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Byte Level Research Presentation

posted 2007-05-03 13:00:42
by Andrew Thomas

I'm sitting in John Yunker's presentation on global websites. It's heartening to be surrounded by people that "get" the problems around real localization. Right now, he's answering some interesting questions about Arabic interface issues (right-to-left). I'm impressed by both the question and the answer. Just by asking the question, the conference attendee shows a deep understanding of localization issues. It's certainly more than straight translation. John's answer, while not definitive (because it can't be... yet), was fair and honest. The decision to flip the interface is not an easy one. While it might not yet be a trend, right-to-left websites do seem to be increasing in number. He feels that the Arabic community has not been very well served by the internet to date. Probably because of this, usage in Arabic-speaking countries has not increased as quickly as other countries. John feels this is changing though, and I agree. Google, Wikipedia, and other globalization power houses will drag (kicking and screaming if they have to) the rest of the internet community to new languages, locales, and communities...

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