[thelist] Language Detection vrs. Splash Screen

Norman Bunn norman.bunn at craftedsolutions.com
Mon Nov 3 11:11:08 CST 2003


First I recommend that you use a cookie to hold a person's language
preference and use that to drive which presentation they receive.  Second, I
think you should have a link on each page that allows the user to change
preferences as he/she desires, resetting the cookie as  needed.  Third, if
you use the  language detect option, I would use that as a backup to the
cookie (cookie has priority) and I would use it to prompt a user in that
language and English that an alternate language is available.  Finally, I
would avoid the splash page altogether.  Since most web sites are in
English, it should not offend someone if it starts that way, and if it
starts in French, I would not be offended either; I'd just look for the
"English" option button.

Norman Bunn
www.CraftedSolutions.com
803-405-1008

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "kent" <mail at kentrygiel.com>
To: <thelist at lists.evolt.org>
Sent: Monday, November 03, 2003 11:26 AM
Subject: [thelist] Language Detection vrs. Splash Screen


> Hopefully I'm not repeating a thread here but surprisingly I couldn't find
> anything comprehensive about this issue: Languages.
>
> A client wants to serve up both an English and French version of a
website.
> We do not want to default to English with the thinking that this might
> "offend" our French audience, for lack of a better word. So we have two
> options:
>
> 1. A splash page with language choice/selection.
> 2. Utilize a script to detect the default langauge set on the user's
> browser.
>
> So, I am wondering how effective it is to rely on detection of the
language
> setting of the user's browser. I have noticed that none of the big
websites
> (IBM nor al.) give me a French page when I change the language option in
my
> browser. Does anyone know why this language detection is not utilized more
> often?
>
> As for a splash page, I tend to dislike adding this extra step for
entering
> a site. But in order to deal with this language issue, is this the
> recommended course of action? I need the site to be search engine-
friendly,
> which is another reason why I want to avoid a splash page.
>
> If anyone would reply to directly to me, I can post a summary.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Kent
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