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As the names imply, the Internet and World Wide Web are international forms of communication. Anywhere there is a decent phone system, there can be some form of Internet access, and direct satellite communication is available almost everywhere. So, as
mentioned earlier in this book, your Web site will be available globally.
Once you start checking your logs (Chapter 24, "Tracking Page Success"), you'll notice some funny-looking computer names, ending with things like .nz, .uk, and .nl. These are the codes for the country of origin (New
Zealand, United Kingdom and the Netherlands, in this example), and tell you that the world is looking at your site.
So, the world is looking at your pages. If you are selling something of interest, the world may even be buying from your Web site, without you having considered this in your design. Therefore, the
simplest way to approach international markets may just be to create for the United States, and let whatever happens happen. The United States is likely to be your largest market, and if that spills over, so much the better!
But, what if you are looking at other markets specifically? What if your widget might have a wide open market in the Czech Republic? What special steps can you take to help reach overseas? There are at least three things you need to consider if you are
entering overseas markets specifically: language, access, and transactions.
Well, first of all, we need to point out that English is the language of the Internet. Only a tiny fraction of the WWW is in any other language, and this is simply the way things have evolved. The vast majority of Internet accesses are from the United
States, and a good part of the balance are from Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and other English-speaking nations. Furthermore, many other accesses are from satellite offices (sales offices and manufacturing plants) of companies based
in English-speaking countries.
There's also something else to consider. Anyone who has become accustomed to using the Net, regardless of where they are, probably reads English. This is for a couple of reasons: First, the Net wouldn't hold a lot of value for someone who couldn't
understand English (obviously), and second, most people who access the Net are familiar with computers and programming, which generally requires some English (most programming languages are English-based).
So, do you really need to design HTML pages specifically for any other language? Probably not, but that will depend on your goals. If someone were trying to sell you something, and they were forcing you to deal with them in a language you were
uncomfortable with or didn't understand at all, you would need to be pretty motivated to want to deal with them at all. The same holds true for the WWW.
If you are trying to market your widgets in say, Germany, you might be best off designing your pages in German. While there are certainly many people in Germany who read English, there are many more who speak German, and you will clearly be reaching a
larger market in this language. So what can you do?
Well, as it now stands, you will need to use a special character set to display many other languages. Those languages that share the same alphabet as English can sometimes be presented with the standard character set, but when you start to get into the
languages of Asia, Eastern Europe, and other regions and countries that don't use the same alphabet, you will absolutely need to rely on nonstandard character sets.
Currently, you need to write the code in this special character set (which depends on the particular language), and the viewer's browser must also be set to translate this character set. In other words, a browser set for U.S. English won't
automatically present a Russian page in Cyrillic (as Figure 22.1 illustrates). Luckily, this should soon be changing.
Figure 22.1. An HTML document using a foreign character set not supported by the browser.
A proposal is to include the character set designation within HTML code, as well as an automated link to the character set itself. This means that if you were to load a Korean page on your browser, the browser could not only recognize that it was in
Korean, but would download the appropriate character set and typeface (if it wasn't already on the system) to present the page. Pretty cool, eh?
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=Windows-1234">
The 1234 would be replaced by the actual character set designation. This can be assumed to be the standard for specifying character sets, until something better comes along. However, this will not automatically download the character set in
question.
OK, so if you can write in Greek (or whatever language you're working toward), you don't have much of a problem, but what if you don't know the language you're trying to design for? Aren't there programs that will translate for you? Well, sorry, but no
such luck.
There are many companies working on translation software, and some are making great headway. You can translate single words and even phrases fairly accurately, but it will be a while before you can rely on a software application to take your thoughts
and translate them into another language.
The differences between syntax, grammar, and especially the nuances of different languages are just too broad. A beverage touted as being "cool, wet and effervescent" might be turned into something "clammy and gaseous" by even a
human translator—think of what a computer might do to your wonderful sales copy.
Basically, you'll need to find a professional translator for each language. Furthermore, you will want to check this translation with someone familiar with both your company and the language itself. This is definitely a headache, but is unfortunately
the only way to provide reliable translation of your communication.
If you do choose to present your site in another language, you may opt to branch out to multiple mirror sites from your main page. If possible, you may even wish to use separate hosts for the different language sites, located in the (main) country you
expect to have accessing each particular site. While this is probably beyond the means of many small companies, it's the best bet for companies with satellite offices, as it will allow faster access from each individual nation.
Regardless of the mechanics, a multilingual site is simple enough to achieve on the main-page level. Just designate the links in the actual language (not the English version of the language). In most cases, you will need to make a graphic to designate
the different languages, as even the latest browsers won't handle multiple character sets (you can't have Japanese and Russian text on the same page).
Figure 22.2. Intel's Web site in Korean.
The speed and quality of Internet access is something that we have had to take into account constantly in our design. The bandwidth bug is a limitation we just can't get away from, and in international markets, things get even more difficult.
As we've mentioned, you can assume with some level of certainty that most people will be accessing your site with a minimum speed of 14.4Kbps. This is in the United States and Canada. Outside of North America, however, this "lowest common
denominator" may be as low as 9.6Kbps, as we've heard from a few sources that some of their European customers access at this speed.
Now, this definitely doesn't mean that all connections outside of North America are at 9600 baud. High-speed connections exist almost globally, and don't think for a second that everyone else is creaking away at this slow speed. But also understand
that the compulsion to buy the newest and fastest may not be quite as strong elsewhere as it is in the United States, and that it often takes a while for the latest products to reach other markets.
So you may need to tone down pages directed toward home users and small businesses outside of the United States. A little less sizzle may be appreciated by someone accessing at a third less speed—something to consider if you are marketing retail
products abroad.
There are entire industries based around the legalities and practices of international commerce, and it is way beyond the scope of this book to discuss tariffs, international banking, global shipping and the multitude of other stumbling blocks involved
in this type of trade. A good starting point for information of this type would be a search for the keywords International, Business, Trade, and Commerce on any of the major search engines.
The way some companies escape many of the technical problems associated with international trade is to simply use credit cards, ship via mail, and to leave the payment of customs and tariffs in the hands of the buyer. The credit card is simply billed
in U.S. dollars (if it's a U.S. company), and the merchant banks handle the conversions.
If you (or your client) are considering selling any technology products, or are considering overseas sales of much size, it will be in your best interest to hire an international trade consultant and/or international trade attorney to look things over
and instruct you. You do not want to have $10,000 in product sitting in a customs office because you didn't know about some special tax (or how to avoid it).
It has been said that 250 U.S. companies handle more than 80 percent of the nation's international trade. The instant communication offered by the Net and WWW can go a long way toward upsetting this monopoly and increasing overseas trade. As the
"global village" makes way for the "global marketplace," more and more opportunities will arise for international trade via the Internet.
Even if you don't intend to sell much outside of the United States, it may still be in your best interest to build overseas relationships. A request for information from another country may very well merit a personal response, as building a
relationship with even a single person from another nation may help you gain insight that could some day come in handy. Maybe you had no idea that your widget fits perfectly in an Australian mudsucker, or that it is worn as jewelry in Upper Slovobia. If a
little e-mail can help open new markets, it's a small price to pay.
The World Wide Web and Internet are truly international forms of communication, and your Web site, whether or not it's your intent, will be viewed by the world. This chapter has addressed some of the considerations of directing sites for specific
international markets, and some of the considerations you should make if you plan on doing business overseas.
The next chapter briefly discusses two applications of HTML design that exist outside of the WWW and Internet.
