Google For Dummies

Google in Your Native Tongue

Google headquarters for most language tasks is the Language Tools page at this URL:

www.google.com/language_tools

The Language Tools page (Figure 10-1) is also a menu selection under the Google button of the Toolbar (see Chapter 9), indicating its importance in the buffet of Google services. In the screen shot shown in Figure 10-1, I scrolled down a bit so you could see the main interactive tools on the page. But I want to start lower on the page, where you select an interface language. Oh, heck — I’ll show that too. See Figure 10-2.

Figure 10-1: Part of the Language Tools page.

Figure 10-2: Select an interface language on the Language Tools page. To make it permanent, use the Preferences page.

The Google interface is broadly defined as those pages through which you request content, not pages that deliver content. In other words, the Google interface consists of the following:

• The main home pages for searching the Web, images, groups, and the directory

• The Google directory

• All Help pages

• The Preferences page

• All Advanced Search pages

• The Language Tools page

• The Google Toolbar

(The entire Google directory is, strictly speaking, an interface, and the entire thing is translated into a few major languages — more on this later.) These seven interface areas are all subject to translation. However, language coverage is spotty. Major western languages get the full treatment, including the entire directory. Other major languages (such as Chinese) and many less widely-used languages are works in progress. As you nose around Google in a non-English language, you find that certain pages are still in English. The home pages are always translated — Google doesn’t put a link to a language until that basic translation is accomplished. But less essential pages, such as the Language Tools page itself, sometimes await a translator’s touch.

Remember

The interface language does not affect Web search results. However, Google does translate Google’s Cached and Similar pages links on the search results page, as well as other artifacts of the Google interface that appear on results pages. Figure 10-3 shows a results page in the French interface. Figure 10-3: A non-English interface delivers normal search results but with supporting links translated.

Who is translating Google into these languages? Maybe you are. If not, you possibly could help. Google puts out an open call for amateur translators. Before you get excited about putting years of high-school Spanish to use, remember that the majors are thoroughly covered. Less in-demand languages still have openings, including Somali, Sanskrit, Samoan, and Cambodian. Others, like Wolof, Lingala, Bhutani, and Burmese, have no translations as of this writing.

To get involved, go to the following page and click the explanatory links:

services.google.com/tc/Welcome.html

Before enrolling in the language program you must sign off on some legal language (which mostly says that you’re not getting paid and Google owns your work) and absorb a translation style guide. Commitment is very light; you may choose to translate a single phrase as your contribution or take over the entire interface for an uncovered language.