Translation Feature for Visitors

Teresa wrote:

 > I have a client that receives visitors from over 26 countries. She
 > would like to start offering some sort of translation service for her
 > customers. A link that translates the requested page is what she has
 > seen done on other sites.
 >
 > What products or services have other webmasters used for translation?
 > Any experiences with Google or AltaVista's translation tools? The
 > client has limited financial resources.
 >
 > Thanks for your recommendations and experiences in advance!
 >
 > Healthy regards,
 >
 > Teresa

I suspect most sites that do this actually pay someone to translate
them. At least, that's what we're doing for one of our sites - having it
translated into French and German. Having a computer translate it just
doesn't work for commercial stuff.

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 >> Stay informed about: Translation Feature for Visitors 

Teresa web54 DeleteThis @webnoxious.com wrote:
 > I have a client that receives visitors from over 26 countries. She
 > would like to start offering some sort of translation service for her
 > customers. A link that translates the requested page is what she has
 > seen done on other sites.
 >
 > What products or services have other webmasters used for translation?
 > Any experiences with Google or AltaVista's translation tools? The
 > client has limited financial resources.
 >
 > Thanks for your recommendations and experiences in advance!
 >

That gives me an idea. Would a link to a set of pages that explain how to
find and use an online automatic translation service in a wide range of
languages be useful to ger, or anyone else? I xan probably get that set up
within a few weeks provided enough people would link to it to make it
worth doing. If so, anyone up for translating such a page into a language
other than Engliah? I can't pay. Not only don't I have any money, I'm not
sure that it is something that could make money later. However it might be
useful for a lot of people.

The simple instant answer is to just link to one of the better translation
services.

<http://www.worldlingo.com/products_services/worldlingo_translator.html>

<http://www.worldlanguage.com/Translation.htm>

<http://www.foreignword.com/Eureka/default.asp?lg=en&lng1=0&lng2=&allcat=&
field=&days=&p=&a=&q=&cat=BBA&adv=>

--
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 >> Stay informed about: Translation Feature for Visitors 

On 24 Oct 2004 09:10:22 -0700 web54 RemoveThis @webnoxious.com (Teresa) broke off
from drinking a cup of tea at <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://groups.google.com" target="_blank">http://groups.google.com</a> to write:

 >I have a client that receives visitors from over 26 countries. She
 >would like to start offering some sort of translation service for her
 >customers. A link that translates the requested page is what she has
 >seen done on other sites.
 >
 >What products or services have other webmasters used for translation?
 >Any experiences with Google or AltaVista's translation tools? The
 >client has limited financial resources.

Why not visit our site, and see what you think of the service we
offer?

It doesn't cost us anything, only a link to the translating site. We
have not received any complaints, and it is widely used.

Matt

--
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 >> Stay informed about: Translation Feature for Visitors 

web54.DeleteThis@webnoxious.com (Teresa) wrote in
news:d52fedc7.0410240810.4e3854a0@posting.google.com:

 > I have a client that receives visitors from over 26 countries.

The Degree COnfluence Project website gets visits from
over 150 countries

 > She would like to start offering some sort of translation service for her
 > customers. A link that translates the requested page is what she has
 > seen done on other sites.
 >
 > What products or services have other webmasters used for translation?

One option is to include links on each page which will
link to things such as Google, Altavisita, PROMPT, etc.,
providing the visitor with a "machine translation" of
the current webpage.

Here's a slightly different(better?) approach:
- add a "Translate" link on every page of the website
(e.g. as part of the site navigation)
- add a page on the website explaining what translation
options are provided(of course this page should also
have the "Translate" link)
- have the "Translate" link link to a server-side script
- have the server-side script produce a 'translation options'
webpage that contains the appropriate links to translate the
'original' page, by using Google, Altavista, etc., by making
use of the URL of the referring page in the links
The disadvantage of this is that the links that do the
machine translation are "one page away" from the actual
page being translated.
The advantage is that you can have the 'translation options'
page contain links for all of the machine translation websites
you can find, for all of the languages that they support.

Of course the real solution is to have a system that allows
the site visitor to select their language preference, and
see the website in that language, but that requires having
built the website to support Internationalization, and also
would likely require the use of 'proper' translation services,
not machine translations.
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.w3.org/International/" target="_blank">http://www.w3.org/International/</a>

--
Dave Patton
Canadian Coordinator, Degree Confluence Project
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 >> Stay informed about: Translation Feature for Visitors 

Dave Patton wrote:

 > web54 RemoveThis @webnoxious.com (Teresa) wrote in
 > news:d52fedc7.0410240810.4e3854a0@posting.google.com:
 >
 >
  >>I have a client that receives visitors from over 26 countries.
 >
 >
 > The Degree COnfluence Project website gets visits from
 > over 150 countries
 >
 >
  >>She would like to start offering some sort of translation service for her
  >>customers. A link that translates the requested page is what she has
  >>seen done on other sites.
  >>
  >>What products or services have other webmasters used for translation?
 >
 >
 > One option is to include links on each page which will
 > link to things such as Google, Altavisita, PROMPT, etc.,
 > providing the visitor with a "machine translation" of
 > the current webpage.
 >
 > Here's a slightly different(better?) approach:
 > - add a "Translate" link on every page of the website
 > (e.g. as part of the site navigation)
 > - add a page on the website explaining what translation
 > options are provided(of course this page should also
 > have the "Translate" link)
 > - have the "Translate" link link to a server-side script
 > - have the server-side script produce a 'translation options'
 > webpage that contains the appropriate links to translate the
 > 'original' page, by using Google, Altavista, etc., by making
 > use of the URL of the referring page in the links
 > The disadvantage of this is that the links that do the
 > machine translation are "one page away" from the actual
 > page being translated.
 > The advantage is that you can have the 'translation options'
 > page contain links for all of the machine translation websites
 > you can find, for all of the languages that they support.
 >
 > Of course the real solution is to have a system that allows
 > the site visitor to select their language preference, and
 > see the website in that language, but that requires having
 > built the website to support Internationalization, and also
 > would likely require the use of 'proper' translation services,
 > not machine translations.
<font color=purple> > <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.w3.org/International/</font" target="_blank">http://www.w3.org/International/</font</a>>
 >

Even better one is to detect what language the users browser is running
in an serve the correct content for them. That's what we're doing. None
of our pages have any text in them - Apache/JSTL detects the UA and
serves a different .properties file for the site, which contains all of
the text for the entire site.

--


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 >> Stay informed about: Translation Feature for Visitors 

SpaceGirl NOtheSpaceGirlSPAM RemoveThis @subhuman.net wrote:
 >
 > Even better one is to detect what language the users browser is running
 > in an serve the correct content for them. That's what we're doing. None
 > of our pages have any text in them - Apache/JSTL detects the UA and
 > serves a different .properties file for the site, which contains all of
 > the text for the entire site.
 >

Make sure there's a way for the visitor to get to content in a language
other than the browser default. There are a huge range of reasons why one
would need to see content in another language. For instance in a cyber
cafe in a foreign country, or where two people with different native
languages share a computer.

The simplest way is to do content negotiation on the index page only, and
offer text links to versions in other languages should visitors wish to
switch.

--
eric
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.ericjarvis.co.uk" target="_blank">www.ericjarvis.co.uk</a>
"live fast, die only if strictly necessary"<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Translation Feature for Visitors 

Teresa wrote:

 > I have a client that receives visitors from over 26 countries. She
 > would like to start offering some sort of translation service for her
 > customers. A link that translates the requested page is what she has
 > seen done on other sites.
 >
 > What products or services have other webmasters used for translation?
 > Any experiences with Google or AltaVista's translation tools? The
 > client has limited financial resources.
 >
 > Thanks for your recommendations and experiences in advance!

Online translators are at best very ropey, but will at least give your
foreign visitors a chuckle.

However, they are better than nothing. I use this:

<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.systransoft.com/" target="_blank">http://www.systransoft.com/</a>

--
Charles Sweeney
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://CharlesSweeney.com" target="_blank">http://CharlesSweeney.com</a><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Translation Feature for Visitors 

Andrew Urquhart wrote:

 > "Snap snap, grin grin, wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more?"

"...he asked her knowingly."

--
Charles Sweeney
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://CharlesSweeney.com" target="_blank">http://CharlesSweeney.com</a><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Translation Feature for Visitors 

Eric Jarvis wrote:

 > Make sure there's a way for the visitor to get to content in a language
 > other than the browser default.

My favourite way:

1. If there is a query string "?lang=XX", serve in XX language and set a
cookie "lang=XX". Otherwise...
2. If there is a cookie "lang=XX", serve in XX language, serve in XX
language. Otherwise...
3. If there is an "Accept-Language: XX" HTTP header, serve in XX language.
Otherwise...
4. Serve in the site's default language.

And on each page offer links like:

<ul>
<li>English</li>
<li>Deutsch</li>
<li>Francais</li>
</ul>

Preferably also include an explanation of how to adjust a browser's
Accept-Language header on your "About This Site" page, for a few major
browsers.

--
Toby A Inkster BSc (Hons) ARCS
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 >> Stay informed about: Translation Feature for Visitors 

In alt.www.webmaster Teresa said:

 > She would like to start offering some sort of translation service for
 > her customers.

i agree with spacegirl. automated systems are not suitable. i use
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.sbs.com.au/language/" target="_blank">http://www.sbs.com.au/language/</a>

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 >> Stay informed about: Translation Feature for Visitors