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Don't guess my language

vitonsky.net

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Re: Don't guess my language

#81

Post by dkjaudyeqooe »

doix wrote: post #9

My biggest annoyance is with Google. They know who I am, they know I am traveling, they know my language preferences (English) and yet I still get language based on my location on certain pages. I let you track me Google, please use it for some good UX and not just advertising.

Indeed, somehow Google is the worst offender with this.

Lately they've decided that auto translating the local language into English in Maps reviews is the wrong thing to do. They translate every other language into English but somehow since I live in this place I must speak the local language too, so I don't need that in English.

Ditto for search results. Surely you want Wikipedia in the local language! I mean you've been there for so long! You search for things in the local language, surely that's a sign of your preference and not the fact that searching for things locally requires use of the local language.

This also applies to so much other "we must make our software so smart and guess all your preferences". Google fails so consistently at this I cannot understand why they persist other than some sort of misplaced corporate self regard.

Re: Don't guess my language

#82

Post by pyb »

I don't understand why Google, of all sites, picks your language based on your IP. It ignores not only Accept-Language, but my Google Language settings as well. Their language handling seems to be getting worse over time. Not to mention the long-gone days where you could go to google.co.uk to get UK content.

Re: Don't guess my language

#83

Post by Aachen »

donatj wrote: post #75
Aachen wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You ask, as in, whenever I visit the site without having your cookies stored, I'll get a language selector wall first? I run into those regularly and it's always a struggle to know how to stay on the damn page I clicked on: will the "continue" button use the preselected value or will it dismiss the pop-up and continue on the current page?If the former, is the preselected value the page I'm on or a different language?…

We're a paid SaaS so I don't think it's as much of an annoyance to be asked once per browser. It's just a separate page you hit after signing in if we don't have your preference. You click on the language you want and you are redirected to the dashboard. The option to change it still exists in the footer.

Okay, must say that does sound like a very acceptable flow. You'll have the user logged in at that point so can store it and never need to ask again. Was expecting you built this for regular websites, my bad!

Re: Don't guess my language

#84

Post by dijit »

Vinnl wrote: post #60
dijit wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re in luck! https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Reference/... I wrote about it once; https://dijit.svbtle.com/trusting-the-user-they-know-what-la... Outlook web actually respects this, which is refreshing.

Unfortunately, that just specifies which languages you prefer, regardless of what the original language is. I speak Dutch and English, but have English set as my preferred language, because most of the time that multiple languages are available, that is the original language. However, sometimes I'll be visiting a Dutch site that has a (usually badly-)translated English version available, and I'd rather get the Dutch…

I think thats bad logic on the server side and not to do with the concept of Accept-Language though.

I would think the ideal prioritisation should probably be:

* Exact (en_GB)

* Exact (fr_CA)

* Soft (en_*) // Any variant of English you might have available

* Soft (fr_*) // Any variant of French you might have available

* Translated. (to first preferred)

for Accept-Language: “en_GB,fr_CA”

Re: Don't guess my language

#85

Post by qiine »

avhception wrote: post #34
tapia wrote: post #23

I also hate the youtube "feature" that translates the titles of videos to your setting's language. This is so annoying. I can understand English and don't need these automatic translations.

My computer is set to English even though I'm German, and sometimes Youtube will treat me to this really uncanny machine voice with really weird phrases because it auto-translated some German video or advert. Lidl is worth it, ja!

its especially funny with asmr video, not gonna lie the first time I was beyond confused

Re: Don't guess my language

#86

Post by genocidicbunny »

troupo wrote: post #48
littlecranky67 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So much this. I suspect the idea that a person speaks more than one language is absent in US silicon valley. Else I can't explain why youtube only lets you set one language. Heck, even google allows you to configure all spoken languages in your account, the very same google account you use for youtube. Yet youtube ignores it and has its own settings.

> I suspect the idea that a person speaks more than one language is absent in US silicon valley. Which has been baffling to me considering how many foreigners work at these companies.

I think it's more a matter of "why would they have their system language set to X if they speak Y? If they want Y, they should just set their system language to Y!"

It's the idea that the user has a preference for something, and it applies always and everywhere, even when it's not applicable.

Re: Don't guess my language

#87

Post by qiine »

sph wrote: post #50
tapia wrote: post #23

I also hate the youtube "feature" that translates the titles of videos to your setting's language. This is so annoying. I can understand English and don't need these automatic translations.

Now Reddit results are translated as well in Google, Kagi, so you think you have found a relevant response in your language, but it's just a machine translation from an English post.

duckduckgo seems to do it as well

Re: Don't guess my language

#88

Post by sikiladho »

I’m glad someone said this. As someone from Pakistan whose first language is Sindhi and who detests the imposition of Urdu as a ‘lingua franca,’ I find it very frustrating when Google forces Urdu on Gmail, YouTube, and Search.

It also flips the entire user interface to a right-to-left layout to match Urdu’s writing direction, which feels completely unfamiliar and disorienting to me.

Re: Don't guess my language

#89

Post by FinnLobsien »

Another annoying version of this is localized google results. I'm originally from country A, live in country B, but work in English, which is not the language of either place.

But google will then localize results to where I am, which typically deprioritizes English results because I'm not in an English speaking country.

You can set your google settings to act as if you're in the US permanently, but then googling anything local/regional will serve results aimed at people a continent away.

All this "guessing what the user wants" has become detrimental to actual UX.

Re: Don't guess my language

#90

Post by sneak »

doix wrote: post #9

My biggest annoyance is with Google. They know who I am, they know I am traveling, they know my language preferences (English) and yet I still get language based on my location on certain pages. I let you track me Google, please use it for some good UX and not just advertising.

Sad fact: most people don’t go anywhere.

People like us are an edge case.

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