Adventures in web globalization, since 2002
A localized website is of little value if local users cannot find it. And yet many global websites continue to make visual and technical mistakes that keep local websites effectively hidden from their intended visitors around the world. Which is …
A few months ago, Global by Design sponsor Lilt sponsored a survey to assess the state of the localization industry. That report is now ready and it reflects input from more than 900 localization professionals. It’s a great read and I recommend …
Apple may have been late to the machine translation game but they’re working to make up for lost time. They announced today that the Apple Translate app is coming to the iPad, seen here: But what’s more interesting is the …
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 …
One of the major takeaways from the Web Globalization Report Card is the importance of providing “front doors” to your localized websites. These doors begin with the addresses themselves, which may not include the .com domain. In fact, I’d recommend …
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 …
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. …
LILT, a Global by Design sponsor, is asking for those of us in the localization industry to give our thoughts on localization trends, best practices and our priorities for the future. The goal is to provide data that helps measure …
This has become a bit of an annual tradition for me, taking a virtual tour of a number of global brands, seeing how they celebrate Lunar New Year (牛年), particularly to customers in China. As in years past, the color …
The New York Times reports that Iceland has appealed to Disney to support Icelandic. And what began as a Facebook post by the country’s education minister has grown into a national movement. But Disney doesn’t just fall short of Icelandic, …
Finally, a Super Bowl ad that a web localization geek can get excited about. This Sunday, Miller Lite will run an ad featuring a painfully long URL that viewers must enter into their web browsers for a chance at winning …
LILT, a Global by Design sponsor, is asking for those of us in the localization industry to give our thoughts on localization trends, best practices and our priorities for the future. The survey takes about 10 minute to complete and …
A seemingly simple thing, an Español link in the header of WhiteHouse.gov. As seen above, the link toggles between English and Spanish. The past four years has seen an English-only website. Because language itself had become politicized. So getting back …
On this last day of 2020, I wanted to be sure to mention a book that I contributed to which is now available — the European Association for Technical Communication Year Book 2020. My article is titled The Most Common …