Someone reads Hebrew here?

I need help on MSN sympatico

[Macguru]

Hi! I hope the friendly moderators will tolerate the specifics. I am clueless about some odd result I get from

[search.sympatico.msn.ca...]

Sympatico is a major ISP in Canada and they partnered with msn.ca a while back. They have about 20 % of market share here. When I search for "d-7", I get mostly Hebrew pages. Sad thing, since this keyphase is a common misspelling for one of my clients.

Is it a bug, or "d-7" means something for Hebrew speaking persons? Any explanation?

להתראות ;)

[lawman]

No Hebrew anywhere to be found when I tried it.

[Macguru]

Thanks lawman,

Sad, must be they rely a lot on visitor's location in the searches. ie, you get different results from Canada.

From here, 100 % of pages are in Hebrew.

Hard to spot what d-7, can mean. I get quite a mixed bag, ranging from Kibutz to ringtones from here. I get more than 8 millions results. Must be a bug.

[Macguru]

Ok, I got some clue (too obvious).

I get "D7" all over the URLs

id=28&f=%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%9B%D7%AA+%D7%A9%D7%97%D7%99%

[encyclo]

It's language-based: you only get Hebrew if you are searching in French. Very logical ;) (I use Sympatico as my ISP).

[TheDoctor]

You get rid of the Hebrew if you tick "Uniquement français". 285 381 results - presumably the one you're looking for is amongst them.

[encyclo]

It's still a bug though: I know that MSN "dial out" English language results a bit when the interface is set to French, but surely they should be "dialing in" more French-language results as well? (I'm sure the experts in the MSN Search forum know more about this). I knew that the results change according to just the interface language because I have a site in French on a US-hosted .com which ranks well in the English-language interface but not in the French one.

[TheDoctor]

I have a site in French on a US-hosted .com which ranks well in the English-language interface but not in the French one

Don't want to state the obvious, but... have you got the correct language declared in the page headers?

[Macguru]

It's language-based:

You are correct. Filters are applied based on wich language version of Antipatico is in your cookie. English or French. For this case, it's more like English or 'else'.

you only get Hebrew if you are searching in French. Very logical

encyclo, you have been using Sympatico for too long. :)

Thanks for your answers. I had an appointment due for tomorrow with this client and it was moved on yesterday.
I needed some quick answer before we met. Just felt weird to search for some local French niche stuff and find yourself right in the middle of old Jerusalem. My brain turned into a falafel.

I learned URL stuffing still works on buggy search engines. ;)

[Leosghost]

C'est quoi ...le français pour "klutz"...
You guys start telling everyone that french results are easier to manipulate than english ones ( do quebecuois speak french , ...or do they speak french and the rest of us just "metro"? )....and where will the advantage be anymore ...

ps ...I remember targeting one keyphrase ( metro french )..and discovering that I made it to the first page of a niche market in the adult industry ( Canadian )..totally unintentional ;) ...and strangely relevant ..but weird ...you guys have some interesting word associations ...

[ronin]

It wasn't "tabernacle" was it?
Or was it "les gosses"?

I must confess I'm a bit rusty on French Canadian slang, but I remember my mate in the Dordogne laughing nearly until he cried at the state of French on the far side of the Atlantic.

[Macguru]

>>C'est quoi ...le français pour "klutz"...

A klutz in Québcois is "insignifiant" (Please, please, please, google it!)

>>do quebecois speak french

Occasionnaly, when we meet a French.

>>laughing nearly until he cried at the state of French on the far side of the Atlantic.

Did you know that Québécois spoke french before most French did?

Why is Québécois French so different than the variety spoken in France anyways? The answer, as it is often the case, can be found in the past. Many texts confirm that, towards the end of the 17th century, everyone in New France speaks French. At that time, in France, the patois are still numerous and in great use, and two inhabitants on five are completely unable to understand French. Only one Frenchman on five can understand and speak it fluently. The difference between France and New France is therefore quite incredible. In 1698, the sieur de Bacqueville, who was then controller general of the marine on official visit to Québec, writes « the French spoken here is perfect, and we can find no trace of any provincial French in it. » A navigator was all surprised that everyone here, even the peasants, spoke a French that was comparable to the one spoken in the King's court! As you can see, the use of French was generalised here before it was in France.

[republiquelibre.org...]

Tu pourras dire a ton chum de Dordogne de mettre ça dans sa pipe pis de s'étouffer avec, tabarnak! ;)

[ronin]

I will >;->

[encyclo]

I lived in France for 3 years and have been living in Québec for the last four years. As I'm officially a Brit I consider myself to be a reasonably impartial judge. Let's have a look at the quality of French:

English: shopping
French: le shopping
Québec: le magasinage

English: the top ten
French: le top ten
Québec: le palmarès

Plus a thousand other phrases. When I first came to Québec someone explained to me that the difference between French French and Québec French was that en France on stationne dans un parking, mais au Québec on parque dans un stationnement.

And that j'aime jouer avec mes gosses doesn't have exactly the same meaning in both countries ;)

[lgn1]

And don't forget Acadian French. My ex-wife was Acadian, but would not speak french, when she was in Quebec. I always told her that Quebec French, was not real french anyways, and her Acadian french was just as good as Quebec French.