Sunday, November 13, 2011

Web application multi language support - rule of thumb

Often, web application, support different languages. Some of the applications, even automatically selects a language, after checking the location of your request. For example, the site is checking your source IP address, and if you are coming from a country, they support, the site will automatically select the proper language.
These sites, must always support, easy "switch language" feature. It should be visible, on all pages, preferable on the site header, so it does not take more then 1-2 seconds for a user to to switch the language, if he prefers a different one. This is a must from my perspective to any web site, that support custom languages.

So why I decided to write this? Because it seems that google does not respect this practice. Unfortunately, Google Adsense, selects automatically Hebrew, for me, as i'm located in Israel and I cannot find easy way to switch it back to English (actually i cannot find this option at all, on the new UI of the Adsence application). I cannot stand the terms in Hebrew, it takes me so much longer, to understand what they are talking about.

Shame on you google.

So, when you design a web application, please make sure that this fundamental feature, is found easily by your users.

:)

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