Google Translate is a practical tool. But it is only a tool. Using it may help you access information available on the Internet in other languages. But Google Translate does not write articles for you in any language. It is intended to help you understand, not to do your work for you. Do you know how horribly wrong things can go in such a translation?
If you are looking for information for your articles, you might come up with search results that are in a language not your own. Google Translate is a tool that will translate this foreign language into some form of English. It is far from perfect and you’ll notice that it jumbles the words any which way. The best translations come from French, it comes as a hash you might be able to decode; translations from all other languages are far worse. Beware from taking the translations at face value.
The proper use for Google Translate is for you to read what is offered to you and take what information you can from that translation. Google Translate results are not intended to be published in any language. You see millions of articles that have been produced that way, and they are a pain to read and make no sense whatever. You can recognize them by their weird titles, though, and save yourself the trouble of looking at them.
Sometimes it is nice to include a quote from a source. Don’t do it if you have to use Google Translate to translate it from the original language into English except if you are adept in both languages. If you want to quote from a language you are not fluent in, make it an indirect quote. This lets you transcribe the gist of what you read into your own language and style. That is much better than quoting “Voltage fun, enjoyment, eyes and ears and tickle your palate, not least, will be presented by Mephisto” (translated from the homepage of the German city of Staufen by means of Google Translate). Do you know what on earth they could mean?
If you are fluent in both languages, do your own translations. What the tourist board of Staufen meant was: “Mephistopheles will present to you a guided tour full of thrills and fun; enjoy having your eyes, ears, and palate tickled by what will be presented to you.” And no, it didn't help Google Translate that the guys doing Staufen's page broke the rules of German grammar in the first place.
If translations from other languages into English are as shown, do you expect it to work any better in the other direction? The translations from English into other languages made with Google Translate are just as hair-raising as the one I cited above. That means for you to never use Google Translate to present your articles in another language. The translations look preposterous and are a source of constant ridicule. It is certain to kill the brand you are trying to create. If you are looking for some fun in between writing, though, take one of your own articles and run it through several language translations before reverting it to English. It's hilarious.
The greatest danger in Google Translate is that it translates word by word and recognizes set expressions only as far as some user has made use of the ‘propose a better translation’ feature. And are you able to check if the 'better translation' is really better and the correct one? As with Wikipedia content, this proposed better translation doesn't have to be the correct one, but it could become standard for translations of the expression.
The second danger is in its choice of words when translating. It ranks word translations according to frequency of use without disclosing where it is used so often. The proposed translation on your screen does not have to be the correct one. Looking at the list of alternate translations, you might hazard an educated guess. Will you know which one is the one to be used in the sense other authors meant in their language?
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