* For users who didn't log in, is the variant selection remembered in a
cookie or in localStorage?
A quick test when I'm not logged in indicates that variant selection isn't
remembered between searches, or even when following links! The default
"/wiki/" version of the page can be mixed Traditional and Simplified
characters (which seems maximally unhelpful).
If it doesn't, then I'd like to know it, and to think whether we can do
anything about it in our software.
Discovery is almost ready to deploy changes to improve searching on Chinese
wikis. We are using an Elastic plugin to convert Traditional Chinese
characters to Simplified, and another plugin that does a better job of
segmenting Simplified text into words (the plugin only works on Simplified
text—which is why we haven't used it in the past: it's pretty bad on
Traditional text).
So, searching for Simplified or Traditional text will find the other
(modulo the imperfections in the software—but it's definitely a big
improvement). "Exact" matches are still weighted some, so Traditional and
Simplified variants don't always return the exact same results, but they
will be much more similar compared to the current situation, where they
don't necessarily overlap at all.
The changes should go out after the Hackathon (and possibly some vacations
tacked on to the Hackathon), and then we'll have to re-index Chinese wikis
to make them live. So, not yet—but soon!
—Trey
Trey Jones
Software Engineer, Discovery
Wikimedia Foundation
On Thu, May 18, 2017 at 1:41 AM, Amir E. Aharoni <
amir.aharoni(a)mail.huji.ac.il> wrote:
> Yeah... but I would love to hear actual experiences of actual Chinese
> speakers. (Although I certainly do appreciate other relevant replies, like
> yours.)
>
> For every search engine, and often for every search engine _user_ the
> actual results are likely different.
>
> If it works well for Chinese speakers—good to know.
>
> If it doesn't, then I'd like to know it, and to think whether we can do
anything about it in our software.
>
>
> --
> Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי
>
http://aharoni.wordpress.com
> “We're living in pieces,
> I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore
>
> 2017-05-18 2:35 GMT+03:00 Brian Wolff <bawolff(a)gmail.com>om>:
>
> > Supposedly google listens:
> >
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077?hl=en
> >
> > On Wednesday, May 17, 2017, Amir E. Aharoni <
> amir.aharoni(a)mail.huji.ac.il>
> > wrote:
> > > Quite possible, but does it actually happen?
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי
> > >
http://aharoni.wordpress.com
> > > “We're living in pieces,
> > > I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore
> > >
> > > 2017-05-17 23:25 GMT+03:00 Brian Wolff <bawolff(a)gmail.com>om>:
> > >
> > >> I think the point of all those <link rel=alternate hreflang=foo>
tags
> > was
> > >> so google linked to right variant, but i am unsure.
> > >>
> > >> --
> > >> brian
> > >>
> > >> On Wednesday, May 17, 2017, Amir E. Aharoni <
> > amir.aharoni(a)mail.huji.ac.il
> > >
> > >> wrote:
> > >> > Hi,
> > >> >
> > >> > I wondered about some things around the Chinese variant
conversion:
> > >> >
> > >> > * When a person uses a search engine, do the links in the results
> > point
> > >> > directly to one of the variants? That is, does it point to
> > >> >
https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/Article_name , etc., or simply to
> > >> >
zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_name ? I guess that among
> > Chinese-speaking
> > >> > people Google is not necessarily as ubiquitous as elsewhere, so
> there
> > is
> > >> > probably a separate answer for each search engine.
> > >> >
> > >> > * If for any search engine the answer above is "yes",
does anybody
> > have
> > >> an
> > >> > idea about how does that search engine guess the preferred
variant?
> > Usage
> > >> > of simplified / traditional characters in the search query?
> > Geolocation?
> > >> > Preferred language settings in the browser
("Accept-Language")?
> > >> Preferences
> > >> > in the search engine itself? A combination of all of the above?
> > Something
> > >> > else?
> > >> >
> > >> > * Does any of the search engine show direct links to
country-based
> > >> variants
> > >> > - zh-cn, zh-hk, zh-tw, zh-sg, zh-mo? Or to the more generic
zh-hans
> > and
> > >> > zh-hant?
> > >> >
> > >> > * For users who didn't log in, is the variant selection
remembered
> in
> > a
> > >> > cookie or in localStorage?
> > >> >
> > >> > I cannot easily test any of these things myself, because I
don't
> speak
> > >> > Chinese, I'm not familiar with Chinese search engines, and I
don't
> > live
> > >> in
> > >> > a Chinese-speaking country (and geolocation matters). But since I
> care
> > >> > about language, I'm very curious about this.
> > >> >
> > >> > Thanks!
> > >> >
> > >> > --
> > >> > Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי
> > >> >
http://aharoni.wordpress.com
> > >> > “We're living in pieces,
> > >> > I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore
> > >> > _______________________________________________
> > >> > Wikitech-l mailing list
> > >> > Wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> > >> >
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
> > >> _______________________________________________
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> > >>
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> > >
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> >
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