Someone at the WordCamp asked me this question:
Q: Why do you directly link to Google Translation pages (click the world globe in the header) instead of using a Language Translation plug-in that can serve translated content to visitors much faster via the cache?
As far as I understand, these Language Translation plug-ins for WordPress rely on the online Google Translate service to fetch a translated copy of your blog pages. The results are stored in the MySQL database (or as static HTML files) and these cached results are served to your site visitors from various countries.
Now the big issue here is that the terms of the Google Language API do not permit sites to store translation results in the database for a long time:
You may copy, store, archive, republish or create a database of results returned from the service, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, except that you may store results in a temporary cache for a period not to exceed Fifteen (15) days solely for the purpose of using those results to carry out a specific user-requested action;
Ben Lisbakken from the Google API team earlier commentated that Google doesn’t mind users storing translations for a very short period but "anything more permanent goes against our TOS and is not OK."
Even if the Language Translations plug-ins of WordPress (and other content management systems like Drupal or Joomla) aren’t using the AJAX API, they still have a different problem and it’s about accessing the Google Translate service via CURL or another "automated method" – see section 5.3:
You agree not to access (or attempt to access) any of the Services by any means other than through the interface that is provided by Google, unless you have been specifically allowed to do so in a separate agreement with Google. You specifically agree not to access (or attempt to access) any of the Services through any automated means (including use of scripts or web crawlers).
These strict but very clear terms are a big reason why I shy away from language plugins but if you different thoughts, please drop a comment.
Find this article at: http://www.labnol.org/internet/blogging/language-translation-plugins/7781/
Tags: Archives, cache, google translate, language translation, problem, Blogging
Reader Comments
Amit,
I guess this issue is only for Google translation, but the translation plugin uses multiple translation engines. In this case, you can change over to other engines.
Written by Nirmal on 03.05.09
“Ben Lisbakken from the Google API team earlier commentated that Google doesn’t mind users storing translations for a very short period but “anything more permanent goes against our TOS and is not OK”
callme simple-minded-guy but I really can’t get why. If anybody out there can, please do explain to me. If I where mr.Google, I would be more than happy that ppl try to use this kind of underground services the less as possible just because of the bandwidth usage saving.
Written by ivo on 03.05.09
I can think of one more reason.
Suppose you have 100 pages on your site and you are using such plugins. Permanent storage means these pages get indexed by Google and will increase the index clutter by 100*(n times) (where n is the number of languages) I believe this will also amount to duplicate content.
Written by ROW on 03.05.09
Just when I uploaded the global translator plugin (but haven’t activated), I saw your post in my Reader.
So what do I do now, Amit?
Written by The web feed on 03.05.09
With Translator Plugin Gold we provide 8 translation engines of which only one is Google. You can, if you want, even disable Google engine and work with the rest. So that shouldn’t deter you from using Translator plugins.
Also the amount of time you want to keep pages in cache is configurable in db. Unless the page is changed, it is kept in cache for 1 year by default.
Written by Angsuman Chakraborty on 03.05.09
As you contacted me earlier today, I also encourage your readers to contact me directly, if they have any queries about Translator plugin gold or pro, via twitter. My id is link
Written by Angsuman Chakraborty on 03.05.09
Angsuman – Yours is probably one of the many other plugins that use store translated results from Google into the database. My biggest concern is that Google going forward may have issues with this since they violate TOS.
Are you sure that Babelfish, Yahoo, and other online translation engines allow users to store translated text in the cache. I haven’t checked their policies yet but if they allow, that’s really good news.
Written by Amit on 03.05.09
Hello Amit,
There is an alternative that we at transposh provide, which is a language plugin which allows the owner of the blog to crowdsource his users for the translation, this achieves a far better translation and is not bound by the terms you have mentioned.
We are constantly improving our plugin, any ideas are welcomed,
Ofer
Written by ofer on 03.05.09
> My biggest concern is that Google going forward may have issues with this since they violate TOS.
As I said Google is one of the 8 engines we use. If you disable Google engine then 7 other engines will takeover through automatic failover.
> Are you sure that Babelfish, Yahoo, and other online translation engines allow users to store translated text in the cache. I haven’t checked their policies yet but if they allow, that’s really good news.
AFAIK they don’t have any issues with people storing in cache. Also people are really concerned with Google only because Google is the search king :)
Written by Angsuman Chakraborty on 03.05.09
Dang, you serious? I’m trialling the Global Translator plug-in in my blog for a couple of weeks now and this post suddenly appears :[
Never know it’s against Google TOS to keep translated pages cache. $%^&@ Google with its many rules, regulations, don’ts, nos, and what else!
Written by Michael Aulia on 03.05.09
One question, is it good to use Translator plugin on wordpress blog.My site have 100 pages and google indexed 1800 pages, suddenly google stops crawling my site.Is it due to duplicate content?
Written by Vinay on 03.05.09
Ohh my god :)
What a command you have over TOS
I always thought of asking the same question:)
Thats a great share Amit
Written by Vasu on 03.05.09
Amit,
Thanks for the post. I was looking for this answer on your forums. But tell me – if we use Bablefish or any other translator than Google, can Google still have a problem since it may consider the content as duplicate content? Is it really capable of finding that out ?
One more comment here. I hope you integrate your forums with your main site so that when we are logged in at your forums, we can comment on the main site without needing to enter details again..
Written by techlee on 03.06.09
@ Amit : It would be great if you could share how we can link to Google Translate like you have implemented instead of using a plugin.
Written by Avinash on 03.10.09
I’m very unsure about this plugin..
Though I’m using this plugin from last 1 month and it also helped me increasing my traffic to a great extent…
Though I’m very unsure for two reason..:
One SEO : Duplicate content problem
Violating tos: Like amit mentioned above,
For now I changed my translator to babel from Google.
and I’m very suspicious to remove it…because Google indexed my many pages in different languages…and if I will remove it…it might create problem for me in terms of 404 errors…. :(
Lets hope with the discussion we will have solution here…
Meanwhile how you have implemented the translation tool here?
Written by Harsh Agrawal on 03.26.09
i try to use some plugins to translate my posts but i heard that there is much troubles with most of this plugins , so i decide to stop use translation plugins .
Written by Money Academy on 04.26.09