EvoBloggito

Why Online Language Translation Applications Are a Bad Idea

Author: Ray Gulick; Published: Dec 20, 2008; Category: Accessibility, Marketing; Tags: Translation, Web-based Applications; No Comments

One of the blogs I follow recently recommended an online translation application. For some reason, I was not able to submit a comment on the post, so I’ll air my comment here. The service suggested was Nice Translator. My wife, Angela, is a professional translator, which gives me some insight into translation issues.

First, most translation applications do a reasonably good job of translating individual words, provided the words have only one meaning. It gets a bit more difficult when a word can be both a verb and a noun (i.e., I will ride to the store, vs. I need a ride to the store). The better applications (Google Translation, for instance) differentiate between usages of a word and give you several options. This is good, but you may have no way of knowing which of the options is suitable, which is a problem.

Beyond single words—sentences and paragraphs—all translation applications fall far short of delivering usable translation. Even relatively simple sentences are routinely mangled. Sometimes (if you’re lucky) the translation will just be awkward. If you’re not so lucky, the meaning can be completely changed. Why? Software is unable to understand the context of the words, and as a result is unable to make decisions about rephrasing or selecting other words that more accurately express an idea.

Assuming your motivation for using a translation application is a need to communicate to a non-english speaking audience, the app is going to let you down. In fact, the awkward sentence structure and confusing words amplify your inability to communicate with your non-english speaking audience. Maybe you’ll provide them with a good laugh, and they’ll give you points for trying. But they won’t be fooled into thinking you understand them.

If you need to communicate with a non-english speaking audience, work with a good human translator with experience in the subject matter. It will cost you some money, but you will also communicate with your audience (and you won’t have to worry about looking blöd).

What Information Do We Trust?

Author: Ray Gulick; Published: Dec 16, 2008; Category: Marketing, Zeitgeist; Tags: Business, Marketing; One Comment

The following table appears in the book Stories that Sell that a friend of ours (Casey Hibbard, success-story guru) is about to publish. The result of surveys by the University of Massachusetts in 1997 and Bridge Ratings in 2007, it illustrates a shift in how people value information from various sources when considering what products or services to buy. The results have meaning for website owners.

The really interesting part of these results for website owners is the jump from a rating of 4.2 to 7.9 for the trust we place in "strangers with experience," behind only friends, family and acquaintances, and ahead of teachers and religious leaders. This is almost certainly due to people’s experience with recommendations on Amazon.com, NetFlix, and similar website ratings. Bloggers are not ranked very high in general, but we know people who have great trust in blogs that they follow. It may be like people’s low opinions of congress: they’re all crooks, except our congressman.

Trusted Sources of Information according to US Consumers 1997 & 2007
(rated on a scale of 1-10)

10 jQuery Plugins We Really, Really Like

Author: Ray Gulick; Published: Dec 15, 2008; Category: Accessibility, CSS, Design/Development, jQuery; Tags: Accessibility, CSS, Design/Development, jQuery; No Comments

It wasn’t that long ago that javascript was considered a "kiddie" programming language, used mostly to inflict annoying browser behavior on website visitors. Then, AJAX came along, using javascript to process client-side requests. Suddenly, javascript was useful. jQuery has been described as "javascript that has grown up." Following are our current favorite plugins.

Thickbox – accommodates images (singly or in galleries), Flash, text, iframes, and AJAX, making it perhaps the most versatile of existing modal window scripts. Recently, there’s a Dreamweaver extension to further simplify implementation.

PrettyPhoto – another modal window that’s almost as versatile as Thickbox; we also like it because it’s so… pretty!

Watermark Input – unobtrusively allows hints in form fields that disappear when the user puts his cursor into the field.

jTabber – tabbed boxes that allow you to display hidden content on request, without reloading the page.

Superfish Menu – based on the suckerfish menu, this is a highly configurable menu system that supports IE6 and is accessible.

Scrollable HTML Table – like good little developers, we only use tables for displaying tabular data these days: this plugin allows you to fit a very long table into a short depth, scrolling it from top to bottom.

Colorize – another table plugin, this one for alternate coloring of rows and changing the color as you hover over each row.

jCarousel Lite – scrolls through images, highly configurable; we used this plugin for our portfolio presentation.

jqZoom – we haven’t had an opportunity to use this one yet, but it’s very cool; lets you "magnify" areas of an image.

s3Slider – another plugin we’re dying to use; maybe the coolest slide show effect ever.

How Some Businesses Thrive in Poor Economies

Author: Ray Gulick; Published: Dec 13, 2008; Category: Marketing, Zeitgeist; Tags: Business, Economy; No Comments

If you’re not at least a little concerned about the economy and what it might mean to your business, you just haven’t been paying attention. On the other hand, this is no time to panic. Some businesses thrive in slow times, and not because they sell tin cups or hand-lettered "will work for food" signs. These businesses see opportunities others miss.

People generally don’t stop buying altogether during a downturn: they still need goods and services. But they are a lot more conscious of "value" and getting their money’s worth when they spend money. This value-consciousness creates opportunities for savvy business owners. Taking advantage of those opportunities, however, often means changing some of the ways they do business. Most business owners won’t do that, and most businesses will suffer as a result. Some will even fail, rather than change.

Now is the time to think about the web as a business platform. The days of online brochures being useful are past, even for "brick-and-mortar" businesses. There are efficiencies and competitive advantages to be gained with the use of web-based applications and online marketing techniques. It doesn’t matter what your business is, the people in your market go to the web to begin the sales process, long before you even know they’re looking for your product or service. If they find the information and service they’re looking for on a competitor’s website and don’t see anything helpful on yours (or don’t find yours), you’ve lost an opportunity to make a sale, or worse, a long-term customer.

Here are 3 things you can do right now:

1. Sign up for our newsletter, EvoLetter 2.0, for ideas about how a web-based business platform can help your business thrive.
2. Buy David Meerman Scott’s book, The New Rules of Marketing & PR, and (this is the important part) read it.
3. Call us at 505-466-8292 to schedule a meeting to discuss making the web part of your business platform.

If You Run a Business, The New Rules of Marketing & PR is for You

Author: Ray Gulick; Published: Dec 12, 2008; Category: Book Review, Marketing; Tags: David Meerman Scott, Marketing, New Rules; No Comments

David Meerman Scott’s book, The New Rules of Marketing & PR, has been around for more than a year and has gotten a lot of well-deserved attention. Not only does it outline how to use social media for marketing, it also describes how to use more traditional marketing instruments, such as press releases, to best advantage online.

Scott explains how new technology and old media can work together: blending blogs and press releases, podcasting and branding, and RSS and media rooms to help buyers find your company’s products and services.

Topics include how to write for your buyers, how web content influences the buying process, blogging, podcasts, social networking sites, search engine marketing, and a lot more. It’s a fairly quick read, and it may open our eyes to a lot of new possibilities (it did mine).

Buy the book at Amazon»