rencke - 2:50 pm on Nov 3, 2002 (gmt 0)

Aren't you worried about the cross-linking penalty?

Not in the least. The approach is very user friendly and the multiple entries in Google SERPs for search phrases common to more than one language actually produces a better search result from Google's point of view, than the opposite. So they'd be silly to penalize this kind of setup as long as only a small minority of their users bother to set language preferences, filtering away languages they don't understand. And I don't think they are silly. If I am wrong about that, I am fully prepared to argue my case with Google support.

One day, in this decade surely, they will figure out a way to guess what languages are likely to be preferred by the user and in which order, and rank accordingly.

Another reason for the one language per site solution: There are numerous language dependant local directories, some of which have a strong standing in their comminities. Case in point: AllesKlar.de, never to be forgotten if you market to the 100 million Europeans who have German as their mother tongue.