Byte Level Research released the 2007 edition of its Web Globalization Report Card. The report rates how successfully 200 companies in 18 industry categories developed web sites for international markets, and provides insights on established and emerging best practices. For 2007, the top ten global web sites are Google, Wikipedia, Cisco Systems, Philips, HP, Caterpillar, Volvo Cars, Seagate, Microsoft and American Express.

"Google has become a regular in the number-one spot," said John Yunker, chief analyst of Byte Level Research and author of the report. "But it's not just because of Google's 100-plus language search interface. It is the rapid localization of the many Web-based applications -- from Blogger to Adwords -- that has kept Google on top."

The 2007 Web Globalization Report Card examines emerging and established best practices in the field. Three findings from the report:

French is the most popular language. French narrowly edged out German to become the most popular language used by the 200 sites studied. Overall, all languages saw an increase in usage. This year, nine out of 10 Web sites studied include support for both French and German, up from eight out of 10 last year. Chinese also made strong gains -- used by 75% of all Web sites.

Average number of languages increased, again. In 2006, the average number of languages supported was 15. This year, the average increased more than 20%, to 18 languages. It used to be that any Web site that supported 10 languages stood apart from the pack; today, that baseline is now 20 languages or more.

Splash global gateways have gone mainstream. Nearly 30% of the 200 sites studied now deploy splash global gateway pages to direct Web users to local content. At this rate of growth, we expect the number of Web sites using splash gateways to surpass 50% by the end of 2008.

About the study

The Byte Level Research 203-page report, "2007 Web Globalization Report Card", is an authoritative guide to the state of Web globalization. It analyzes each Web site according to the following four criteria: Global Navigation: How quickly can visitors find local content? Global Consistency: Does the Web site use a global template across all locales? Localization: How relevant is the Web site to the Web user's culture and country? Languages: How many languages does the Web site support?

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