Named entity recognition on chat data

A system comprising

• one or more computers programmed to perform operations comprising:
• training a statistical classifier to identify named entities using training data comprising a plurality of features, wherein one of the features is a word shape feature that comprises a respective token for each letter of a respective word, the respective token indicating that each letter of the respective word is one of an upper case letter, a lower case letter, and a digit;
• receiving a plurality of word strings in a first language, each received word string comprising a plurality of words;
• identifying at least one named entity in each received word string using the trained statistical classifier;
• and
• translating the received word strings from the first language to a second language, wherein translating comprises preserving the identified at least one named entity in the first language.

A storage device having instructions stored thereon that when executed by one or more computers perform operations comprising:

• training a statistical classifier to identify named entities using training data comprising a plurality of features, wherein one of the features is a word shape feature that comprises a respective token for each letter of a respective word, the respective token indicating that each letter of the respective word is one of an upper case letter, a lower case letter, and a digit;
• receiving a plurality of word strings in a first language, each received word string comprising a plurality of words;
• identifying at least one named entity in each received word string using the trained statistical classifier;
• and
• translating the received word strings from the first language to a second language, wherein translating comprises preserving the identified at least one named entity in the first language.