Adventures in web globalization, since 2002
Just when I thought I’d seen every type of search engine, along comes Babelplex. Babelplex takes a search string, translates it into another language and searches on both languages at once. Its name comes from the Web-based machine translation software, …
According to News.com, Apple is launching iTunes for Japan in March 2005. As I reported a few weeks agoiTunes is already localized for 12 European markets. Japan, however, will not be quite so simple due to the inevitable character set …
About a month ago I wrote about how iTunes had currently been localized for three markets. My how time flies. The last I checked the iTunes Music Store now supports 12 markets outside the US. Not too shabby.
I recently interviewed Heather Chandler, author of The Game Localization Handbook. Game localization is much more than a niche industry these days. Today, video games may be console-based, Internet-based, and even phone-based. It’s a fascinating, emerging industry. In the interview, …
The W3C Internationalization Working Group continues to add valuable resources for those who need hands-on information regarding Web globalization. Need to learn more about internationalized domain names, bidirectional text display, or multilingual style sheets? This is a good place to …
Linux developer Red Hat says it will add five new languages to its next generation of enterprise software – all Indian languages. Equally important, Red Hat plans to offer customer phone support in those languages. Although the company didn’t say …
Here’s a meaty article from CNET News on the latest XML developments. According to the co-creator of XML, Tim Bray, XML owes at least some of its success to its native support for Unicode. Here’s a quote: XML has succeeded, …
CNET News features an entertaining article on some of the creative ways that Microsoft has offended people around the world through cultural and linguistic blunders. These anecdotes come from a recent presentation by a Microsoft executive, who is probably now …
The title of this latest Idiom press release makes it sound as if Idiom just won the Oracle account. However, if you read past the first paragraph you’ll find that Oracle is not a new account. The deal appears to …
Microsoft has greatly expanded its globalization resources Web site over the past few years. Although much of it is geared toward software developers, Web developers will also find useful nuggets of information. If you haven’t been, it’s definitely worth a …
Here is a very nice article by Evelyn Olsen on the New Zealand translation industry. Her company is NZTC, and for those who manage competitive companies, I recommend taking a look at their Web site (excerpt below). They present bios …
Microsoft likes to make a big deal of how global a company it is, and for good reason. The company now makes more money from outside the US than from within. But the company still has a long way to …
The translation industry used to have four vendors that towered over everyone else: Bowne Global Solutions, Berlitz GlobalNet, Lionbridge, and SDL International. In September, Bowne bought Berlitz, and then there were three. Check out the article: Bowne translates strategy into …
I’m happy to see Apple launching the localized Arabic version of Jaguar so quickly. Read the MacWorld article.