Comments on: Web-applications: Speak the right language, please

By: David M

David M — Wed, 10 May 2006 03:28:01 +0000

Yes, in Singapore the default google search page displays in Mandarin! Even though the populationi 70% chinese, the language of business, advertising, communication, medium of education, are all British English.

By: links for 2006-04-19 at disambiguity

links for 2006-04-19 at disambiguity — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 08:22:58 +0000

[...] Web-applications: Speak the right language, please (We Break Stuff) The most frustrating thing in localized applications is when you canÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t find the way to change the language it uses, to the one of your choice. Language and localisation (what (not) to do) (tags: language translation localisation localization) [...]

By: namin

namin — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 05:41:11 +0000

It is arguably reasonable of Google to set the default language to the language of the country the user is in. BUT what about multi-lingual countries? I live in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and Google insists on rendering the site in German by default. Now, that’s really annoying.

By: Manuel Emygdio

Manuel Emygdio — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 05:06:08 +0000

is that… Klingon i see at the bottom of the language listbox?!! :D

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 20:21:23 +0000

Hi, just came across your post, and I entirely agree, albeit coming from a slightly different perspective. My main problem is that, my operating system being set to German, some websites default to a poorly localized, hardly understandable German version and I have to change the language back to English to understand what they are actually talking about – the particularly evil ones would then try to take me back to the German version at each click. Apart from the hassle, such “over-protective” SW behaviour also creates a sense of disenfranchisement in the user – language navigation on websites is just one out of many examples.

However, are you sure Google uses the IP approach? In my experience, Google’s default language is not determined by location, but rather by the language settings of your OS (at least if Google is able to detect them – maybe it falls back to location when unable to detect OS locale) – whereas other features (for example, local search, ads) are in fact influenced by location, regardless of OS locale. – This may create an interesting mix. For example, I am based in the UK and run a German OS, therefore, google.com would default to German, offer me to only search for pages in German, but on the other hand suggest to use google.co.uk (rather than goolge.at, google.ch or google.de) and display ads for businesses in England.

This actually makes sense in a way, but then again, do I really want to read about AdSense in their clumsy German translation rather than in well-written, easy-to-read English?

By: Pieter

Pieter — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 15:42:06 +0000

Wouldn’t it be better if the languages were translated each in the language it represents? That way you’d get a list like: “English”, “Francais”, “Deutsch”, “Nederlands”.
Every user knows what his native language is called in his own language.

By: Marcelo Calbucci

Marcelo Calbucci — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 19:26:34 +0000

I couldn’t agree more. Here is my view on the problem, the solution and some other comments. :)

http://bravenewword.typepad.com/brave_new_word/2006/04/choosing_your_l.html

By: Sam Mesh

Sam Mesh — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 18:04:52 +0000

Google already got your advice for “Gmail display language” drop-down select. :)

By: maique

maique — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 17:12:49 +0000

i have the exact same problem. and the same solution.

living in portugal, being portuguese, i always get the portuguese version of google when i delete my cookies.
i always have to do the same thing and i always wondered how people managed if they don’t speak the language google choses.

and i’ve the same happen to me in countries that don’t use our alphabet. it took some trial and error…