The Microsoft Research Machine Translator is based on a new API Microsoft released this week, the Microsoft Translator AJAX API, and can translate a Web site into 12 languages, according to a on Microsoft's Via Windows Live blog. The Microsoft Translator AJAX API allows people to integrate translation functionality into Web applications and sites.

Microsoft gave attendees at its MIX09 conference this week an invitiation to try out the new widget, and is from people who want to receive invitations to test the technology. People can on a sample Web site online.

Web-site builders can insert the tool -- which appears as a small widget bar on a Web page -- easily into a site with just a few lines of code, according to Microsoft. It does not redirect a Web site to another page for the translation, but does the translation automatically right on the page.

Currently, the translator has the ability to translate a Web site into Arabic, Chinese (Simplified & Traditional), Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. Microsoft is working on adding new languages as well, it said.

Microsoft said its goal with the widget is to provide "useful" translations rather than exact human translations, at least for the time being.