Global by Design

Adventures in Web Globalization

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Entries Tagged as 'Translation'

The iPhone App localization opportunity

July 14th, 2008 · No Comments

So after a slow start upgrading to the iPhone 2.0 OS on Friday, I’ve since had a chance to review a number of the apps and have been very impressed so far (though a few did cause the iPhone to crash).
As I reviewed the Apps in the iTunes store I began to notice that they [...]

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Tags: Apple · Software Localization · Translation · Vendors

Google perpetuates the American .com myth

July 4th, 2008 · 3 Comments

Google features a 4th of July logo at Google.com today.
This is not all that unusual; Google has been doing this for several years now. But there is an inherent flaw in hosting an American visual at Google.com: The .com address is not synonymous with USA.
I know, it’s a picky thing. And yet it’s not such [...]

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Tags: Global navigation · Languages · Translation · Web Globalization · ecommerce

Two thoughts on Euro 2008 and Web globalization

June 29th, 2008 · 1 Comment

Congratulations to Spain for emerging on top of Euro 2008. I can’t say that I was pulling for any one team, but I would have loved to have seen Germany score a last-second goal to keep the tournament alive.
Being the globalization geek that I am, I couldn’t help but check out the home page of [...]

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Tags: China · Google · Languages · Translation · Web Globalization

Translating numbers in China

June 1st, 2008 · No Comments

As John wrote awhile back: All lucky numbers are local.
And this is particularly true in China, where people pay thousands of dollars to obtain license plates with lucky numbers.
So when it comes to naming products or setting prices, you have to be very careful about your choice of numbers. Here are some tips:
6 means “good [...]

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Tags: Business globalization · China · Culture · Translation

Google Translate is growing up

May 16th, 2008 · 3 Comments

What began as just another “gisting” application — like Babel Fish — is gradually becoming an impressive translation tool. And I’m not referring to the quality of translation, though that is improving as well.
I’m referring to the breadth of languages and breadth of features that Google Translate supports.
Today, Google announced that Google Translate added support [...]

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Tags: Google · Languages · Machine Translation · Translation

Facebook and MySpace going multilingual: But XING is well ahead

March 3rd, 2008 · 1 Comment

Techcrunch reports that Facebook is a day away from launching a German-language interface, translated in part by 2,000 volunteers. Spanish was launched a few weeks ago. And French is also nearly here.
MySpace is also busy building localized Web sites.
I reviewed both Facebook and MySpace for the 2008 Web Globalization Report Card, as part of the [...]

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Tags: Languages · Translation · Vendors · Web Globalization