Can I build my own dictionary application using online data?

Question

hi there

Because I'm a non-native English person, i use a lot a dictionary.

Now I'm learning C# and i was thinking to if I'm allowed to build an application which will run on my machine, but it will use the google/babefish translate service, or any other translation/dictionary online tool. It takes time to go on the browser each time and search for the translation of a word.

If is legal, what do u think of this type of application? At this point i see some problems regrading speed bc of querying, parsing the page, etc.

Answer 1

There are literally thousands of dictionary software which you can download or buy. I even have one on my phone. Its perfectly legal to create your own if you want to. However, unless you come up with some new invention to the existing plethora of software, it might be hard to find people willing to use it.

Answer 2

It may be worth considering a desktop Gadget which does a similar thing.

Vista has sidebar gadgets which will do this, OS X has dashboard widgets which will do this, and Google Desktop has gadgets which will do this.

Answer 3

Yes, and actually Google Translate has an API for you to do this: http://code.google.com/apis/ajaxlanguage/documentation/#fonje

Answer 4

The Wikimedia foundation has database dumps from their projects online. You can download the Wiktionary dictionaries from http://download.wikimedia.org. Of particular use would be the one for a language you know well, so you can translate words in any language to your own.

For example, if your native language is Esperanto then you would download "eowiktionary" from http://download.wikimedia.org/backup-index.html

If you're learning C# this might be an interesting and useful project for you. And the Wikimedia data is certainly free for you to download use in this way. All Wikimedia content is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.