Keywording - foreign languages

[Michael_Jacobs]

I'm wondering if it is better to add to the keywords the name of the subject in different languages?

 

If I keyword a subject in Belgium, would it help to add keywords in Dutch and/or French?

 

Or in Israel to add keywords in Hebrew and/or Arabic?

 

Until now I'm doing it... But wondering if it's worth the effort?

 

Thanks for your feedback!

[wiskerke]

I have made sales because of using non-English keywords. Not so much that I would make much effort but I keep it in mind.

 

You may find that Hebrew isn;t recognised. It might be worth doing a test and add a hebrew word and then do a search after the next update to see if it is returned.

 

Also keep in mind that there are changes afoot which may limit the number of keywords you can place.

 

Alamy has promised here that the new system will keep all old keywords.

 

With so many contributors almost always someone already has done what you just thought out. It's like that with any subject I have come up with last 6 years or so. Why should keywording be different.

 

wim

[Ed Rooney]

I do all my keywording in Dutch out of respect for Wim and the early settlers here in New Amsterdam. Well . . . maybe not

 

English is the language of stock. I do put in the original proper names for places and things in the subject's language.

 

If you do a search on Alamy of café you'll come up with 558,843 images. if you do the search without the accent mark, cafe, you'll get the same 558.843. You should do some test searches yourself with some of your languages. I believe that simple, relevant keywording wins the day. Good luck.

 

Edo

[spacecadet]

Accents and umlauts are ignored but i like to include them in captions out of courtesy- I have the alt codes on a piece of paper by the keyboard but you get to remember that it's café (alt0233).

[Matt Ashmore]

I add keywords spelt using American English if that counts as a foreign language. 

[dov makabaw]

I am mainly attentive to foreign languages for place names such as Vienna / Wien and US American words such as colour / color. 

 

 

dov

[vpics]

I include German words if they're idiomatic and some words just cannot be translated into English. 

 

Just had a look on Alamy for the German town of Düsseldorf:

 

Düsseldorf - 25,940 entries (that's the traditional German spelling)

Dusseldorf - 25,940 entries (that's how foreigners would spell it)

Duesseldorf - 50,051 entries (that's the alternative German spelling as ü = ue. No German speaker would really go and look for pictures of the town of Düsseldorf using this one.)

 

Guess it makes sense to include at least two of those spellings. 

[vpics]

I add keywords spelt using American English if that counts as a foreign language. 

 

Foreign certainly, but language? ;-)

[chrumu]

I include German words if they're idiomatic and some words just cannot be translated into English. 

 

Just had a look on Alamy for the German town of Düsseldorf:

 

Düsseldorf - 25,940 entries (that's the traditional German spelling)

Dusseldorf - 25,940 entries (that's how foreigners would spell it)

Duesseldorf - 50,051 entries (that's the alternative German spelling as ü = ue. No German speaker would really go and look for pictures of the town of Düsseldorf using this one.)

 

Guess it makes sense to include at least two of those spellings. 

 

 

I have to disagree. Every German speaker would use the spelling 'Duesseldorf', not 'Dusseldorf', when using a keyboard without Umlaut keys.

[vpics]

 

I include German words if they're idiomatic and some words just cannot be translated into English. 

 

Just had a look on Alamy for the German town of Düsseldorf:

 

Düsseldorf - 25,940 entries (that's the traditional German spelling)

Dusseldorf - 25,940 entries (that's how foreigners would spell it)

Duesseldorf - 50,051 entries (that's the alternative German spelling as ü = ue. No German speaker would really go and look for pictures of the town of Düsseldorf using this one.)

 

Guess it makes sense to include at least two of those spellings. 

 

 

I have to disagree. Every German speaker would use the spelling 'Duesseldorf', not 'Dusseldorf', when using a keyboard without Umlaut keys.

 

 

Of course they would use Duesseldorf in this instance. But normally they'd search for Düsseldorf - and never Dusseldorf. 

 

I've been in the UK now for longer than I can remember and I've always converted my English keyboard to a German one using software. 

[imageplotter]

Although there are a few Dussels in Düsseldorf...

 

Quick question, I know this thread is from a while ago but going back to the fact that alamy have recently said a few times (can't find all the threads) not to translate words or use different language versions, and that it could harm ranking when doing so, I'd love to get a bit more clarification on this.

 

At present, I also tend to include idiomatic words and phrases in German if I feel that auto-translate may not adequately handle those or may not include them. I also sometimes still include German versions of place names if they differ from the English version. I was going to stop doing that now after I saw the last few comments alamy made regarding including these. But then confusingly, that's not how the search engine seems to churn out its results yet.

 

If I type in "baseball" "Cuba" I get 22 pages. When typing in "baseball" "Kuba" I get 1 page. If the auto translate function did correctly translate these, shouldn't both produce 22 pages? I've used that example as I have some images in both searches. Captions in the images are in English, "Kuba" is there alongside "Cuba" as a search term in mine at the moment. So if a German buyer types in "baseball" (same in German) and "Kuba", does he only get the 1 page results? I'm a bit confused.com at the mo!

[Martin P Wilson]

6 minutes ago, imageplotter said:

Although there are a few Dussels in Düsseldorf...

 

Quick question, I know this thread is from a while ago but going back to the fact that alamy have recently said a few times (can't find all the threads) not to translate words or use different language versions, and that it could harm ranking when doing so, I'd love to get a bit more clarification on this.

 

At present, I also tend to include idiomatic words and phrases in German if I feel that auto-translate may not adequately handle those or may not include them. I also sometimes still include German versions of place names if they differ from the English version. I was going to stop doing that now after I saw the last few comments alamy made regarding including these. But then confusingly, that's not how the search engine seems to churn out its results yet.

 

If I type in "baseball" "Cuba" I get 22 pages. When typing in "baseball" "Kuba" I get 1 page. If the auto translate function did correctly translate these, shouldn't both produce 22 pages? I've used that example as I have some images in both searches. Captions in the images are in English, "Kuba" is there alongside "Cuba" as a search term in mine at the moment. So if a German buyer types in "baseball" (same in German) and "Kuba", does he only get the 1 page results? I'm a bit confused.com at the mo!

 

Are you doing the German search on the German Alamy site? My guess is that translation only takes place for searches on the foreign language sites. It means of course those of us who are familiar and use foreign words, especially place or organisation names, on the main English language site will not get the full results.

[spacecadet]

In case anyone missed it, Alamy has stated that with the new dedicated language sites you don't need to add translations as the sites will do it.

But I was reassured personally by James Allsworth that existing keywords wouldn't hurt one's search results. But I'm backing off on it in future. BTW it's always OK to include the foreign name if that's how the place is known in English.

[hdh]

54 minutes ago, imageplotter said:

Although there are a few Dussels in Düsseldorf...

 

Quick question, I know this thread is from a while ago but going back to the fact that alamy have recently said a few times (can't find all the threads) not to translate words or use different language versions, and that it could harm ranking when doing so, I'd love to get a bit more clarification on this.

 

At present, I also tend to include idiomatic words and phrases in German if I feel that auto-translate may not adequately handle those or may not include them. I also sometimes still include German versions of place names if they differ from the English version. I was going to stop doing that now after I saw the last few comments alamy made regarding including these. But then confusingly, that's not how the search engine seems to churn out its results yet.

 

If I type in "baseball" "Cuba" I get 22 pages. When typing in "baseball" "Kuba" I get 1 page. If the auto translate function did correctly translate these, shouldn't both produce 22 pages? I've used that example as I have some images in both searches. Captions in the images are in English, "Kuba" is there alongside "Cuba" as a search term in mine at the moment. So if a German buyer types in "baseball" (same in German) and "Kuba", does he only get the 1 page results? I'm a bit confused.com at the mo!

I could not agree more - Where I live this town is called the forbidden village .

 

I do also add the local names and give different spellings, where they exist. 

By the way, I was also able to keyword in Russian Cyrillic and would guess that Hebrew should also work. 

 

Auto translation on alamy is probably like having the camera guess the focus point itself, or worse put it in full auto mode. 

My mileage is that the camera almost always gets it automatically incorrect.  

[imageplotter]

Martin's comment seems to make sense, so the translate tool only kicks in automatically when using the .de site. When searching on the .de site, I got the full 22 pages. Not sure if that doesn't miss a trick though, there'll be buyers in i.e. the UK who do use foreign search terms (though Kuba wouldn't be a good example in that case). And what happens if a buyer is i.e. in Switzerland, and logs into alamy.com? 

 

Anyway, I will continue to use idioms in German if I feel the auto translate will miss these, but will not translate the more common search terms any more.  It's likely to affect perhaps 5% of my images, so not a huge number.

[imageplotter]

4 minutes ago, hdh said:

I could not agree more - Where I live this town is called the forbidden village .

 

 I'm only kidding, I have good friends from there. And the beer is nice!

 

Better to be from the forbidden town, then from the town that doesn't even exist! (Bielefeld) 

[Bryan]

Wasn't aware that efforts were being made to auto translate into foreign languages, after spending some considerable time trying to provide suitable translations! I know about the German site, as Alamy has an office there, but elsewhere?

 

However I wonder about the quality of the translations, if they are done manually by a native speaker, great, but otherwise?  When in doubt, which is often, I will do a Google image search against my choice of foreign keywords to ensure that they are sensible. Google translate does a good job, but it's not always reliable. 

 

Our elder son works for a company whose unique selling point is in providing translations of commercial web material using only native speakers, it's the only way to be sure.

 

 

[vpics]

1 hour ago, hdh said:

I could not agree more - Where I live this town is called the forbidden village .

 

The Dussels have been sent to the "Forbidden Village". 

[hdh]

1 hour ago, imageplotter said:

 I'm only kidding, I have good friends from there. And the beer is nice!

 

Better to be from the forbidden town, then from the town that doesn't even exist! (Bielefeld) 

 

I'd recommend a decent Kölsch (another word  I would also keyword in German as Kolsch, Kölsch and Koelsch) (Note to self - take pictures of that) 

There is an anecdote how the Dusseldorf Altbier (litereally translates to Old-Beer) came about. 

This goes somewhere along the lines of 5 Barrels of rotten Kölsch where thrown into the river Rhine and stranded in Dusseldorf. Since then they brew this stuff. 

 

Where is Bielefeld???? 

 

17 minutes ago, vpics said:

 

The Dussels have been sent to the "Forbidden Village". 

Don't tell anybody what the German word Dussel stands for 

 

 

----

I am just making fun about the vendetta between Düsseldorf and Cologne. 

This presumably dates back to Roman times, when Cologne was enjoying the Roman lifestyle and Dusseldorf was in the hand of Germanic tribes disagreeing with the Romans. 

Today it vice versa .... Dusseldorf is now posh ....   

 

[vpics]

14 minutes ago, hdh said:

I am just making fun about the vendetta between Düsseldorf and Cologne. 

This presumably dates back to Roman times, when Cologne was enjoying the Roman lifestyle and Dusseldorf was in the hand of Germanic tribes disagreeing with the Romans. 

Today it vice versa .... Dusseldorf is now posh ....   

 

 

I'm neither from Düsseldorf nor Köln!  So I can make jokes about both of them. 

When talking about Düsseldorf, don't forget to mention the Neandertal Valley - which is right on their doorstep. 

And when the Altbier reached Krefeld, they decided to dilute it with Coca-Cola. 

 

Bielefeld - does it really exist?

[spacecadet]

1 hour ago, hdh said:

 

I'd recommend a decent Kölsch (another word  I would also keyword in German as Kolsch, Kölsch and Koelsch) (Note to self - take pictures of that) 

There is an anecdote how the Dusseldorf Altbier (litereally translates to Old-Beer) came about. 

This goes somewhere along the lines of 5 Barrels of rotten Kölsch where thrown into the river Rhine and stranded in Dusseldorf. Since then they brew this stuff. 

 

  

 

I'm a few ahead of you.

According to your story, then, it should be Alt for Tünnes and Kölsch for Schäl.

[imageplotter]

Spacecadet - if you're based in London, you may want to pay the Zeitgeist pub in Vauxhall a visit. The owner (think he's no longer behind the bar these days, but he used to be) is from Cologne and they serve a decent selection of beers including Frueh (along with the light-ish stuff Bavarians like to call beer) They also used to have a decent German chef, but sadly, he upped it back to Germany a few years ago and it's more Beerhall type fare now. 

I'm from that other traditional beer town...that isn't D'dorf or Cologne. Used to have 10 large breweries, sadly all have been acquired or liquidated over the last 20 years...but there is a beer museum! 

Prost! (I'll have mine with a Salzkuchen, please) Have a nice evening, everyone. 

 

[spacecadet]

7 minutes ago, imageplotter said:

Spacecadet - if you're based in London, you may want to pay the Zeitgeist pub in Vauxhall a visit. The owner (think he's no longer behind the bar these days, but he used to be) is from Cologne and they serve a decent selection of beers including Frueh (along with the light-ish stuff Bavarians like to call beer) They also used to have a decent German chef, but sadly, he upped it back to Germany a few years ago and it's more Beerhall type fare now. 

I'm from that other traditional beer town...that isn't D'dorf or Cologne. Used to have 10 large breweries, sadly all have been acquired or liquidated over the last 20 years..

Prost! (I'll have mine with a Salzkuchen, please) Have a nice evening, everyone. 

 

 

Thanks for the tip but too expensive for me at over £5/pint.

I also don't patronise anywhere that overcharges by 20% for halves.

Last and only time I tried Kölsch in London they served it without the CO2 injector and it was awful. I'll probably stick to the biennial Köln trip.

Dortmund might happen, though. If it has a campsite.

[Bill Brooks]

I constantly run into British/USA spelling problems.

 

Canada uses British spelling, so a Canadian place like  “Scarborough Town Centre” (the real official Canadian name) also gets USA tagged as “Scarborough Town Center” because I think my USA cousins are likely to use the USA spelling.

 

On the Alamy english site “Scarborough Town Centre” “Canada” (Canadian spelling) overabundance of 53 images

“Scarborough Town Center” “Canada” (USA spelling)  only 19 images. 15 of the 19 ALL MINE, ALL MINE, MINE, HA, HA, HA

 

OOPS!!!! some of the 53 are also mine and are are not tagged (USA spelling) “Scarborough Town Center” “Canada”. Oh well, only quick search in the much maligned AIM to correct.

Jill Morgan, you should think about this. Reimar seems to have both spellings. Jill and Reimar’s shots too good. Must go back to the “Scarborough Town Centre” AKA “Scarborough Town Center”

[Roger Johansen]

Here in Northern Norway we have sapmi natives so I often write keywords for places in Sapmi, Norwegian and English to be sure.