Automatic language translators are taking your tweets to a global audience.

The universal translator was once a convenient fiction from Star Trek that let aliens break through language barriers, but now it’s an awe inspiring reality. Automatic language converters are on the internet, in your iPhone, and they’re ready to take on Twitter.  Companies like Twanslate, Twinslator, and Tweet Translate will take your tweet and change it into any one of a myriad of languages you choose. Lost in a foreign land? Now you can let your tweets speak for you. Twitter itself recently began translating its pages into non-English languages. Soon visitors to Twitter will be able to read the main text of the site in any of the world’s languages from Arabic to Urdu. It’s probably only a matter of time before Twitter adopts a universal translator into the site itself. Think about that! You tweet in one language and Twitter would automatically broadcast it in another. Just click on a twitter feed and you can read it, no matter where it’s from. Universal translators are going to take the tweet from a fad to the forerunner of global society.

Automatic language translation lets artificial intelligence connect you to anyone no matter the language. The Apps on your smart phone allow you to translate between languages simply by speaking into the device and pressing a button. That’s just a mind blowing technology. Unfortunately, it’s not available in all languages. But guess what is? Text translators. They’re fast, fairly accurate, and usually free. Those are the key ingredients that can bring a technology to explode onto the global scene.

As text based tweet translators become firmly entrenched, they’ll let your tweet reach a wider audience, a global one that doesn’t have to learn new languages to communicate. AI will do it for us. As Twanslate and other third-party-developed programs become more popular, they’ll also struggle to get faster and better at what they do. How long before tweet translators are smart enough to automatically convert any twitter feed you want to follow without you having to ask? At that point, Twitter users won’t be divided by language barriers, they’ll be united by common interests.

The technology for a global tweet is here and different companies give you different ways to make it happen. You can use Google Language Tools to translate text and then cut and paste it into Twitter. Twanslate makes it a little simpler: just direct message them on Twitter and they’ll direct message you back with the text translated into a different language of your choosing. Twinslator and Tweet Translate are the most direct: you just go to their website, input your text and they’ll tweet it for you.  Of course, you’ll also have to give them your User ID and password. All of these, however, are  precursors to Twitter integrating translation software directly into its site. Give it a few years, and tweet translations will happen automatically, without you having to do anything at all.

When Twitter includes translation software into its site the 140 character message will become the world standard.

That’s becoming true wherever you look. Universal translation software has reached a point were it can be adapted into almost any other technology. It still has its kinks. Nuance and subtlety will confuse translators most of the time and programs that access a central server can take a few seconds to process the conversion. Yet that’s why universal translators fit so well with twitter. There’s only ever 140 characters to deal with, and users are intentionally making their messages as clear and precise as possible. Twitter and universal translators were meant for each other. It’s fate, baby.

Tweet translators are likely to impact other Twitter phenomenon. Massively tweeted messages, the so-called tweetbombs, are going to spread wider and more easily when they can be automatically translated into many languages. Twitter accounts with huge numbers of followers (>1 million) may not effect the tweet-sphere all on their own, but think of what power they might have when they can reach users all over the world in their native tongues.

We’re already under a constant bombardment of online information. News feeds, Facebook updates, Google Alerts, emails, and text messages…there’s too much in the pipeline for anyone to really absorb and understand it all. It looks like it’s going to get worse. As universal translation software matures we will have access to people of diverse cultures and languages as easily as we have access to our neighbors. Information will flow freely in many different directions. Looking at Singularity Hub’s stats, we already enjoy readers in different countries, speaking dozens of languages, all without much work on our part. Universal translators allow common interest and curiosity to shape our information flows even as we struggle to find direction under their torrents.

With so much to process, we’re going to want to learn more in less time – that’s the essence of Twitter! The tweet, the small encapsulated thought bubble, could carry universal translation into the mainstream. Automatic language conversion software may give ride to the flood of interest that breaks down the language barrier once and for all. Global culture based on just 140 characters of text? Awesome and terrifying at the same time.

[image credit: Twinslator, Twitter]

There once was is a Twitter account @tweetbomb that used a viral technique to ‘bomb’ an increasing number of followers with a message once a day, but this was not a true tweetbomb.  It was simply an interesting exercise by the same name, quickly shutdown by Twitter for violating terms of service.  Meanwhile, as various famous tweeters are now eclipsing the milestone of one million followers, the prospect of a true tweetbomb looms ever closer.

The tweetbomb is a single, simple message that is sent into the wild of cyberspace, causing a minimum of 100 million people to act at its behest within hours, or perhaps at some future pre-determined date and time.  It is not enough for 100 million people to receive the message – those who receive the message must act upon its contents for the message to rise to true tweetbomb status.  The distinction of receiving vs acting on the message may seem minor, but in fact it is a defining feature of the powerful tweetbomb phenomenon.

Already today with our current outlets and models for information distribution we commonly see rapid dissemination of information to audiences of 100 million or more.  Take the Superbowl, where roughly 1 billion people slurp in a cocktail of promotional messages, product launches, and news updates as they tune into the big event.  Or take the death of a politician or actor with worldwide appeal and recognition, an event whose occurrence can easily travel the globe to hundreds of millions or even billions of people in a matter of hours.

Yet even as the examples above demonstrate that today’s information society already transmits pieces of information to enormous masses of people with alarming speed, there are very few examples where such large numbers of people are mobilized to take a particular, premeditated action.  Continuing with our previous example, a Superbowl may be viewed by a billion people, but it does not typically cause even a mere 1 million of these viewers to do anything particular.  With the rise of Twitter this is set to change.

It is conceivable in the next few years that a single individual or institution could have more than 100 million followers dutifully waiting to receive a message and take an associated action.  Imagine an official Twitter account for the United States or Chinese Government, created with the specific purpose of mobilizing its citizens at a moments notice to respond to a natural disaster, military attack, or any number of other emergencies.

Even before Twitter accounts reach the 100 million follower milestone a tweetbomb is almost certain to occur.  Either by direct intention or by sheer chance,  the viral nature of Twitter allows for a tweet from a single Twitter account, large or small, to serve as the seed from which a message can be continuously retweeted to hundreds of thousands of other Twitter accounts.  As a whole this cascade of viral tweeting and retweeting could ultimately lead to tweetbomb success.

At the moment, with the tweetosphere only comprising a few tens of millions of individuals, a tweetbomb is not going to happen.  But perhaps in a year or two the tweetosphere will reach a critical mass of hundreds of millions of individuals, at which point the first tweetbomb will not be far behind.

One of the first tweetbombs will likely cause the ‘action’ of sending a vast and sudden surge of 100 million users to a particular website or document somewhere on the internet.  Information distribution paradigms that came before Twitter, such as Slashdot or Digg, are famous for bringing surges of tens of thousands of users to websites within a matter of hours, but this is nothing compared to the power that will be unleashed by Twitter.  A key difference between Twitter and previous paradigms is that Twitter automatically pushes information to  users, whereas previous paradigms relied on users to seek out a specific website to find and act on information.  This makes all the difference.

The power of  a website like Digg to distribute information is only as large as the base of users that choose to go to its website within a short period of time.  This base of users will always be limited to a necessarily narrow type of user demographic, such as technologically savvy, younger individuals.  It will also be limited by the number of these individuals that are in a position and mindset to seek out the website within a short period of time, rather than cooking or driving their cars.

Twitter, on the other hand, allows information to be distributed to any number of people, anywhere, anytime with its ability to push information to users no matter what device they are using, no matter if they want it or not.  Twitter is not limited to a certain user demographic, capable of sending a message of equal interest to techno geeks and Oprah worshiping moms.

The first signs of tweetbombs are already upon us.  Look at the logs of any major website and you will see that they are littered with the remains of mini tweetbombs just waiting to become the real thing.  Increasingly traffic to websites comes in surges or waves of people following a tweet that has been tweeted and retweeted across the tweetosphere.  As the tweetosphere grows larger and larger each day, so too will these mini tweetbombs grow.  Soon webmasters will see surges of hundreds of thousands, then tens of millions of Twitter induced users to their websites.  Ultimately the tweetosphere will reach a critical mass and the first true tweetbomb will send a massive swarm of 100 million hungry eyeballs to some lucky or unlucky destination on the internet.

Having defined the tweetbomb we are compelled to ponder what it means for human society.  Are tweetbombs a good thing or a bad thing?  As with any technological weapon, tool, or advance, it depends on how you use it.  Knives help us to cut fruit and open boxes, but they can also kill people.  The same will be true for the tweetbomb.  The tweetbomb is a phenomenon of awesome power, yet depending on the action it causes, its impact on the world could land anywhere on the spectrum of good or bad, unleashing great destruction or massive benevolence.  Good or bad, like all technological breakthroughs before it the tweetbomb is inevitable.  It cannot be avoided.

If you think the tweetbomb is impressive, then take a moment to ponder the tweetnova, a single blast of information that causes not 100 million, but rather 1 billion people to act.  There may be some mathematical or other limitation that inhibits the emergence of the tweetnova within the current incarnation of a simple messaging service represented by Twitter.  But rest assured that either Twitter or some successor platform or technology will soon allow for one billion people, and ultimately every single person on the planet, to instantly receive and then choose to act on a single piece of information.

So who will initiate the first tweetbomb?  Maybe it will be us, in which case how about following @singularityhub so you can join in on the fun.  Even if Singularity Hub does not send the first tweetbomb, we have tons of daily stories just like this one that you won’t want to miss.