[fr]
Dommage, un article sur comment démarrer son site multilingue sur un des blogs officiels de Google donne des conseils que je trouve assez malheureux (genre: "ne mélangez pas plusieurs langues sur une même page").
[en]
I wanted to leave this as a comment on How to Start a Multilingual Site over on the Official Google Webmaster Central Blog, but unfortunately Blogger is taking a break right now and I can’t post. So, here we go:
“Avoid mixing languages on each page, as this may confuse Googlebot as well as your users.” (Nico, thanks, I’d missed that one)
I’m really disappointed to see this kind of advice handed out. Yes, it confuses Googlebot, but only because it doesn’t (I guess?) take into account lang=”xx” attributes. (Yeah, nobody uses them, but that’s because nobody parses them.)
But users? Most people are not pure monolinguals. We need ways to make linguistic barriers online weaker, and not stronger.
I’ve been mixing languages on Climb to the Stars for eight years now, and it hasn’t prevented my readers or my Page Rank from being happy.
I vote for Google learning that the “page” is not the smallest item on the web that is allowed to have its own language attribute, rather than asking people to conform to some kind of artificial absolute monolingualism.
I’ll try an post tomorrow, but at least this is out there. I left a previous comment on the same post earlier today, by the way. (Check out my other multilingual stuff while you’re on the topic.)
Similar Posts:
- Basic Bilingual 0.3 for Multilingual Blogging
- Multilingual Proposals (Reboot, BlogCamp)
- Another Multilingual Talk Proposal (Web 2.0 Expo, Berlin)
- BlogTalk 2008 Proposal — Being Multilingual: Blogging in More Than One Language
- BlogCamp: Multilingual Blogging Session
- Most People Are Multilingual
- Multilingual
- Advice for a Translating Tool
- Requirements for a Multilingual WordPress Plugin
- Reminder: Speaking Tuesday at Web2Open, Berlin
Digital Crumble
That’s right!!
That's right!!
Here’s a new blog that’s perhaps a bit ambitious, but is trying to push the envelope on multilingual posting: http://5ch.swissinfo.ch/?lang=eng. It will be interesting to see how people react to six different languages in the main post area.
Here's a new blog that's perhaps a bit ambitious, but is trying to push the envelope on multilingual posting: http://5ch.swissinfo.ch/?lang=eng. It will be interesting to see how people react to six different languages in the main post area.