Lost in translation

Translating your Blog

In the last build of my Blog I had a side panel that allowed users to translate the entire site into a number of langauges. The idea was that I could reach out to more people with my Blog.

I used World Lingo's system to make the translation. Once a url is passed to their site you effectively leave this Blog and navigate through a version in your chosen langauge on their site. This was a good half way house as I couldn't translate all the pages myself but the compromise is that I get no stats.

This is the code I used:

<a href="http://www.worldlingo.com/wl/translate?wl_lp=EN-nl&wl_glossary=gl1&wl_fl=2&wl_rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.simoncox.com%2Fmt%2Farchives%2F000047.php&wl_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.simoncox.com%2F"><img src="/assets/flag_nl.gif" alt="Vertaalt deze plaats in het Nederlands" title="Vertaalt deze plaats in het Nederlands" border="0"height="10" width="18" /></a>

<a href="http://www.worldlingo.com/wl/translate?wl_lp=EN-fr&wl_glossary=gl1&wl_fl=2&wl_rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.simoncox.com%2Fmt%2Farchives%2F000047.php&wl_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.simoncox.com%2F"><img src="/assets/flag_fr.gif" alt="Traduit cet emplacement en Français" title="Traduit cet emplacement en Français" border="0"height="10" width="18" /></a>

<a href="http://www.worldlingo.com/wl/translate?wl_lp=EN-de&wl_glossary=gl1&wl_fl=2&wl_rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.simoncox.com%2Fmt%2Farchives%2F000047.php&wl_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.simoncox.com%2F"><img src="/assets/flag_de.gif" alt="Übersetzt diese Seite in Deutschen" title="Übersetzt diese Seite in Deutschen" border="0"height="10" width="18" /></a>

<a href="http://www.worldlingo.com/wl/translate?wl_lp=EN-el&wl_glossary=gl1&wl_fl=2&wl_rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.simoncox.com%2Fmt%2Farchives%2F000047.php&wl_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.simoncox.com%2F"><img src="/assets/flag_gr.gif" alt="?etaf???e? a?t?? t?? pe????? sta e???????" title="?etaf???e? a?t?? t?? pe????? sta e???????" border="0"height="10" width="18" /></a>

<a href="http://www.worldlingo.com/wl/translate?wl_lp=EN-it&wl_glossary=gl1&wl_fl=2&wl_rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.simoncox.com%2Fmt%2Farchives%2F000047.php&wl_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.simoncox.com%2F"><img src="/assets/flag_it.gif" alt="Traduce questo luogo in italiano" title="Traduce questo luogo in italiano" border="0"height="10" width="18" /></a>



<a href="http://www.worldlingo.com/wl/translate?wl_lp=EN-pt&wl_glossary=gl1&wl_fl=2&wl_rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.simoncox.com%2Fmt%2Farchives%2F000047.php&wl_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.simoncox.com%2F"><img src="/assets/flag_po.gif" alt="Traduz este local em Portugese brazilian" title="Traduz este local em Portugese brazilian" border="0"height="10" width="18" /></a>

<a href="http://www.worldlingo.com/wl/translate?wl_lp=EN-ru&wl_glossary=gl1&wl_fl=2&wl_rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.simoncox.com%2Fmt%2Farchives%2F000047.php&wl_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.simoncox.com%2F"><img src="/assets/flag_ru.gif" alt="????????? ??? ????? ? ????????" title="????????? ??? ????? ? ????????" border="0"height="10" width="18" /></a>

<a href="http://www.worldlingo.com/wl/translate?wl_lp=EN-es&wl_glossary=gl1&wl_fl=2&wl_rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.simoncox.com%2Fmt%2Farchives%2F000047.php&wl_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.simoncox.com%2F"><img src="/assets/flag_es.gif" alt="Traduce este sitio a español" title="Traduce este sitio a español" border="0"height="10" width="18" /></a>

After a few months the inevitable happened and World Lingo put a limit on the amount of the page they would translate unless you paid up. As a consequence of this I dropped the translation when I upgraded TO MT3. Now that I have read that other services will do your whole site for as little as $5 per year I am rethinking this.

Learning Moveable type mentions an alternative that I will be looking at and lots of other Weblog Goodies, worth a read.

Posted by Simon at August 16, 2004 12:59 PM

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