Language is a feature. It’s time more companies treated it as one

For many years, the addition of languages (as part of website localization) has ranked one of the least-promoted developments on any given website. Languages were added. End of story. Perhaps this is because localization teams have rarely been looked upon …

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The top 25 global websites from the 2022 Web Globalization Report Card

I’m pleased to announce the publication of the 2022 Web Globalization Report Card.  This is the 18th annual edition of the Report Card, and it reflects another difficult year. And yet there is much to be optimistic about as we look …

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Five reasons to avoid using maps on your website

Robert Frost wrote that good fences make good neighbors. Yet when it comes to virtual fences, visualized as maps, I’m not sure there is any way to create “good fences.” So many regions around the world are under dispute. And …

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Singles day is coming! On many websites it’s already here

As I write this on November 5th, Singles Day (November 11th “11.11”) is nearly a week away. Singles Day is the world’s biggest shopping day, a virtual event that originated in China, popularized by Alibaba, and, thanks in large part …

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COVID flattened the language curve, and that’s actually good news

I began the Web Globalization Report Card back in 2003. It became the first report of it kind to benchmark global websites and I’ve been publishing this report annually ever since then. For the first time in all those years, …

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The top 25 best global websites from the 2021 Web Globalization Report Card

I’m pleased to announce the publication of the 2021 Web Globalization Report Card.  This is the 17th annual edition of the Report Card, and it reflects a challenging year. Yet there is much to be optimistic about as we look ahead. …

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Websites celebrate Chinese New Year: The Year of the Ox

This has become a bit of an annual tradition for me, taking a virtual tour of a number of global brands, seeing how they celebrate Lunar New Year (牛年), particularly to customers in China. As in years past, the color …

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Disney+ (or -) a few languages: Why companies continue to “assume the world speaks English”

The New York Times reports that Iceland has appealed to Disney to support Icelandic. And what began as a Facebook post by the country’s education minister has grown into a national movement. But Disney doesn’t just fall short of Icelandic, …

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