Japanese webpage limiter

[Infidel]

This is just some random question I know, but when I saw Tony say that he uses は to limit his web search to Japanese pages, I wondered what other favorite chars people might use. Personally, I use の. Back in the day, before I even knew the word arigatou I had figured out on my own to use の to tell if a book or other piece of writing I found in Chinatown was really Chinese or not.

So what other kana do people use to limit their searches to Japanese pages?

[becki_kanou]

Google.jp has a search option that allows you to limit your searches to Japanese only so I usually use that when it would make a difference. (You can chose either ウェブ全体から検索 or 日本語のページを検索 with each search.)

[pm215]

I use の too -- I think I picked that trick up ages ago from a usenet posting by Jim Breen...

[keatonatron]

Google.jp has a search option that allows you to limit your searches to Japanese only so I usually use that when it would make a difference. (You can chose either ウェブ全体から検索 or 日本語のページを検索 with each search.)

It really frustrates me that it doesn't also include the option to only search English

Helpful documentation on how to use western-made software (adobe products, etc.) is usually only available in English. Search in Japanese, and you just get pages upon pages of people mentioning the software in their personal blogs

[phreadom]

Google.jp has a search option that allows you to limit your searches to Japanese only so I usually use that when it would make a difference. (You can chose either ウェブ全体から検索 or 日本語のページを検索 with each search.)

It really frustrates me that it doesn't also include the option to only search English

Helpful documentation on how to use western-made software (adobe products, etc.) is usually only available in English. Search in Japanese, and you just get pages upon pages of people mentioning the software in their personal blogs

Are you sure about that? When I go to Google.com, then Settings → Search Settings, I see the option to set Search Language -> "Prefer pages written in these language(s):", which includes English as an option.

[Infidel]

Google.jp has a search option that allows you to limit your searches to Japanese only so I usually use that when it would make a difference. (You can chose either ウェブ全体から検索 or 日本語のページを検索 with each search.)

It figures that there is an option somewhere. But I wonder if this limits to expressly japanese pages. I.e, pages with japanese meta tags. So maybe using that option would omit normal Japanese pages, or pages in Japanese that lack the meta tag.

[jimbreen]

But I wonder if this limits to expressly japanese pages. I.e, pages with japanese meta tags. So maybe using that option would omit normal Japanese pages, or pages in Japanese that lack the meta tag.

No, it limits you to pages that Google has classified as containing Japanese text. Google ignores the meta tags and does its own language classification (language detection and classification is an interesting research field.)

BTW, that limiter is not confined to google.jp - it is available globally. I use a pair of toolbar applets for Google searches. One is for Japanese-only, and the URL parameter to get this is " lr=lang_ja".
Apart from that it is the regular Google interface in English.

Jim

[keatonatron]

Are you sure about that? When I go to Google.com, then Settings → Search Settings, I see the option to set Search Language -> "Prefer pages written in these language(s):", which includes English as an option.

Hmmm, I've seen the option in the search options page that lets you choose to only search in English, but choosing that setting every time you want to limit your searches to English is a big hassle. Maybe I'll try simply "preferring" English like you suggested and see how it works. I had seen that option before, but thought it would show me only English pages, even when I wanted to search for Japanese.

[Infidel]

But I wonder if this limits to expressly japanese pages. I.e, pages with japanese meta tags. So maybe using that option would omit normal Japanese pages, or pages in Japanese that lack the meta tag.

No, it limits you to pages that Google has classified as containing Japanese text. Google ignores the meta tags and does its own language classification (language detection and classification is an interesting research field.)

BTW, that limiter is not confined to google.jp - it is available globally. I use a pair of toolbar applets for Google searches. One is for Japanese-only, and the URL parameter to get this is " lr=lang_ja".
Apart from that it is the regular Google interface in English.

Jim

Ahh, thanks Jim. Useful info as always.