Hotels.com: The best global travel website
Hotels.com scored highly in the 2012 Web Globalization Report Card. At 37 languages (in addition to English), Hotels.com is not the language leader in travel, but it’s near the front …
Web Globalization
Web globalization in a post-PC world
The 2012 Web Globalization Report Card is my first attempt at analyzing web globalization in a post-PC world. By post-PC world, I’m referring to a world in which the website adapts not …
The best global websites of 2012
UPDATE: The 2017 Web Globalization Report Card is now available. I’m happy to announce the publication of the 2012 Web Globalization Report Card. This year, we reviewed 105 websites across …
Social Aggregation Case Study: KPMG@Davos
In my last post I noted how Cisco has created the social aggregation page: Social@Cisco. This page is simply a global template that allows Cisco to plug in different local …
Learning from the world’s leading travel websites
I wrote an article for UX Magazine (based on my research for Lionbridge) that highlights global best practices in the travel industry. Travelers want websites that travel with them In …
Some companies have given up on Spanish for the US
I’ve been revisiting a number of the websites that at one point were localized specifically for Spanish speakers in the US. And now I’m finding dead links. Home Depot had …
ADP’s global gateway combines globe and flag icons
Payroll services company ADP demonstrates that you don’t necessarily have to choose between using a flag icon or using a globe icon on your global gateway. As shown below, the …
Global gateway notes: Guidewire, Google, Locaria
One of the many things I love about global gateways is that I never stop discovering new ones. Here are notes on a few gateways I’ve stumbled across over the past …
Another day, another abused country code
Everyone has a hobby and I suppose one of mine is looking for web sites that use (or abuse) country codes (ccTLDs). I was recently pointed to a new web …
(Insert company name here) stumbles in China
From the article Groupon stumbles in China in The Wall Street Journal: Foreign Internet companies have long struggled in China, which has more Internet users than any other country. Yahoo Inc., one …
IBM: A tale of two global gateways
IBM, much to my chagrin, has used a lengthy pull-down menu as its global gateway for years. Here’s what it looks like: There are two problems with this menu, the …
Yandex headed to Turkey, and beyond
Now that Yandex is a public company there is much speculation about which markets the search engine known as Russia’s Google plans to expand into next. You don’t have to …
What the heck is an IDN and why you should care
Here’s a new article I’ve written for UX Magazine on the emergence of internationalized domain names (IDNs). I view IDNs as an inevitable (albeit awkward) evolution of the Internet. And here are the …
Without web localization, you’re just guessing
An interesting article by Alexandra Berzon of the WSJ regarding Hilton and Starwood hotels, which are offering menus and services tailored to Chinese travelers. This quote jumped out at me: After …