Localizing isn’t finding.
Most times the term “locate a web” is misinterpreted. It doesn’t mean to find where it is, for that there are multiple companies specialized in the positioning of webs, this is to say making them appear first in Google searches.
Localization consists on adapting a webpage to the public or country it’s aimed towards. Any company that sells to multiple countries should adapt their webpages to each country. This not only includes translating the text but also the adequate use of images, logos, expressions, etc… Let’s imagine an American cookie factory, “Grandma’s Biscuits”. With their expansion towards Europe the company decides to create a mirror-web in Spanish. In it we can read:
“Our cookies go very well with a glass of milk. You know that God rise them, and they get together”.
This is a localization mistake, because the phrase “birds of a feather fly together”in English is not the same at all as it is in Spanish. The translation is correct, but it doesn’t cause the same effect. In the case of pictures, they can be used to reinforce and maximize the text they appear next to, but this depends may not be the case depending on the country. Let’s see the next case.
“Cookies like your grandmother’s… or stronger than her.”
Could someone outside of the U.S.A. feel identified with the picture above? If the company’s web page wants to sell their products in Spain, they should change their picture and show a “local” granny.
These localizations can also be realized in audio-visual material. The words have to be translated but the content has also to be analyzed and proven. Something they didn’t do in a scientology commercial that aired in Spain.
http://tu.tv/videos/cienciologia-conocete-a-ti-mismo-conoc
At the thirty second mark (0:30) the speaker says “Its music, and sensation and touch down”. The percentage of Spanish people that know American football and its rules is minimal. That’s why “touchdown” is an almost unknown term in Spain. And even more unknown is the sensation a touchdown produces. If the add wants to appeal to the public’s feelings and sensations it should have references that are adapted to the country where it’s broadcasted, for example: a goal scored by the Spanish soccer team. These changes make the public feel much more identified with the web page and vice versa. It’s the job of whoever translates the webpage to detect where to make these changes. As someone who knows both languages and cultures he should be able to detect where the differences occur.