kottke.org home archives + xml about kottke.org contact me
kottke.org - home of fine hypertext products

Help Google translate its site into non-English languages

Help Google translate its site into non-English languages.

Reader Comments
10 comments
brian says:

They can't even translate their site to 'English (UK)' (presently listed at 0%). What's up with that?

» by brian on Nov 24, 2003 at 03:46 PM
Joe Hornn says:

So Google gets $200,000,000 in net income and can't hire their own translators?

» by Joe Hornn on Nov 24, 2003 at 04:19 PM
Catherine says:

Man, I wish people would volunteer to make my enterprises worth more money. Also, how is it that some languages are more than 100% translated?

» by Catherine on Nov 24, 2003 at 05:54 PM
lia says:

The Tagalog translation is a unwieldy piece of shit, the translation is so pained and awkward I get the feeling it was probably done by someone who learned Tagalog from a book or class, i.e. not someone who actually comfortable speaking the language. Never mind that it's useless except as a novelty since any Filipino who can go online already speaks English -- and if I'm going to go the novelty route, give me the Swedish Chef any day. Bork bork bork!

I've thought about fixing the translation, but you know what? It's too much work to do for free, especially for a company that's got the money to have it done professionally. Google, ya gets what ya pays for.

» by lia on Nov 24, 2003 at 06:36 PM
lia says:

"someone who is actually comfortable", I meant to say.

Damn you Jason Kottke and your blog's lack of a preview button!

» by lia on Nov 24, 2003 at 06:37 PM
anon says:

Google's translated-by-volunteers system predates their profitability. It seems petty now, but it used to make a lot of sense. It still does, for small-market languages, where a single motivated fluent speaker could make a localized interface the company didn't care enough to make itself.

» by anon on Nov 24, 2003 at 11:00 PM
Nick says:

Two questions:
1) What the hell kind of language is 'Elmer Fudd'?
2) How can something be more than 100% complete?
(read the list of languages if you are wondering what I'm talking about).

» by Nick on Nov 25, 2003 at 03:36 PM
Michael S. says:

The FAQ says that a previously "100% complete" language can become less complete if new messages are added to the Google interface. So I guess this is an example of the reverse.

» by Michael S. on Nov 27, 2003 at 12:40 AM
charles s. says:

if it predates their profitability then they should change it. durr.

» by charles s. on Nov 27, 2003 at 05:14 PM
Bobby says:

This seems like a perfect opportunity to play a karma prank on Google in lieau of all the AdSense bs.

» by Bobby on Nov 29, 2003 at 11:26 AM

 
This thread is closed to new comments. Thanks to everyone who responded.

More about this page

This entry was published on November 24, 2003 at 03:20 pm.

kottke.org is a weblog about the liberal arts 2.0 edited by Jason Kottke since March 1998. You can read about me and kottke.org here. If you've got questions, concerns, or an interesting link for me, send them along. Here's the kottke.org RSS feed kottke.org RSS feed.

Advertisement

dot dot dot

Advertise on kottke.org via The Deck.

Looking for work?
kottke.org

You're visiting kottke.org. All content by Jason Kottke (contact me) unless otherwise noted, with some restrictions on its use. Good luck will come to those who dig around in the archives. If you've reached this point by accident, I suggest panic. In memory of DFW, rest in peace. Thanks for everything.