Adventures in web globalization, since 2002
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 visual buttons. Some of the apps feel like a step …
I’ll admit I knew nothing about WhatsApp before I read that Facebook was about to buy the company (or not). So I went to its website and was pleasantly surprised to see a simple but effective global gateway. Let’s start …
Here’s a new article I’ve written for UX Magazine on the importance of aligning global and mobile strategies. Too often, companies develop mobile apps and mobile websites without considering localization requirements. Here are two previous articles I’ve written for UX Magazine: Select …
When it comes to tablets, Apple is far and away the leader. But later this year Microsoft is expected to unveil its Windows 8 tablet and, in doing so, will quickly take the lead. In languages, that is. That’s right. …
What’s the most important thing you want JavaScript developers to learn from this book? By making use of free tools such as Globalize.js, developers can easily adapt their applications for new markets with a minimal amount of work. For example, …
Dates are often used as case studies to illustrate the risks of ignoring cultural differences. For example, the date 4/7/2011 could be taken to mean July 4th by some and April 7th by others. Fortunately, the open source JavaScript library …
I’m happy to announce the publication of Going Global with JavaScript and Globalize.js. If you use develop websites or applications for more than one language or country, this book will help you improve your JavaScript code. And if you haven’t yet …
JavaScript enables everything from simple online sign-up forms to complex web-based applications. But there is not much information out there on how to effectively internationalize and localize JavaScript code. Which is why I’m pleased to announce that Byte Level Books …
In 2002, I launched this blog. It was the first blog devoted to web globalization. In fact, I don’t believe there were any blogs devoted to translation either at that point in time. So I really wasn’t sure where this …
Twitter went live with its newly updated translation center today. This is the second iteration of the platform; it first launched in October 2009, but was closed less than a year after for an overhaul. I gave it a quick …
This visual depicts about half of the currently approved internationalized domain names (IDNs), positioned over their respective regions. Notice the wide range of scripts over India and the wide range of Arabic domains. I left off the Latin country code …
The Kindle 3 was announced last evening. The big news about the device is the price — starting at $139. You could argue that this is the first mass-market e-reader. Of course, going truly mass market means going multilingual. Last …
Translation memory helps companies re-use previously translated text, improving consistency and potentially saving money. But translation memory requires using translation memory software, which has for years largely meant using SDL Trados software. When a company hires a translation agency and …
From SharePoint to Documentum to Interwoven, Enterprise Content Management (ECM) software provides the information infrastructure for large enterprises, both internally and externally. And although most ECM developers will eagerly say their software is “global” — not all software is equal …
I’ve been writing this blog since 2002. Back when I started out, I wasn’t sure how long I would stick with this “blogging” thing and I didn’t really want to make any investment in software (besides time). I tried a …