Mailchimp begins going global (and makes a few rookie mistakes)
As a Mailchimp user I was intrigued to be greeted by this header recently: I clicked on the link and found the following five languages: Not many languages, but a …
Languages
Lead the World to Your Website on July 27th
A localized website is of little value if local users cannot find it. And yet many global websites continue to make visual and technical mistakes that keep local websites effectively …
The State of Localization 2021: Get the report; register for the webinar
A few months ago, Global by Design sponsor Lilt sponsored a survey to assess the state of the localization industry. That report is now ready and it reflects input from more …
Apple Translate expands to iPad and across apps
Apple may have been late to the machine translation game but they’re working to make up for lost time. They announced today that the Apple Translate app is coming to …
Clubhouse fails the flag test
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 …
Think beyond .com: From country codes to internationalized domain names
One of the major takeaways from the Web Globalization Report Card is the importance of providing “front doors” to your localized websites. These doors begin with the addresses themselves, which …
Hyperglot shows you which fonts support which language(s)
This is an interesting new tool from the font designers at Rosetta: Hyperglot. As seen here, you can select a font (640 so far) and see which scripts and languages …
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 …
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 …
Last chance to participate in the LILT localization survey
LILT, a Global by Design sponsor, is asking for those of us in the localization industry to give our thoughts on localization trends, best practices and our priorities for the …
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 …
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 …
Miller Lite launches a Super Bowl ad that blends lengthy URLs with localization
Finally, a Super Bowl ad that a web localization geek can get excited about. This Sunday, Miller Lite will run an ad featuring a painfully long URL that viewers must …
Announcing the State of Localization survey
LILT, a Global by Design sponsor, is asking for those of us in the localization industry to give our thoughts on localization trends, best practices and our priorities for the …
El regreso de la Casa Blanca
A seemingly simple thing, an Español link in the header of WhiteHouse.gov. As seen above, the link toggles between English and Spanish. The past four years has seen an English-only …