[BUG] Endless translation loop

[jri]

My configuration:

Chrome v27 running on Win XP (problem doesn't occur in other web browser, but might affect other versions of Chrome). No browser extensions enabled. Default language set to en-gb in Chrome, with en-us and en also selected.

 

How to replicate the bug:

1. Go to http://www.geocaching.com/
2. Use the language pull-down on the right of the green menu bar to choose a language that isn't one of your default languages for Chrome. I used Francais.
3. Go to http://www.geocaching.com/map/
4. If nothing untoward happens, try dragging the map a little.

What happens:

The map starts bouncing up and down the screen, with a translation message appearing and disappearing above it. In the address bar, the URL being displayed keeps changing, with the latitude parameter gradually decreasing.

 

In more detail: When you go to the maps page, Chrome detects that the page is in French (or whatever language) and pops up a message offering to translate it. This message appears at the top of the browser window, reducing the size of the map. The map page detects the change of size, and updates the hash in the document location to reflect new coordinates for the centre of the map - you see this update in the address bar. Chrome notices the location hash change and thinks you are navigating to a new page. It hides the translation message, then pops up another one for the "new" page. This repeats indefinitely until you navigate away or close the tab. Trying to click the "no, don't translate this" buttons doesn't seem to work.

 

What I would expect to happen:

Ideally, you should only get prompted once by Chrome to translate the page. If you can click "Nope" at the time the first prompt appears, Chrome doesn't ask again on the same page - even if the URI hash changes. However, if you don't respond to the prompt, it keeps getting hidden and redisplayed on every hash change.

 

There is a workaround: there is a tick-box in Chrome's advanced settings to disable the translation prompts. However, that applies to all websites, and you might actually want to translate some of them. I think the problem could be avoided if the Geocaching Map page ignored resize events, and only updated its URI when the map is dragged or zoomed.