One of the things I find the most frustrating about using the international web is when websites offering English versions do not provide an intuitive way to find the English version.
One of the most popular ways of linking to the English section is to provide a USA or UK flag image. This is a little confusing to some users since it’s hard to distinguish between whether this technique is for country-specific information or for English information. If a USA flag is used, for example, some non-USA English speakers (Canada, Australia, UK, etc) may assume they need to click on the flag of their country. Since their flag is not represented, they may look elsewhere.
I think such a link should be replaced with simply a text link using the word “English”.
As well, I believe all international websites that provide English sections should provide an address that incorporates “en” (e.g. http://www.foo.com/en/ or http://www.foo.fr/en/). Even if the English version is not easy to find, such a convention would allow users to find the content anyhow.
I would have to agree. I’ve seen worse thou, many sites that use a flag for language, and another for currency. very confusing situation. My favourite is the USA, Canada and UK flags nestled together.
At least they aren’t using currency to represent language. That would be mind boggling.