I have always liked Google and quality of the services that they provide, but back in China, I've encountered a few language-related gripes with Google...
Firstly, installing software: I installed Picasa 2 on my laptop, but was very displeased when I opened up the programme and found that the simplified Chinese version of the software was installed. Now I don't have anything against using Chinese software but if given the choice, I would have liked to use English.
Anyway, it turns out that although I have an English version of Windows XP, under my regional settings I have simplified Chinese as my default setting for any handling of non-English coding. So I had to 1) uninstall Picasa2, 2) switch the non-English recognition to English and then 3) reset the computer and 4) reinstall the programme so that it was in English, and then 5) change my language settings back to Chinese and 6) then reset the computer...
Wouldn't life be much simpler if Google enabled people to select the language of installation like much other software out there instead of playing smart and installing the language
it thinks I want?
On a similar note, and a more significant gripe, I noticed that signing into my Google blogger account here in China, and also on other Google websites like www.google.com (not google.cn) etc... I am sometimes bizarrely treated with the Chinese version of those websites (with no link saying "switch to English" or "change language"), something that never happened outside of China despite the fact that I have
chosen English for my Google language settings. Google's
FAQ reveals that Google
"makes use of the Web's standard language-preferences mechanism, the HTTP accept-language header, to determine the display language. Browsers can have multiple accept-languages, arranged in order of user preference".I'm highly sceptical of that statement. My language settings have never changed and this only happens when I'm in China, so my theory is that Google determines from my IP address that I am in China and thus gives the sites to me in Chinese. Either way, I find it very irritating and
presumptuous. What if I was a foreigner in China who couldn't understand Chinese - wouldn't that be confusin
g for me?
Google also states that "you can access the standard Google homepage by clicking on the "Google in English" link from any of our foreign language homepages. If this does not work, your browser is probably not configured to accept cookies. If you want to change your Google interface language without changing your browser's accept-language preferences, you can set your Google language preferences manually on our "Language Options" page."
I can't find that link anywhere and that adds to my frustration... and checking my Google "Language Options" English has been chosen, but it still shows Chinese. And I definitely have cookies turned on. Anyway, I've given up on Google, I'm just using it in Chinese when it decides to come up Chinese and using it in English when it chooses to display English.
Labels: Google, web
