I went searching for an old French colleague on Facebook the other day in hopes of holding a seamless chat conversation in French. Later on, I went looking online for my long lost Swedish relatives in hopes of speaking with them in their native tongue.

Impressed? Don’t be. I don’t speak a word of Swedish or French. I was simply emboldened by the VoxOx Universal Translator, a new capability of the VoxOx unified communications service that enables instant, seamless foreign language translations across SMS, email, chat and social networks (specifically Facebook Chat, MySpace Chat and Twitter @replies).

It really is a wonder: I select my language, my contact’s language, and then begin chatting, texting or emailing away. The VoxOx Universal Translator provides instant translation for both parties … to them, it looks like I speak perfect French or Swedish (or Cantonese or Portugese or dozens of other languages I can choose from). The best part is that only one person has to be using VoxOx to make it work. The service is also interoperable with every major IM client.

To Trekkies, the “universal translator” is a (plot) device that Spock and Kirk used to communicate with alien species. While instant voice translations may still be a way off, instant translations through electronic communications (chat, sms, email) is now here.

Watch the VoxOx Universal Translator in action below or download the service here. You can also read a write up in the popular blog, Gizmodo.

Share on Facebook

Burger King scores with its new Facebook application

I’ll admit I was skeptical. When @kenburbary first Twittered about Burger King’s new Facebook application, Whopper Sacrifice, the first thing I thought was great, BK, like most Facebook apps, wants me to spam my friends. I even sent off a snarky reply.

Well, upon further examination, I revise my opinion. Whopper Sacrifice is actually one of the better social marketing apps I’ve seen in quite some time. It works likes this: delete 10 friends from your Facebook account, and you get a free Whopper. Each time you permanently delete a friend, you get to watch a picture of them burn. That friend also gets notified of your sacrific (OK, so they do get spammed).

The application works because it’s fun, counter-intuitive, and actually forces you to make decisions on who remains your friends. It took me a little bit to pinpoint that ninth and 10th sacrifice. So what’s been the response?

• As of last count, 183,749 friends had been sacrificed on WhopperSacrifice.com (that’s 18K coupons)
• CNET’s Caroline McCarthy’s story was “dug” more than 5K times on Digg.com

My only complaint about the marketing program, is that I have to wait 2-4 weeks to get my free burger coupon. Though WhopperVirgins.com was a bit controversial, WhopperSacrifice.com is a great example of true viral marketing application.

Share on Facebook