The Internet, a Common Language

My great-grandfather was a translator on the USS Missouri as Japanese officials surrendered to the United States.  His knowledge of the Japanese language had been acquired while serving as a missionary in Japan prior to the war.  Without translators, communication between countries would be impossible.  In our day and age when "the world is flat" and by all appearances will continue to flatten, who will provide the communication link among the nations?  For now, the work rests on the shoulders of professional translators case by case, as my great-grandfather in Japan; but other options are emerging.  Enter two familiar names: Facebook and Google.  They both have their own ideas of how the work of translation should proceed.  Facebook says volunteer translators will bear the burden of bringing their website to far-off lands, with the supervision of hired professionals.  Google, as befits their custom, is determined to create a solution using software ingenuity.  Both companies tote signs of success.  For both, the future is translation of user-generated content.  What are the implications?  Do I want the scope of readable blogs to increase several factors?  I don't pretend to have the answers, but one thing is clear.  Whatever side effects of nationality that exist because of common language may soon become null and void.