Adventures in web globalization, since 2002
In February of this year, Google Translate surpassed 40 languages. Six months later, Google added ten more languages, a two-year growth trajectory illustrated below: Google went from 13 languages to 51 languages in less than 16 months. Not bad. And, …
Another day, another URL shortener. Only this one I think will be around a lot longer than many that are out there. That’s because it’s supported by WordPress. It’s also the world’s first two-letter Montenegro (.me) domain. Even though I …
Starbucks may be closing stores in the US, but it’s still growing internationally. According to the Seattle PI: Starbucks recently opened stores in the Czech Republic, Amsterdam and Poland. And it has plans for a big push in China. Starbucks …
I’m not exactly a power-Tweeter, so I can’t say I have the need for a tool that stretches Twitter’s 140-character limit. Still, I get a kick out of Maxitweet. To understand what it does, here’s an example. I entered the …
Nearly one year ago, I asked Will .CN become the next .COM? And perhaps I was right in more ways than one. Because now it appears that .CN is experiencing its very own .COM bust. Just a year ago Chinese …
A country code top-level-domains (ccTLD) has traditionally been used to signify a country-specific web site or resource, or simply to tell users where a given organization is located. For example, Russia’s leading search engine, Yandex, is hosted at www.yandex.ru and …
Here is an example of ccTLD usage that hits rather close to home. And it’s not some upstart web company out of the Bay Area. No, this is a company called Global Electronics and it is based in Belarus. And …
Whenever I read this site’s web logs, I’m always fascinated by the number of referrals via Google Translate. Every month there seems to be more of them, which could mean that the quality of Google Translate is improving, or this …
Bit.ly, the URL shortener now used by Twitter, is not the first company to craft its name out of a county code top-level domain (ccTLD). But Bit.ly does appear to be the first company to do so with the Libyan …
The one-line description on Amazon says: Police detective Ronnie Craven investigates the killing of his own daughter and becomes embroiled in a vast conspiracy. Edge of Darkness is a 1985 6-part British mini-series that is still unknown to most Americans. …
Earlier this year, TED began recruiting volunteers to translate its recorded presentations, known as TED Talks. It looks like the venture is off to a strong start. According to TED, more than 1,500 volunteer translators have provided more than 1,000 …