Websites
There are several levels ranging from only translating the text that appear on a website to creating a whole new environment for each locale. Companies can choose between the following strategies: standardised, localised or customised.
Levels of website localisation:
Standardised Level - One website for all regions
Google is an interesting example of a poor initial strategic decision. At first, Google decided to have one interface for all countries (a blank page and the same logo). This was unsuccessful in Asian countries, where websites must be full of bright colours and texts to be appealing.
As a result, they opted to create a customised Google interface called iGoogle, where the user can choose to include as many backgrounds and as much information as they want. The website was not fully localised: this strategy is a hybrid of standardised and customised levels.
Localised - One website for each region with translated text
This chart features Yahoo! icons and depicts the way in which the same concept is featured in different ways according to local culture.
This simple example proves how important minor details are for website localisation.
Culturally customised - each website is created and designed according to the target culture.
