Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Websites with automatic language detection
Raised as a usability problem by 7 people on Hacker News over 15 years (2011–2025), in 7 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Site language can't be changed once guessed from IPUnreviewed
20112026- Automatic language redirects lead to nowhere or the wrong language, forcing users to hunt for the language selector2023-03-24
- Language is hard to change and resets to the default after clicking a link2022-11-28
- Can't change the site language once it has been guessed from IP address2017-04-23
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 7 complaints
- Can't choose a language without also changing currency, so they use an extension workaround2025-02-14
- Automatic language redirects lead to nowhere or the wrong language, forcing users to hunt for the language selector2023-03-24
- Language is hard to change and resets to the default after clicking a link2022-11-28
- Language switch is hidden in a corner, so users take too long to find it2020-05-18
- Can't change the site language once it has been guessed from IP address2017-04-23
- Conflicting language signals make sites show the wrong language to users2014-03-16
- Sites pick the language from IP address, ignoring the browser's language setting2011-06-21