s babylon software ltd. operating system microsoft windows type dictionary machine translator spell checker browser hijacker license trialware alexa rank 234 april 2014 update 1 website www.babylon software.com babylon is a computer dictionary and translation program developed by babylon software ltd. an israeli public company tase bbyl 2 based in 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 3 4 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 . babylon attempts to hijack the user s system by adding the babylon toolbar which has been widely identified as a browser hijacker . 5 6 the toolbar also comes bundled as an add on with other software downloads . 7 it changes browser preferences such as the user s home page and search engine changes that can be very difficult to reverse . 8 9 contents 1 history 2 product features 2.1 fremium to premium versions 2.2 dictionaries and encyclopedias 3 malware issues 4 see also 5 references 6 external links history edit 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 . 10 in 1998 a year following its launch date babylon had two million users mostly in germany and brazil 11 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 . 12 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 . 13 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 14 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 . 15 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 . 16 in 2011 babylon was named the seventh most popular website in libya the eighth in algeria and the eleventh in tunisia . 17 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 . 18 according to alexa babylon s website was once ranked 45th most popular website in the world . 18 it is now ranked 494th . product features edit 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 . 19 20 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 . 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 . 21 fremium to premium versions edit babylon is offered as a free trial application but the user is invited to upgrade to a lifetime premium plan either classic or pro . 22 the features available for each plan are as shown in this table feature free trial classic pro lifetime fee 0 89 189 unlimited term translations in 77 languages y y unlimited full text translation y y office documents translated in their original format y y human voice text to speech y y advanced language results n n y the world s leading dictionaries n n y comprehensive language coverage n n y dictionaries and encyclopedias edit 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 . 23 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 . 24 malware issues edit 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 . 25 on 7 august 2010 microsoft antivirus products identified the software application as adware identified as adware win32 babylon due to potentially intrusive behavior . 26 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 . 27 in 2011 the cnet site download.com started bundling the babylon toolbar with open source packages such as nmap . gordon lyon the developer of nmap criticized the decision . 28 29 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 . 30 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 . 5 31 the toolbar is listed as an unwanted application by anti spyware software such as stopzilla or spybot search & destroy . 32 many users trying to uninstall babylon have searched for help on different support forums . 33 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 . 7 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 . 34 see also edit comparison of machine translation applications download valley references edit babylon software.com site info . alexa internet . retrieved 2014 04 01 . schultz fred 2000 . education 01 02 . mcgraw hill higher education . p. 204 . isbn 978 0 07 243317 3 . game over in download valley haaretz inbal orpaz orr hirschauge 22 august 2013 conduit diversifies away from download valley wall street journal orr hirschauge updated 15 may 2014 a b babylon search hijacker . im infected.com . 31 july 2012 . retrieved 7 november 2012 . rashid fahmida 2 may 2013 . how to remove babylon search toolbar . pc magazine . ziff davis . retrieved 19 august 2013 . a b lee jay 25 july 2012 getting rid of babylon the houston chronicle remove fbi & babylon zombie virus pcpitstop.com author steve hogan 11 october 2012 brinkmann martin 17 august 2011 how to uninstall the babylon toolbar completely ghacks.net . recognition and translation system . google patents . google . retrieved 16 september 2011 . babble on . salon media group inc. 2 november 1999 . retrieved 16 september 2011 . blackburn nicky may 2002 . by the users of babylon . jerusalem post via formula vision . archived from the original on 11 july 2011 . retrieved 18 september 2011 . formula vision lost nis 33.6 million in 2001 . themarker.com 3 april 2002 malichi asaf 12 august 2007 noam lanir buys into babylon ynet ackerman gwen 19 january 2011 . babylon shareholder gets offer for majority stake globes says . bloomberg . retrieved 16 september 2011 . babylon extends deal with google globes 26 december 2010 solomon shoshanna 11 december 2011 israel s babylon says arab world to boost sales of translation software . bloomberg.com a b tsipori tali 19 april 2012 noam lanir makes nis 200m profit on babylon . globes.co.il pc world . 19 4 6 123 . 2001 . missing or empty title help 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 . about babylon simply translate . babylon ltd. retrieved 18 september 2011 . premium plans upgrade your babylon and enjoy premium features . . babylon software ltd. retrieved 2016 10 09 . free dictionary lookup by babylon . babylon.com 2 august 2001 . retrieved on 9 november 2010 . stauber shuki . babylon there s nothing like experience . jobs israel.com . retrieved 16 september 2011 . download.com caught adding malware to nmap & other software insecure.org 27 june 2012 definition change log for version 1.87.1429.0 . microsoft malware protection center threat research and response . microsoft corporation . 7 august 2010 . retrieved 11 august 2010 . encyclopedia entry adware win32 babylon . microsoft malware protection center threat research and response . microsoft corporation . 11 august 2010 . retrieved 23 august 2010 . download.com sorry for bundling nmap with crapware the register 9 december 2011 popular network tool nmap in cnet security brouhaha naked security 6 december 2011 a note from sean regarding the download.com installer download.com 7 december 2011 babylon s come uppance . jewish business news . 30 october 2013 . retrieved 24 november 2013 . what is babylon