May 2008

OK, maybe I do have too much time on my hands. I am nearly done with my any language to any language plugin, I am nearly done with the newsletter, I am nearly done with the articles that I an ghostwriting, but I am really a bit too nuts for numbers.

I started a list about 7 weeks ago of how many Google countries have hit my site. Google.com is common. Ever get a Google.vi? Google.lk?

Actually kind of funny because I assumed I knew all the top level domains, but I really don’t.

Need an easy translation tool?

Want to keep your content on your website and still give your international readers a tool to read your website while they are still on your pages?

Easy Cross-Cultural Communication

This sidebar widget is a great Cross-Cultural Communication tool.

Simply download any of the different widgets here.

All In One Click On A Flag

All your foreign visitor has to do is click on a flag. A new page will open with a complete translation of your page into the language that the flag represents.

This is done using the online translation tool offered by Google.

Your foreign visitors will recognize their own country flag.

24 Languages - Multiple Versions

This tool translated between 24 languages. It detects the language used on your site.

It doesn’t matter if your site is in English, German, or any of the other 22 languages. This tool will figure out what language to translate from, and gives your foreign visitor the language he wants. A complete list of all 24 languages is at the bottom of this page.

Install And Forget It

If you are running a blog and install this widget in the sidebar, it will translate the post that the visitor is reading.

If they are on your homepage, it will translate the entire homepage.

In WordPress, put the code in the single.php file at the top or bottom of the post, and it will appear on each post. You can see this cross-cultural communication tool on both the sidebar and single post here on GIC.

Install the widget where you want it.

Installation is as easy as any other widget. If you are not happy with the look and feel of the widget, just ask and I will tweak it a bit to match your website color scheme or the space available as soon as I can.

• Select the version of the tool you like.
• Clicking on its image below
• This will take you to a text page where you can copy the script to put on your own website.

All things considered, this is a great tool to reach your international audience.

Here are the languages available on the widgets:

1. Arabic
2. Bulgarian
3. Simplified Chinese
4. Traditional Chinese
5. Croatian
6. Czech
7. Danish
8. Dutch
9. English
10. Finnish
11. French
12. German
13. Greek
14. Hindi
15. Italian
16. Japanese
17. Korean
18. Norwegian
19. Polish
20. Portuguese
21. Romanian
22. Russian
23. Spanish
24. Swedish

Powered by translate.google.com
Download This Cross-Cultural Communication Tool
From Get International Clients

I just came back from Google and they have updated their translation tools.

Less than a month ago the options were English to 10 languages and those same 10 languages back to English. 20 options, and to be honest I was happy with that. I went on the site when I made my widget and we were up to English going into 14 languages and those 14 going back to English, and the occasional second language.

Today I went to the site and it appears that there are 23 languages - 24 if you count the 2 versions of Chinese. There is also the time saving option that they should have as the default “Detect Language”. This means if you are on a site and you have no idea of the language but like the pictures you can tell Google to translate the page even though you don’t know the language. OK, I am a bit too geeky, but this is really cool stuff.

I have a simple testing process to see if something translates and it worked in all the languages so far. Everyone should do this if translating. Take you text and translate it. Then take the tranlsated result and bring it back into your original language.

Translating “what does this do?” English to French results in “qu’est-ce que cela?”

Translating “qu’est-ce que cela?” French to English results in “what is this?”

Translating “What is the purpose of that? ” English to French results in “quel est le but de cela?”

Translating “quel est le but de cela?” French to English results in “What is the purpose of that?”

The difference is important and it is best that you do something link this. If you are using a translation tool for business, translate sentence by sentence, and then the full paragraph. There are times when the tool will change something based on the context of a paragraph.

All things considered, this is a great tool.

The reason this is so important to me is I am building an article directory in French. I want to make sure that I get things right.

BTW, the languages are:

1. Arabic
2. Bulgarian
3. Chinese (Simplified)
4. Chinese (Traditional)
5. Croatian
6. Czech
7. Danish
8. Dutch
9. English
10. Finnish
11. French
12. German
13. Greek
14. Hindi
15. Italian
16. Japanese
17. Korean
18. Norwegian
19. Polish
20. Portuguese
21. Romanian
22. Russian
23. Spanish
24. Swedish

I was looking for a way to replace a horizontal image on a site with a very similar image that allowed translations. I could not find what I wanted so I made a widget, the tall one on the right hand side of this page. Interestingly, it worked, but was not what I was looking for. So I made another. The second one to the right that has 2 rows of flags. Finally I made the one that appears at the top of each post, that was what I wanted in the beginning, but was dense and could not make it work.

Now these are just widgets, which I assume any programmer can make ( I have not typed a line of code since the early 90’s) and I want to make it a plugin. Time to find a php for idiots book, I suppose.

Anyone wants the widget, let me know. I have just corrected the mistake where I had the word German instead of Hindi. Apologies to Hindispeakers of the world.

Technorati Profile

I am trying out some new social media sites and I am going to write it up. Know the first thing, I can generate 700 visits a day on almost any site. You know what else? They don’t convert.

I have heard about stumble advertising, but I feel I have the process down so well that I would not even consider paying for advertising. One test I just did, no results yet, is to generate traffic to a French site. Big difference when you hit different languages, less of an audience to go to the site.