TORONTO — Do you and your drivers ever face language barriers?

If so, you should know about Ortsbo, a new product out of Toronto’s Intertainment Media.

It’s an online chatting software that translates simultaneously. You simply type your message in English and it appears in Polish. Or one of 48 other languages. And the driver can get right back to you, in English.

You have to chat through Facebook or MSN or one of a few other approved communication platforms, but it’s all free and very simple to use and if your drivers and dispatchers are connected to the Internet, you’ve got yourself an instantaneous translator.

Ortsbo (which means “local” in Swedish) already claims several million users worldwide.

Ortsbo also announced last week that one of its principals is KISS founder and product licensing guru Gene Simmons.

“The personification of today’s globally connected, multi-cultural citizen,” the statement read. "Simmons is fluent in five languages, including English, Hebrew, Hungarian, and German, as well as some Japanese and he’s working to add Mandarin to his repertoire."

Simmons created the new Ortsbo logo and provided the artistic direction to the Ortsbo creative team.

For larger business applications, Ortsbo provides multi-lingual global communications solutions via RSS, API solutions, private chat networks and custom services allowing organizations to provide seamless communications with their constituents.

Ortsbo can be used with PC and Mac computers, on mobile browsers as well as all major search engine chat platforms including Microsoft, Google and Yahoo! along with Facebook, iChat, AIM, ICQ, Gadu-Gadu, Ovi, Lotus Sametime, LiveJournal and Tencent QQ and QQ International, China’s largest, and Twitter.