Offering translations by linking to Google

is this alright?

[londrum]

i've been noticing a lot of referrals in my stats from translation services like Google's, so i'm starting to think about adding translations on my site.
the problem is, i don't speak any other languages.

so i thought a simple way of doing it would just be to place a little french flag on my site, and link it straight to google's translation page.
and what is really cool, is that when you follow a link from the translated page, it carries on translating every other page as well!

now, in the past, i seem to remember that google would place a frame above the translated page to show that it was them that translated it. which is obviously fair enough. but it doesn't appear for my site - presumably because i've got one of those simple javascript frame-busting scripts.

so i'm wondering... will this be alright for me to do? or is it a bit naughty? because if the frame is not there then nobody is going to know that google translated it.

[wheelie34]

just a little bump

I have noticed in my logs, people are using babelfish and google to translate one of my sites, many pages to European languages, French German etc also Chinese and Japanese.

I also thought what would happen if I had those pages already on the server, cached or static pages.

I know they don't translate well, but hey if many are doing it they must feel it helps.

Financially, to translate the whole site to ONE other language would cost the earth so can't be done.

Has anyone done what the OP asked?

[jtara]

These automated translations are of such poor quality that I wouldn't bother. They are only for highly-motivated users, who are either very through in their search for information or who have been unable to find what they are looking for in their native language - and they will already know how to use the available tools.

[ccDan]

I agree with jtara. If I were to come across a non-English site and it had a U.S. or British flag link, I would expect to find a real translation of the page or site by following that link. If it took me to some auto-translation service, that just sends the message that "we want your money, but not so much that we're willing to spend any of our own to provide you with a good user experience."

I understand that it can be expensive to translate a large site, but if you are looking for readers in other languages, do it right or don't do it at all.

If I have to use an auto-translation service on my own, that's okay. I know to expect a poor quality translation. But, if you offer up a language flag link, I am going to expect a quality translation, and I will not think highly of your site if I don't get it.

[Syzygy]

...link it straight to google's translation page.

Use-ability and style aside, have you asked Google what their view is?

Syzygy