Translate has been around as long as I can remember. It works exactly how I remember translate.altavista.com working-except I can’t remember whether alta vista could detect language.
Saying that it works just like Altavista's Bablefish of yore is ridiculous, at least for the European languages I am familiar with. Translation quality as offered by all major services is leagues ahead compared to the state of, say, three years ago.
(Disclaimer: I work on a competitor to Google Translate)