(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 …
Web Globalization
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 …
South Sudan needs a country code
So it’s official now. The Republic of South Sudan is a country. In case you’re curious what you have to do to become a country, here’s a brief list. The …
Going Global with JavaScript: Coming this Fall
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 …
Web design with the world in mind
I was interviewed recently by Paul Sawers of The Next Web. He wrote a great article about the challenges and opportunities of web internationalization. I recommend sending this link to …
Blogging in tongues: Focus on Forrester
Brian Walker, an analyst at Forrester, noticed recently that his blog post was seeing active retweets in a number of different languages. And yet the blog post itself was available …
Delta’s global gateway: When complexity kills
I’m always amazed when I come across global gateways that I find complicated in my native language. Like Delta Airline‘s global gateway. What you see here is not one but …
Web globalization leaders of industry
Over the past few months I’ve profiled a number the industry leaders from the 2011 Web Globalization Report Card. But I won’t be able to profile them all, so here …
Emirates: Best global airline web site of 2011
Sometimes a web redesign is a big step forward; sometimes it is a step in reverse. In the case of American Airlines (when viewed from a web globalization perspective) a …
My web browser went to de, fr, jp, za and all I got was this lousy t-shirt
Yes, I’m aware of just how globally geeky this shirt is, but I love it nonetheless. Should you want one of your own, you can order it here. And you can …
Dear Airbnb: Please take down your mutant flag
Airbnb is one of the hot new travel web service startups. It basically lets you rent out your spare bedroom or look for a spare bedroom when you travel. That’s …
Starbucks modifies its global gateway, but problems remain
I noticed recently that Starbucks had launched a new web design, probably to coincide with its newly austere logo. Unfortunately, the new global gateway didn’t improve on the old global …