Hi, the explanation I remember is that original title always gets a preferred position in the search results.

When narrowing it down by year (y:2013) it is the second result for me. With a regular search for Familien it is on page 2. I don't think the search considers your language setting at this point, but that is just a guess. Travis would know more about that.

Search uses 3 fields, all weighted differently. In order of weight, those 3 fields are:

1. Original title
2. Translated title(s)
3. Alternative title(s)

Search also uses things like the popularity to weight their scores differently.

There is plans to re-factor search and use the session language as a way to boost matches but this work has not been completed yet.

@travisbell said:

There is plans to re-factor search and use the session language as a way to boost matches but this work has not been completed yet.

I've apparently lost track of the details about how the TMDb site works re: session language. If I'm browsing from Canada vs. U.S. vs. UK, are there any subtle differences in what I will see on the site? E.g., spellings of common words such as centre/center, colour/color, etc.? Or is there one version of English shown to anyone from an English-speaking place? If so, what version would that be?

@SixtiesHoldout said:

I've apparently lost track of the details about how the TMDb site works re: session language. If I'm browsing from Canada vs. U.S. vs. UK, are there any subtle differences in what I will see on the site?

I believe this is determined currently by your own personal account settings. Although when I check, I see only U.S. English as an option, not British English. I believe that was preset for me by the system, even before I signed up, based on my browser's IP address.

The english (translated) title will be the title the first country uses. Any others go in alternatives. Fir example Harry Potter philosopher/sorcerors stone or zootopia/zootropolis.

@SixtiesHoldout the interface language is controlled from your account settings. This only applies to the website though, not movie or TV translations. We should have all of the American vs. British English cases covered -- or at least all of the ones I am aware of. If I missed one let me know.

For movie and TV translations, we don't separate English at this time. They are assumed to be U.S.

@travisbell said:

@SixtiesHoldout the interface language is controlled from your account settings. This only applies to the website though, not movie or TV translations. We should have all of the American vs. British English cases covered -- or at least all of the ones I am aware of. If I missed one let me know.

For movie and TV translations, we don't separate English at this time. They are assumed to be U.S.

Thanks, Travis. So if I understand correctly, because Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was released first in the UK, it has that title on the U.S.-English-language version of the Website. But if it had been released first in the U.S., then you would be showing a title of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone instead.

And if I set my default language to German, then I'd see Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen, even if I search for the title Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

And in the plot description of a movie, we should expect to see words like color and center instead of colour and centre on the U.S.-English-language version of the Website. And there is no British-English-language version, just U.S.-English-language. (E.g., I cannot set my preferred language to UK/British English, only U.S. English.)

If so, then I'm still unclear when you say "We should have all of the American vs. British English cases covered." Does that depend on where I set my geographic region instead of my language preference? E.g., if I set geography to London, England, then I'd see words like centre and colour instead of center and color? Sorry to be so thick, but could you please clarify? Thanks.

I think it's more you'd see your countries release dates for movies! I always see Dutch release dates, unless there are none. Then I see US.

@alltimemarr said:

I think it's more you'd see your countries release dates for movies! I always see Dutch release dates, unless there are none. Then I see US.

Yeah, I'm frankly still a bit confused about some of the details of the localization feature, because my settings are U.S. English and U.S. west coast, and I haven't bothered to experiment with changing them the way that Sixties Holdout apparently has. I can speak German and some Dutch (my ancestors were Dutch Mennonite who came to the U.S. in the mid/late 1800s and settled mostly in Montana & Minnesota), but I was born in Minnesota and am American to the core--for good or ill.

By the way, your English is excellent. I guess that since WWII most European countries have tended to require learning English as a second language.

Thank you :). I live my life online almost so yeah. Lots of English! Always been creating websites and such.

Also I think the Dutch, and the Danish are the best English speakers in Europe. The French have historically been Too stubborn to speak another language. But i hear thats changed the last few years. And germany really loved their dubs!

But the Dutch really don’t have much dubbed content in cinema’s and tv. And that really helps a lot too. Only Nickelodeon has dubbed kid shows. And movies like frozen have an NL and OV (original version release). English is everywhere. Even toddlers get english “classes”

So if I understand correctly, because Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was released first in the UK, it has that title on the U.S.-English-language version of the Website. But if it had been released first in the U.S., then you would be showing a title of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone instead.

Correct, we use the titles from the original release country. It's only slightly complicated when it comes to countries that have the same language with different dialects (AND they release it with different titles). For example, with movie data, we don't currently separate American, Canadian, British, etc, English. So wherever the title premiered is the version of we'll use. That's the "original title".

And if I set my default language to German, then I'd see Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen, even if I search for the title Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

Yes, your search term just searches titles. It has no bearing on what you see. That is up to your session settings. You could search in Russian, English or French, the results will be the same, just translated to your session language.

And in the plot description of a movie, we should expect to see words like color and center instead of colour and centre on the U.S.-English-language version of the Website. And there is no British-English-language version, just U.S.-English-language. (E.g., I cannot set my preferred language to UK/British English, only U.S. English.)

No. Not for movie translations. Like the "original title" example above, we don't separate English, it's the same translation. Regional distinctions are only present on the website.

If so, then I'm still unclear when you say "We should have all of the American vs. British English cases covered." Does that depend on where I set my geographic region instead of my language preference? E.g., if I set geography to London, England, then I'd see words like centre and colour instead of center and color?

As per the answer above, not quite. The media translations and website translations are two totally different systems. The website translations are edited and contributed here. These translations support regions. The media translations are all handled here on TMDb directly. We also support regions for these translations as well but only on a few selected language/regions:

• pt-PT
• pt-BR
• es-ES
• es-MX
• fr-FR
• fr-CA
• zh-CN
• zh-TW

As you can see en-CA/en-UK/en-AU etc, are not supported yet.

Travis, thank you so much for that detailed explanation. It really helps to clear up my confusion.

Yes, thanks, Travis. I think that clears things up for many of us.