[chaosmachine]

All that help text is not really necessary. You could get rid of it. Nobody will read 3 paragraphs of small text to figure out how to use your site. Encourage people to just try it.

Make the form the center of attention. Don't be afraid to bump up the font size a bit more. You could move the language checkboxes down to a second line. The "Create" button could be bigger and more obvious. Make it say "Go" or "Search".

[Elepsis]

I actually did read the help text, but it only left me confused, because the lines don't clearly match up to the text boxes. I had a moment of "oh, where do I adjust the quality?" before I realized that it was just referring to the first text box. I'd do away with it.

[trefn]

Agreed. I didn't read it until I saw this comment and I went back. Even then, I only skimmed.

The combination of the first line (search bar, languages) plus the set of words that start out on the front page give a pretty good idea of what it is.

[bkovitz]

It's OK if the reader can skip or skim the help text. That's good graphic design: your eye finds the main things easily, and then digs into the details as necessary.

[charliepark]

This is spot-on.

That whole "omit needless words" exercise? This is an excellent place where it could be applied. The form is straightforward. Just have people play with it.