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Proz questions as hits in Google
Thread poster: Heike Behl, Ph.D.
Heike Behl, Ph.D.
Heike Behl, Ph.D.  Identity Verified
Ireland
Local time: 00:16
Member (2003)
English to German
+ ...
Jul 26, 2007

Although it is of course very helpful that relevant Proz questions regarding a search term entered in Google show up as hits.

But do they really have to be displayed in all possible language combinations (ie. the same E>G questions, for instance, displayed with a Russion, Bulgarian, Dutch, etc. interface)? I find it absolutely annoying (and time-consuming!) when I'm trying to find more info on a specific term and the first couple of pages displayed in Google consist of just one and
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Although it is of course very helpful that relevant Proz questions regarding a search term entered in Google show up as hits.

But do they really have to be displayed in all possible language combinations (ie. the same E>G questions, for instance, displayed with a Russion, Bulgarian, Dutch, etc. interface)? I find it absolutely annoying (and time-consuming!) when I'm trying to find more info on a specific term and the first couple of pages displayed in Google consist of just one and the same Proz question in various language combinations over and over again.

Would it be possible to change that kind of behavior?
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Fabio Descalzi
Fabio Descalzi  Identity Verified
Uruguay
Local time: 21:16
Member (2004)
German to Spanish
+ ...
Pros and cons Jul 26, 2007

Hallo Heike

Thanks for bringing this matter.
I agree with you. Myself, whenever I have to google looking for a word in two languages, the umpteen localized versions of ProZ appear as search results of one very concept.

But look it the other way round, too: if your name appears on those umpteen localized versions, Google is all about advertising yourself! Not exaggerating. Suppose for a moment that I don't know you. I am googling two German words... and suddenly ap
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Hallo Heike

Thanks for bringing this matter.
I agree with you. Myself, whenever I have to google looking for a word in two languages, the umpteen localized versions of ProZ appear as search results of one very concept.

But look it the other way round, too: if your name appears on those umpteen localized versions, Google is all about advertising yourself! Not exaggerating. Suppose for a moment that I don't know you. I am googling two German words... and suddenly appear some search results of KudoZ questions, with YOUR NAME! And many times! This makes me feel: "Wow, this person must be important!"

Of course exaggerating, but... it works!
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Heike Behl, Ph.D.
Heike Behl, Ph.D.  Identity Verified
Ireland
Local time: 00:16
Member (2003)
English to German
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
More cons than pros Jul 26, 2007

I'm not so sure about that, Fabio.

If somebody else is looking for something in particular and gets to sift through so many unrelated/unrelevant hits, they'd get frustrated as well. It might even lead to a negative association with the Proz website if it happens frequently... (It definitely makes me mad when it happens again, and I know all the good things Proz has to offer!)

Also, names are only visible when you actually open the link, and I doubt people would really d
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I'm not so sure about that, Fabio.

If somebody else is looking for something in particular and gets to sift through so many unrelated/unrelevant hits, they'd get frustrated as well. It might even lead to a negative association with the Proz website if it happens frequently... (It definitely makes me mad when it happens again, and I know all the good things Proz has to offer!)

Also, names are only visible when you actually open the link, and I doubt people would really do that or, if they did, be interested enough even to pay attention to any of the names. And why would they even consider opening a site in a language they don't even understand or with characters they can't read?

I think Google is a great resource for translators, but this "feature" can make it really annoying.
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Mike Gogulski
Mike Gogulski  Identity Verified
Slovakia
Local time: 01:16
Slovak to English
+ ...
workaround Jul 26, 2007

So, when you enter your google search, do it like this:

"my multiword term" -site:.proz.com

and, voila, no hits from ProZ!


 
Clarisa Moraña
Clarisa Moraña  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 19:16
Member (2002)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Absolutely annoying! Jul 26, 2007

Well, at least for me! I hate seing so many web pages in different languages for the same Kudoz question. Besides, when I'm doing a terminology search (after checking a word at Kudoz - and noticed that it does not work for me), I need both the target and the source word in a bilingual file, but NOT at proz.com. Thus, when this happens, I also use the "minus" operator: -proz

Regards

Clarisa Moraña


 
Tina Vonhof (X)
Tina Vonhof (X)
Canada
Local time: 18:16
Dutch to English
+ ...
There is more... Jul 26, 2007

Heike Behl, Ph.D. wrote:

I'm not so sure about that, Fabio.

If somebody else is looking for something in particular and gets to sift through so many unrelated/unrelevant hits, they'd get frustrated as well. It might even lead to a negative association with the Proz website if it happens frequently... (It definitely makes me mad when it happens again, and I know all the good things Proz has to offer!)

Also, names are only visible when you actually open the link, and I doubt people would really do that or, if they did, be interested enough even to pay attention to any of the names. And why would they even consider opening a site in a language they don't even understand or with characters they can't read?

I think Google is a great resource for translators, but this "feature" can make it really annoying.



I completely agree with you Heike. What is even more annoying is that all these entries also appear when people are searching google for your name.

I wear different hats besides being a translator. When people look for information under my name for a different purpose not related to translation, they have to wade through all this Kudoz "junk" to find what they are looking for.

I don't see that as a "pro" but as a "con". I have complained about it before but nobody is listening. Ideally, I would like to see only my profile on google but not any entries I make in Kudoz or forums. If people are interested in that, they can go the the proz.com website and look for it there.


 
Heinrich Pesch
Heinrich Pesch  Identity Verified
Finland
Local time: 02:16
Member (2003)
Finnish to German
+ ...
Agree with Heike Jul 26, 2007

Most annoying is, when I post a kudoz-question, the next moment this question is on google, when I research myself for the term.
The Kudoz-area should be closed to search-engines, only glossaries should be open for search.
Cheers
Heinrich


 
margarete
margarete  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 20:16
German to English
+ ...
I completely agree Jul 26, 2007

Tina Vonhof wrote:

Heike Behl, Ph.D. wrote:

I'm not so sure about that, Fabio.

If somebody else is looking for something in particular and gets to sift through so many unrelated/unrelevant hits, they'd get frustrated as well. It might even lead to a negative association with the Proz website if it happens frequently... (It definitely makes me mad when it happens again, and I know all the good things Proz has to offer!)

Also, names are only visible when you actually open the link, and I doubt people would really do that or, if they did, be interested enough even to pay attention to any of the names. And why would they even consider opening a site in a language they don't even understand or with characters they can't read?

I think Google is a great resource for translators, but this "feature" can make it really annoying.



I completely agree with you Heike. What is even more annoying is that all these entries also appear when people are searching google for your name.

I wear different hats besides being a translator. When people look for information under my name for a different purpose not related to translation, they have to wade through all this Kudoz "junk" to find what they are looking for.

I don't see that as a "pro" but as a "con". I have complained about it before but nobody is listening. Ideally, I would like to see only my profile on google but not any entries I make in Kudoz or forums. If people are interested in that, they can go the the proz.com website and look for it there.



It is exactly for this reason that I took my name out of Proz and changed back to my user name. I found it terrible that all people saw when googeling my name was Kudos questions.

Now, business wise, it would be much preferred if I could use my full name in Proz. But until this has been changed I will not do it.

Not sure if there is a solution though, because we want Kudos answers to show up in google. Just not so many times and in my case not necessarily indexing my name.....

I would be happy if this could be changed.

Regards,
Ariane

[Edited at 2007-07-26 05:02]


 
Viktoria Gimbe
Viktoria Gimbe  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 20:16
English to French
+ ...
Agree +1 Jul 26, 2007

I also find this counter-productive. The same happens with other ProZ pages, with a more or less annoying effect. But terminology-related stuff should appear only once, for sure.

 
Malcolm Mayfield
Malcolm Mayfield  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 19:16
Member
Chinese to English
"omitted results Jul 26, 2007

Why doesn't G include all the redundant pages in its "omitted results"?

One problem with Google is that copy-paste translating is so rampant in some places (China, for example) that you can get a hundred or more spurious "hits"--perfect matches, it seems, but all of which appear to be copied first, second, third (etc.) hand from one original, perfectly bad translation. Then rigor mortis sets in and non-native speakers (including Proz question contributors) start to be convinced that
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Why doesn't G include all the redundant pages in its "omitted results"?

One problem with Google is that copy-paste translating is so rampant in some places (China, for example) that you can get a hundred or more spurious "hits"--perfect matches, it seems, but all of which appear to be copied first, second, third (etc.) hand from one original, perfectly bad translation. Then rigor mortis sets in and non-native speakers (including Proz question contributors) start to be convinced that all those sites can't be wrong. Anybody else notice this?

I agree with Heinrich, too. I wonder why you can find more on Proz by searching G than you can by searching within Proz. Something's not right.

[Edited at 2007-07-26 06:48]
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Victor Dewsbery
Victor Dewsbery  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 01:16
German to English
+ ...
Another problem Jul 26, 2007

When doing a Google search for a source language term, sometimes the ProZ question comes up, but with the interface in a language I don't understand (and sometimes can't even read). The extra search results in languages I can handle are buried beneath thousands of other Google hits.

So I go to the ProZ page to follow the debate, but find that the incomprehensible interface takes away much of the benefit.
If I then use the site language box to change the interface language, the
... See more
When doing a Google search for a source language term, sometimes the ProZ question comes up, but with the interface in a language I don't understand (and sometimes can't even read). The extra search results in languages I can handle are buried beneath thousands of other Google hits.

So I go to the ProZ page to follow the debate, but find that the incomprehensible interface takes away much of the benefit.
If I then use the site language box to change the interface language, the focus on this question is lost and I have to search all over again (which can be a pain if the search term is complex, because the term search is not as flexible as Google, although that is a different problem).
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Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 01:16
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Google is to blame, but... Jul 26, 2007

Heike Behl, Ph.D. wrote:
I find it absolutely annoying (and time-consuming!) when I'm trying to find more info on a specific term and the first couple of pages displayed in Google consist of just one and the same Proz question in various language combinations over and over again.


This is Google's doing, not ProZ.com's doing. Google regards foo.domain.com and bar.domain.com as two different domains (which is correct, technically speaking), and therefore does not order hits from them into a single listing.

If you want to filter all ProZ.com hits from a search, simply adding -proz to the search phrase should do it. If you want to limit your search to a single language version of ProZ.com, try adding this to your search phrase: site:.www.proz.com.


 
Hilde Granlund
Hilde Granlund  Identity Verified
Norway
Local time: 01:16
English to Norwegian
+ ...
not all people who make searches Jul 26, 2007

on Google are sophisticated users who know or even care about how to refine their searches.
I agree with the poster who said the kudoZ area, and I think also the forum - should only be open to registered users. That will keep the search bots out.
GLossaries are a different matter, and it is a good thing that there are profile options to let every member decide for themselves how much information they want to make public.


 
Ken Cox
Ken Cox  Identity Verified
Local time: 01:16
German to English
+ ...
agree with Hilde Jul 26, 2007

and others who have made comments in the same vein.

Besides being annoying to Proz/Kudoz users, getting hit with all these quasi-identical results must surely be annoying to other google users -- and that's not the kind of advertising you want.


 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 01:16
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Robot.txt for forums Jul 26, 2007

Hilde Granlund wrote:
I agree with the poster who said the kudoZ area, and I think also the forum - should only be open to registered users.


You can keep Google out even if the forum is open to non-registered users. There's a little thing called robots.txt, that Google respects.

I would support a system whereby the English forums are only made available to Google for the English language web site, and mutatis mutandis for the non-English forums.


 
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Proz questions as hits in Google






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