Abstract: Network-based communication, language translation, and content searching utilize a “pivot” or intermediate language that is readily translated into any of numerous natural languages. Web users may specify a desired language, and that selection is automatically detected by Web servers, which provide content in accordance therewith. In a search context, documents are archived in the pivot language, which serves as an intermediate representation enforcing a precise mode of expressing concepts. Word-match searches based on queries that have also been formulated in the pivot language will retrieve relevant documents with a high degree of reliability, since the concept of interest has been more rigorously formulated. Information in the form of text or messages may be broadcast or sent to recipients, who receive the information in a desired language regardless of the source language of the original information.