Today I’ve been looking around for a free online translation tool that translates English to Hebrew – harder

than I thought it would be to find something that doesn’t literally give me words written in Hebrew letters (I was actually looking for transliterations, but…). During this futile search, I came across an Adwords ad for Babylon Software:

Wow, free translation - I will click that

Now, from this ad, I was reasonably expecting free translations. Or, to at least get my free download, right?

So, I clicked the ad (ka-ching, Google says thanks).

Get it now- sounds promising

Ok, a little marketing fluff never killed anyone. The landing page has one link, and even I can see it with my old eyes. I guess I need to Get It Now!

So I clicked the link in the landing page.

Which brought me to:

Umm, maybe I can’t see well enough, but I don’t see anything remotely free. I see that I can select products that cost money. No free download. No free translations. Just a place to make my secure online purchase. FAIL.

I’m not sure why Babylon thinks that offering something for free, and then not delivering on that option, will make me happy. Or make me trust them. Or make me ever return to their website.

Frankly, Babylon Software, I am not a good candidate for your product. I have a limited use for wanting to translate words – and there are only a few words I want to translate. I might just call up one of my relatives in Israel and ask them to do it instead. So why are you trying to get me?

Stick to the plan folks, and remember why exactly you are buying Adwords. It’s not to waste your even smaller marketing budgets.