Gave Me a Laugh: Localization on Stock Agencies

More and more stock agencies are launching Russian-language interfaces for users. And, perhaps, this is justified, as many microstock contributors are indeed from Russian-speaking regions. But, importantly, the percentage of stock buyers from Russian-speaking regions is also increasing month by month. It seems to me that the introduction of Russian localization on stock agencies is driven by competition for new markets.
And it would be fine, except that the localization of stock agencies is often done quite unprofessionally. Would it really cost that much to spend a little money and hire Russian-speaking developers, editors, linguists, or even microstock contributors to ensure high-quality localization? Apparently, not, as the quality of Russian localization for stock agencies like Fotolia and Shutterstock suggests it was done using Google Translate. In general, reading some of these translations makes you smile. I invite you to check out some of the localization gems:
1) Fotolia
– Affiliation – Аффилиация . Somehow, their translation associates more with “defibrillation” than with the intended “Affiliate Program”.
– Careers – Карьеры . Everyone, to Fotolia’s careers! In reality, this should have been translated as “job vacancies”.
– US – English – Американский . Yes, some linguists are indeed correct in noting that American English now stands as its own variety.
– Title – Тема . “How should we address you? Oh, just by the topic!” 🙂 In fact, it’s referring to the form of address for a person.
– Keyword translation for Prick . This is simply priceless. I’ll remain silent on that. Just look at the screenshot:
original

Fotolia’s translation

Incidentally, keywords like “revitalizing” and “glass” sound even more amusing in context, almost like an ad from various types of psychics. With such translations, I feel that visits to the Fotolia website from people interested in something other than purchasing images will soon increase.
Here’s another interesting combination with the keyword translation “prick”:

To bite, and frontally at that 🙂 Imaginative, to say the least 🙂
Now this is a bit more realistic :). Every single woman’s dream 🙂 🙂

Now, here’s a combination of translated keywords that’s simply mind-blowing. Note that, originally, keywords were used to describe a photo of a mosquito sucking blood… from a finger (not where some might imagine):

2) A few gems from the Shutterstock stock agency
– check out how they translated keywords describing a column photo (hits highlighted):
original
” abstract, adornment, alone, ancient, architecture, beautification, cap, capital, civic, clipped, closeup, column, concept, construction, crown, culture, decoration, design, detail, edifice, embellishment, feature, fragment, gold, house, indoors, interior, isolated, lone, mature, nobody, object, only, ornament, outdoors, part, picturesque, piece, pilaster, pillar, planning, residence, section, separate, single, stony, support, top, urban, white “
translation
” abstract, adornment, self-reliance, ancient-styled, architecture, beautification, cap, upper-case, civic, attached, closeup, column, main scheme, construction, crown, culture, decoration, design, detail, edifice, embellishment, feature, fragment, gold, house, indoors, innards, isolated, lone, matured, nobody, object, only, ornament, outdoors, part, artistic, part, pilaster, stand, planning, residence, section, separate, single, stony, support, top, white”
Yes, Shutterstock isn’t as amusing as Fotolia, but still. Don’t be lazy, visit the site and check out how your keywords are translated on Shutterstock or Fotolia. I think you’ll have a few entertaining minutes. And honestly, I don’t see a reason to be upset about this, as some microstockers are. For now, there are very few Russian-speaking buyers on stock agencies, and those that are there usually speak English. Besides, in six months, stock agencies may very well improve the translations, and we’ll look back on the glitches of automated translation with a smile.
And by the way, despite the localization of stock agencies, don’t forget to attribute your photos and illustrations exclusively in English!