Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Dear Google, Spanish language =! Spain!!


PLEASE Google... stop. Please. I mean it.

Why don't you ... STOP. Just STOP OK?.

I mean... STOP ADDING SPANISH LINGO that is written in Spain's Spanish. Try to use a more "neutral" Spanish (ask the guys who do TV and movie translations, they do know what a "neutral" Spanish translation is... that is, one free from Iberic terms and South American words).

It all started when I suddenly found my Blogger interface "automagically" switched to Spanish. Suddently I read "no tenemos mas Beta" instead of "we're out of beta!".

That is a POOR LITERAL TRANSLATION that can be read as "we no longer stock beta". The correct translation would have been "ya no estamos en Beta" o "salimos de la etapa Beta", o "ya no es Beta".

And now, the dreadful "que mola mas que una caja de lapices de colores..." advert, trying to promote Blogger's new customization features. Well, guess what Google? "mola" doesn't mean anything for us down in South America. "Molar" as a verb does not, in fact, exist in our vocabulary.

I guess the original English language text was "what rules more than..." and you hired someone in Spain to do the translation, so it ended up as "que mola mas que.."?.

If you had used a NEUTRAL Spanish translation that could have been translated as "¿Qué es más bueno que...?" or "¿Qué es mejor que una caja de lápices?". And it would have been understood BOTH by people in Spain and people in South America.

PLEASE, P-L-E-A-S_E, Google, start taking these localization issues into account when you start translating things.

PLEASE, STOP. Por favor.

¡Gracias!

FC

Joe from Neurostech thinks I'm a big thing (I'm not) - Still, thanks! :)


Joe Born from Neuros Technology wrote something nice about me on his company blog. It's good to see a small company like his listening to constructive criticism from a computer geek like me.

Still... I kinda blushed when I read him calling me " prominent South America blogger...".

No, I don' t mean I want it removed. No, please keep it there. I always need an ego-boost.

Gee, thanks Joe!. :)

FC

Sunday, February 04, 2007

CNN follows my lead wrt under-water life (OK, I wish ;-)

Ocean living: From Hydropolis to Trilobis - Feb. 1, 2007
http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/19/magazines/business2/ocean_real_estate.biz2/?postversion=2007020210

"With land getting so crowded, the age-old fantasy of sea-based living is becoming reality.
Business 2.0 dives in."

Despite the hype, who said it first? me! ;)

As the underwater age approaches, a waterproof digicam is a must
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37325
Jan 31, 2007