Going Global

Skype Offers a Solution to that Pesky Language Barrier

Mon, 22 May 2006 12:24:38 -0800

Skype has for several years now helped people around the world communicate with one another, provided they speak the same language.

Now, you don't even need to speak the same language.

Skype has partnered up with Language Line to offer on-demand personal interpreters. According to Skype, this "pay-as-you-go service allows quick and easy access highly skilled & certified interpreters in more than 150 languages directly from your Skype phone, for only $2.99 USD per minute. Service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year."

Skype promises to connect you to an interpreter in 45 seconds. Now, one hour of small talk is going to cost you -- so much in fact that you'd be better off hiring your own interpreter. But for brief calls or for businesses that need to field a lot of different languages, this could be a very nifty service. Skype has put together a handy service that is ideal for small business owners, of which there are plenty.

I'd love to hear from anyone who has tried this new service...

PS: Here are the most-requested languages so far:

Spanish
Mandarin
Russian
Vietnamese
Korean
Cantonese
Portuguese
Polish
French
Japanese

Skype Offers a Solution to that Pesky Language Barrier

Thu, 11 May 2006 16:55:51 -0800

Skype has for several years now helped people around the world communicate with one another, provided they speak the same language.

Now, you don't even need to speak the same language.

I'd love to hear from anyone who has tried this new service...

PS: Here are the most-requested languages so far:

Spanish
Mandarin
Russian
Vietnamese
Korean
Cantonese
Portuguese
Polish
French
Japanese

Machine Translation Developments: Yahoo! and Google

Sun, 30 Apr 2006 20:02:01 -0800

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!

Lionbridge Launches Freeway 2.0 (What happened to 1.0?)

Tue, 25 Apr 2006 15:09:02 -0800

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.

Google Earnings Further Validate Web Globalization

Fri, 21 Apr 2006 06:46:13 -0800

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.

Tips for Creating Bilingual Software and Web Sites

Tue, 11 Apr 2006 15:33:36 -0800

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

The .eu Domain is Spawning .edu Hacks

Mon, 10 Apr 2006 14:13:01 -0800

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.

The .eu Land Rush Has Begun

Fri, 07 Apr 2006 10:55:11 -0800

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."

Are You Certified?

Fri, 07 Apr 2006 06:33:06 -0800

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.

How Localized is Your Search Engine?

Thu, 06 Apr 2006 18:53:35 -0800

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...

China Expansion: UPS and Accor

Thu, 06 Apr 2006 06:28:12 -0800

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.

Of Interwoven, SDL, and Idiom

Thu, 06 Apr 2006 06:18:19 -0800

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?

Google Adwords in Emerging Markets

Fri, 31 Mar 2006 11:47:37 -0800

Adwords is Google's revenue engine. Advertisers pay to be included on Google's search engine results page as well as on targeted Web sites that host Google ads, ranging from personal blogs to local and topical news sites. When the user clicks on the Google ad, the advertiser pays. And when that ad is hosted on someone else's Web site, Google splits the revenue with that Web site owner. The program is called Adsense.

I used Adsense a year ago on my site and the revenue wasn't much to get excited about. I didn't like the sidebar clutter so I took them down after a month or so. But where $10 to $25/day isn't much money to a small business it is a lot of money to a small business in an emerging market.

Which is what this USA Today article is about. Says the article: "Thanks to Adsense, a blogger in New Delhi can earn the same 5 cents for an ad-click as a blogger in Detroit. For many Adsense users in the developing world, that opportunity has become perhaps the most unintentional — and most successful — development program to spring from the online revolution."

The article does note that fraud is a constant and looming issue, but still you gotta love the local success stories. Here's one in particular:

"Adsense has changed my life," Mr. Agarwal says. "I can afford things that I was not able to before. I am planning to buy a new car. I can save for my future."

SDL Launches LSP Directory: Nice Idea; Poor Execution

Mon, 27 Mar 2006 08:38:39 -0800

SDL announced today the launch of the LSPZone, an online directory of translation agencies who support Trados/SDL products.

While I like the idea of having such a site, the execution of the agency search engine is downright painful. As it stands now I just don't see many clients using it more than once.

For example, I simply wanted to do a quick lookup of every agency in the US. So I selected the country and hit the search button and I got this...

So I have to enter pull-down hell again and select a source and target language. But let's say I've got a dozen language pairs to cover or let's say I just want to quickly find out what agencies are listed in my country. It's as if the search interface is in "advanced" mode automatically. What I'd like to see is a "simple" mode that allows for single-field searching.

But this is just the first iteration of the site. I'm sure it will improve over time. Check it out and let me know if you agree with me or think I'm just being grouchy...

Will The Economist Become Too American?

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 08:07:32 -0800

The Economist has just made its US editor John Micklethwait the new editor-in-chief. According to this NYT article the promotion will result in greater coverage of the US market...

The Economist has bureaus in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Washington and has hired what Mr. Micklethwait called a "super stringer" in Austin, Tex. Mr. Micklethwait said he was also contemplating opening more bureaus across the country.

I just hope that this added US coverage doesn't come at the expense of non-US coverage. After all, that's why I read the magazine and why I suspect many of the other 569,000 American subscribers do. The US is now the magazine's largest subscriber market, which I believe is due to the fact that US papers have closed their foreign bureaus over the years (a myopic error of epic proportions in this age of globalization).

There is no shortage of coverage of the US, but if I want to know what's going on in Tanzania, I first turn to The Economist. So here's hoping that every new bureau the magazine opens in the US is matched by a bureau abroad.

The magazine is also testing a somewhat localized ad campaign in Baltimore right now. Here's one ad:

Apparently the headline "Topical Solution" was created just for the US market. It didn't make much sense to the Brits.