Google translate vs. Translate with Eddy AI

If your knowledge base serves readers in more than one language, there are two broad ways to do it: embed a browser translation widget such as Google Translate, which translates the page in the reader's browser as they view it, or use native localization, which in Document360 means Translate with Eddy AI creating and storing a translated version of each article. Both make your content readable in other languages, but only one of them affects search, AI assistant responses, and terminology control. This article compares the two approaches and explains how to move from a widget to Translate with Eddy AI.

How each approach works

A browser translation widget is a third-party script embedded in your page. Google Translate is the most widely used example. When a reader selects a language, the script rewrites the text currently rendered in their browser. Nothing is translated ahead of time and nothing is saved. Your knowledge base still contains one article, in its original language. The translation is a display layer, regenerated each time someone loads the page.

Translate with Eddy AI works in the opposite direction. When you add a language to a workspace, Document360 creates a distinct article record for that language. Translate with Eddy AI writes real translated content into that record, and Document360 stores it. You end up with one article per language, each of which you can edit, review, and publish independently.

The difference sounds like a technical detail. In practice it determines which parts of the reader experience are translated, because everything other than the visible page text reads from stored content.

Comparison at a glance

Where the difference shows up

Search

This is the difference most teams underestimate. A search index is built from stored content. Because a widget never changes what is stored, the index stays in the source language. A reader who switches the page to French and then searches in French is searching French terms against English content, so relevant articles may not surface at all.

Translate with Eddy AI stores the translated article, so it is indexed in that language and a French query matches French content.

AI assistant responses

If your knowledge base has an AI assistant, it answers from stored article content. A browser widget operates only in the reader's browser, so the assistant has no awareness of it and responds in the source language regardless of what the reader sees on the page.

Because Translate with Eddy AI stores real translated content, Ask Eddy AI can answer in the reader's language and cite the correct localized article.

Terminology

A translation engine resolves each phrase at the moment it runs. It has no record of how a product term was translated on another page, so the same term can appear differently across articles. Content translated with Eddy AI is editable, so you can fix a term once and keep it consistent, and pair it with glossary terms to standardize vocabulary across languages.

Coverage

A widget translates the text rendered on the page. Elements delivered separately from the article body, such as navigation labels, notification bars, or interface controls, may not be covered depending on how the site is built.

Translate with Eddy AI translates the article body, article and category titles, and meta titles. Your site interface text is translated separately, using localization variables, so plan for both.

Stability

A widget is a script running on a platform that was not necessarily built to host it. Whether it keeps working depends on how the host site renders pages. On sites that load or re-render content dynamically, the widget may not reapply translations to content rendered after the initial page load, and it can stop working without displaying an error.

Content translated with Eddy AI has no such dependency, because it is stored in your knowledge base and served by Document360 like any other article.

Search engine visibility

A widget produces no separate URL for each language, so search engines have nothing language-specific to index. Articles translated with Eddy AI each have their own URL, which means a reader searching in their own language can find your documentation before they reach your site.

When a browser widget is enough

A widget is not the wrong answer in every situation. It is reasonable when:

• Non-English readers are a small or occasional share of your audience.
• Your goal is basic readability rather than a fully usable experience.
• You have no budget or capacity for translation and review, and something is better than nothing.
• Your knowledge base has no search-driven workflow and no AI assistant.

The trade-off is that readability is all you get. If readers rely on search to find articles, or if an AI assistant handles a meaningful share of questions, a widget leaves those paths in the source language.

The trade-offs of Translate with Eddy AI

Translate with Eddy AI asks for more than a widget does, and the difference is worth sizing before you commit to it.

• Content volume. Every article exists once per language. Fifty articles across nine languages means 450 article-language pairs to keep accurate, rather than 50 articles.
• Ongoing sync. Each edit to a source article leaves its translations out of date until they are re-translated and reviewed. Content that changes often carries more of this cost than content that is stable.
• Translation credits. Credits are metered by character volume and consumed on the initial translation and on every re-translation after an edit.
• Review capacity. Machine translation produces a working draft. Domain-specific terminology still needs a reviewer who reads the target language, which is a staffing question rather than a tooling one.

None of this has to be absorbed at once. Most teams translate a subset of articles into a small number of languages and expand from there.

For product behavior and limits, including translation direction and deletion behavior, see Localization - Getting started.

Moving from a translation widget to Translate with Eddy AI

If you are migrating to Document360 from a platform where a widget was in use, work through the following.

1. Identify the languages your readers actually use. A widget typically offers dozens of languages at no cost, which tells you nothing about which ones have real demand. Check your analytics for reader location and browser language before deciding what to support.
2. Add those languages to your workspace. See Multilingual Knowledge base.
3. Rank your articles by traffic and business impact. Translate the top articles first. Untranslated articles fall back to the default language, so partial coverage is a valid state to launch in.
4. Translate the first set with Translate with Eddy AI. If you already work with a translation vendor, use Crowdin instead.
5. Review the output in each language. Confirm product terminology, then record decisions as glossary terms so they carry forward.
6. Translate your site interface. Article translation does not cover navigation labels and controls. Use localization variables for these.
7. Confirm redirects if your URLs have changed. Each language now has its own URL. See Migrate to Document360 for redirect rules.
8. Expand one language at a time. Each language multiplies your maintenance load, and your credit consumption. Confirm you can sustain one before adding the next.

For ongoing guidance once localization is in place, including keeping translations in sync with source edits, see the best practices in Localization - Getting started.

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