The Google development team thinks I read Polish as a primary language. Or something.

[ritaxis]

Got a message in my gmail inbox from "the Gmail team" explaining that Google Notifier has gone obsolete and won't be functioning anymore.

It came in Polish.

Is it because I spend a lot of time googling Polish things? But I google Czech things more. And Russian things too. Not to mention the words of songs in Macedonian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Croatian, etc. So was it the luck of the draw what language they thought they ought to contact me in?

I never write in anything but English . . .

Comments

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Sounds like phishing to me rather than something from the real Gmail team.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

No, I think it's the real deal. There's no possible way to reply to it, which is marks for its authenticity. Google has no interaction with its users at all.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I wonder how they arrived at the language choice? I have had pop up messages informing me that a page is in Welsh/French/whatever and would I like it translated? to which I almost invariably answer, "No!" Perhaps Google is noting these things? Though as you say, you only ever write in English, so whatever algorithm they're using is not entirely reliable.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

Well, I do usually bypass translation unless I particularly need it, but I don't think Polish has been anywhere near the most frequent language I have bypassed.

I'm wondering if it is the frequent mention of not-Poland in my correspondence, livejournal, chats, etc. that did it

[tanrien.livejournal.com]

Mhmm. I have given up on convincing websites of the languages I want them to use. I want to view twitter in English, but there is no way of getting there from German without signing up. Same with Gmail, which is in German, while Drive is in English all the time, and the "translate" feature on websites and google News is pretty fixed on Spanish. At least it would make sense if it was all in the same language...

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

That's hilarious. It's especially hilarious because the same provider is deciding for you that you speak three different languages in three different contexts (but you do, don't you?)

[tanrien.livejournal.com]

Yeah. xD It is actually pretty accurate, in a way, but sometimes, like with twitter, I'd rather have stuff in English so when I do screenshots to post them somewhere, people aren't confused...

[brooksmoses]

Apparently you are nowhere near alone in getting this email in an inexplicable language. (To the extent that it's probably just the luck of the draw that it was a nearly-explicable one.)

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

tell me more!

[brooksmoses]

Unfortunately, that's all I know about it -- I saw a conversation where someone was saying that they got it in Chinese despite not speaking a word of Chinese, and there were replies saying that there were numerous reports of similar issues that differed only in the language.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

Well, that's just odd. Thanks, though.