I have been tracking the wordpress translators plugins developments closely since I installed the Global Translator plugin which provided automatic translation of all my web pages in 8 languages based on the Google translation service. But all these pages are displaying 403 Forbidden errors.
I soon realized that repeated multiple queries by users and search engine bots were being blocked by Google translation services as possible spam or viruses.
We’re sorry…
… but your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application. To protect our users, we can’t process your request right now.
We’ll restore your access as quickly as possible, so try again soon. In the meantime, if you suspect that your computer or network has been infected, you might want to run a virus checker or spyware remover to make sure that your systems are free of viruses and other spurious software.
We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope we’ll see you again on Google.
I found that caching is essential to reduce the load on these translation services and keep the urls working. I went from over 12 hours caching to 24 hours caching, but though it worked for some time, we are back to 403 errors on all pages again.
I checked several blogs using the Global Traslator and Angsuman Translator Pro (costs $30), but it seems the problem is universal. So I guess a better caching solution or individual Google API might be needed for this to work.
Meanwhile, a new version of the Angsuman’s Translator Plugin may be out soon which supports translation in 32 additional languages and is up on demo at the Job Blog. It promises a better caching and translation service.
“It has a new intelligent caching engine, designed from ground-up, which will drastically reduce your server load and serve the pages super fast, without loading the translation engines. It intelligently reduces the number of requests and manages the load factor so you do not overburden the translation engines and also your server, thereby reducing your bandwidth and serving your users faster.”
Now it seems that this will fix these 403 errors and keep all those translated urls working. I am also eagerly awaiting for an update from the Global translator plugin. Of course there are many more translation plugins you can try. How are you dealing with this issue?
Update: Updated WordPress Translator Plugin Fixes 403 Errors