Babylon (software)
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Babylon version 10.0
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| Developer(s) | Babylon Software Ltd. | ||||||||
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| Type | Dictionary, machine translator, spell checker, browser hijacker | ||||||||
| License | Trialware | ||||||||
| Alexa rank |  234 (April 2014[update]) |
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| Website | www |
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| Windows | 10.5.0 (r4) / July 28, 2015 |
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| Android | 4.1.2 / December 16, 2016 |
| iOS | 2.0.1 / February 14, 2013 |
| Windows Phone | 1.0 |
Babylon is a computer dictionary and translation program, developed by Babylon Software Ltd., an Israeli public company (: BBYL) 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, 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. The toolbar also comes bundled as an add-on with other software downloads. It changes browser preferences such as the user's home page and search engine, changes that can be very difficult to reverse.
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. In 1998, a year following its launch date, Babylon had two million users, mostly in Germany and Brazil, 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. 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.
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