Another lovely Google Chrome ad - Extensions | Hacker News Reader

Another lovely Google Chrome ad - Extensions

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41 pointsyanw14 comments

They really only need to show one thing, the Google translate extension. I have it set to automatic now and I often don't even realize I'm looking at a page that's not originally in English. That's some serious Star Trek universal translator business going on right there.

It's not perfect. Whenever I go on a page in Scottish Gaelic, it says "this page is in Irish - would you like to translate it?" That could cause some trouble.

The languages are admittedly similar and there's some level of mutual comprehension, but they're not similar enough for Google's translator to work across both - it emits gibberish when you click "yes".

I have to admit, I do not spend much time on Gaelic (Scottish or Irish) sites.

I've noticed that it's support for East Asian languages is also pretty bad. But Romance languages, German and Arabic are pretty amazing.

I was really excited about this and so I went to Youku.com (Chinese YouTube) to try it out and, unfortunately, it looks really terrible.

I'll be grouchy and say I'm put off keeping a lot of the Chrome extensions I install because they want to plant their brash ugly icons (that apparently can't be toggled or collapsed) on the main toolbar. Part of the reason I like Chrome is the airy and minimal appearance.

you can hide them.

Before: http://i.imgur.com/MJdNw.png After: http://i.imgur.com/5qMj4.png

Chrome Beta build but I have seen this on Chrome stable build too.

Ah - Thanks. In 5.0.342.9 on OSX it seems you can push them off the edge, but the >> drop-down isn't presented.

Just checked my mac. You are right, the drop down doesn't work on Mac. But I guess you are trying to hide them so it works out perfectly. :)

It works in 5.0.375.9 dev on OSX

Does anyone know of a way to reorder the icons?

On mine (5.0.342.9) you just drag them.

Reminds me a bit of Ok Go's latest video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w

Seems like something Michel Gondry or Spike Jonze (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdRaf3-OEh4) would do. I think it is abstract, but I like it a whole lot nonetheless. It's creative and cute and whimsical.

Kudos!

pleasant to watch but I think it misses the mark by not showing footage of the actual extensions referred to doing what they do. It might go over the heads of their target audience.

Maybe it's only me, but I find it too abstract. If I was someone who didn't know what Chrome was, much less what extensions are, I might be scratching my head at this point.

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