John Klensin is one the original architects of the Internet. He first tackled the challenges of mulitilingual (internationalized) domain names many years ago. I interviewed him for an article in Multilingual Computing magazine more than five years ago about this…
SDL announced that it helped Philips simultaneously launch new product marketing communications materials (Web site, collateral, etc) in 29 languages using SDL software and services. I’ve only just skimmed the new site but it does appear to be an improvement…
I recently interviewed Heather Chandler, author of The Game Localization Handbook. Game localization is much more than a niche industry these days. Today, video games may be console-based, Internet-based, and even phone-based. It’s a fascinating, emerging industry. In the interview,…
The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that the Spanish translation of an informational “voter guide” is so poor that the election board had to trash what remaining flyers it had in stock. Here’s an excerpt: One passage literally reads, “People that…
eBay and Amazon both reported solid Q3 numbers. But if you dig a bit you’ll find that the growth engine behind both of these companies is non-US sales. eBay eBay reported that revenue from total transactions was $779.2 million up…
It’s official. The Commission of the European Communities just struck a deal with EURid to begin registering the new .eu top level domain name. There is still a good four to six months before you’ll be able to register your…
Just as “time to market” has accelerated across all industries, so too has “translation to market.” After all, you can’t promote a new product globally if the marketing collateral and support materials aren’t available in the necessary languages. When it…
According to this job posting, Netflix appears to be heading toward launching a UK operation. The job ad reads “The Manager, Marketing Analysis will join the London-based team whose role is to grow the Netflix customer base aggressively and profitably…
Globalization management software vendor Idiom has been on a hiring spree lately; they tell me that they plan to double revenues in ’05 and are hiring field sales and consultants to help make this happen. I must confess that I’ve…
I recently browsed through Alexa’s rankings of the most popular Web sites by language. Alexa, which is now owned by Amazon, tracks Web site popularity by means of a software toolbar that millions of folks have installed in their Web…
Language Weaver, a machine translation (MT) software developer, has announced a $4 million VC infusion. This is just another sign that MT is inching closer to real-world/commercial applications. Slowly but surely we’re seeing companies make limited use of MT to…
The W3C Internationalization Working Group continues to add valuable resources for those who need hands-on information regarding Web globalization. Need to learn more about internationalized domain names, bidirectional text display, or multilingual style sheets? This is a good place to…
The NHS is the UK’s national health organization and the largest health organization in Europe. It announced recently that it would be offering multilingual phone support through Bowne Global Solutions. Approximately 500 calls per month come into the NHS in…
Trados has been on a partnering spree lately, hooking up with a growing array of content management software (CMS) providers. Overall, this is a good strategy, as every CMS application will eventually need to support the creation and management of…
Up until recently, only a handful of US banks have served the Hispanic population reasonably well. But that’s all changed now that the Hispanic market is worth an estimated $700 million. Recently, Spain’s Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentina (BBVA) purchased Laredo…