Ever since I upgraded my beloved Chrome browser to version 5 on my (Windows) computer, I’ve been wanting to get something off my chest about a new feature that was baked into it, one that annoys me to no end.
With the update to the most recent version of the program came an integration with Google Translate, a feature that makes a custom toolbar appear under the bookmarks bar whenever I visit a Web page that contains text in a language other than English. Basically, Google Chrome supposes that I don’t understand any other languages besides English by default and enables me to translate Web pages in say, Spanish or Dutch, with one click.
Thanks for the help, Google, but how about you let me turn that damn toolbar off?
You see, unlike, the Google Translate extension for Chrome, this particular feature found its way to my most-used browser without asking for permission and no desire to leave any time soon. And while I’m sure a lot of people will think it’s a useful add-on, I just want to get rid of this intrusive little bugger as quickly as possible.
Right now, the toolbar asks me to confirm or decline if I would like to translate Web pages. When I click ‘Nope’, the toolbar disappears, only to reappear every time I jump to another Web page on the same website. Ah, but let’s see, there’s an Options button on the right hand side of the toolbar (which you can see on the larger image that you can view when you click through on the image embedded above).
There are the options:
– Never translate Spanish
– Never translate this site
– About Google Translate
The third option leads to a Chrome Help page with nothing on it, and the actual settings presented are insufficient: I don’t want to have to indicate for every language on the planet that I never want to see the toolbar pop up again, and I sure as hell ain’t gonna do it for all the non-English Web pages on the Internet I visit from this point forward.
What’s missing is an option to disable the toolbar completely, and I can only hope the next stable release of Chrome provides users like myself with a choice. Chrome’s a great, fast, free browser, but it’s those little things that can drive me insane. And I do realize this is a developer version, so consider this constructive feedback from an otherwise very happy user.
End rant.