Babylon (software)

Last updated

Babylon
Original author(s) Amnon Ovadia
Developer(s) Babylon Software Ltd.
Stable release(s) [±]
Windows11.0.1.6 / 22 June 2021;2 years ago (2021-06-22)
Android4.1.2 / 16 December 2016;6 years ago (2016-12-16) [1]
iOS2.0.1 / 14 February 2013;10 years ago (2013-02-14) [2]
Windows Phone1.0 / 18 January 2012;11 years ago (2012-01-18) [3]
Operating system
Type Dictionary, machine translator
License Freemium
Website babylon-software.com

Babylon is a computer dictionary and translation program developed by the Israeli company Babylon Software Ltd. based in the city of Or Yehuda. The company was established in 1997 by the Israeli entrepreneur Amnon Ovadia. Its IPO took place ten years later. It is considered a part of Israel's Download Valley, [7] [8] a cluster of software companies monetizing "free" software downloads through adware. Babylon includes in-house proprietary dictionaries, as well as community-created dictionaries and glossaries. It is a tool used for translation and conversion of currencies, measurements and time, and for obtaining other contextual information. The program also uses a text-to-speech agent, so users hear the proper pronunciation of words and text. Babylon has developed 36 English-based proprietary dictionaries in 21 languages. In 2008–2009, Babylon reported earnings of 50 million NIS through its collaboration with Google. [9]

Contents

Between 2010 and 2013, Babylon became infamous for demonstrating questionable behavior typical of malware: A Babylon Toolbar bundled with Babylon and other software, has been widely identified as a browser hijacker that is very easy to install inadvertently and unnecessarily difficult to remove. [10] [11] [12] [13] This eventually led to Google terminating its agreement with Babylon Ltd. in 2013. [14]

History

In 1995, Israeli entrepreneur Amnon Ovadia began a project for an online English–Hebrew dictionary which would not interrupt the reading process. As a result, Babylon Ltd. was founded in 1997 and launched the first version of Babylon. On 25 September 1997, the company filed a patent for text recognition and translation. [15] In 1998, a year following its launch date, Babylon had two million users, mostly in Germany and Brazil, [16] growing from 420,000 to 2.5 million users in the course of that year. In the same year, Formula Systems, headed by Dan Goldstein, acquired Mashov Computers and became the largest shareholder in the company. By 2000, the product had over 4 million users. In the spring of 2000, Babylon Ltd. failed to raise $20 million in a private placement and lost NIS 15 million. [17] Further stress came with the collapse of the Dot-com bubble. In 2001, Babylon Ltd. continued shedding money, with the company costing its parent company Formula Vision NIS 4.7 million. [18]

Since 2007, Babylon Ltd. (TASE :  BBYL) has been a publicly traded company. Its IPO took place in February 2007; Israeli businessman Noam Lanir purchased controlling interests in the company for $10.5 million, sharing management with second majority shareholder Reed Elsevier [19] and the Company founder, Amnon Ovadia. According to Globes magazine in January 2011, Lanir received an offer for his stake from a foreign private equity fund that valued the company at NIS 248 million (approximately 70 million dollars). [20]

In 2008–2009, Babylon reported earnings of NIS 50 million through its collaboration with Google. In 2010, Google Ireland signed an extended cooperation agreement with Babylon to provide it with online search and pay-per-click advertising services. [21]

In 2011, Babylon was named the seventh most popular website in Libya, the eighth in Algeria and the eleventh in Tunisia. [22]

According to Globes magazine, Noam Lanir, who acquired control of Babylon for NIS 20 million, made a paper profit of NIS 200 million on his investment in 2012. [23] According to the same source, the Babylon website achieved an Alexa ranking of 45 in April 2012. [23]

In October 2014, the translation business was purchased by Babylon Software Ltd.

Product features

A single click on any text using the right mouse button or combination of the right mouse button and a keyboard modifier, and the Babylon window appears providing a translation and definition of the clicked term. [24] Babylon is a tool used for translation and conversion of currencies, measurements and time, and for obtaining other contextual information. Babylon has a patented[ specify ] OCR technology and a single-click activation that works in any Microsoft Windows application, such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Excel, Internet Explorer and Adobe Reader. When activated, Babylon opens a small popup window that displays the translation or definition. To solve the incompatibility problem of Babylon OCR browsers extension; users can benefit from Capture2Text free app version 3.9 (only 3.9v) which is compatible with Babylon 8 or another version. While dragging its capture box in any text from any browsers, then a pop-up box appears and Babylon could easily grasp it. Babylon provides full text translation, full Web page and full document translation in many languages and supports integration with Microsoft Office. Babylon enables the translation of Microsoft Word documents and plain text files. It offers results from a database of over 1,700 sources in over 75 languages. [25]

Dictionaries and encyclopedias

Babylon includes its in-house proprietary dictionaries, community-created dictionaries and glossaries (UGC), which include general and technical dictionaries, language and monolingual dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopedias and lexicons in a multitude of languages. They are indexed in 400 categories covering the arts, business, computers, health, law, entertainment, sports and so on. [26]

The program also uses a text-to-speech agent so users hear the proper pronunciation of words and text. Babylon Ltd. has developed 36 English-based proprietary dictionaries in 21 languages (English, Arabic, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish) that are free of charge to users of the software. These dictionaries comprise between 60,000 and 200,000 terms, phrases, acronyms and abbreviations and are enabled with a morphological engine which facilitates recognition of all inflected forms of single words and phrases, provides all forms of terms that include prefixes and extensions and supplies a solution for all formats of writing. Babylon's Linguistic Department is responsible for the extensive content and information database which is a significant component of Babylon's Product. [27]

Malware issues

Installer window from Download.com during the controversy with Nmap. After clicking on the green button, it installs the Babylon Toolbar, which hijacks the user's web browser. Babylon malware installer.png
Installer window from Download.com during the controversy with Nmap. After clicking on the green button, it installs the Babylon Toolbar, which hijacks the user's web browser.

On 7 August 2010, Microsoft antivirus products identified the software application as adware (identified as "Adware: Win32/Babylon") due to potentially intrusive behavior. [29] Sixteen days later, on 23 August 2010, Microsoft announced that Babylon Ltd. had modified the program and that it was no longer categorized as adware. [30]

In 2011, Download.com started bundling the Babylon Toolbar with open-source packages such as Nmap. Gordon Lyon, the developer of Nmap, criticized the decision. [31] [32] The vice-president of Download.com, Sean Murphy, released an apology: "The bundling of this software was a mistake on our part and we apologize to the user and developer communities for the unrest it caused." [33]

In 2012 the Babylon search toolbar was identified as a browser hijacker that, while very easy to install inadvertently, is unnecessarily difficult to remove afterwards. [10] [11] [12] The toolbar is listed as an unwanted application by anti-spyware software such as Stopzilla or Spybot – Search & Destroy. [34] Many users, trying to uninstall Babylon, have searched for help on different support forums. [35] The toolbar tends to install itself onto computers as an add-on with other software and changes users' home page to the Babylon search engine, adds the search engine to the computer and sets itself as the default. [13] It changes browser preferences such as the user's home page and search engine, changes that can be very difficult to reverse. [36] [37]

On 29 October 2013, Google notified Babylon that it did not intend to renew its cooperation agreement between the two companies, which terminated on 30 November 2013. Google said that complaints had been received from Google Chrome users, claiming that the Babylon toolbar damages the browser's user experience. According to Babylon, Google may have reconsidered the decision during 2014. [14] Since that point Babylon Software no longer distributes any toolbars or offers any 3rd party software.

See also

Related Research Articles

Adware, often called advertising-supported software by its developers, is software that generates revenue for its developer by automatically generating online advertisements in the user interface of the software or on a screen presented to the user during the installation process. The software may generate two types of revenue: one is for the display of the advertisement and another on a "pay-per-click" basis, if the user clicks on the advertisement. Some advertisements also act as spyware, collecting and reporting data about the user, to be sold or used for targeted advertising or user profiling. The software may implement advertisements in a variety of ways, including a static box display, a banner display, a full screen, a video, a pop-up ad or in some other form. All forms of advertising carry health, ethical, privacy and security risks for users.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Browser Helper Object</span> Plug-in module for Internet Explorer

A Browser Helper Object (BHO) is a DLL module designed as a plugin for the Microsoft Internet Explorer web browser to provide added functionality. BHOs were introduced in October 1997 with the release of version 4 of Internet Explorer. Most BHOs are loaded once by each new instance of Internet Explorer. However, in the case of Windows Explorer, a new instance is launched for each window.

CNET Download is an Internet download directory website launched in 1996 as a part of CNET. Initially it resided on the domain download.com, and then download.com.com for a while, and is now download.cnet.com. The domain download.com attracted at least 113 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete.com study.

PDFCreator is an application for converting documents into Portable Document Format (PDF) format on Microsoft Windows operating systems. It works by creating a virtual printer that prints to PDF files, and thereby allows practically any application to create PDF files by choosing to print from within the application and then printing to the PDFCreator printer.

Browser hijacking is a form of unwanted software that modifies a web browser's settings without a user's permission, to inject unwanted advertising into the user's browser. A browser hijacker may replace the existing home page, error page, or search engine with its own. These are generally used to force hits to a particular website, increasing its advertising revenue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zango (company)</span>

Zango,, formerly ePIPO, 180solutions and Hotbar, was a software company that provided users access to its partners' videos, games, tools and utilities in exchange for viewing targeted advertising placed on their computers. Zango software is listed as adware by Symantec, and is also labeled as a potentially unwanted program by McAfee. Zango was co-founded by two brothers: Keith Smith, who served as the CEO; and Ken Smith, who served as the CTO.

Christopher Boyd, also known by his online pseudonym Paperghost, is a computer security researcher.

Rogue security software is a form of malicious software and internet fraud that misleads users into believing there is a virus on their computer and aims to convince them to pay for a fake malware removal tool that actually installs malware on their computer. It is a form of scareware that manipulates users through fear, and a form of ransomware. Rogue security software has been a serious security threat in desktop computing since 2008. An early example that gained infamy was SpySheriff and its clones, such as Nava Shield.

A browser toolbar is a toolbar that resides within a browser's window. All major web browsers provide support to browser toolbar development as a way to extend the browser's GUI and functionality. Browser toolbars are considered to be a particular kind of browser extensions that present a toolbar. Browser toolbars are specific to each browser, which means that a toolbar working on a browser does not work on another one. All browser toolbars must be installed in the corresponding browser before they can be used and require updates when new versions are released.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genieo</span> Israeli company specializing in Mac malware

Genieo Innovation is an Israeli company, specializing in unwanted software which includes advertising and user tracking software, commonly referred to as a potentially unwanted program, adware, privacy-invasive software, grayware, or malware. They are best known for Genieo, an application of this type. They also own and operate InstallMac which distributes additional 'optional' search modifying software with other applications. In 2014, Genieo Innovation was acquired for $34 million by Somoto, another company which "bundles legitimate applications with offers for additional third party applications that may be unwanted by the user". This sector of the Israeli software industry is frequently referred to as Download Valley.

The Conduit toolbar was an online platform that allowed web publishers to create custom toolbars, web apps, and mobile apps at no cost. It was developed by Conduit Inc. but demerged to Perion Network. Conduit had approximately 260,000 registered publishers who have collectively created content downloaded by more than 250 million end users. Web apps and pieces of content developed through Conduit's platform can be distributed and exchanged online via the Conduit App Marketplace. As of 2010, 60 million users consumed apps from the marketplace on a daily basis.

Auslogics Disk Defrag is a freemium software application for Microsoft Windows intended to defragment files and folders on a hard drive, consolidate free space, and optimize file placement using different criteria. It has an estimated 10 It is available in both free and "Pro" versions.

Mindspark Interactive Network, Inc. was an operating business unit of IAC known for the development and marketing of entertainment and personal computing software, as well as mobile application development. Mindspark's mobile division acquired iOS application developer Apalon in 2014, which was known for popular entertainment applications such as Weather Live, Emoji Keypad, and Calculator Pro.

Superfish was an advertising company that developed various advertising-supported software products based on a visual search engine. The company was based in Palo Alto, California. It was founded in Israel in 2006 and has been regarded as part of the country's "Download Valley" cluster of adware companies. Superfish's software is malware and adware. The software was bundled with various applications as early as 2010, and Lenovo began to bundle the software with some of its computers in September 2014. On February 20, 2015, the United States Department of Homeland Security advised uninstalling it and its associated root certificate, because they make computers vulnerable to serious cyberattacks, including interception of passwords and sensitive data being transmitted through browsers.

Download Valley is a cluster of software companies in Israel, producing and delivering adware to be installed alongside downloads of other software. The primary purpose is to monetize shareware and downloads. These software items are commonly browser toolbars, adware, browser hijackers, spyware, and malware. Another group of products are download managers, possibly designed to induce or trick the user to install adware, when downloading a piece of desired software or mobile app from a certain source.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Citrio</span> Adware web browser

Citrio is an adware web browser developed by Catalina Group Ltd. and distributed by Epom Ad Server. Citrio is available for Windows and Mac OS X. Citrio has a download manager that includes Bittorrent support, a video downloader, a media player and a proxy switcher. Citrio is based on the open source Chromium web browser project, which makes it compatible with all extensions, apps and themes from Chrome Web Store.

Conduit Ltd. is an international software company. From its founding in 2005 to 2013, its most well-known product was the Conduit toolbar, which was widely-described as malware. In 2013, it spun off its toolbar business; today, its main product is a mobile development platform that allows users to create native and web mobile applications for smartphones.

A potentially unwanted program (PUP) or potentially unwanted application (PUA) is software that a user may perceive as unwanted or unnecessary. It is used as a subjective tagging criterion by security and parental control products. Such software may use an implementation that can compromise privacy or weaken the computer's security. Companies often bundle a wanted program download with a wrapper application and may offer to install an unwanted application, and in some cases without providing a clear opt-out method. Antivirus companies define the software bundled as potentially unwanted programs which can include software that displays intrusive advertising (adware), or tracks the user's Internet usage to sell information to advertisers (spyware), injects its own advertising into web pages that a user looks at, or uses premium SMS services to rack up charges for the user. A growing number of open-source software projects have expressed dismay at third-party websites wrapping their downloads with unwanted bundles, without the project's knowledge or consent. Nearly every third-party free download site bundles their downloads with potentially unwanted software. The practice is widely considered unethical because it violates the security interests of users without their informed consent. Some unwanted software bundles install a root certificate on a user's device, which allows hackers to intercept private data such as banking details, without a browser giving security warnings. The United States Department of Homeland Security has advised removing an insecure root certificate, because they make computers vulnerable to serious cyberattacks. Software developers and security experts recommend that people always download the latest version from the official project website, or a trusted package manager or app store.

WiperSoft is an anti-spyware program developed by Wiper Software. It is designed to help users protect their computers from such threats as adware, browser hijackers, worms, potentially unwanted programs (PUPs), trojans, and viruses. Currently available only for Microsoft Windows.

Fireball is a browser hijacking malware discovered by the security company Check Point. It takes over target browsers and turns them into zombies.

References

  1. ↑ "Babylon Translator". Google Play . Google . Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  2. ↑ "iBabylon". iTunes Store . Apple . Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  3. ↑ "Babylon Translator". Microsoft Store . Microsoft . Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  4. ↑ "Babylon Translator". Google Play . Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  5. ↑ "iBabylon". iTunes Store . Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  6. ↑ "Babylon Translator". Windows Store . Microsoft . Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  7. ↑ Game over in Download Valley? Haaretz, Inbal Orpaz, Orr Hirschauge, 22 August 2013
  8. ↑ Conduit Diversifies Away From 'Download Valley' Wall Street Journal, Orr Hirschauge, updated 15 May 2014
  9. ↑ "Shares in Israel's Babylon dive as Google ends contract". Reuters. 30 October 2013. Retrieved 20 June 2023.
  10. 1 2 "Babylon Search Hijacker". im-infected.com. 31 July 2012. Retrieved 7 November 2012.
  11. 1 2 Rashid, Fahmida (2 May 2013). "How to Remove Babylon Search Toolbar". PC Magazine . Ziff Davis . Retrieved 19 August 2013.
  12. 1 2 "Babylon's Come-Uppance". Jewish Business News . 30 October 2013. Retrieved 24 November 2013.
  13. 1 2 Lee, Jay (25 July 2012) Getting rid of Babylon Archived 26 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine , The Houston Chronicle
  14. 1 2 Shares in Israel's Babylon dive as Google ends contract Reuters, 30 October 2013.
  15. ↑ "Recognition and translation system". Google Patents . Retrieved 16 September 2011.
  16. ↑ "Babble on". Salon Media Group, Inc. 2 November 1999. Archived from the original on 13 February 2010. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
  17. ↑ Blackburn, Nicky (May 2002). "By The Users of Babylon". The Jerusalem Post via Formula Vision. Archived from the original on 11 July 2011. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
  18. ↑ Formula Vision lost NIS 33.6 million in 2001. TheMarker.com (3 April 2002)
  19. ↑ Malichi, Asaf (12 August 2007) Noam Lanir buys into Babylon, YNet
  20. ↑ Ackerman, Gwen (19 January 2011). "Babylon Shareholder gets offer for majority stake, Globes says" . Bloomberg News. Bloomberg. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
  21. ↑ Babylon extends deal with Google, Globes, 26 December 2010
  22. ↑ Solomon, Shoshanna (11 December 2011) Israel’s Babylon Says Arab World to Boost Sales of Translation Software. bloomberg.com
  23. 1 2 Tsipori, Tali (19 April 2012) Noam Lanir makes NIS 200m profit on Babylon. globes.co.il
  24. ↑ Huber, Jeffrey T; Boorkman, Jo Anne; Blackwell, Jean (2008). Introduction to reference sources in the health sciences. Neal-Schuman Publishers. p. 127. ISBN   978-1-55570-636-4.
  25. ↑ "About Babylon – Simply Translate". Babylon Ltd. Archived from the original on 30 November 2020. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
  26. ↑ Free Dictionary Lookup by Babylon. Babylon-software.com (2 August 2001). Retrieved on 9 November 2010.
  27. ↑ Stauber, Shuki. "Babylon – There's Nothing Like Experience". Jobs-israel.com. Archived from the original on 2 April 2012. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
  28. ↑ Download.com Caught Adding Malware to Nmap & Other Software insecure.org 27 June 2012
  29. ↑ "Definition change log for version 1.87.1429.0". Malware Protection Center&. Microsoft. 7 August 2010. Retrieved 11 August 2010.
  30. ↑ "Adware:Win32/Babylon". Malware Protection Center. Microsoft. 11 August 2010. Retrieved 23 August 2010.
  31. ↑ Download.com sorry for bundling Nmap with crapware The Register 9 December 2011
  32. ↑ Popular network tool Nmap in CNET security brouhaha Naked Security 6 December 2011
  33. ↑ A note from Sean regarding the Download.com Installer Archived 27 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine Download.com 7 December 2011
  34. ↑ What is Babylon Toolbar and how to remove it? pcrisk.com 9 July 2012
  35. ↑ Lesson Learned the Hard Way: Pay Attention to the Source of Your Downloads Don Tennant, IT Business Edge, 11 September 2012
  36. ↑ Remove FBI & Babylon Zombie Virus PCPitstop.com, author Steve Hogan, 11 October 2012
  37. ↑ Brinkmann, Martin (17 August 2011) How To Uninstall The Babylon Toolbar Completely, ghacks.net.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.