations," Pisoni explained, in a released statement.
Microsoft has announced positive fourth-quarter results since acquiring Yammer, which is now part of the Microsoft Office Division. Microsoft announced the $1.2 billion acquisition of Yammer in June.
Yammer capabilities are getting added to various Microsoft products, and not just to Microsoft Office. For instance, Yammer capabilities are being added to Microsoft's SkyDrive Pro cloud storage service and Office Web Apps, with rollouts planned for this summer. Other products that may get Yammer additions include Dynamics CRM, SharePoint and the Skype voice-over-IP service.
About the Author
Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.