Mozilla is testing Firefox extension for translating web pages without cloud services

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Mozilla is testing its Bergamot extension for translating web pages in Firefox Nightly. It is a client-side extension that runs completely locally in the browser. Bergamot therefore does not use cloud services such as Google Translate.

The Bergamot extension can currently only be tested in the most recent version of Firefox Nightly, also writes Austrian developer Sören Hentzschel, who regularly writes about Mozilla and Firefox developments. This is version 0.3 of the translation extension, which currently supports Spanish, Estonian and English. The extension can also translate English web pages to German, but not the other way around.

Other languages ​​are currently not supported, because the language models are still bundled directly in the extension. The current test version of the extension has a file size of 124MB. The extension does not currently work in the release version of Firefox.

Therefore, to test the feature, users should download the Firefox Nightly desktop web browser and adjust various settings in the about:config page. For example, the renewed Proton design, which is being introduced in Firefox 89, must be enabled. Full installation instructions are provided on Bergamot’s Github page.

The Bergamot project was set up in 2019 by Mozilla, in collaboration with universities from England, Estonia, Scotland and the Czech Republic. The project is funded by the European Union. The goal of the project is to add a translation function to Firefox that runs completely locally, without cloud services like Google Translate. This should have privacy benefits, among other things, as no data is shared with such cloud services.

Version 0.3 of the Bergamot extension, tested in Firefox Nightly 89.0a1

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