Hi Marcus, Great suggestions. We're aware of this duplication and confusion and we're certainly interested in improving it as well. The different implementations you mention are more aware of each other than you think... but it still can be troublesome sometimes.
We're working on it. Your feedback is helpful. Cheers, Josh On Jan 24, 9:24 am, MarcusJT wrote: > At present there are FOUR (!) different ways that Google Translate can > display a toolbar which allows the user to dynamically select a > language and translate the current page: > > 1) The browser is Chrome and has native support for translating > webpages - > seehttp://www.google.com/support/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=173424 > > 2) The browser is Firefox or IE and has the Google Toolbar addon > installed - fromhttps://www.google.com/intl/en/toolbar/ff/index.html > > 3) The page has the Google Translate JS widget/toolbar code added - > fromhttp://translate.google.com/translate_tools > > 4) The page URL has been entered into translate.google.com is being > viewed via a URL > likehttp://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=gl&u=http://fo... > > The problem is that although these four implementations appear quite > similar, they are significantly different in usage (including > usability & accessibility) and are completely unaware of each other! > > As a result, only the second implementation (the embeddable JS widget/ > toolbar) is actually controllable from within a page, and when > triggered appears instead of the other two implementations even if > they are available. > > Instead, I would like these implementation to be revised and unified > so that they can all be triggered/used in a consistent way, as follows > (the numbering intentionally corresponds to the list above): > > 1) A plain "Choose a language" / "Languages" / "Translate" link is > present on a web page, which is progressively enhanced to trigger the > browser's native Google Translate functionality if present (e.g. > Chrome). > > 2) Failing that, the browser's Google Toolbar addon/extension > functionality is triggered if present (e.g. FF/IE) > > 3) Failing that, the JS implementation appears if the previous two > implementations are unavailable > > 4) And finally, if JS itself is unavailable (e.g. disabled in the > browser or the Google JS file which executes the logic above hasn't > loaded for some reason), then the link was never progressively > enhanced in the first place and the click instead navigates the user > tohttp://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=gl&u=http://fo... > OR perhaps detects the page to translate automatically via the > referrer, > e.g.http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=gl&src=referrer > > By following this approach, the user will always be able to access > Google Translate using the best technology available to him in that > browser at that moment, and web developers can enable this with a > minimum of fuss. Isn't this the best solution for everyone? > > Google/Josh/anyone - What are your thoughts on this? If you agree this > is the way forward then how can we get there? -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "General" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/google-translate-general?hl=en.
