« Usability in the comedy world | Main | Don gets riled »
February 05, 2008
Bin or Trash? - The Google Dilemma
I have noticed that my gmail account now displatys "Bin" as the link for my deleted items rather than "Trash".
I discovered that I could change it back by changing my "Google Mail display language" from "English (UK)" to "English (US)". It was apparent that Google had decided to respect my cultural differences and describe my deleted item container as a "Dustbin" rather than the americanized "Trash Can".
So why did Google make this change? I had assumed that they wanted to personalise the UK experience by replacing those pesky americanisms and make my feel a bit more cosy about using a google produce that cared about letting me know that they undertsand that us brits have different needs that our colonial cousins.
However, I really don't care if I call my deleted items "Trash" or "Bin", although if I was given the choice I think that "Dustbin" would be more appropriate.
I thought that I would look at some other americanised google mail terms and see if these had been changed as well. On my gmail settings page I looked to see if the horrible "vacation" related options had been changed to the much more english "holiday". I was disappointed to see that I still had to experience the horrible vacation label.
Google, if you want to patronise me by renaming my "Trash"can as a Dust"bin" then please be consistent and change the other examples of US/UK alternatived. Or why not save us all a lot ob trouble and change the label to "Deleted" and change the "Vacation responder" to the "Gone Fishing" option instead.
February 5, 2008 in Google | Permalink
Comments
Hey, I thought it was great that they made the change. They could make another change. I wouldn't get histrionic about it though.
For a similar example, try going to del.icio.us in firefox and in IE: http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2008/06/12/its-all-details/
Posted by: Matt Katz | 24 Jun 2008 23:59:05
great work dude thx http://google.us/group/ppticket advance tickets for antique drags at barona sept 2007 289266 http://google.us/group/ooticket california speedway free qualifying tickets >:-OOO
Posted by: Zkrfzzgt | 16 Jun 2008 13:04:15
bloody awesome. i can't stand bloody 'trash cans'. its about time someone got it right.
Posted by: | 6 May 2008 03:01:17
Christopher,
Sounds like you're actually seeing "new Gmail" when you set to English (US); and seeing the "old version" when set to UK.
Posted by: asdf | 18 Apr 2008 09:49:05
gmail.co.uk?
Posted by: Christopher | 4 Mar 2008 07:45:40
I find that my address book options are also significantly different when I set my default language to English (US) (as opposed to English (UK))
Posted by: Mile5 | 7 Feb 2008 16:22:32
Great eye! But you have a point...if Google are going to change things up like that, then they need to be consistent.
By the way, you have a really great blog here. I'll be back!
Posted by: Kevin Jessop | 6 Feb 2008 18:46:39



