Going Global (Part 1)

 

Merchants that sell goods and services over the Internet at the global level quickly realize that what works at home does not necessarily work abroad. To successfully compete in foreign countries, you sometimes need to localize your website. One of the areas that require localization is the site's language.

Successful organizations with an online presence understand the need to translate their websites. Google offers its search engine in 104 languages (103 if you don't consider Elmer Fudd to be a valid language). Even organizations competing at the national level can benefit from publishing multilingual websites. Statistics provided by the U.S. Census Bureau report that Hispanics constitute 13.7 percent of the United States' total population. And this estimate does not include the 3.9 million residents ofPuerto Rico. Similarly, Statistics Canada reports that 6.4 million Canadians--roughly a quarter of the population--have a French mother tongue.

Localization Strategies
There are basically two ways to localize your website. The first strategy is a simple one: duplicate your website for each of the required languages. This solution is acceptable for simpler informational sites that only need to support a couple of languages. However, it is inadequate for more complex sites or Web applications that need to get translated to three or more languages.

The second …

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