Unblocking Websites via TRANSLATION TOOLS

There are various free translation websites avialable that allows users to translate text and web pages from one language to another on the Internet. For example, if you wish to read a web page or document that has been written in japanese and the only language you can read is Hindi, then you can use a translation website to translate from Japanese to Hindi on the fly. All for free!
The two most popular translation tools on the internet are:

• Google Translate (http://translate.google.com): provides instant translation between 58 different langugages.
• Yahoo Babelfish (http://babelfish.yahoo.com): supports fewer languages but still does a decent job.

       The technology behind the instant translation of webpages is obviously cool. But what is even cooler is the fact that it is possible to use these translation websites to unblock websites and acces censored content! 
    

     Let us assume that your college or company has blocked access to the YouTube website and you are shown the blocked error message eachtime you try to access it. However, if you experiment a little bit, you may realize that your network may not have actually blocked access to websites of Google Translate or Yahoo Babelfish, This means that it may be possible for you to connect to either of these translation websites and use them to access YouTube by translating it from english to anyother language of your choice , including Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and various other regional Indian languages/Foreign languages(Indian Regional languages are supported only by google transalte). Your college or company thinks that you are accesssing a safe unblocked website(the translate website), but in reality you are using the translation website to access a blocked website! Below we will see how easy it is for you to use Google Translate to access a blocked YouTube video:

STEP 1:

           Start your browser and connect to http://translate.google.com so that your local firewall thinks that you are connecting to  safe normal, unblocked website. In the space provided, type the web address of the blocked website that you wish to access. In this case, I am going to type www.youtube.com. Then select the original language for the webpage(in this case, English) and the language ibto which you wish to translate the webpage(in this case, Hindi). Finally, click on the translate button.

STEP 2:
          Within a few seconds, the Hindi translated version of the YouTube website will get displayed on the screen. The fact of the matter is that eventhough the website has been translated into Hindi, the interface is still the same and the actual language of the videos that you are going to watch will remain the same. In other words, an English video will remain an english video even if the youtube interface is displayed in Hindi or someother language. The best part is your college or company thinks that you are accessing a Google Translation website, which is far from reality. Go ahead and try it out. It is important to note that when you use the Google Translate service some of the links or search feature on the translated page may not work.

STEP 3:
           You can navigate to the page of the video  that you wish to watch by clicking on the links on the YouTube homepage or if you know the direct URL of the video you wish to watch, then you can directly type it into the translate input box at the top of your browser and you will be directly taken to the video. The video will play normally as it is supposed to play and will be in its original language; only the interface language will change.

          The problem with such translation websites is that the requested domain of the blocked website appears in plaintext in the browser URL address bar and that makes it easy for system administrators to block it. Moreover, there are only two popular and effective translation websites on the Internet, which means that they both can be blocked.

 




-Regards