GoDaddy’s new global gateway sets the stage for global growth
It’s nice to see GoDaddy improving its global gateway. Note the use of the globe icon below to indicate the global gateway menu: Click on the globe or locale name …
Companies
Google launches its first Japanese IDN
I’ve long talked about the importance of non-Latin domain names, or IDNs (Internationalized Domain Names). Google has gone live with one if its many IDNs: みんな. I want to emphasize here …
Five reasons you should take your ecommerce global – and five reasons you shouldn’t
My latest post for client Pitney Bowes on going global (or not). An excerpt — Two reasons NOT to go global: 1. You don’t have realistic expectations (and budgets). The …
A look back at the language growth of eBay, Coke, Apple, AmEx and Amazon
Sometimes it’s difficult to see a revolution when you’re standing right in the middle of it. Which is how I still feel sometimes when it comes to web globalization. Web …
The top 25 global websites from the 2014 Web Globalization Report Card
UPDATE: The 2017 Web Globalization Report Card is now available. More than ten years ago I set out to create a report that benchmarked global websites. I looked at languages …
Google Translate turns 80, as in languages
From Afrikaans to Zulu, the evolution of Google Translate is one of Google’s greatest success stories that few people fully appreciate. Perhaps because Google is reluctant to release usage data …
Going beyond stock photos to succeed locally
My latest post for client Pitney Bowes includes tips for creating “world ready” visuals. An excerpt: Don’t Send the Wrong (Hand) Signal Gestures are culturally specific and, while some gestures …
Web globalization predictions for 2014
I’m optimistic about the year ahead. I base this optimism in part on discussions I’ve had this year with dozens of marketing and web teams across about ten countries. While …
The slowly evolving airline website
I enjoyed this vision of the future of an airline website (by Fantasy Interactive), particularly this map of fares and destinations: Why haven’t other airlines embraced this vision yet? Probably …
From Russian to Arabic to Chinese, new TLDs have arrived
This screen is from a website advertising two new top level domains in Cyrillic. Here are the two domains and what they represent: .САЙТ (Website) .ОНЛАЙН (Online) Two other domains …
Tips and Best Practices for Targeting an APAC Audience (Part II)
Here’s my latest post for client Pitney Bowes: Any company with global aspirations cannot afford to ignore the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. It’s a region that includes more than two billion …
How the NSA is threatening the future of Google, Facebook, Amazon and others
When I read government arguments in defense of the NSA, an oft-repeated line was: We’re not targeting Americans. We’re targeting foreigners. Foreigners. I really dislike that word. And I’m sure …
Starbucks in Asia: From serving expats to serving locals
Starbucks currently has 19,000 locations of which 11,000 are in the US. According to this Wall Street Journal Q&A (reg. required), Howard Schultz remains optimistic about Asia: Outside the U.S., Starbucks …
So what if the icons are ugly, iOS 7 now supports Tamil
So I just spent an hour upgrading my iPhone to iOS 7. My first thought was: Boy, these icons are ugly. And there’s this strange mix of text-only buttons and …
When localizing social content for China, think beyond Facebook and Twitter
So your company is successful on Facebook. And Twitter. And now you want to expand your social reach into China. Well, you can pretty much forget Facebook and Twitter, because …