Sometimes an idea comes along that's so simple, yet so genius you have to ask yourself a) why didn't I think of that?? and b) why didn't someone think of this until now?!

There's a new online blog translation tool called Der Mundo that's just released that rocks. The guy who developed the site -- Brian McConnell -- is a fan of this.hearts.on.fire. and emailed me a few weeks back telling me he'd like to have the site included in his new online translation tool.

Here's how it works: any blog that that's created using WordPress, Tumblr, Twitter, and/or has an RSS will work with Der Mundo. You have to go to the site and see if your favorite blog has been added yet. If it has, you can see what posts have come through. The system automatically rough translates posts into 12 different languages: Spanish, Catalan, Galician, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, and Arabic. Given I'm not fluent in any foreign language, I've not been able to test the accuracy of the translations, but the initial ones aren't meant to be exact, but a starting point for you to use to translate the posts into whatever language you choose. Like Wikipedia, a trail of who updated what and when will show to keep track of all activity.

If your favorite blog isn't yet part of the Der Mundo network, you can signup and add it.

That's all there is to it. Check out the site to see what it's all about. The user interface is simple and straight forward. The developers will be tweaking it slightly as the tool over time.

Don't forget to check out the landing page for this.hearts.on.fire. I've also added a link in the right nav under CONTACT for future use. I'll also be adding an icon on each secondary page shortly that will link you to Der Mundo to translate individual posts.

Other sites currently on Der Mundo: Butt Magazine, Boing Boing, The Guardian, TechCrunch, and the SF Weekly. The sooner you add all of your favorite blogs, the sooner the world will be able to read them, so get cracking!