For Immediate Release
Byte Level Research Announces Best Global Web Sites of 2010
2010 Web Globalization Report Card identifies best practices, emerging trends, and the hottest languages on the Internet
(Seattle, WA — March 4, 2010) Now in its sixth edition, The 2010 Web Globalization Report Card has played an important role in highlighting the very best multilingual Web sites as well as helping other Web sites get better.
This year, the report rated the Web sites of 225 companies across 21 industry categories, analyzing elements such as languages, global navigation, global consistency, and localization. The top 25 global Web sites are as follows:
Google has emerged on top again, but just barely.
The big story this year is that Facebook and Google finished in a numerical tie. But because Google supports more languages (for now), it edged out as the winner.
Moving down the list, there are a number of familiar faces -- companies like Cisco and Philips, Panasonic, and NIVEA. But there are some new faces as well. Samsung jumped up in the rankings due to improvements to global navigation and localization. Kodak, Symantec, and Autodesk are also new to the top 25.
Although these sites represent a wide range of industries, they all share a high degree of global consistency and impressive support for languages. They average 50 languages -- which is more than twice the average for all 225 sites reviewed.
Report Identifies Hottest Languages and Newest Trends
The 2010 Web Globalization Report Card plays a valuable role in helping companies understand emerging and established best practices in the field. Here are three of the many findings included within the 197-page report:-
Average number of languages surpasses 22, up again
In 2006, the average number of languages supported was 15. This year, the new baseline for companies going global is 22 languages. Fast-growing languages include Turkish, Polish, Vietnamese, and Arabic.
Russian found on 7 out of 10 Web sites
In 2005, Russian was found on only 35% of all web sites studied. This year, Russian is one of the core languages that companies select when going global.
Twitter goes global
Today, companies can leverage social platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to help them extend their messages and brands in local markets. Of the 225 web sites reviewed, more than 90 host Twitter accounts for markets in addition to their home market.
Scoring Methodology
The Report Card analyzed each Web site according to the following five criteria:- Global Reach (Languages): The web sites supports enough languages to reach a wide global audience.
- Global Navigation: Web users can quickly and easily find their localized content, regardless of what language they speak.
- Global Consistency: The web site leverages global templates to support global branding, operational efficiency, and usability.
- Localization: The web site is truly relevant to the user's locale and culture. Products, promotions, and customer support information is all localized.
- Community Localization: Content is sourced and/or translated locally via community and social networking platforms.
About The Web Globalization Report Card
Now in its sixth edition, The 2010 Web Globalization Report Card is the authoritative guide to the state of Web globalization.The 2008 Web Globalization Report Card is 197 pages and published in PDF format. It is available for $1,650 for an enterprise license.
About Byte Level Research
Founded in 2000, Byte Level Research pioneered Web globalization research and consulting. John Yunker, president and chief analyst of Byte Level Research, is editor of Global by Design, a blog devoted to Website globalization best practices.
