Eijiro

[Johnsw71]

Hi all,
 I've noticed that Eijiro (eow.alc.co.jp) seems to have switched to a subscription system, offering a free level and then two tiers of paid subscriptions. I've been using this as my go-to general dictionary for years, but have noticed lately that the ads also seem to be taking over nearly the entire page.
 Has anyone tried signing up the for paid version? It looks like the free version limits the number of entries given and the paid version gives all entries. Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts or feedback. Or, am I behind the times and there is perhaps another more comprehensive online dictionary that most J->E translators are using these days?

Thanks!
John

[Inoue Jun]

Hi John,

I use Eijiro everyday for translation.

I don't sign up but I don't feel any inconvenience.

I think the difference between free and paid is whether a user can see some more example sentences.

Best,

Jun

[Eleanor Goldsmith, Kinsho Language Services]

John wrote:

> I've noticed that Eijiro (eow.alc.co.jp) seems to have switched to a subscription system, offering a free level and then two tiers of paid subscriptions. I've been using this as my go-to general dictionary for years, but have noticed lately that the ads also seem to be taking over nearly the entire page.

The ads on Eijiro and Weblio (http://ejje.weblio.jp/) slowed down my computer to a crawl, so I signed up for their subscription services (which was presumably their intention) and I find them much faster and more convenient to use now. I had a pretty good run in using them free of charge for years (Eijiro in particular), so I don’t begrudge the fee.

 

I’ve also subscribed to the Kenkyusha Online Dictionary, but that’s rather more expensive and I use it less, partly because it logs you out after a few hours, which is a pain in the neck. Still, it’s handy to have another source to consult if Eijiro, WWWJDIC, Weblio and Linguee all draw a blank.

 

Eleanor Goldsmith

Auckland, NZ

 

 

 

[Toshihiro Nagasaka]

Try a new URL:
https://eow.alc.co.jp/

which was changed from the previous one:
http://www.alc.co.jp/


johnsw71> Hi all,
johnsw71> I've noticed that Eijiro (eow.alc.co.jp) seems to have switched to a
johnsw71> subscription system, offering a free level and then two tiers of paid
johnsw71> subscriptions. I've been using this as my go-to general dictionary for
johnsw71> years, but have noticed lately that the ads also seem to be taking over
johnsw71> nearly the entire page.


---
Toshihiro Nagasaka
長坂俊宏

[Joshua Rothenberg]

Hi John,

I think alc has had paid tiers for a number of years. However, despite the name, my impression is that the additional information in the "Eijiro on the Web Pro" service may be example sentences that are from other sources than the actual Eijiro Dictionary Project data.

If you look at http://eowp.blogspot.jp/2017/04/20174.html you can see a breakdown of the tiers, and it has a note indicating the source of at least some of the example sentence data:

> 「英辞郎 on the WEB Pro」の例文データには、国立研究開発法人情報通信研究機構作成の『日英新聞記事対応付けデータ』が、英和対訳、和英対訳の形で組み込まれています。

You can see an example of data from this specific corpus here to see if it would be something worth paying from: http://www2.nict.go.jp/astrec-att/member/mutiyama/jea/sample/p11-sample.txt

However, in my opinion, Eijiro is mainly useful in terms of providing suggestions of translations of technical terms (which can be useful when treated with a suitably high degree of skepticism), so this sort of corpus of sentences is not what I would personally go to it for in the first place.

If you are frustrated with the number of ads on the ALC page but have otherwise been happy with the existing content, you may want to consider buying an offline copy of the Ejiro dictionary directly from the Eijiro Dictionary Project site: http://www.eijiro.jp/index.shtml

(I have purchased it in the past, but it seems like may have changed the software somewhat since then, so I can't give my opinion on the current versions.)

Joshua Rothenberg

[Johnsw71]

Thanks for all of the replies and some very helpful suggestions.
Much appreciated!!

John

[Sarah Neufeld]

Regarding ads on Eijiro, just for the record... On the understanding that "free" content is nearly always paid for by ad revenue, and the ethical thing to do is live with the ads, there's a browser extension called Ghostery (this one: https://www.ghostery.com/ ) that does an excellent job of blocking trackers and ad services. It's possible to whitelist sites entirely, and to allow or block any number and combination of trackers on any given site, which means you could technically let a few through and still cut down on the ads enough to clean the screen up significantly. For what it's worth.

Sarah Neufeld
Beaverton, OR