up 500,000 requests a day (1997). The second free translation service on the web was Lernout & Hauspie's GlobaLink. Atlantic Magazine wrote in 1998 that "Systran's Babelfish and GlobaLink's Comprende" handled"Don't bank on it" with a "competent performance."

Franz Josef Och (the future head of Translation Development AT Google) won DARPA's speed MT competition (2003). More innovations during this time included MOSES, the open-source statistical MT engine