Google goes to Greenland to shorten your URL
Just what the world needs — two more URL shorteners. Google now has goo.gl. And Facebook has FB.me. But Google’s URL jumps out at me because it marks the first …
How well does your baby’s name translate?
I’ve long maintained that translation agencies need to get creative if they are to succeed in the age of machine translation. London-based Today Translations is doing just that — offering …
Google Korea: Before and After
For a Westerner like myself, the most-popular Korean portals Naver and Daum are a maze of text and images. The pages are too busy, too distracting. But I’m not the …
Most British web users prefer .uk (says UK registrar)
Nominet, the UK registrar, published the results of a poll that found: More than three-quarters (77%) of British consumers prefer to use a .uk rather than a .com when searching …
TED is looking for a few good translators
For translation crowdsourcing to work, first you need crowds. And TED, which has been using the crowd to provide translation of its videos, is looking for a few more participants. …
IDN application update: Egypt, Russia, China…
So who’s applied for IDNs so far? According to ICANN, 10 applications (representing five languages) were submitted over the first four days. ICANN won’t announce exactly who applied and for …
Country Codes of the European Union
I’m pleased to announce a new country codes map, this one devoted to the 27 members of the European Union. The ccTLDs are sized according to population and to the …
How do you type € again?
It’s not easy having an American English keyboard when you frequently need to input characters like è or ä or ç. Or ¥. Or €. Maybe it’s because I switch …
A book day, every day, including Forgetting English
There is a woman who set out to read (and review) a book a day for a year. Not Moby-Dick, mind you. Books of a certain length. And she did …
A fantast.ic new country code
Last week I wrote about the coming of IDNs (internationalized domain names). But IDNs aren’t the only new country codes to keep your eyes on. There is also the occasional …
Minimalism in global gateways
A global gateway doesn’t have to be fancy. In fact, it shouldn’t be fancy. It should be as easy to understand as a stop sign. Form and function and nothing …
ICANN is now accepting IDN applications
It’s now November the 16th in Asia, which means the “Fast Track” has begun. Here’s the process: The Fast Track process is only for ccTLDs and only for those countries …
Eagle over Seattle
Offtopic, I know, but I have to share. This is a photo of an eagle I snapped yesterday. Normally, I’m a second too late for these types of pics. Such …
Meet the next generation of country codes
So now that the media hype over internationalized domain names (IDNs) has died down, let’s focus on the messy details of what this all means. First of all, we’re not …