Gmail: Now in Maltese

Google's (GOOG) bag of tricks just got a little fatter, as the company announced a new feature for Gmail yesterday. Gmail users can now set up their e-mail service to translate messages from one language to another. Once "message translation" is enabled under settings, a link will appear above each in-coming message, allowing users to translate the message to any of 41 different languages. Even Maltese.

As Google engineer Darren Lewis points out in a blog post, Gmail users can now write entire conversations with one another in their own languages while the translator does the heavy lifting. "Whether you're reading a family update from inlaws on the other side of the world, working with a multinational team, or just trying to bring about world peace, don't worry, Gmail's got your back," Lewis writes.

Thank God Google's got something to brag about today, because, according to the UK Guardian, company co-founder Larry Page has just admitted that when it comes to providing speedy information in real time, Twitter is running circles around Google. Speaking at the company's Zeitgeist conference, Page agreed that updating Google's search page can take hours while Twitter is meeting the public's burgeoning demand for information that is immediately available. "I think we have done a relatively poor job of creating things that work on a per-second basis," he said. Honestly, whatever happened to standards?

Does that mean that Google will buy Twitter? Hardly, said CEO Eric Schmidt. Twitter's code architecture is so open that Google can just build indexing applications around the tweets, or partner up with the company in other ways. Which leaves the inevitable question: Just how is Twitter going to make money, anyway? According to Cnet's Caroline McCarthy, founder Biz Stone has just ruled out selling ads next to tweet search results. And Stone has repeatedly denied that he's just waiting for some big tech company to buy him out. So what is the plan? At least Google doesn't have to answer that one.