Google adds languages to interface

June 27, 2001 10:01 AM

Google adds languages to interface including Pig Latin, Hacker and Elmer Fudd. And Bork Bork Bork has been supported for a few months! Just customize your display.
posted by bjennings (13 comments total)

Google's the only major site I've visited which has recognised my browser settings and given me search results in my own language. As Welsh is probably spoken by less people than Borkish, this is pretty impressive.
posted by ceiriog at 10:27 AM on June 27, 2001

What a non-story.

Geez - I agree that Google provides a great service, but has anyone else noticed that they seem to get tons of press for absolutely nothing?

Yesterday we had the images.google.com post, which pointed toward an "image search" at google that didn't even really analyze images (based on URL paths). Today this absolute fluff non-story about serving results in pig latin.

Google posts are becoming as ubiquitous and boring as XP posts. Enough already!
posted by preguicoso at 10:28 AM on June 27, 2001

Anyway, I love the bork!bork!bork! option... it helps me leave the delusions of professionalism at work!
posted by prototype_octavius at 10:39 AM on June 27, 2001

Would you really want it to speak Bork?
posted by dong_resin at 10:42 AM on June 27, 2001

Come on, preguicoso, I for one believe that Google really is the best thing to happen since sliced bread, and any news about it is good news. And also, since they care about keeping the interface slick and non cluttered, I didn't find out about the language features or the image search until I read it on MeFi, even though I visit Google probably 15 times a day. So bjennings' post was signal, not noise.
posted by MarkO at 11:08 AM on June 27, 2001

Did I mention that I recently did a Google Image Search for Windows XP?
posted by timothompson at 11:24 AM on June 27, 2001

Also, just in case you missed it, Google now has an image search feature.

Google really is the best search engine so far.
posted by Mo Nickels at 11:25 AM on June 27, 2001

Of course it's a non-story. I didn't pretend that it was breaking news or anything. But it's funny (at least to me) and I think it's pretty darn cool that I can set the Google interface to Elmer Fudd if I want.
posted by bjennings at 11:28 AM on June 27, 2001

Google is my browsers no pressure, no questions asked mistress of convenience. She makes him happy and satisfies his every whim. Whatsmore.. she never asks him for money or expensive gifts, just time and plenty of mutual tlc.. Bonus. It's only a matter of time before they add MeFe-ized search results to their selection - with the parsing onus being firmly on 'has this result been shown before, if so discard..'.. 'does it make Google look cool to display this link at this time..' and, a particularly popular favourite, 'can we scan the web and find a more obscure version of the content to dispel any suspicions that the source of this link is an AP/Reuters feed'.
posted by Kino at 11:43 AM on June 27, 2001

Kino, you're on to something there...

[Actually, it's true: I sometimes intentionally obfuscate my Google searches when I know I'll be passing the results on to someone else. I don't want people to say, "Oh, you used Google. That was nothing. Too easy."]
posted by Mo Nickels at 7:01 PM on June 27, 2001

Hey, it's no coincidence that Google is spelled just like God. Well, without the "d" and the addition of "ogle". But otherwise, just like God.
posted by owillis at 8:41 PM on June 27, 2001

Does that mean they hired Samuel Stoddard or just ripped off his ideas? This thing's been around for years...one of my favorite Dialectizer tricks is translating Genesis Chapter 1 into Geekspeak, but that's just me....
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:49 PM on June 27, 2001

The "hacker" dialect is funny, but it should really be spelled "scriptkiddie"...

-Mars (who always feels presumptuous calling self a hacker, even though it's a reasonably useful description)
posted by Mars Saxman at 8:46 AM on June 28, 2001