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That's actually not correct for most users. Most well-known case is India, where the OS language is usually set to 'English' for $REASONS, but people still pref

That's actually not correct for most users. Most well-known case is India, where the OS language is usually set to 'English' for $REASONS, but people still prefer content in Hindi. (Or Urdu) Guessing what language a user actually speaks is not straightforward.

Symbiote 8y ago
What are the reasons? It still doesn't make sense to use the same behaviour in Europe, where in my experience the OS language is almost always the preferred language of the user. (Especially on a mobile.)
- hyperman1 8y ago
  In my experience, most European sites will/should consider 'English' as default/unset/unknown. So when in German,y, if the header says French, give French . If the header says English (US or UK), give German.
  - Symbiote 8y ago
    What am I supposed to do, as a native English speaker living in Denmark? I've tried en and en,da, but I almost always get Danish in Denmark and the local language if I travel.
    - jakub_g 8y ago
      FYI, Irish (en-IE) instead of en-US works fine for me, at least on google_com, to reliably get English content.
- groby_b 8y ago
  Several things, AIUI 1) Inertia. The Indian market is largely English-speaking, so many products came to market in English first, and now people are used to it. 2) Colonialism. Using English still marks you as "educated" and "more respectable". So, to not look like a yokel, everybody sets their UI to English. Content, which is more ephemeral, still is successful in Hindi/Urdu. 3) Localization is hard, and often the English localization is better - but content isn't localized, its first language is the native language. IIRC, most browsers do default to the OS language. It's just not the correct choice in all cases :) Websites doing weird things is websites trying to be smart and failing on top of that.
  - baybal2 8y ago
    Same happened in Pakistan, the higher up the social ladder you go, the more likely you stumble on somebody who simply can't do written Urdu, or even speak it.
  - alistairSH 8y ago
    That all makes sense, thanks for clarifying.

Symbiote 8y ago

What are the reasons? It still doesn't make sense to use the same behaviour in Europe, where in my experience the OS language is almost always the preferred language of the user. (Especially on a mobile.)

hyperman1 8y ago
In my experience, most European sites will/should consider 'English' as default/unset/unknown. So when in German,y, if the header says French, give French . If the header says English (US or UK), give German.
- Symbiote 8y ago
  What am I supposed to do, as a native English speaker living in Denmark? I've tried en and en,da, but I almost always get Danish in Denmark and the local language if I travel.
  - jakub_g 8y ago
    FYI, Irish (en-IE) instead of en-US works fine for me, at least on google_com, to reliably get English content.
groby_b 8y ago
Several things, AIUI 1) Inertia. The Indian market is largely English-speaking, so many products came to market in English first, and now people are used to it. 2) Colonialism. Using English still marks you as "educated" and "more respectable". So, to not look like a yokel, everybody sets their UI to English. Content, which is more ephemeral, still is successful in Hindi/Urdu. 3) Localization is hard, and often the English localization is better - but content isn't localized, its first language is the native language. IIRC, most browsers do default to the OS language. It's just not the correct choice in all cases :) Websites doing weird things is websites trying to be smart and failing on top of that.
- baybal2 8y ago
  Same happened in Pakistan, the higher up the social ladder you go, the more likely you stumble on somebody who simply can't do written Urdu, or even speak it.
- alistairSH 8y ago
  That all makes sense, thanks for clarifying.