Join me in reinventing the translation industry

I’m happy to be participating in the upcoming TAUS event: Reinventing the Translation Industry. This virtual event, taking place June 8-18th, poses the question: What will be the state of the translation industry in the summer of 2021? Following the scenario-based…

Why deglobalization will not dampen web globalization

In February, when I published the 2020 Web Globalization Report Card, the coronavirus was itself going global. Since then, there has been much talk about how the coronavirus will turn back the clock on globalization. The term “deglobalization” is now…

Volvo: The best global automotive website of 2020

For the 2020 Web Globalization Report Card, we benchmarked the following 16 automotive websites: Audi BMW Chevrolet Ford Honda Hyundai Land Rover Lexus Mercedes Nissan Porsche Subaru Tesla Toyota Volkswagen Volvo Cars For the second year in a row, Volvo…

The best 25 global websites of 2020

In keeping with past years, I’m pleased to announce the top 25 websites from the 2020 Web Globalization Report Card. When compared with last year’s top 25 list, there are a number of new entrants to the list: Airbnb: As…

Google Translate expands to 108 languages

Google announced the addition of five languages today: Kinyarwanda Odia (Oriya) Tatar Turkmen Uyghur (Sadly, many of the speakers of Uyghur won’t have access to this tool) Notes Google: These languages, spoken by more than 75 million people worldwide, are…

Google’s global trends 2019

For anyone interested in a truly global (and local) view of the world’s Internet users, I recommend spending a few minutes here. At a global level, it’s revealing to see that the leading search phrase was “India vs. South Africa,”…

Airbnb doubles (yes, doubles) its linguistic reach

As I’ve documented in many editions of the Web Globalization Report Card, companies tend to add languages in fits and starts. The overall average is about one additional language per year. But some companies expand their global reach in sprints.…

1,000 languages: The world’s most multilingual website

The Jehovah’s Witnesses announced today that its website reached 1,000 languages, an impressive achievement. The release notes: On November 4, 2019, jw.org, the official website of Jehovah’s Witnesses, reached an unprecedented translation milestone—it now includes articles, videos, and audio content available…

OK? Or not OK?

According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the OK hand gesture is now a hate symbol. For those of us in the globalization field, we’ve learned to avoid this gesture in web and marketing materials for a more global reason —…