Author Archives: John Yunker

Now Available: Going Global with JavaScript and Globalize.js

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I’m happy to announce the publication of Going Global with JavaScript and Globalize.js.

If you use develop websites or applications for more than one language or country, this book will help you improve your JavaScript code. And if you haven’t yet made use of Globalize.js, this book could save you many hours — as well as accelerate your globalization efforts.

Author Jukka Korpela has included plenty of hands-on code samples. Jukka also happens to be author of my favorite book on Unicode.

Readers of this book will learn:

  • How to adapt a JavaScript app to local conventions, such as date formats, systems of measurement, time zones, and more
  • How to leverage Globalize.js and the Common Locale Data Repository (CLDR) to support global applications
  • How to handle text input that falls outside traditional “A-Z” characters

The book is available in print on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. It will be available on international Amazon sites shortly.

And we also offer a PDF version that carries an enterprise license. This is ideal for companies with large development teams.

Finally, we are also planning Kindle and iBook versions. But I don’t expect them to be available until later this month or early January.

To learn more about the book and download a PDF excerpt, click here.

Some companies have given up on Spanish for the US

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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 a site located at homedepotespanol.com and Lowe’s had one at www.lowes.com/spanish. Both of those sites are now gone. Both companies do maintain site specific to Mexico, which makes the absence of US Spanish websites even more curious.

UPDATE: Joe Kutchera noted that Lowe’s has NOT abandoned their Spanish site; but they did change URLs and failed to redirect the old address. The new address is http://es.lowes.com.

The pet food company Iams once hosted a localized site at www.iams.com/es_US. That links is now dead as well and I can’t find any replacement.

Visit WalgreensEspanol.com and you’ll see this message:

Which more or less says: Welcome to Walgreens; this site has been deactivated. Good luck with that.

Fortunately, there are still numerous websites out there that do offer Spanish for the US, such as FedEx and Holiday Inn.

I’m not suggesting that there is a larger trend of companies abandoning the US Spanish-speaking market. If anything, the trend points towards greater investment; I’ve spoken with numerous companies this year who are planning their initial US Spanish sites in 2012. And there are many websites out there that have for years supported Spanish for the US, ranging from FedEx to Holiday Inn.

Nevertheless, some companies appear to have abandoned their US Spanish efforts, at least on the web. And this is unfortunate, not just because of the wasted resources but for fact that they will no doubt be launching US Spanish sites again some day. Any company that is serious about the US consumer market simply cannot afford to ignore this audience.

And there is a lesson here as well. Although most companies that launch localized web sites rarely retreat, some do. To avoid this fate, it’s important to have clear, measurable goals for your localized sites. Don’t just do it because everyone else is doing it. Always assume that there is someone within your company who would love to slash your budget in favor of some other initiative (as there probably is someone). I often say that localization is a journey without end. But sometimes these journeys do end, at least temporarily.

From Russia, with IDNs

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A little more than a year ago, Russia opened up registration for its top-level IDN: рф.

Since then, more than 900,000 domains have been registered, making this the most successful IDN by far.

I’ve always been quick to stress that the bulk of these registrations are coming from squatters: folks hoping to make a quick buck reselling them. Yet according to Russia’s registry, about one in five registered domains is now hosting a live website.

I’d still love to see a list of some of these live websites to make sure they truly are legitimate websites — and not just placeholders.

Even so, let’s assume that 100,000 web sites are indeed live and indeed legitimate, that’s an impressive number.

Take McDonald’s.

McDonald’s supports a localized website at макдональдс.рф,

However, for the most part, the companies that are using Russia’s IDN are Russian nationals and government agencies.

Here are a few live sites:

I suspect I’ll read an article in the NY Times a year from now about how there’s a huge domain rush on for Russia’s IDNs — and how Western companies are late to the party.

Because they are.

And in case you’re wondering if you can register a Russian IDN — you absolutely can. The restriction on foreigners was just lifted.

 

Users don’t change settings — so you better guess right

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There’s a good article on Brainsparks about how rarely users get around to changing their default computer settings.

“Less than 5% of the users we surveyed had changed any settings at all.”

This statistic has great relevance to web globalization. It means that if you’re using auto-detect features — such as geolocation to detect the user’s location and language negotiation to detect the user’s web browser language setting — you had better do so with care.

That is, if you think the user prefers German, you should also give the user the ability to opt out. That’s where the visual global gateway comes into play, nicely illustrated by Caterpillar here:

I’ve been to web sites that only use geolocation and language negotiation — effectively locking users into a given setting. That’s bad. Very bad. I literally had to flush the cookies out of my browser to escape the setting I was given by one web site — how many web users are going to know to do the same? Not many, I would guess. Definitely less than 5%!

If you’re going to make assumptions about a user’s preferred language, also assume that you might be wrong — and plan accordingly.