Google’s Chrome browser has now added, among other things, a feature to allow for the automatic translation of pages viewed in other languages into English, that we might better peruse the foreign web.

I wonder how long it is before Chrome just offers to search on our behalf...

Indeed, the latest build of Google Chrome allows users to simply set a language into which they’d prefer their content translated, and from then on you’ll only notice that you’ve stumbled onto a page in another language is that it’ll seem to be exceptionally poorly written or just generally confusing… which, for a sizeable portion of the web, could well mean Chrome’s automatic translation is seamless.

Given the recent launch of Microsoft’s browser ballot box for those living in Europe, it makes an awful lot of sense for Google to be pushing Chrome with an unusually high volume of advertising. While anyone using Windows 7 or Windows Vista will likely be asked what their preferred browser is (regardless of what browser they’re using), they’re far more likely to choose a browser whose name they’ve seen advertised over the course of the last few days… and of course, the ubiquity of the Google brand seems unlikely to hurt it.

Moreover, Google’s latest Chrome beta offering automatic translation meshes neatly with the browser ballot option. Since the browser ballot box is set only to hit Europeans, those of us choosing new browsers are likely to encounter web pages in foreign languages (or at least, perhaps more likely than our American cousins).

The automatic translation feature for Google Chrome is available in the latest beta of the browser, which you can grab, if you’re so inclined, here.