Category Archives: Google

The best global websites of 2012

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I’m happy to announce the publication of the 2012 Web Globalization Report Card. This year, we reviewed 105 websites across 17 industries; the websites comprise 70% of the Interbrand Best Global Brands of 2011. This year, we also reviewed mobile websites and mobile apps, to better understand how companies were balancing global and mobile strategies.

Out of the websites reviewed, here are the top 25 overall:

Last year, Facebook emerged (barely) as number one. This year, Google reclaims the top spot. Although Google continues to struggle to harmonize its global navigation across its many applications, the company also continues to invest in globalization. Google now supports more than 140 languages on its search engine and its new Google+ app supports an impressive 40 languages. Facebook’s mobile app, by comparison, supports just 13 languages. Though Facebook continues to improve its global navigation, its language growth stalled in 2011.

As a group, the top 10 websites support an average of more than 50 languages. They also demonstrate a high degree of global design consistency across most, if not all, localized websites. This degree of consistency allows them to focus their energies on content and mobile localization. Two new companies on this list – Hotels.com and Booking.com – exhibit an impressive commitment to mobile devices. Any company that is developing a global mobile strategy should study these two companies.

Why didn’t Apple make the top 10?
I’m anticipating I will get asked this as I was asked the same thing last year. After all, how can a company with nearly $100 billion in the bank not be in the top 10? It seems that Apple has been rather tightfisted with its translation spending; the company supports far fewer languages on its website than on its mobile operating system iOS. Does it make sense for an iPad and iPhone to support Arabic and Hebrew and for Apple’s website not to support these languages?

Language parity between mobile and PC is a key component of the 2012 Report Card and Apple did not fare well in this regard.

It’s worth noting that of the websites reviewed, roughly half now support Arabic and/or Hebrew.

In the Report Card, languages account for 25% of a web site’s score. We also evaluate a web site’s depth and breadth of local content, support for local-language social networks, the effectiveness of the global gateway, and global consistency across PC and mobile platforms. Beginning in 2010, we began tracking how companies promote local social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter around the world. In 2010, only a handful of companies supported a Twitter or Facebook page outside of English. Today, more than half of all companies reviewed support a social network outside of English.

Cisco Systems is worth studying for its Social@Cisco pages. This social aggregation page was first launched in 2010. It is now available in more than 30 markets, with local feeds incorporated.

Hard for me to believe, but this is the eighth edition of the Report Card. It’s the largest report ever, with 40 website profiles and a special section on “taking mobile global.” I’ll have lots more to say in the weeks ahead.

To learn more, check out the 2012 Web Globalization Report Card.

Global gateway notes: Guidewire, Google, Locaria

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One of the many things I love about global gateways is that I never stop discovering new ones.

Here are notes on a few gateways I’ve stumbled across over the past few weeks.

Let’s begin with a gateway that exhibits a classic rookie mistake:

I’m sure you spotted it right away — flags should never be used to indicate language.

Companies that use flags in this manner tend to be companies that are just getting started with web localization. In some cases, these flags come packaged as widgets (usually combined with a Google Translate backend).  I’ve come to believe that this is just one of these practices that companies have to grow out of.  And most do, over time.

 

Guidewire

Guidewire’s gateway wisely does not use flags. And it is also perfectly positioned in the upper righthand corner of the web site.

But when you click on the pull-down menu, you see an inconsistently displayed list of languages.


Notice how French and German are in their native languages, but Japanese and Chinese are not.

I’ve noticed a number of global gateways in which the Asian scripts are not presented in their native scripts. Years ago, this was because the web team didn’t want to specify Unicode on the home page. Today, however, I view this largely as an oversight. Interestingly, the Guidewire China web site features a globe icon next to its gateway. Looking ahead, I’d love to see this icon added to the .com site as well.

 

Google Plus

Speaking of globe icons, I discovered this icon at the bottom of the Google Plus home page:


As for the menu itself, the languages are natively presented, which is always nice to see:

But pull-down menus are not all that pleasant to scroll through when they’re long, and this one is indeed quite long. Interestingly, Google already has an alternative to the pull-down menu in place on YouTube (here’s an excerpt from the language menu):

Instead of a pull-down menu, YouTube uses an overlay, which bypasses the scrolling issue. I’ve been told that Google is working hard to merge these disparate global gateways into a seamless and user-friendly whole. Perhaps we’ll see progress by the end of this year.

 

Locaria

Translation agencies should be expected to provide user-friendly multilingual navigation. And while this approach by Locaria isn’t the most scalable, it’s visually engaging and, fun to toy with. I imagine it’s a great device for making potential clients aware of all the languages the company supports.

Have you encountered any must-see gateways lately? If so, let me know!

(Insert company name here) stumbles in China

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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 of the earliest to enter, handed over its China business in 2005 to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., and has since quarreled with the Chinese company. EBay Inc. sharply scaled back its presence in China after losing market share to an online shopping site owned by Alibaba. Google Inc. has seen its market share slide, to the benefit of rival Baidu Inc. since the U.S. company moved its Chinese-language search engine to Hong Kong out of frustration over censorship and hacking issues.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.*

 

Yandex headed to Turkey, and beyond

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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 look further than the Yandex.com home page to see that Yandex does indeed have expansion plans:

The reports that I’ve read indicate that Turkey is the next market in line for expansion. It would certainly give Yandex employees a good excuse to do some in-market “research.” (Turkey is a hot destination for many Russians.)

Andy Atkins-Krüger has written a great post on how Yandex is doing in Russia and beyond. It’s a must read if you want to learn more about the Russian Google and where it’s headed.