Servage Magazine

Have you ever thought about offering your product internationally? Obviously the Internet by nature already makes your product available worldwide, but often that is not enough to really reach the global markets. Many web-services originate from English-speaking areas, or are created in English to accommodate a larger portion of the world’s population. However, there are many countries and cultures where people strongly prefer localized versions in their own language. Also considering emerging markets like China, India, Brazil and Russia where English is not as common among average consumers as in western countries it would be an ideal step to localize content.

If you already have a web-service that is only available in one language you can probably quite easily internationalize it. Internationalizing your project means that you prepare it (technically) to be available in various language versions. The actual translation of the content into other languages is the localization part. Simple web-services can be summed up in relatively small language files that you, your friends, or professional agencies can translate for you. With dynamic content it gets a bit harder, and the gain may not be worth the effort, but for more static applications you should definitely look into the possibility to internationalize it.