Meryl's Notes Blog

When I did research on globalization of Web sites, I found few reliable information. Then, I came across John Yunker’s Beyond Borders: Web Globalization Strategies and it thoroughly covers just about everything about making a global Web site. If nothing else, get the book. Get insight into John’s book by reading Moving WebWord >Going Global Gracefully: Strategies for Building the Global Gateway and downloading a sample chapter of the book.

One thing I have learned about global Web sites is that you can’t simply rely on flags or language. For instance, French is spoken in French-speaking Africa, Madagascar, Haïti, France, Quebec, Belgium Walloon, French-speaking Switzerland, Luxembourg, Guyanne, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Algeria, Morocco, and Mauritania.

Despite these countries sharing a common significant language in their country, what else do they have in common? It probably varies by country and the message would have to be communicated different by country.

This barely hits the nail on the head. Going global is tough… do it right, and you’ll please customers in the covered region. When I was looking for a company that did it right, the best example I found was Shell.