Multilingual PR
I am on a number of mailing lists. This year I noticed that a few multinational organizations have begun sending releases in more than one language. While it would make more sense to have recorded my language preference and sent…
John Yunker
John is co-founder of Byte Level Research and author of Think Outside the Country as well as 19 editions of The Web Globalization Report Card.
Health Care en Español
The trend of American companies building Spanish-language Web sites is now in full swing. We are now seeing health care organizations getting into the act, with Delta Dental of California now offering a Spanish site: I always find it interesting…
Unicode In A NutShell
Here is a great article about Unicode and how it affects Web developers and programmers. Here’s an excerpt: The Single Most Important Fact About Encodings If you completely forget everything I just explained, please remember one extremely important fact. It…
Collation Resource
Here is a very useful resource for collation: Why is collation so important? A few years back, I translated an online glossary into different languages. I didn’t realize, of course, that once I translated the terminology that it would…
Pampering Russia
This is a great article about Procter & Gamble’s adventures in Russia. While currency devalatuations have been challenging, the economy has since stabilized and sales are growing at 50% annually (although revenues are still a fraction of US revenues). Products…
HTML and Unicode
Another useful Web globalization Q&A has been added to the W3C site. It has to do with the issue of character sets and encodings. I can’t even begin to describe how confusing this issue can be to Web developers as…
FYI: Trade Events Listing
The US Dept. of Commerce has compiled a fairly hefty list of domestic and international trade events. The list is located at
Casual Dress Going Global
According to the Herman Report, casual dress is gaining popularity around the world… Recent research by the Bank of Scotland discovered that a significant number of employers now operate with “dress down” policies. The United Kingdom-wide survey also discovered a…
Starbucks in Paris
Starbucks continues its global expansion with its first French locations, set to open in early 2004. Many pundits have warned that Starbucks will face anti-American resistance throughout the country. I disagree. Starbucks will succees in Paris, just as it has…
Web Globalization Strategies (Live)
I will be speaking on Web globalization at the Documentation & Training Conference on October 7th just north of Boston. It’s going to be a great program. Other speakers include David Pogue, Steve Krug and Mike Doyle. If you’re planning…
A Computer Primer for Translators
As any good craftsman can tell you, it’s not enough to simply have the right tool for the job — you also need to know just how to use it. A Translator’s Tool Box for the 21st Century, written by…
Profiles in Unicode
The New York Times has a great profile of Michael Everson, one of the many architects of Unicode. I hope some day there are more profiles like this about the many people devoting great chunks of their lives to the…
Walgreens en Español
Walgreens claims to be the first national pharmacy retailer with a Web site designed specifically for Hispanics: WalgreensEspanol.com. One major problem with this new site — it’s near-impossible to find unless you already know the URL. Try visiting the main…
Interesting Global Gateway
RedDot, a maker of content management software, is using a rather unique global gateway, as shown here: Notice how it uses ISO-specific country abbreviations, such as PL for Poland, AU for Australia. To my knowledge this is the first corporate…
The New Old Globalization
An excellent editorial by Robert Wright in The New York Times about globalization. He does a wonderful job of showing how globalization is far from a new development, yet one that presents new challanges. Here’s a excerpt: Globalization dates back…