The new Microsoft Translator widget.

A new translation widget from Microsoft Research lets Web developers offer their sites in alternative languages on their own pages, without shifting users to a different site. A technology preview of the free widget was released today at the company's Mix conference in Las Vegas.

The Microsoft Translator widget can be embedded into a site, appearing as a small box. When a user toggles to a different language, the page automatically changes. Existing translation widgets from Microsoft, Google and others instead send users to separate proxy sites that render the page in the alternative language, sometimes straying from the original design and layout.

See this page for an example of the widget in action. Keeping users on the page should prove more appealing to Web developers, said Vikram Dendi, the Microsoft researcher behind the project.  The company also released a set of application programming interfaces, or APIs, for more advanced customization of the technology.

"We see this something that exposes automatic translation technology to a wider audience," Dendi said.

Although Microsoft is offering the widget and APIs for free, the tool does bring potential business opportunities for the company. When a  a translation is made on a page, a blue status bar appears at the top. One possibility, down the road, is to have additional links in that bar directing people to related Microsoft sites and services.