Adobe pioneered the use of geolocation and localized overlays to improve the global user experience. As shown here, a visitor to the Adobe.com home page from Japan was greeted with the following overlay: The overlay allows the visitor to click…
Late last year Krispy Kreme entered its 39th foreign market: France. And it launched a localized website to match. The company plans to open 500 stores in France over the next five years. France is attracting a number of American…
For those of you keeping count this is number 20. Yes, as in 20 years. I’ll have much more to share about that later this year. But for now let’s focus on the next report. I’m in the middle of…
If someone from outside the US lands on your US-centric .com home page, what is their first impression? And what if they don’t speak English? What visual and textual clues will they look for when searching for a localized websites…
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…
As an author and small publisher, I’m excited to see the rapid growth — and globalization — of the online bookstore Bookshop.org. Bookshop.org positions itself as the anti-Amazon, by working with independent bookstores to share revenues more generously. There referral…
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…
A common refrain in Global by Design are the many risks of using flags as part of your global navigation strategy. As I’ve noted over the years, many companies have since dropped flags, companies such as Apple, Airbnb and Spotify.…
Awhile back, I documented the evolution of Apple.com. Now let’s take a look at Nike.com. I hope you like it — and I welcome suggestions for future videos. PS: Nike is ranked #52 in the 2021 Web Globalization Report Card.
I recently joined Clubhouse — thanks to Lee Vann and to Kathrin Bussmann for inviting me to participate in one of her weekly chats. When I “onboarded” to the app I was struck by something I did not expect to…
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,…
Just before we wave good riddance to this year I wanted to share a list of those articles that were the most visited. I started this blog back in 2002, so I’m always surprised when I see something I wrote…
I noted in September that Apple had given up using flags as icons for navigation (know as the global gateway). This was a positive step — not because I dislike flags, but because flags often cause more problems then they…
With all events going virtual, I find I have so much less time these days. Previously, I would just pick a small number of events to travel to and ignore the rest. But not now. Which is actually a good…
I began the Report Card back in 2003 because, at the time, there was nothing out there that focused specifically on the globalization and localization of websites. And, to be honest, most websites were not all that “global” yet; 10…