About this Author
John Yunker is founder of Byte Level Research and author of the widely acclaimed book, Beyond Borders: Web Globalization Strategies and editor of Global By Design. He has covered the emerging field of Web globalization for half a decade and has published a wide range of reports dedicated to best practices in Web localization and internationalization.
About this blog
Going Global focuses on the risks and rewards of expanding into new geographic and cultural markets, from Web globalization to international marketing to global usability.
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Monthly Archives
April 30, 2006
Posted by John Yunker
Yahoo! has launched Yahoo! Babel Fish. You may have used it on the AltaVista site and this is basically the same thing, with some additional bells and whistles. Under the hood is Systran technology.
But the bigger news is that Google has gone beta on its statistical MT engine for Arabic <> English translation. You can give it a test drive here.
This is going to get exciting!
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Translation
April 25, 2006
Posted by John Yunker
Lionbridge today formally launched its new hosted translation memory service: Freeway 2.0.
The press release features glowing testimonials from Sybase, Nikon, and Ryanair. These companies, and roughly 70 others, have been using the "1.0 version" and have been pleased with the results.
No company particularly wants to be a beta tester for new software, so I'm guessing that's the motivation behind the rapid advance to 2.0. The name also ties in nicely with Lionbridge's vision of the "Localization 2.0" generation of content globalization that we are now entering.
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Globalization Vendors
April 21, 2006
Posted by John Yunker
If you're looking for further evidence that Web globalization drives revenue growth, look at the latest earnings numbers for a company that relies exclusively on the Internet for revenues.
Google just announced that Q1 revenues "from outside of the United States contributed 42% of total revenues, compared to 38% in the fourth quarter of 2005 and 39% in the first quarter of 2005. Foreign exchange rates had an immaterial impact on sequential international revenue growth. Had foreign exchange rates remained constant from the first quarter of 2005 through the first quarter of 2006, our international revenues would have been $65 million higher."
When will Google's non-US earnings surpass the 50% mark? I thought last year that 2006 would be the year, but it looks like the US market continues to grow at a rapid clip as well. So now it's looking like 2007. It's really not a question of if non-US revenues will surpass US revenues, but when.
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Web Globalization
April 11, 2006
Posted by John Yunker
I got an email last week from Chris Wood, one of the authors of "Bilingual Software Standards and Guidelines in Wales." I realize that this may not sound like the most exciting read, but I recommend downloading a copy (hey, it's free!).
I'm reading it now and have found that it includes good advice for anyone involved in Web or software globalization. Most of the concepts carry over to any bilingual application.
And there were some interesting little nuggets about Welsh that I wasn't aware of. For example, here is the appropriate way to alpha sort the following three words:
- label
- lori
- llefrith
The third word appears like it should be bumped up a notch, but the "ll" is actually one character: a diagraph. Digraph letters that occur in the Welsh alphabet include: ch, dd, ff, ng, ll, ph, rh, th. When sorting, the "ll" falls after "l."
It's often assumed that languages that use the same basic letters all sort the same way. Not so. You'll find these little quirks in a host of Latin-based languages.
You can download the guide here
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Software Localization | Web Globalization
April 10, 2006
Posted by John Yunker
I should have seen this one coming. According to Bret Fausett's blog, the .eu domain is being registered by individuals hoping to capitalize on Web users who leave off the "d" when typing in their favorite college URL.
For example, the UCLA.eu domain is not owned by UCLA. The same goes for Vandy and Texas. And someone in the Netherlands grabbed the domain for my undergrad alma mater: missouri.eu. Why didn't I think of that?
Now, I have to believe that people will still find their way to their university Web sites, despite the efforts of those who have registered the .eu domains.
By the way, the folks at Harvard were on the ball and locked up their domain.
If you want to check out your school, visit whois.eu.
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Business Globalization | Web Globalization
April 7, 2006
Posted by John Yunker
I'm not surprised to see the feeding frenzy over .eu. This article reports that more than half a million domains were registered within the first hour of sales. According to the article, "EU Commissioner Viviane Reding said the Commission hopes the new ".eu" name will one day rival the ".com" name."
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Business Globalization | Web Globalization
Posted by John Yunker
Two certification-related announcements in the localization industry...
SDL has launched a certification program for its products. According to the press release, "SDL TRADOS Certification is a comprehensive program of placement tests, courseware, and multiple-level training exams that will truly test a translator's ability to work efficiently with translation memory and integrated terminology. It is designed to provide all customers in the global ecosystem with an accurate measure of technology expertise." You can learn more here.
Also, Nitish Singh of Chico State told me yesterday that the first class for his new localization certificate program is just about full. Not bad given that the program is a good two months away yet! You can learn more here.
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Globalization Vendors
April 6, 2006
Posted by John Yunker
When it comes to Web globalization, localizing your search engine is one of those projects that generally gets pushed down the to-do list, because it's, well, a minor nightmare to accomplish. Unless you've got a search appliance that self-optimizes itself to all the nuances of how users in different cultures and countries search (is there one?) then you've got a lot of manual work ahead of you.
But according to this Forrester study companies should be putting the work in. The study "determined that European consumers new to a site most often go straight to site search, and if they don’t find what they want immediately, an average 13% of consumers will go to another site – more than that in southern European counties."
So, step one is to make sure your global design template has a search window clearly displayed-- ideally in the upper right corner (next to the global gateway).
Next, you can focus on optimizing the engine for the many ways users search on your products in that market. The UK is a classic example. A few years back I visited Lands' End UK and entered British terms like knickers, trainers, and jumpers just to see what came up. Nothing did.
So I just visited again today and "trainers" brought up some snow boots -- not exactly a match I'd say. And jumpers brought up shoes, not sweaters.
Hey, this stuff ain't easy, I know. I'm not trying to pick on Lands' End. Hopefully the Forrester report will trigger more companies to invest in this area.
April 19th UPDATE: I've just been told that the Lands' End search engine was at one point localized for the UK but there was a glitch recently. I'll report back when the engine is back up again...
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Web Globalization
Posted by John Yunker
UPS continues to invest heavily in China, announcing today that it was beginning flights from Germany to Shanghai and increasing the number of flights from the US to China. UPS serves more than 300 cities in China and last year launched domestic service in the country. It will open retail locations in Shanghai later this year.
Here's the press release.
And, in other news, Accor continues to launch hotels in China at a blistering pace. According to the article, it will have five hotels opening wthin 30 days of each other. It has a total of 30 hotels in development, all in anticipation of the coming Olympics.
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: China
Posted by John Yunker
Interwoven held its user fest this week and unleashed a slew of press releases, two of which caught my eye...
SDL and Interwoven partner
SDL wisely keeps partnering up with the big CMS players. Sun was named as a client who is currently using both SDL and Interwoven successfully.
Toro selects Idiom for Web globalization. And Interwoven is the core CMS.
What's interesting here is that Toro is just dipping its toes in the Web globalization waters -- the French Canadian site is due out shortly. But Toro's goal is 50 locales.
Also, Wessex Translations is doing the translations on this project and is hosting the Idiom server. This is, to my knowledge, Idiom's first big success story for its LSP Advantage Program. Not too shabby.
However, I should note that Idiom software makes it easy to "go local" and farm out translation work around the world to freelancers and small translation agencies. I wonder if this will hurt Wessex down the road?
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+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Globalization Vendors
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