Add quick translations to websites with Google’s Translate extension

The Google Translate website lets you manually input text that you want to translate to a another language. Unfortunately, if you’re translating a lot of words or phrases, the copy and pasting to another tab can become tedious.

As a solution, Google started offering a Chrome extension that could translate the entire page with a single click. This served as a backup plan to Chrome’s built-in translate feature. However, sometimes translating the entire page isn’t ideal, which is why Google has updated their extension.

The most recent update to the Translate extension allows you to translate single words or phrases — not the entire page — without using copy and paste. Here’s how to get started:

Step 1: Grab a copy of the new Google Translate extension for your Chrome browser.

Step 2: Head to a website that has text you want to translate. As an example, check out a post on CNET en Español.

Step 3: Highlight a phrase you want to translate and a small translate icon will appear (it’s the tiny square). Click the icon and the translation will appear in a small pop-up window.

As an added bonus, you can also click the speaker to hear the words in the source and translated languages.

The update to the extension makes translating words across the Web quick and easy. What other features would you like to see added to this extension?