The .co domain is the country code of Colombia.

But a few years back Colombia sold its soul (I mean, licensed its country code).

So now .co can be registered pretty much by anyone, similar to generic top-level domains such as .com and .net.

Over the past few years the .co domain has become quite popular, used by startups such as Vine.co and Donuts.co. Twitter uses t.co as a link shortener.

When you register a country code for use as a generic domain, you want to be sure that search engines don’t view your website as limited to only that country.

Fortunately, Google is on top of the situation.

According to Search Engine Roundtable, here are the country codes (ccTLDs) Google now treats as generic:

• ad
• as
• bz
• cc
• cd
• co
• dj
• fm
• gg
• io
• la
• me
• ms
• nu
• sc
• sr
• su
• tv
• tk
• ws

But what if I want my country code to act like a country code?

Let’s suppose you’re a business located in Colombia and you  register .co. You want search engines to recognize your domain as a country code, not some globally generic identifier.

Well, there’s a solution for this as well, at least with Google. Using Google Webmaster Tools you can tell Google to view your domain not as generic but as specific to a country or region.

It’s not the most elegant solution and I’m unclear on if/how Bing manages the issue, but it’s where we stand today with the world’s largest search engine.

Related links:

• Matt Cutts talks about ccTLDs and geolocation
• More information on Google geotargeting
• My list of country codes used as generic country codes

The post When country codes go generic appeared first on Global by Design.

We studied 12 enterprise technology websites for the 2013 Web Globalization Report Card.

The Web Globalization Report Card is an annual benchmark of how effectively companies internationalize and localize their websites and applications for the world.

Out of those 12 companies, Cisco Systems emerged on top.

Cisco emerged on top for three main reasons.

First, it leads the category in languages with 40 (not counting English), followed by IBM and Xerox.

Second, as shown below, the website is globally consistent.

Cisco supports a global template that is flexible enough to support local content and promotions.

Third, Cisco leads the sector in its support for locally relevant social networks.

Shown below is the template used on the .com website:

And here is the template used on South Korean website:

Note how the template supports the insertion of locally specific feeds.

Many companies still cling to the idea that they can support just one English-language Twitter or Facebook page for the world.

But all this feed does is reach English speakers around the world. If you’re really serious about a given country you need to fully support its languages. And Cisco is well ahead of most companies in its support for local-language social networks and videos.

Regarding global navigation, there is still room for improvement. The gateway relies on a pop-up window, shown here:

I’d prefer to see Cisco use a globe icon to highlight the gateway in the header (instead of simply using a “Worldwide” link). And the gateway itself could be better executed.

That said, Cisco is by far the leader in the global enterprise technology category — and it is also a top 5 website.

Here are the 12 enterprise technology websites included in the 2013 Web Globalization Report Card:

• Autodesk
• Cisco Systems
• Dolby
• EMC
• IBM
• Intel
• NetApp
• Oracle
• Renesas
• SAP
• Texas Instruments
• Xerox

Read more in the 2013 Web Globalization Report Card.

Also included with the Report Card is the Enterprise Technology Website report.

The post Cisco Systems: The Best Global Enterprise Technology Website appeared first on Global by Design.

I talked at length about Amazon — a company widely considered to be the leader in global ecommerce.

And yet after nearly 20 years in business, the company supports only 9 country websites.

So what gives? Shouldn’t Amazon have launched 40 or more country websites by now?

After all, Facebook went from 2 languages to more than 70 in two years.

Though I believe Amazon should have launched more country websites by now, I will say this:

When it comes to retail, the world is anything by flat.

Just because someone halfway around the world can easily visit your website and view your products doesn’t mean they’ll be inclined to buy those products. That’s because these products have to be shipped (and this alone could be prohibitively expensive). There also may be concerns regarding returns and customer support.

Retail globalization is extremely complex. And expensive. And risky.

Here are some of the “risk factors” that Amazon cites when discussing the challenges of expanding into new markets:

• Government regulation of e-commerce
• Restrictions on sales or distribution of certain products or services
• Limited fulfillment and technology infrastructure
• Laws and regulations regarding consumer and data protection
• Lower levels of use of the Internet
• Lower levels of consumer spendingand fewer opportunities for growth compared to the U.S.
• Lower levels of credit card usage and increased payment risk
• Difficulty in staffing, developing and managing foreign operations as a result of distance, language and cultural differences

Yet, risks aside, Amazon is still bullish about it’s long-term goals:

We expect that, over time, our International segment will represent 50% or more of our consolidated net sales.

So where does Amazon stand today? According to their most recent annual report, international sales make up 43% of revenues, which is actually down a notch from the year prior. Though it should be noted that North American sales continue to grow as well.

I think that over the past few years  Amazon put the brakes on global expansion. Perhaps it  wanted to devote more resources to the Kindle and related software, as well as its publishing and producing businesses. Or, perhaps it had data to support not expanding into additional markets. Whatever the reason, Amazon did leave the door open to competitors.

During this time, Apple has built out its iTunes platform to sell digital content in 51 markets. And Google Play continues to expand as well.

Granted, expanding digital ecommerce is far easier than expanding the ecommerce of physical goods. But even if all you do is focus on digital ecommerce, Amazon is in danger of losing its edge.

Fortunately, I just read that Amazon appears to be (at last) expanding into Russia. So maybe the push to expand globally is back on.

We shall see.

The post For Amazon (and other retailers), the world is not flat appeared first on Global by Design.

The latest data from IDC show the sharpest decline in PC sales on record. From the release:

“Although the reduction in shipments was not a surprise, the magnitude of the contraction is both surprising and worrisome,” said David Daoud, IDC Research Director, Personal Computing. “The industry is going through a critical crossroads, and strategic choices will have to be made as to how to compete with the proliferation of alternative devices and remain relevant to the consumer.”

So is it safe to say we are not longer “entering” the post-PC era and are now living in it?

I would say so, with a caveat.

As global transformations go, this one has been highly uneven.

The fact is, there are many people in the US who don’t own a mobile phone or a tablet. For these folks, the post-PC era has not yet arrived.

And if you look outside the US, you might say we’ve been living in the post-PC era for quite some time. Or, to be more accurate, a non-PC era.

That is, many emerging markets leapfrogged PCs altogether (from the consumer’s perspective) and have been mobile-centric all along.

Case in point is this chart of PC vs. mobile Internet usage in India, courtesy of KPCB and StatCounter.

Judging by this chart you could argue that India has been “post-PC” since 2011.

Last year, I updated the Report Card methodology to factor in the globalization of mobile websites and mobile apps. This year, I’ve given additional weight to companies that treat mobile on par with PC in regards to globalization investment, which is a key factor why Hotels.com performed so well and why Google retained the top spot.

Needless to say, these are challenging times for web teams that must support a dizzying array of devices and screen sizes.

But this is also an exciting time. The Internet is, for millions of people, more within reach than ever before.

The post Living in a post-PC world appeared first on Global by Design.

During my work for the Web Globalization Report Card I encountered a number of US-focused websites relying on language negotiation (also known as language detection) to make their Spanish-language websites impossible to ignore.

Shown above is the overlay used on the T-Mobile website.

And below is the Ford website overlay:

What language negotiation does is look at the language setting of the web user’s browser. If Spanish is detected as the preference, the website displays an overlay that asks the user to confirm his or her language preference.

Language negotiation is far from a perfect technology so it’s best to ask users to confirm their setting.

The overlay provides a nice tool for making Spanish content discoverable while also allowing users to stay in control of what language they prefer to use. It’s fair to say that many US-based web users may have web browsers set to Spanish but may prefer to see the English-language websites. The fact is, unfortunately, many companies don’t fully translate all English content into the target language — and people know this.

If you do implement this approach for your website, it’s vital that you provide a visual global gateway in the header so users can easily change settings at any time.

The post Bienvenido: Using language negotiation to support bilingual US websites appeared first on Global by Design.

I’m still trying to understand why Google is killing Google Reader and, along with it presumably, Feedburner.

I love RSS and rely on it to follow more than a hundred blogs. What about Twitter? Facebook? I’m sorry, but the signal-to-noise ratio just doesn’t cut it for me. They certainly have their roles to play, but they don’t beat plain ol’ RSS for keeping me posted on everything new on a given blog.

So the purpose of this post is to ask you — assuming you’re following this blog via RSS — to update your feed address to:

http://www.globalbydesign.com/feed/

This way, no matter what Google does to Feedburner, you’ll still get the latest from this blog.

Thanks!

The post Update your RSS feed for Global by Design appeared first on Global by Design.

I noted earlier how much I admired their global gateway. Simple and effective.

The post WhatsApp adds Thai appeared first on Global by Design.

We studied 18 consumer technology websites for the 2013 Web Globalization Report Card.

The Web Globalization Report Card is an annual benchmark of how effectively companies internationalize and localize their websites and applications for the world.

Out of those 18 companies, Samsung emerged on top.

Samsung emerged on top not because it leads in languages or global consistency, though it is strong in both respects.

Samsung supports an impressive 41 languages, not including US English. Apple, by comparison, stands at 31 languages.

Samsung emerged on top in large part because it has been aggressive  in engaging with users via social media across a number of languages and countries.

Note the bottom third of  Japan home page:

Samsung embraces a range of social platforms to communicate and engage with users — in their local languages.

Samsung also leverages these platforms to provide customer support, as shown here:

Many comparisons have been made lately between Apple and Samsung.

When simply comparing their global websites, clear distinctions are hard to miss.

Samsung has embraced social networking while Apple has not. Samsung appears to be comfortable with a certain level of visual chaos that comes  with supporting social networks and interacting publicly with customers. There are signs on the US website that Samsung is moving towards a new Samsung Nation model in which users register to earn points and virtual goodies — as well as connect with friends via Facebook. The degree to which this model will scale globally remains to be seen though I suspect Asia will pose a challenge.

Apple, on the other hand, presents a clean and consistent design template to the world. There is nothing scattered or busy about an Apple websites (except, I would argue, for its excessive use of flags). And consistency has served Apple quite nicely, though Apple has moved more slowly from a globalization perspective than Samsung.

Regarding the global gateway, Samsung buries the link to the gateway in the footer (not good).

Tthe gateway  itself is well organized, though the flags should be eliminated. As a general rule, flags should be avoided (a subject for a future post).

Finally, Samsung has been aggressive in updating its mobile website experience.

In the past two months, it launched a new mobile-optimized website, shown on the right:

Notice how social icons are front and center. Also notice in the header how Samsung detects the use of an iPhone and instantly poses a comparison test.

Sneaky but smart.

While Samsung still has room for improvement, it does so many things well that it earned out the number one spot, outperforming companies like Apple, Panasonic, and Lenovo.

Here are the 18 consumer technology websites included in the 2013 Web Globalization Report Card:

• Acer
• Adobe
• Apple
• Canon
• Dell
• HP
• HTC
• Lenovo
• LG
• McAfee
• Microsoft
• Nikon
• Nokia
• Panasonic
• Samsung
• Sony
• Symantec

Read more in the 2013 Web Globalization Report Card.

Or you can purchase just the Consumer Technology Website report.

Also included:

The post Samsung: The best consumer technology website of 2013 appeared first on Global by Design.

An interesting article on the development of a new multi-script font.

To create the font, four designers worked on a script each: Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, and Arabic.

The end result is a font that provides a consistent look and feel across good range of languages.

I like this quote from the lead designer:

To draw a parallel with the world of music, I see ourselves as four musicians who improvised together on a musical theme fixed by one of them – this implies a lot of freedom, but also a lot of effort, listening to the others and building upon their improvisations.”

In fact, the decentralized model is similar in many ways to that of successful web and software globalization projects. You need local-language experts to play an active role early on in the process, while still sharing global goals.

The post Designing a multi-script typeface appeared first on Global by Design.

Here is the image used on Apple’s China home page to announce Tim Cook’s apology letter regarding Apple repair and warranty “misunderstandings.”

Here is The Wall Street Journal take on the matter.

From a web globalization perspective, what interests me is how Apple’s design template allows for localized messages.

Apple placed this message in one of its “lesser” promotional windows, the one near the footer of the page.

These windows are quite handy for localized announcements. Every company should build into its global template the flexibility to allow for last-minute local announcements.

Now, what I don’t like about these windows is that they rely exclusively on images with embedded text. Locking in text may allow complete control over appearance but also cost you in localization overhead. While it may be trivial to localize a Photoshop file for one market — multiply that by 30 markets on a weekly or monthly basis and costs do become a factor.

But what I do like about the windows is that they can be easily swapped in and out based on the market, for local products, promotions, or, in this case, a heartfelt apology.

The post Apple’s China apology and the value of a flexible global template appeared first on Global by Design.

I hope you’ll join me on Wednesday for a free one-hour webinar (sponsored by Lionbridge).

I will talk about my research on the retail industry, focusing on companies like Amazon, Apple, and Best Buy. You’ll get a better understanding of just why retail is so challenging from a global perspective and how to minimize risks.

April 4, 2013
12:00 PM Eastern Standard Time | 17:00 Greenwich Mean Time

UPDATE: The call is now available for replay here.

The post Free Webinar: The Leading Global Retailers (and why) appeared first on Global by Design.

We included 14 automotive and supplier websites in the 2013 Web Globalization Report Card.

The Web Globalization Report Card is an annual benchmark of how effectively companies internationalize and localize their websites and applications for the world.

Out of those 14 companies, BMW emerged on top.

Even though BMW won the category, it still ranks #44 out of the 150 websites studied, which means the automotive industry still has a long ways to go in terms of supporting web globalization best practices.

BMW emerged on top this year in part because its investment in languages. BMW supports an impressive 42 languages, behind only Honda  and Toyota. Over the past year, BMW added two additional languages.

BMW also stands apart in its support for local-language social networks. On its Brazil home page, for example, it includes this Facebook widget:

And a link to its Twitter feed:

Many companies have built entire teams around supporting their English-language social network platforms but have completely overlooked the importance of engaging with users in their native languages.

BMW does an above-average job of supporting a global design template. Many automotive companies have yet to embrace global consistency as a means of improving efficiency, global branding, and usability for people who often navigate between the .com and country websites.

BMW is weak in global navigation. In fact, none of the automative websites do a particularly good job of supporting a global gateway.

Here are the 14 automotive and supplier websites included in the 2013 Web Globalization Report Card:

• Audi
• BMW
• Chevrolet
• Ford
• Goodyear
• Honda
• Hyundai
• Lexus
• Mercedes
• Michelin
• Mini
• Nissan
• Toyota
• Volkswagen

Read more in the 2013 Web Globalization Report Card.

Also included: The Automotive Global Benchmark.

The post BMW: The best global automotive website of 2013 appeared first on Global by Design.

But if I were a French-speaking Canadian I might not feel quite the same. Because if you select the French/Canada option from the Square global gateway you may eventually find your way to this page:

Note the glaringly absent image. One of two missing images on this web page (and they’ve been missing for two days). Granted, this is a relatively new localized site for Square and I’m quite sure the company is understaffed in the localization department.

But I pick on Square to make a larger point about localization. While producing the Report Card, I encountered a number of websites with mistakes such as this — mistakes that probably would not have lasted for more than a minute or two on the global home page.

All too often, localized websites do not benefit from the same attention to detail (and user testing) as the English-language websites. Mistakes I often encounter include:

• Broken links in the global gateway
• Missing images on local websites
• Cropped text strings on web apps (due to text expansion after translation)
• Untranslated text within embedded images (while the rest of the website text is translated)

Localization is all about details. Not just making sure you’ve got those details covered when you go live, but keeping an eye on those details every step of the way. Which means having staff who keep an eye on those web pages long after they’ve gone live.

The post On Square and localization: Keep an eye on your local websites appeared first on Global by Design.

My goal is to get a broad understanding of the current state of web globalization.

Over the years, one data point has never failed to impress me.

The number of languages supported by global websites.

Source: The 2013 Web Globalization Report Card

When I began the Report Card back in 2003, any company that supported 20 or more languages truly stood apart. Today, 20 languages is well behind the curve.

Today, the average global website supports 28 languages.

That’s not to say that your website should support 28 languages. Amazon, for example, supports a mere 9 languages (not counting English). And though I do believe Amazon should be investing more heavily in web globalization (particularly in light of recent developments at Apple and Google), the fact is that every company needs to develop its own language strategy.

But I will say this much: Web globalization begins with languages. And any companies with serious global aspirations has no choice but to embrace languages.

Lots of them.

The post How many languages should your website support? appeared first on Global by Design.

I will talk about my research on the travel industry, focusing on how companies have taken their websites and mobile apps global. I’ll focus on languages, web architecture, navigation, and common missteps.

March 6, 2013
12:00 PM Eastern Standard Time | 17:00 Greenwich Mean Time
Click here to register

The post Free Webinar: The Best Global Travel Websites – and Why appeared first on Global by Design.

I’m pleased to announce the top-scoring websites from the 2013 Web Globalization Report Card. This is the ninth annual edition of the report and it’s always exciting to highlight those companies that have excelled in web globalization over the years.

Google is no stranger to the top spot, but this is largely because Google has not stood still. With the exception of navigation (a weak spot overall) Google continues to lead not only in the globalization of its web applications but its mobile apps. YouTube, for example, supports a 54-language mobile app. Few apps available today surpass 20 languages; most mobile apps support fewer than 10 languages.

Hotels.com has done remarkably well over the past two years and, in large part, due to its investment in mobile websites and apps. While web services companies like Amazon and Twitter certainly do a very good job with mobile, I find that travel services companies are just as innovative, if not more so.

Philips improved its ranking due to its improved global gateway. And Microsoft and HP also saw gains due to their website redesigns, which also included improved global gateways.

New to the Top 25 this year are Starbucks, Merck, and KPMG.

As a group, the top 25 websites support an average of 50 languages. And while this number is skewed highly by Wikipedia and Google, if we were to remove those websites the average would still be above 35 languages.

The companies on this list 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 localization, which these companies also do well. And more than 20 of the companies support websites optimized for smartphones.

I’ll have more to say in the weeks ahead. You can download an excerpt here.

And if you have any questions at all, just ask.

The post The top 25 global websites from the 2013 Web Globalization Report Card appeared first on Global by Design.

I’m pleased to announce a new (and free) report focused on the globalization of travel websites.

From American Airlines to Kayak to Wyndham, this report highlights those websites that have the widest global reach and are the most user friendly — regardless of the user’s language or nationality.

Lionbridge sponsored the production of this report and is making the report available for free (registration required).

Lionbridge suggested the websites they wanted to see included but they did not play any role in the analysis of these sites. I’ve been studying many of these companies for years now through the Web Globalization Report Card.

Even if your company is not a member of this industry, you may find this report valuable. Included are a number of general web globalization best practices.

Furthermore, the travel industry includes a handful of companies that have really innovated in regards to the globalization of websites and mobile apps, companies like Booking.com, Hotels.com, and Kayak.

In all, this report scores 71 companies across a seven segments, including hotels, airlines, rental cars, cruise lines, and online travel agencies. Companies include Starwood Hotels, Delta, United, Booking.com, Expedia, Hotels.com, Avis, Sixt, among others.

You can download your copy for free by registering here.

The post The best global travel websites appeared first on Global by Design.

I always cringe when I see this.

Showing favoritism for one country over others is never a good idea.

And even if most of the users of this particular menu are based in the US, there are technical ways to pre-select “United States” without embedding it at the top of a list.

I realize that this may seem like a trivial detail, but for those web users living outside of the US, it’s not so trivial.

For more on global navigation, check out The Art of the Global Gateway.

The post Are you playing favorites with your global gateway? appeared first on Global by Design.

I came across a great resource on Walt Whitman’s epic poem Song of Myself.

This website intends to present Whitman’s poem in its entirety, along with commentary, in an impressive nine languages. It is the product of a partnership between the International Writing Program and the Walt Whitman Archive at the University of Iowa. The poem is being published in weekly increments (they’re currently up to section 10 of 52).

Even if you’re no fan of Whitman (and I forgive you), if you’re interested in web globalization, give the website a look. It’s very well done.

Here’s a screen shot of the same web page above now displayed in Russian:

The tab structure allows you to change languages on the fly, but never allowing you to lose sight of your own language — something often overlooked on Fortune 100 websites.

Creating a multilingual website doesn’t have to be complicated.

1. Make the languages easy to find.
2. Present the language names in the actual languages.
3. Allow users to easily change languages if needed.

This website does well on all three accounts.

And now I leave you with this, the beginning of this great poem…

I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

The post Walt Whitman: I Sing of Myself in Nine Languages appeared first on Global by Design.

I predicted that we’d see a lot more use of this word in the years ahead. Why? Because “translation sounds like a commodity; transcreation sounds like a service.”

So here we are in 2013 and a Google search on Transcreation brings up 392,000 results.

Translators often cringe when hearing this word. And I have often felt the urge to do the same because, frankly, good translators and translation agencies have been providing this service all along.

The idea that literal, word-for-word translation is the only service provided by translators is simply wrong, and to some extent propagated by a translation industry built upon stressing quality (as in literal translation) over more marketing-oriented translation.

So now we have a number of marketing firms and advertising agencies who use this term quite liberally to promote their unique brand of translation services. Here is a screen grab from the website of Hogarth:

By the way, Hogarth is looking to hire a Transcreation Account Manager to “manage the transcreation and production of advertising for major global brands.” Here is the link.

Transcreation is here to stay.

The post Transcreation is here to stay appeared first on Global by Design.

So it was just a matter of time before I created something like this (now featured at the FORUM artspace gallery):

The country codes are sized roughly in line with the amount of coffee produced by each country. Brazil is the world’s largest producer; I was surprised to find Vietnam in second place. Speaking of Vietnam, Starbucks is opening its first location there this year.

Note that coffee production statistics include both robusta and arabica varieties.

If you’ve in the Cleveland, Ohio area you can see this print up close.

I believe that online purchases will be available soon as well. If you’d like a copy, just let me know.

The post Coffee Codes of the World appeared first on Global by Design.

The post Happy Holidays appeared first on Global by Design.

I recently completed a new infographic using country codes.

What you see above is an excerpt.

Can you guess what the codes are being used to signify (besides countries)? Enter your best guess in the comments. It may already be obvious. I’m too close to it at this point to know.

The poster is going to be included in the FORUM artspace exhibit “You Are Here” which will begin later this month.

When the exhibit goes live I’ll post the full visual.

The post Mystery codes appeared first on Global by Design.

So I went to its website and was pleasantly surprised to see a simple but effective global gateway.

Let’s start with the use of the globe icon:

Nicely located. Simple. And when you click on it you get an equally efficient menu:

And WhatsApp uses language detection (also known as content negotiation) to detect your web browser’s language and respond in kind.

Shown here is what my browser (set to Spanish) sees:

It’s wonderful to see start-up companies get navigation right so early on.

It bodes well for global expansion, which this company appears to be doing quite rapidly as well.

The post WhatsApp gets global navigation right appeared first on Global by Design.

It was fake.

I (stupidly) clicked on the link and was greeted with a login page that looked very much like Twitter’s real login page at the time.

Here’s a screen grab (note the bogus address):

I mention this now because I keep coming across stories about how internationalized domain names (IDNs) may be inherently dangerous. That if you start allowing all these additional characters in domain names you’re going to see many more instances of phishing (or IDN spoofing or homograph attacks).

I don’t dispute that these attacks are happening and will continue to happen.

I just want to make the simple point that phishing has been alive and well with plain old ASCII characters.

Maybe IDNs, as they become more popular, will lead to more problems. They probably will. But we’ve had our fair share of phishing attacks with Latin-based characters and I don’t ever read an article or blog post suggesting we eliminate these characters from the DNS.

Risk is, unfortunately, a sad fact of life on this crazy world wide web. And, yes, there are  IDN scenarios (like mixed scripts) in which IDNs could present the “bad guys” with exciting possibilities. So far, these scenarios have been limited reasonably well.

The key is to minimize risks while still allowing people around the world to interact in their native languages.

IDNs, warts and all, are important to the future of the Internet.

The post Don’t blame phishing on IDNs appeared first on Global by Design.