Counting in Tongues
HTML has long supported the ability to create numbered lists simply by using the <ol><li></li></ol> tags. But these tags are rather limited if you are developing websites for the world. …
Web Globalization
Tips and Best Practices for Targeting an APAC Audience (Part II)
Here’s my latest post for client Pitney Bowes: Any company with global aspirations cannot afford to ignore the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. It’s a region that includes more than two billion …
How the NSA is threatening the future of Google, Facebook, Amazon and others
When I read government arguments in defense of the NSA, an oft-repeated line was: We’re not targeting Americans. We’re targeting foreigners. Foreigners. I really dislike that word. And I’m sure …
Tips and Best Practices for Targeting an APAC Audience (Part I)
Here’s my latest post for client Pitney Bowes: Any company with global aspirations cannot afford to ignore the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. It’s a region that includes more than two billion …
Starbucks in Asia: From serving expats to serving locals
Starbucks currently has 19,000 locations of which 11,000 are in the US. According to this Wall Street Journal Q&A (reg. required), Howard Schultz remains optimistic about Asia: Outside the U.S., Starbucks …
The next Internet revolution will not be in English
Imagine if, every time you wanted to visit a website, you were expected to type in letters from a foreign language, or worse, an entirely foreign script, such as Arabic, …
Questions to ask before entering an emerging market
Here’s my latest post for client Pitney Bowes: For companies in search of global growth, emerging markets are hard to resist. But like the California gold fields of the 1850s, …
Pricing for good luck in Asia
I’ve written an article for client Pitney Bowes on pricing strategies in Asia. Here, for example, is how the iPad mini is priced in China: All those 8s are no coincidence. Find …
On creating your own Web Globalization Report Card
I first published the Web Globalization Report Card about 10 years ago. Since then, a number of companies have developed their own internal Report Cards (and I’ve assisted with several). Adobe, in …
Taking the Great American Pastime Global
I was raised a Cardinals fan. But I don’t live in St. Louis anymore so I must follow the team virtually. Fortunately there’s the MLB mobile app. Now I can listen …
Chevrolet wants a consistent global brand — hopefully a consistent website will follow
Interesting article in the WSJ (sub. required) about Alan Batey, the new global brand chief of Chevrolet. From the article: Mr. Batey says he wants to unify the brand’s strategy. “We used to …
Five tips for successful, global web surveys
It seems like everyone is running a web survey these days. While I appreciate the importance of asking your website visitors what they think, too many of these surveys are …
Cisco Systems: The Best Global Enterprise Technology Website
We studied 12 enterprise technology websites for the 2013 Web Globalization Report Card. The Web Globalization Report Card is an annual benchmark of how effectively companies internationalize and localize their websites …
Living in a post-PC world
The latest data from IDC show the sharpest decline in PC sales on record. From the release: “Although the reduction in shipments was not a surprise, the magnitude of the …
Bienvenido: Using language negotiation to support bilingual US websites
During my work for the Web Globalization Report Card I encountered a number of US-focused websites relying on language negotiation (also known as language detection) to make their Spanish-language websites …