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Foreign Language Website Browsing Tricks (03.15.04)
Artavan "Maj" Mkhikian
With so many awesome videos and tactics originating in countries such as
Japan, it pays to know how to traverse websites that don't cater to
English-speaking audiences. While the only way to be sure that you haven't
missed anything requires learning an entirely new language, there are some
tricks that make browsing foreign language websites more efficient than
simply clicking on everything that looks like a link.
Website Translators
Several popular search engines offer automatic website translators catering
to the most common languages, including most European and Asian ones. These
allow you to input either text or a website address, specify the original and
target languages, and get a full translation with the click of a button. The
most well-known of these are Altavista's
Babelfish
service and Google's
Language Tools.
Unfortunately, none of these are very precise. At best, they give only a
general idea of the main point expressed in the original language. They also
tend to be pretty limited at translating slang, and exceptionally horrible when
attempting to translate fighting game move names. Still, it's the definite first
step in navigating any foreign language information source.
Browser Status Bar
All popular internet browsers have a Status Bar at the bottom of the window.
The option to activate or deactivate it is usually located the View or
Tools menus. When overlaying your mouse pointer over a link, the target
URL appears in the Status Bar. Since website addresses are almost always in
English, this can sometimes be helpful in deciphering where the link leads.
For example, most websites' video sections contain either the words
movie, media, or video somewhere in the URL. Other common
notations include words such as profile to suggest some sort of bio
information regarding the author, and words such as BBS to designate
some sort of discussion forum.
Examining Source Code
The final step to searching a foreign language website before either giving up
or attempting to click on every link in the spirit of trial and error is to
examine the source code. This can either be done by right-clicking the page
and selecting the View Source option, or doing the same thing through
the View menu at the top.
Source code is useful because it contains website addresses for all links on
the current webpage. It's the easiest way to search for common media file
extensions such as .avi, .mpg, .wmv, .zip, and
.lzh using a simple text editor search function. Once such a file is
found in the source code, it's easy to look at the corresponding area on the
webpage for the actual link. The Status Bar will help in finding the actual
file once the general area is deduced through the source code.
Downloading and Sharing Video
Once a video is found through any of these methods, the considerate and
respectful approach is to download the file to your computer before viewing.
Streaming video files often requires more bandwidth and server operations than
simply downloading the file. Rewatching or rewinding streamed videos puts
additional strain on server bandwidth since the same file is essentially being
downloaded multiple times by a single user.
The best way to share such media files with friends is to either provide them
with the homepage URL of the author or the specific URL of the media page on
which the video files are located. It's extremely inconsiderate to directly
link to large files, because doing so leeches from the author's bandwidth
without giving people the opportunity to look at the entire website. When
announcing such videos on public forums, the best approach is to link to the
author's homepage and give explicit directions for navigating the site to get
to the page containing the new media. It requires a little bit more work on
the part of both the announcer and the viewer, but it's far more respectful
of the author's contribution. As an added bonus, it provides viewers with a
solid idea of the video's origin, as well as contact information to let the
authors know that their work is appreciated.
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