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1.9. Language Tools
In the early days of the Web,
it seemed like most web pages were in English. But as more and more
countries have come online, materials have become available in a
variety of languagesincluding languages that
don't originate with a particular country (such as
Esperanto and Klingon).Google offers several language tools, including one for translation
and one for Google's interface. The interface option
is much more extensive than the translation option, but the
translation has a lot to offer.The language tools are available by clicking the
"Language Tools" link on the front
page or by going to http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en.
1.9.1. Search Specific Languages or Countries
The first tool allows you to search for
materials from a certain country
and/or in a certain language. This is an excellent way to narrow your
searches; searching for French pages from Japan gives you far fewer
results than searching for French pages from France. You can narrow
the search further by searching for a slang word in another language.
For example, search for the English slang word
bonce on French pages from Japan.
1.9.2. Translate
The second tool on this page allows you to translate either a block
of text or an entire web page from one language to another. Most of
the translations are to and from English.
Machine translation is not nearly as good as human translation, so
don't rely on this translation as either the basis
of a search or as a completely accurate translation of the page
you're looking at. Use it instead to give you the
gist of whatever it translates.You don't have to come to this page to use the
translation tools. When you enter a search, you'll
see that some search results that aren't in your
language of choice (which you set via Google's
preferences) have "[Translate this
page]" next to their titles. Click on one of those
and you'll be presented with a framed, translated
version of the page. The Google frame, at the top, gives you the
option of viewing the original version of the page, as well as
returning to the results or viewing a copy suitable for printing.
1.9.3. Interface Language
The third tool lets you choose the interface language for Google, from
Afrikaans to Welsh. Some of these languages are imaginary (Bork,
bork, bork! and Elmer Fudd) but they do work.
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have so few translation languages? The "Google in
Your Language" program gathers volunteers from
around the world to translate Google's interface.
(You can get more information on that program at http://www.google.com/intl/en/languagel.)
1.9.4. Local Domain
Finally, the Language Tools page contains a list of region-specific
Google home pagesover 100 of them, from Deutschland to the
Pitcairn Islands.
1.9.5. Making the Most of Google's Language Tools
While you shouldn't rely on
Google's translation tools to give you more than the
gist of the meaning (since machine translation isn't
that good), you can use translations to narrow your searches. I
described the first method earlier: use unlikely combinations of
languages and countries to narrow your results. The second way
involves using the translator.Select a word that matches your topic and use the translator to
translate it into another language. (Google's
translation tools work very well for single-word translations like
this.) Now, search for that word in a country and language that
don't match it. For example, you might search for
the German word
"Landstraße" (highway)
on French pages in Canada. Of course, you'll have to
be sure to use words that don't have English
equivalents or you'll be overwhelmed with results.Whew! By now it should be fairly clear that a simple interface such
as the one Google has on its front page does not necessarily imply
limited power. Still waters run deep indeed. Now that we have all of
the tools, tips, and techniques under our belt to help us ask Google
for what we want before it dives into the depths of web content,
it's time to turn our attention to understanding
what it brings back to the surface.
