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But now (since yesterday?) that "Google in English" link has disappeared. But what's WORSE is that even when I go to www.google.com I'm still seeing the Taiwan Chinese language interface!
If this is some new fangled "innovation" cooked up by that battery of PhD's then I must say, it sucks. I want my English www.google.com back. Please.
The point is that if I want the local version of Google I will go to the local language page, which should be different than Google.com. Google.com should be in english and stay that way, whereas Google.de in German, Google.fr in french and so on.
Why should Google decide that if I happen to be in France I want the French version of Google.com? If I want the french version, I should go to Google.fr.
If tourists and Expats want to go to www.google.com or www.google.de then dont Force-Redirect them, because they are in Thailand, to www.google.co.th, their browser are even not equipped with the Thai-Fonts to see the Thai Interface.
What MSGRAPH says is completely wrong. Thai people that want Google in Thai just surf onto www.google.co.th. But most of the Thai computer users in Thailand are educated people that can speak English, They mostly use www.google.com and only go to their local www.google.co.th for the local news in Thai.
I can assure you that all these Thai people are also complaining THAT THEY HAVE TO USE www.google.co.th and can no more surf to the English www.google.com
I want to go to www.google.com and I am entering www.google.com in my browser, but because I am in Thailand this Redirects to www.google.co.th.
I want to read the news in English. Now I have switched to Altavista to read the news and I am searching with Alltheweb.
Take the oposite, Thai people visiting the US or Germany, they want to go to www.google.co.th, to follow the local news from their country in Thai.
Because they are in the US or in Germany they are redirected without mercy to www.google.de or to google.com.
Let people choose to which google they want to surf!
Regards,
Sanuk
Absolutely right.... and just SO obvious.
Who in their right mind would make it any different?. You really do have to wonder about the person who made the decision to force feed google.com like this. In fact on the basis of a decision like that, you have to wonder about Google's recruitment policies.
>> Now I have switched to Altavista to read the news and I am searching with Alltheweb <<
It's called the REAL world. GoogleGuy seems to think the natural reaction is to send an email to Google...
I suspect they are losing users right left and center. And you have to say, deservedly so.
But most of the Thai computer users in Thailand are educated people that can speak English, They mostly use www.google.com and only go to their local www.google.co.th for the local news in Thai.
If you have studies on this then I'd like to see them. If your company performs these studies and wants to keep them private then I understand.
Frankly I don't care what Google does with their redirects. I just want access to Google in English when I click "Go to Google.com" off a country-specific tld.
If studies show that more people around the world type in Google.com than their local Google, get redirected, and are happy with it, then so be it. Google should cater to that.
If studies show that the local version is typed in more often than Google.com then proceed with what is needed in that aspect.
[added]Btw, Altavista gives me a Spanish version on the .com ;)
>>If you have studies on this then I'd like to see them. If your company performs these studies and wants to keep them private then I understand.<<
This has nothing todo with this topic.
No I didn't make a study.
No I am not a company.
I am a simple computer user that wants Google in English when I surf to www.google.com
And so do many of my Thai friends and neighbours.
My study comes from what I hear from my Thai neighbours, the Thais that I met today in the supermarket and the Thai that has a little business in making low-budhet webpages (not websites) in English for all the little businesses like restaurants, hairdresser, small budget guesthouses that want an english webpage.
My study is when I went to drink a beer today and where meeting the thousands of US marines that are takung part in the "Cobra Gold" military excersice and suddenly have to look at a Thai language interface of their beloved www.google.com.
Regards,
Sanuk
Adwertising is only really profitable for geolocation, cos really only a tiny percentage of all commerce is truly international.
And since everything started with google.com AND most non-english internet users ahve some skills in english and would prefer google.com, without FORCE redirection the localised googles would only have tiny fractions of traffic. Usless for geotargeted advertising.
On the other hand I hope that the AdWords is actually targeted by IP. But, the language targeting reacts to the interface, and thats where the weakness lies.
It's jstu a reality that many non-english web surfers are quite comfortable surfing in english, ESPECIALLY when searchign for information of wqhich the very large fraction of the net is in english.
PS I'm non-english native myself.
SN
Isn't it funny?
One question... Are these "foreign" datacentres inside that particular country, or are they just another front end to the US servers, simply with the interface in the local language?
At least here in Germany things are back to not quite normal, but a working solution. On google.de the link to google.com is now going to an english version - perhaps real google.com, perhaps a local replica - and the only left-over geolocation is that a script part was inserted, giving the user a chance to go to Google Deutschland.
So I hope that Sanuk and others can now also reach google.com again.
how odd!
Alex
So much for Google's reputation as a user-friendly, intuitive interface! I really think one or two those UI programmers at Google should gird up their loins, don their SARS masks, and take a swing through Asia to experience this in the real world. Or dive down to Mexico and check it out... seems like more-or-less the same issue all over.
BTW. I've started using Alexa and Teoma now, not as nice as the 'old' google, but a heck of a lot less patronising.
Speaking as a webmaster, an expat living in Hong Kong and selling enterprise software as a day job which is localised for local markets here are some observations, even though they may not be 100% relevant to you folks, as you deal with a more retail and far less technical customer.
-- English is tolerated in most countries here in Asia as the default interface. The user should be given a choice to select the local language.
-- Do not underestimate how many people READ english. This is far higher than the number of people who communicate in english.
Some observations:
-- NEVER force an automated selection based on quirky browser settings or IP addresses. You have to deal with people who travel, people who use cybercafes (as in Sanuk's case), people who due to corporate infrastructure get IP addresses not based on location.
I will tell you for a fact that I know several people who set their time zone's to Singapore or Australia and jump through hoops to avoid MSN's chinese only page in Hong Kong.
There are generally two sorts of people we deal with, the gadget men and the pyjama men. Breaking the language settings and forcing geo-targetting will affect the gadget men.
Why are these people important? They're primarily the early adoptors, webmasters and technophiles who have made google what it is. Remember the good old days when Slashdot revealed this search engine called google to the "masses"? Those are the people who made google what it is, and allowed you folks to grow large enough to ink deals (no pun intended) with the likes of Yahoo and the rest.
Perhaps I'm over reacting to the problem and your research shows differently. In which case, you folks should be sharing it with webmasters as a "best practises for geo-targetting strategies", as many of us run multi-lingual sites and have avoided duplication / redirection because of the fear of penalties etc.
Regards,
Shri
>>GoogleGuy - because lots of people outside the U.S. want their own language<<
Yes....
Let me CHOOSE English in Thailand, not Thai.
The best would be that Google would stick to their stuff:
Being a search engine, not a language mentor!
Why are you being a "World Super Power" on language matters depending on from which IP we connect.
I hope other search engines penalize your Google-pages for using redirection!
My daughter arrives on a holiday in Thailand next month, she will want to surf to her Google in Dutch language.
Will you authorize this or will it still be forbidden my dear "LORD GOOGLE"
Any plans in the future to Force-Redirect people to other google websites, based on their dial-up IP, concerning their "Religious Beliefs"?
Regards,
Sanuk
I still don't get the thinking behind the change at all.
Google.Com = English language
Google.LocalTDD = Local language
Surely that's simple enough for everyone?
It wasn't broke, so why fix it? If you wanted more cross-over you could have just provided links from one to the other. In other words, left it to the user to decide, NOT force the language upon them.
Heh, heh...
Regards...jmcc
>> About the questions you raised about country language/tld/redirection, I think we've got some changes scheduled soon (next week) that should bring it in line with what many users expect again. Just wanted to let you know that that was coming too. <<
Which of course is good news.
Even if I am at www.google.com and my language is set to English, I see the 'Google Nederland' logo.
Clicking the 'all about google' page from the services page returns the Dutch information page which has only half as much info on it :(
I have to use google's cache to read the english version.
- I'm entering Google.com and would like my choice to be respected.
- I research Google for my Google Blogoscoped site and want to talk about it in English, thus have an English Google interface. I also want to Quote from Google pages.
- I got used to the English version over time.
- Some things are missing from the German version.
- I want to exchange Google links, and have to get rid of the German parameters in the URL (like ".de").
- I know German Google censors some results for me (like certain Nazi sites).
- I want to test my (English) AdWords, and how they appear at the real Google.com.
Solutions:
- Mild version: keep Geolocation, but bring back the "Go to Google.com" that actually worked. Needs cookies.
- Compromise version: if a German-IP user enters Google.com, offer a "Switch to German Google" link. Needs cookies.
- Extreme version (my favorite, but then again I guess I'm a super-user for knowing the difference between "Google.de" and "Google.com", able to freely choose between one or the other): don't redirect at all. Needs trust and respect.
Google's usability approach is mostly great:
- Don't pop-up, blink, ticker, Flash, and gimmick.
- Don't tell me what I want, should, need, have.
- Don't annoy.
The new stricter Geolocation enforcement goes in the exact opposite direction. I hope it'll be changed soon (because I like Google, and want to continue using it).
Clicking sets the cookie and I get the .com English version.
Thanks for setting that straight!
