
Google Unveils Message For Japan - meadhikari
http://www.messagesforjapan.com/
======
enko
The japanese I know don't need auto-translated moral support, they need
petrol. Or, if north of tokyo, they need petrol and electricity. Or, if even
further northeast, they need a time machine so they can go back and tell their
past selves not to live anywhere near the damn sea.

I don't know, maybe I'm just cynical, but .. what is the point. This is the
equivalent of the school dance committee deciding on a "save the environment"
theme. A PR exercise that you can't criticise because how dare you disrespect
the dead/the whales/whatever. I just hate this kind of thing.

    
    
        Feeling charitable?
                |
               yes
                |
            care about
            visibility?
                |
                |
         |---------------|
        yes              no
         |               |
      make this    buy TB vaccines
       webpage    and mosquito nets
                   work to reduce
                      poverty

~~~
scott_s
I was in grad school at Virginia Tech when the shootings happened almost four
years (in fact, almost to the day). There was an outpouring of emotional
support. Some of it bothered me, some of it was touching. Days after the
shootings, I wandered through the student center on campus and it was filled
with posters people at elementary, middle, high schools and colleges from
_around the world_ had sent to us. And by "filled" I mean nearly every wall
and surface on the student center had these posters. The number and diversity
was overwhelming.

So, yes, do whatever practical thing you can. But it's a false dichotomy to
see it as one-or-the-other. A few years prior, I probably would have felt
equally as cynical about sending a poster. I do not know if this webpage makes
anyone in Japan feel better, you'd have to ask them. But I know that I was
personally touched by similar gestures.

------
zyb09
Pretty, but seriously, what's the point?

~~~
GBKS
Drawing attention to the massive problems in Japan, showing that people care
around the globe, and of course financial support through the donation
options. What's so difficult to understand?

~~~
shpxnvz
I don't know if this was the point of the post you responded to, and I'm not
trying to be antagonistic, but apart from the donations I'll admit that I
don't really understand the point. Maybe it's just cynicism on my part, but it
_seems_ like a contrivance to let people feel good about themselves for
spending a few seconds writing a friendly message that will likely never be
read instead of using the time to do something potentially more useful, like
contacting their government representatives to voice their support for
continued relief efforts. I suppose if the interactiveness actually ends up
driving more donations that would be beneficial.

Although, if this is to be believed even the donations may not be as
beneficial to Japan as I would have thought:

<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/world/asia/16charity.html>

~~~
andos
Do you know that _feeling_ that a song is specifically about you and what
you're going through? It's not, of course. The composer doesn't give a damn
about you, but isn't it great to feel good about it?

Not all benefits necessarily have to be quantifiable. We humans happen to be
emotional creatures. Emotion counts, too. It moves us. Even if it's gimmicky,
even if it's tacky. Even if it's for profit. Even if it is a _PR stunt_.

~~~
shpxnvz
That's fine, but at least be honest about who you're benefiting. If you want
to write a message _because_ it makes you feel good, go for it and be happy.
If you are doing so because you think it's helping someone else on the other
hand, it's seem like good odds that it's mostly just self-deception.

~~~
andos
My point was that, as innocuous as it may seem, a message of support can make
a few of the people in distress feel better. Maybe they've been materially
taken care of, but there's still something amiss. That's where I believe
emotion counts. If you can also donate something, well, even better.

And there is no dichotomy, I think. I'm glad we can both help _and_ feel good
about it.

------
plnewman
Some of these translations seem surprisingly good for autotranslate. This one
in particular caught my eye: <http://www.messagesforjapan.com/messages/1194/>

So I went to translate.google.com and tried the original English: "After rain
the sun is rising, Croatian people are whit you!" and got back different
Japanese: "雨の後に太陽が上昇している、クロアチアの人々が聖霊降臨祭のです！"

I tried another one and it matched, so some (most?) are through Google
Translate, but it looks like it may have had a helping hand.

------
ChrisArchitect
google translate's always had a strong confidence in its EN -> JP translation
abilities. <http://translationparty.com/>

~~~
leoc
Not too unlike old times:

<http://translationparty.com/#9156110>

<http://translationparty.com/#9156121>

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_winter#Machine_translation_a...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_winter#Machine_translation_and_the_ALPAC_report_of_1966)

------
goblin89
Isn't using automatic translation for this kind of information... a bit risky?

UPD. They say in terms that ‘translation errors may be manually corrected,’ so
maybe a human is checking each message.

~~~
SoftwareMaven
More likely they have a way to say how comfortable they are with the
translation in the algorithm, and a person is checking those with a low
"comfort" value.

------
ck2
A+ for effort and thoughtfulness.

C- for the most distracting/annoying UI I've seen in awhile, both front page
and the map.

I'm also seeing some questionable stuff in the realtime message display.

~~~
mikepink
It looks like it was designed/created by the same guys that designed the HTC
Sense UI: <http://www.f-i.com/>

------
Kilimanjaro
Great design, superb execution.

Kudos to everyone involved.

------
robertboloc
a bit off topic, but how come this UI is amazing and all the other google
services have such "boring" UI's...

~~~
rlivsey
Because Google didn't build it themselves, the about page [1] says it was
built by Fi [2].

They outsource quite a lot of work like this, a friend runs a development
agency and has a number of projects on the go at the moment for Google.

[1] - <http://www.messagesforjapan.com/about/>

[2] - <http://www.f-i.com/>

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samuel1604
Why google made stuff never have a share on google buzz things?

