Adventures in web globalization, since 2002
News and updates on the Web globalization newsletter Global By Design
I’m pleased to announce the publication of the 2022 Web Globalization Report Card. This is the 18th annual edition of the Report Card, and it reflects another difficult year. And yet there is much to be optimistic about as we look …
As an author and small publisher, I’m excited to see the rapid growth — and globalization — of the online bookstore Bookshop.org. Bookshop.org positions itself as the anti-Amazon, by working with independent bookstores to share revenues more generously. There referral …
Shutterstock recently published a global selection of color predictions. According to their blog, the predictions are based “millions of images downloaded from around the world, wherein each individual pixel shade is tallied—along with recent click-through rate (CTR) performance.” What jumped …
Did you know that World Usability Day is November 11th? There is an impressive virtual event planned for this day and hosted by the Cleveland User Experience Professionals Association. Here is a list of speakers including yours truly: Colin C. …
Earlier this year I was asked about how best to align global social media content with global websites. My answer ultimately resulted in this article in Multilingual. When asked by a reporter why he robbed banks, the stick-up man Willie …
A common refrain in Global by Design are the many risks of using flags as part of your global navigation strategy. As I’ve noted over the years, many companies have since dropped flags, companies such as Apple, Airbnb and Spotify. …
Two interesting posts to share about the globalization of emoji… GooglePolishing Up Emoji Emoji have a global audience and it’s important for them to be globally relevant. Pie emoji is a curious one — it previously looked like a very …
There are still a few days left before I teach a two-hour class devoted to best practices in global navigation. July 27th9am to 11am PSTClass link You’ll learn: The four core elements of a successful global gateway strategy Country codes …
Awhile back, I documented the evolution of Apple.com. Now let’s take a look at Nike.com. I hope you like it — and I welcome suggestions for future videos. PS: Nike is ranked #52 in the 2021 Web Globalization Report Card.
As a Mailchimp user I was intrigued to be greeted by this header recently: I clicked on the link and found the following five languages: Not many languages, but a start. And I was happy to see the generic gateway …
I recently joined Clubhouse — thanks to Lee Vann and to Kathrin Bussmann for inviting me to participate in one of her weekly chats. When I “onboarded” to the app I was struck by something I did not expect to …
This is an interesting new tool from the font designers at Rosetta: Hyperglot. As seen here, you can select a font (640 so far) and see which scripts and languages are supported. Not only is this a handy tool for …
After posting my Web Globalization Report Card video I was asked to comment on the global evolution of a few websites. So I thought I’d put together a brief presentation on Apple.com, a website most everyone is familiar with, and …
I began the Web Globalization Report Card back in 2003. It became the first report of it kind to benchmark global websites and I’ve been publishing this report annually ever since then. For the first time in all those years, …
I’m pleased to announce the publication of the 2021 Web Globalization Report Card. This is the 17th annual edition of the Report Card, and it reflects a challenging year. Yet there is much to be optimistic about as we look ahead. …