RE: bilingual websites

Thierry Sourbier wrote:
> The point is that the browser preference is not totally reliable if it
> indicates English but should be reliable if it says Welsh.

One point that seems to have been lost is that the browser preferences,
although not that reliable as to the real preferences of the user, are very
likely to indicate one or more languages that the user can at least deal
with.

IMHO, that's enough to bypass the language-choice splash page and present
the user with the home page in the best matching language.  Users who have
set their language preferences correctly will be rewarded by getting right
to the correct page; others will be no worse off: knowing the language, they
will be able to find the language-choice controls in the home page and get
to their preferred language, if desired.

Only users with empty or incompatible preferences need to be shown the
splash page.  On the whole, most users are spared the annoyance of a stop at
that page and many users get right where they want to be, in their preferred
language.

-- 
François Yergeau 

Received on Tuesday, 30 October 2001 12:57:02 UTC