Forget it Jeff, it’s China
Another one bites the dust in China (Amazon.cn), expanding upon my previous post on the challenges of succeeding in China. Wall Street Journal: Amazon’s E-Commerce Adventure in China Proved Too …
Companies
What’s the world’s most multilingual website? (2019 update)
Last year, I wrote an essay for Multilingual in which I noted that the world’s most multilingual website isn’t Google or Facebook or even Wikipedia. It is the website of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. As I noted in …
WordPress Translation Day is coming
Did you know that (US) English accounts for fewer than half of all WordPress interfaces currently in use? As you can see below, courtesy of WordPress, English still technically accounts …
The internet may connect devices, but language connects people.
I had an OpEd published this week in the Los Angeles Times about the importance of languages — and the slow but steady increase in languages supported by the world’s …
Volvo: The best global automotive website of 2019
For the 2019 Web Globalization Report Card, we studied the following 16 automotive websites: Audi BMW Chevrolet Ford Honda Hyundai Land Rover Lexus Mercedes Mini Nissan Subaru Tesla Toyota Volkswagen …
Leading with languages: Why 30 languages is below average
According to the 2019 Web Globalization Report Card, 32 languages is the “average” number of languages supported by the leading global brands.
The best global websites from the 2019 Web Globalization Report Card
A little more than 15 years ago, I began benchmarking websites for a new report I had in mind, tentatively titled the Web Globalization Report Card. The number one website in …
The Year of the Pig (one localized website at a time)
Lunar New Year has arrived and, with it, the Chinese New Year (and related Asian New Year celebrations). As I’ve done a few times in the past, I thought I’d …
Google and Wikipedia: Partners in (multilingual) content
In 2008, Google launched a project called Knol. Remember it? It was designed to replace Wikipedia. Google apparently wasn’t happy that so many of its visitors were quickly abandoning it …
Forget it, Jake. It’s China.
A timely article in The Wall Street Journal (that I only recently got around to reading): “The future’s not here.” American business people once saw China as dynamic, exciting and wide open. Not anymore. To which …
A More Responsive Google Translate
Google Translate is the world’s most popular translation tool. The company says it now translates 30 trillion sentences a year across 103 languages. The key data point here is the …
Peak flag: The decline of flags on websites has begun
I’m pleased to say that, based on the websites I study regularly, we’ve reached “peak flag.” In other words, at a high level, companies are now beginning to move away …
Verisign launches Hebrew .com domain
Verisign has owned rights to the .com domain for many years, and profited enormously. So it’s no surprise that the company has been eager to see continued profits from language/script-specific …
It’s time for your website to go flag free
If you are flying the Taiwan flag on your website, consider yourself warned. By China. As I’ve written many times over the past year, China is paying close attention to …
What’s the world’s most multilingual website? (2018 update)
A few months ago, I wrote an essay for Multilingual in which I noted that the world’s most multilingual website isn’t Google or Facebook or even Wikipedia. It is the …