Since 1981, when my professional life started, I've been involved with bringing American companies in Europe. This is very much an issue of language, since the products and their marketing have to be in the languages of Europe in order for them to be visible here. Since the web became popular in 1995 or so, I have turned these activities to their online dimension, and have come to champion European e-commerce among my fellow American compatriots. Most lately at Internet World in New York, I spoke about European e- commerce and how to use a website to address the various markets in Europe. (…)
Promoting your website is at least as important as creating it, if not more important. You should be prepared to spend at least as much time and money in promoting your website as you did in creating it in the first place. With the Global Reach program, you can have it promoted in countries where English is not spoken, and achieve a wider audience… and more sales. There are many good reasons for taking the online international market seriously. Global Reach is a means for you to extend your website to many countries, speak to online visitors in their own language and reach online markets there."
Bill added in July 1999: "After a website's home page is available in several languages, the next step is the development of content in each language. A webmaster will notice which languages draw more visitors (and sales) than others, and these are the places to start in a multilingual web promotion campaign. At the same time, it is always good to increase the number of languages available on a website: just a home page translated into other languages would do for a start, before it becomes obvious that more should be done to develop a certain language branch on a website."
1996 > ONELOOK DICTIONARIES, A “FAST FINDER”
[Summary] Robert Ware launched OneLook Dictionaries in April 1996 as a "fast finder" in hundreds of online dictionaries covering various topics: business, computer/internet, medical, miscellaneous, religion, science, sports, technology, general and slang. He wrote in September 1998: "On the personal side, I was almost entirely in contact with people who spoke one language and did not have much incentive to expand language abilities. Being in contact with the entire world has a way of changing that. And changing it for the better! (…) I have been slow to start including non-English dictionaries (partly because I am monolingual). But you will now find a few included." OneLook Dictionaries could browse 2 million words from 425 dictionaries in 1998, 2.5 million words from 530 dictionaries in 2000, 5 million words from 910 dictionaries in 2003, and 19 million words from 1,060 dictionaries in 2010.
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Robert Ware launched OneLook Dictionaries in April 1996 as a "fast finder" in hundreds of online dictionaries covering various topics: business, computer/internet, medical, miscellaneous, religion, science, sports, technology, general and slang.
He wrote in September 1998: "On the personal side, I was almost entirely in contact with people who spoke one language and did not have much incentive to expand language abilities. Being in contact with the entire world has a way of changing that. And changing it for the better! (…) I have been slow to start including non- English dictionaries (partly because I am monolingual). But you will now find a few included."
Robert Ware also wrote about a personal experience showing the internet could promote both a common language and multilingualism: "In 1994, I was working for a college and trying to install a software package on a particular type of computer. I located a person who was working on the same problem and we began exchanging email. Suddenly, it hit me… the software was written only 30 miles away but I was getting help from a person half way around the world. Distance and geography no longer mattered! OK, this is great! But what is it leading to? I am only able to communicate in English but, fortunately, the other person could use English as well as German which was his mother tongue. The internet has removed one barrier (distance) but with that comes the barrier of language.
It seems that the internet is moving people in two quite different directions at the same time. The internet (initially based on English) is connecting people all around the world. This is further promoting a common language for people to use for communication. But it is also creating contact between people of different languages and creates a greater interest in multilingualism. A common language is great but in no way replaces this need. So the internet promotes both a common language *and* multilingualism. The good news is that it helps provide solutions. The increased interest and need is creating incentives for people around the world to create improved language courses and other assistance, and the internet is providing fast and inexpensive opportunities to make them available."