probably the weirdest question but...keywords in other languages?

[lisah2006]

So, this will be a very weird question (be gentle with me..I'm fairly new to all this) but since Alamy is an international site, is it wise to keyword things in other languages, or does Alamy do that already? Yes, I do feel like an idiot asking this, why do you ask? Hahaha!

[Martyn]

Other than putting both English and American English spellings along with possibly place names as they are locally known, then no, I don't !

[spacecadet]

Alamy translates keywords into French, German, Italian Spanish and Portuguese itself, so no, I don't anymore.

[lisah2006]

9 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

Alamy translates keywords into French, German, Italian Spanish and Portuguese itself, so no, I don't anymore.

Thank you! I figured they probably did but then ... I wasn't sure..because I never really looked into it to be sure.

[Ed Rooney]

English is the lingua franca of the 21st century, although sometimes I wonder about that. And there's the Google Translator. I always put in the orginal spelling of  a location, like both Seville and Sevilla. How many languages were you planning to include, Lisa? Both Vietnamese and Cambodian? The tags would be five pages thick. 

 

 

[BidC]

4 hours ago, lisah2006 said:

So, this will be a very weird question (be gentle with me..I'm fairly new to all this) but since Alamy is an international site, is it wise to keyword things in other languages, or does Alamy do that already? Yes, I do feel like an idiot asking this, why do you ask? Hahaha!

 

Alamy advises against it, as they have their own translating software 9I believe). In any event they say it will adversely affect the ability to search your images  

[wiskerke]

Alamy has asked us in an email at some point if we could provide translations of our own keywords in other languages.

Not sure what the outcome of that project has been.

 

In this forum people sometimes make fun of the translations into other languages, when they happen upon Alamy.de or Alamy.it.

Yesterday I noticed the opposite can be true also:

This is the second result for Dessau, a city in Germany where the Bauhaus is located.

 

Caption: Germany, Saxony-Anhalt, Dessau-horse-lukewarm, Bauhaus,

 

Excuse me Dessau-horse-lukewarm?  Ahh the proper name of Dessau is Dessau-Roßlau or Rosslau, because in 2007 the city of Rosslau was consolidated with Dessau.

And somehow Rosslau gets translated into horse-lukewarm.

No idea if this is Alamy or the agency that's the contributor. (Which is also the Alamy distributor in Germany btw.)

 

wim

[meanderingemu]

tangent to this, if does anyone know if someone use a foreign words in search if Alamy will translate it? 

 

In my Alamy results i have gotten hit for a search for  "St-James Camino" and "Camino hiking boots" had i only had the english word for Camino ie.Way would I have missed out  (actually many search for St-James Way version seem to use other language names so far)

[spacecadet]

3 hours ago, meanderingemu said:

tangent to this, if does anyone know if someone use a foreign words in search if Alamy will translate it? 

 

In my Alamy results i have gotten hit for a search for  "St-James Camino" and "Camino hiking boots" had i only had the english word for Camino ie.Way would I have missed out  (actually many search for St-James Way version seem to use other language names so far)

Searches made in one of the key languages appear in my measures from time to time, usually German, and although I have some legacy tags in German, these are not those. So I do know that if you search on alamy.de at least with the German translation of your caption or tags you will see your own images.

But the easiest way to see if Alamy has been mangling your efforts is to GIS one of your thumbnails. Mine usually show up at least on .de, .fr and .it

Edited August 25, 2019 by spacecadet

[meanderingemu]

1 minute ago, spacecadet said:

Searches made in one of the key languages appear in my measures from time to time, usually German, and although I have some legacy tags in German, these are not those. So I do know that if you search on alamy.de at least with the German translation of your caption or tags you will see your own images.

But the easiest way to see if Alamy has been mangling your efforts is to GIS one of your thumbnails. Mine usually show up at least on .de, .fr and .it

 

 

yeah the issue is i'm assuming something like "hiking boots camino" was searched on an alamy.com, it's just that some foreign words start infiltrating the lingua franca in some domain, and it seems Camino de Santiago is one of them (but of course having both "Camino de Santiago" and "Way of St-James¨ covered me) 

 But now wondering if i need to cover other words that might be used in searches Albergue and Gite for pilgrim hostels. 

 

but good point i'll add one of the english word and try a search later

[NYCat]

12 hours ago, wiskerke said:

Alamy has asked us in an email at some point if we could provide translations of our own keywords in other languages.

Not sure what the outcome of that project has been.

 

wim

 

Only some of us. Not me. I wonder how many languages Wim knows. Lots, I bet.

 

Paulette

Edited August 25, 2019 by NYCat

[meanderingemu]

1 hour ago, meanderingemu said:

 

 

yeah the issue is i'm assuming something like "hiking boots camino" was searched on an alamy.com, it's just that some foreign words start infiltrating the lingua franca in some domain, and it seems Camino de Santiago is one of them (but of course having both "Camino de Santiago" and "Way of St-James¨ covered me) 

 But now wondering if i need to cover other words that might be used in searches Albergue and Gite for pilgrim hostels. 

 

but good point i'll add one of the english word and try a search later

 

 

actually i just tested by using "Peregrino" instead of "pilgrim" and it doesn't .  So if you have a subject matter where english speakers might use foreign words in search, you might want to include those words.  An other example i can think of is Sakura for cherry blossoms in Japan.

[spacecadet]

21 minutes ago, meanderingemu said:

 

 

actually i just tested by using "Peregrino" instead of "pilgrim" and it doesn't .  So if you have a subject matter where english speakers might use foreign words in search, you might want to include those words.  An other example i can think of is Sakura for cherry blossoms in Japan.

It would probably work on alamy.es. I can see that  my images have had "pilgrim" translated as "peregrino" there from the caption.

Alamy counsel against using translations now as it might interfere with their own system. But I was reassured (personally, by James West in a phone call) that I didn't need to worry about my legacy images in, mostly, German- just no need to continue.

Edited August 25, 2019 by spacecadet

[meanderingemu]

3 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

It would probably work on alamy.es. I can see that one of my images has had "pilgrim" translated as "peregrino" there in the caption.

Alamy counsel against using translations now as it might interfere with their own system. But I was reassured (personally, by James West in a phone call) that I didn't need to worry about my legacy images in, mostly, German- just no need to continue.

 

 

yeah i saw a tweet about no foreign words, but that will be an issue if they let customers use them in search and don't translate since it puts me at a disadvantage compared to the 7 who use Peregrino in their KW.  Ok not a big one, but i had not used "Camino" instead (or in addition) of "Way" i would have missed quite a few hits. 

 I'll send  contributor support an email later this week see what they recommend. 

[vpics]

I know I shouldn't put in keywords in other languages other than English, but sometimes, just sometimes, there is no equivalent in English. Sometimes there are proper foreign "names" that cannot be translated. 

[Ed Rooney]

On 24/08/2019 at 23:41, wiskerke said:

Alamy has asked us in an email at some point if we could provide translations of our own keywords in other languages.

Not sure what the outcome of that project has been.

 

In this forum people sometimes make fun of the translations into other languages, when they happen upon Alamy.de or Alamy.it.

Yesterday I noticed the opposite can be true also:

This is the second result for Dessau, a city in Germany where the Bauhaus is located.

 

Caption: Germany, Saxony-Anhalt, Dessau-horse-lukewarm, Bauhaus,

 

Excuse me Dessau-horse-lukewarm?  Ahh the proper name of Dessau is Dessau-Roßlau or Rosslau, because in 2007 the city of Rosslau was consolidated with Dessau.

And somehow Rosslau gets translated into horse-lukewarm.

No idea if this is Alamy or the agency that's the contributor. (Which is also the Alamy distributor in Germany btw.)

 

wim

 

If I had to face that problem, Wim, my solution would be to delete all and every image from the area. 😜

[wiskerke]

1 minute ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

If I had to face that problem, Wim, my solution would be to delete all and every image from the area. 😜

 

I am yet to upload. Well the Bauhaus. I did upload some Dessau pictures, which is why I noticed this one. No lukewarm horses in mine so far. Maybe in Italian or Spanish? Worries I can do without. 😀

 

wim

 

 

[SMcC]

On 24/08/2019 at 23:02, BidC said:

 

Alamy advises against it, as they have their own translating software 9I believe). In any event they say it will adversely affect the ability to search your images  

Hi. I've just joined, and I missed the whole prior discussion on translations. Why do they say me adding translations of my keywords to said keywords would adversely affect the ability to search my images?
This also raises another question which I guess I should have thought about before joining. If a buyer logs on to (say) Alamy.fr and does a search, do they also see results from Alamy.com?

[gvallee]

1 hour ago, SMcC said:

Hi. I've just joined, and I missed the whole prior discussion on translations. Why do they say me adding translations of my keywords to said keywords would adversely affect the ability to search my images?
This also raises another question which I guess I should have thought about before joining. If a buyer logs on to (say) Alamy.fr and does a search, do they also see results from Alamy.com?

 

You have to keyword in English. Alamy will translate tags.

 

I had a quick look at your portoflio and if I may, I don't think you read the submission guidelines. Most of your images will not be found as they have inadequate captions.

They should be sentences, adequately describing what the image is all about (I didn't see any country location in your captions amongst other things).

 

As for tags:

Camera make is of no interest. 

Plant and animals have no Latin name.

"Where old boats come to die" will not get you a sale.

"Chewing the cud": ditto

 

It's in your interest not to rush and take time to read the guidelines first before your portfolio gets too big.This is an editorial agency requiring a description of what the image represents. 

Hope it helps.

 

Gen

 

https://www.alamy.com/blog/tagging-images-on-alamy

 

 

 

Edited August 29, 2019 by gvallee

[meanderingemu]

1 hour ago, SMcC said:

Hi. I've just joined, and I missed the whole prior discussion on translations. Why do they say me adding translations of my keywords to said keywords would adversely affect the ability to search my images?
This also raises another question which I guess I should have thought about before joining. If a buyer logs on to (say) Alamy.fr and does a search, do they also see results from Alamy.com?

 

 

the issue with foreign words is they will not be translated if someone searches in different language (except if word is of usage in English)  so the only thing you are protecting is against an English search where someone would you a foreign word, on the opposite you are now increasing the chance of false positive search results which would affect your rating. 

 

For example in your climbing pictures having "beau temps" .  The only time an english speaker would use these words are for beau: "a boyfriend or male admirer." and temps: "as short form for more than one temporary employee" (at least in North America)

 

and of course in Foreign language searches, this is all you will be translated to. 

 

 

also, this is a competition, you should identify who is in the picture....  (and note there is no Nikon visible in the shot)  

   

Edited August 29, 2019 by meanderingemu