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November 22, 2008

Guns N' Roses album title raises questions

Why did Axl Rose give Guns N' Roses' first studio album in 17 years a title that he had to know would damage sales in China—where GN'R has a legion of loyal fans—if not preclude them altogether? A snap decision made poorly perhaps? No; he chose the title more than a decade ago. Perhaps he simply doesn't care much about the market? Not true either.

GN'R developed a major following in China in the late 1980s, when the young Mr. Rose was recording early hit songs like "Welcome to the Jungle." China was in the throes of its own rebellious era, and heavy metal was its protest music. GN'R's popularity soared in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators. Learning the band's 1991 ballad "Don't Cry" was a rite of passage for a generation of Chinese guitarists.

And the affection has not gone unrequited. Mr. Rose in recent years has visited Chinese cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Xian... He now worries, though, that he won't be let back in.

The new album, Chinese Democracy, is unlikely to be released in China and the band's promoters in China have dropped plans for two shows there.

In reality, the lost ticket sales may be the only significant financial sacrifice. A press release from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) early this year asserts that more than 99 per cent of all music files distributed in the country are pirate and China’s total legitimate music market, at US$76 million, accounts for less than one per cent of global recorded music sales.

This was obviously a very deliberate decision by GN'R with some idea of the ramifications. Unfortunately, organizations make bad calls on product names, imagery, iconography, color and subject matter all the time that are not intentional and can prove much more costly. More often than not, they're probably not a big enough transgression to merit front-page coverage in the Wall Street Journal. In fact, some may be so subtle that they simply chip away a few percentage points of visitors to your website, dollars in sales or off-the-radar negative word of mouth. The only way to prevent this is to be sure everything you release is reviewed by someone who is not only an expert in the target-market language and culture, but preferably in the target industry, as well.

Stay tuned for more on this in future articles...

Guns N' Roses' New Album Is Up Against a Chinese Wall  |  Wall Street Journal

November 17, 2008

Home Depot launches Spanish language site

Watch for a lot more announcements like this one in coming months and years. Hispanics in the U.S. played a larger role than ever in both the pre-election dialogue, as well as the election itself. They will continue to play an ever greater role in the business sector, as well -- both as consumers and as business owners, professionals and a growing percentage of the work force.

A key component of my last company's business was multilingual U.S. ethnic marketing. We created not only localized versions of print material and websites, but completely custom versions, as well. Wells Fargo, Albertsons and Southwest Airlines are just some of the clients that have been doing U.S. ethnic marketing right for some time.

Launching a Spanish-language website is not a gamble for retailers like Home Depot. The numbers and survey data make it clear that the investment is a sound one:

The home-improvement retailer's Spanish site, which launches Monday, replicates its English language e-commerce site, with 12,000 products available to online shoppers.

Home Depot, like many other national retailers, views Hispanics as a lucrative growth opportunity. A study of English and Spanish-language consumers conducted last year by Forrester Research Inc. found that one-fourth of Hispanics must be served in Spanish if retailers want their business. More than half of Hispanics who shop online -- 7.1 million people, by Forrester's count -- prefer Spanish.

Home Depot's New Web Site Opens Door to Hispanics  |  Wall Street Journal

HomeDepot.com en Español

Speak Any Foreign Language--Instantly

Nearly every startup has a lofty mission statement and a plan to change the world. Google may have their detractors, but no one can deny that they're passionately striving to deliver on their mission statement:

Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.

First that seemed to mean organizing online information in their search index and making it universally accessible via their innovative algorithms. It quickly became apparent that Google takes their mission statement a little more seriously than that. Their offering expanded to include indexing online images and capturing satellite images and making them available online. Along the way they quietly added various specialty searches like U.S. government sites, scholarly papers, programming code. Blog search, book search and street search where you could have a street-level view of addresses -- and walk down the street, viewing the buildings and people unlucky enough to be there when the photo was taken -- as if you were there.

It became clear that Google wanted to get as much information online as possible and make it easily accessible via search. But that wasn't universal enough. When Google said universal, they meant it. And the only way to do that is to make it not only available to everyone, but intelligible for everyone. The only way to do that is to make all the information available in all languages.

Their first step in this direction came in the form of Google Translate -- to which they've added languages over time. Next came Translated Search, which let's you enter search terms in your language and have results displayed side by side in your language and the target language of your choice. I only discovered today that they've now added a dictionary that let's you look up the definitions of words in a number of languages, as well as look up foreign language translations of words between 12 different languages.

The rate at which Google continues to innovate and introduce new products to the market doesn't seem to be slowing. As someone who has spent almost my entire professional career working in multilingual environments and managing teams that span the globe, I find it incredibly exciting.

The Internet lets you connect with people around the world, but in practice you’re really limited to the people with whom you share a common language. What if you could e-mail anyone in their native tongue? What if you could even talk to them in their native language, your voice translated in real time into Vietnamese, Arabic or Swahili? “It’s possible,” Nikesh Arora, Google senior vice president for operations in the Europe, Middle East and Africa, told participants at the Monaco Media Forum.

During a presentation in which he examined some of the big Internet trends of the next decade, Arora demonstrated a new version of Google Talk that allows real-time conversations with somebody who speaks a foreign language. You type in English, and the sentence appears in French, German or whatever. The next step, which could come within the next decade, would be simultaneous voice translation.

Thanks to Google's efforts in this area, the Web is not only world wide -- it's increasingly world friendly.

Google Wants to Let You Speak Any Foreign Language--Instantly | Business Week

November 16, 2008

Cre8Camp Portland: Great people sharing great ideas

Twitter: #cre8camp, @cre8camp

I almost didn't go to Cre8Camp Portland yesterday. It was Saturday morning. I was feeling lazy. But I'm so glad I went.

I really wasn't sure what to expect. Most of the topics sounded interesting, but none particularly groundbreaking. I was reminded, though, that when a group of brilliant people gets together and engages in brainstorming and discussion, any topic can produce inspiration and fresh ideas. Every session exceeded my expectations.

Here are some of the things I jotted down in my notebook. I didn't have names, so won't be able to attribute things to who said them.

Session 1: Creative Rituals (getting the creative juices flowing)

- I talk to myself a lot to clear the fog and get things moving
- I paint my nails
- I do the dishes or something else I know I can succeed at; that puts me in a place to take on other things
- I like to bounce ideas off someone else; it helps to talk through ideas
- I clear and organize my workspace for a fresh start from my previous project
- Before gas prices shot up, I would go out for a long drive to think and get the creative juices flowing
- I use Julia Cameron's "three-pages a day" method (from her book The Artists Way)
- Visual journaling is helpful for visual creatives
- I recommend the book Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg
- Someone asked for tips on how to come up with ideas quickly
-- don't allow yourself to be rushed or put on the spot for ideas
-- turn the pressure around and ask the client more questions; reclaim your space
-- the creative ideas won't resonate unless they come from the client
- Brainstorm keywords and work out from there; keywords are quick and easy to come up with and will get things flowing
- I always need time to percolate; I ask a lot of questions and write down what the client has to say
-- a lot of ideas come to me in the shower or in the middle of the night
-- a friend has a waterproof mark and wipe board in the shower
- It's helpful to tell the client how you think (I come up with my best ideas when I sleep on it, etc.)
- It's important to let the client know when I'm just throwing out ideas as they come to me, brainstorming; I come up with some really horrific ideas in the process, but some good ones, too
- Take your focus off the negative, off what you don't want because you can end up dwelling on and being blinded by that
- Don't ever work from a blank canvas; if your canvas is blank, ask more questions
- Get away from the computer; it's too constraining. I find it helps to sketch on paper
-- my sketches may be crappy, but I'm working toward something
-- the client is less likely to get overly invested in rough draft ideas if they're just sketched on paper rather than mocked up in Visio or something
- A number of people said they use Google Image Search or other image search services for visual stimulation and cues to get the creative juices flowing and get ideas
- Google Notebook, used with the Firefox add on, is a great tool for capturing bits of web pages and images from the Web
- It helps to recite back to the client exactly what they've asked for and what restrictions they've imposed; what they've ruled out

[More to come in follow on posts]

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Cre8CampPortland was held at souk

November 12, 2008

Test post from Windows Live Writer

I had to do it. It's just such a pretty interface and so full of promise.

[Update: 2008.11.14 @ 9:34 PM]

Okay, Windows Live Writer is one sweet little application. I took it for a test drive shortly after it first came out and uninstalled it almost immediately. But the rough edges have been smoothed and it's loaded with great features. And yet it's still very simple and intuitive.

I'm just getting started with it, but I think I've found my new favorite blog editing application.

Windows Live Writer Team Blog

October 25, 2008

How tech entrepreneurs plan to stay afloat this time

Many venture capitalists and technology entrepreneurs are acting quickly this time around to try to avoid the carnage that came amid the dotcom bust of 2001. I had a boss who very wisely reminded me often that the only things a business owner can truly control are expenses. It's no surprise then that cost cutting heads the list of measures companies are taking to weather the financial crisis.

Chief among them are the importance of swift and deep cost-cutting; of focusing scarce resources on core activities; and of convincing investors that your business strategy is a winner.

As the article points out, these are not easy measure for entrepreneurs in particular who, by nature, tend to be tireless optimists. I've been part of the dotcom world for most of my professional career and I definitely learned that lesson myself. The hard lesson that rings very true to me now:

Sequoia went on to urge the executives to cut costs fast so that their firms would not run out of money before becoming profitable. Other venture capitalists are echoing its message. “Rule number one is to take immediate measures so you can stay in the game,” says Mike Speiser of Sutter Hill Ventures, another VC firm.

Based on the headlines just this past week, companies seem to be getting the message. TechCrunch chronicles recent industry carnage in a post with a title that doesn't mince words: 19,683 Tech Layoffs And Counting The article goes on to list the numbers of layoffs at companies including Xerox, Yahoo, Dell and Wikia. The Economist article highlights the importance of these seemingly deep cuts:

All this explains why the bosses of several start-ups have started to wield a big axe... Deep cuts like these may be painful in the short-term, but they are better both for profits and morale than repeated rounds of small lay-offs. In 2001 many firms trimmed too little, too late.

There is definitely truth to that. It is far better for morale and collective organizational focus to err on the side of cutting more staff at once than to impose the distraction and cultural poison of a string of cuts of one or two staff at a time. It's best to take decisive action and allow the healing to begin as work continues.

Of course, I've also worked for firms that cut jobs needlessly and recklessly. To use a gruesome metaphor, they cut far beyond the fat and into the critical meat of the organization, inflicting mortal wounds to both operations and culture. Once a company has made that mistake, it can be almost impossible to recover. When quality inevitably suffers as a result, the organization will quickly buckle under the vote of no confidence from remaining employees, clients, business partners and investors.

So rather than focus on cost cutting alone, firms should also look for ways to grow revenue—or at least aim to maintain pre-crisis levels. One way to do this is to focus on clients in industries such as gaming and health care, which may be less vulnerable to a recession.

Equally important is to turn a critical eye toward unprofitable activities of all kinds. Surprisingly, the worst offenders aren't likely to be employee time wasters such as personal e-mail and surfing the Web at work. In fact, going on a witch hunt to find ways to enforce greater productivity can often prove counterproductive and make sagging morale much worse. Instead, companies would do better to streamline operations, eliminating unnecessary projects, meetings and bureaucracy. Jive Software, a Portland company that has recently shed staff, is doing just that:

Executives at Jive Software, which produces online collaboration tools for corporate clients, say it is now far better at scrapping initiatives that do not seem to be paying off. Once these have been placed on a “kill list”, there is no further discussion about them. In the past the lack of a formal process for canning ideas meant that many lived on, absorbing time and resources better spent elsewhere.

One important cost-cutting measure not directly mentioned in the article is to be extremely picky in selecting and keeping clients. That may sound counter intuitive—even preposterous—to companies trying make it through a downturn. The fact is, a client that is a bad fit for the organization can be costly in more ways than just to each project's bottom line. A bad client often distracts from more profitable and valuable clients and, in some cases, will inspire the staff working with them to dust off their résumés.

Finally, work harder than ever to keep valuable clients by winning more and longer-term projects from them. The sales cycle stretches painfully during a downturn and companies labor over every dollar they spend. The less time you have to spend pounding the pavement, the better off you'll be.

...Mr Kwatinetz is bullish about the prospects for those start-ups that manage to survive the crisis. They will face a much less crowded field and their managers will have honed their moneymaking skills in the harshest of all environments.

Technology start-ups face the downturn  |  The Economist
Fright night in the valley
Oct 23rd 2008 | San Francisco

October 08, 2008

Abu Dhabi to take majority in AMD's manufacturing spin off

Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices took the wraps off a long-awaited reorganization on Oct. 8, announcing a plan to spin off its manufacturing operations into a separate company that it will jointly own with investors from Abu Dhabi.

AMD's Spin-off: Abu Dhabi to the Rescue  |  BW

Can American football score overseas?

"Let me tell you something about the essence of this great game. American football is a game of modern gladiators. For shields we use pads. For swords we use brute strength."

Those are the words with which Coach Stilo, the NFL's 'fictitious online coach' begins his introduction for overseas online viewers to American football.

He leads a three-hour, eight-chapter tutorial on football that includes a talking dog, a preteen offensive coordinator and highlights narrated by NFL stars, including Trent Edwards of the Buffalo Bills and Shaun O'Hara of the New York Giants. The presentation is available in five languages -- English, Spanish, French, Japanese and Mandarin.

Football Tries a New Play to Score Overseas | WSJ

July 27, 2008

U.S. companies learning the benefits of localization

First U.S. companies learned that the Internet doesn't stop at the U.S. border. Next, they learned that English alone isn't good enough if you want to appeal to customers abroad. Now they're learning that, as inconvenient as it may be, translating website copy alone isn't enough.

AOL splashes images of Bollywood celebrities on its new home page for India. MySpace accepts sign-ups from mobile phones in Japan. Google departs from its customarily spartan home page and peppers its Korean site with colorful, animated icons...

Companies are trying to expand globally without seeming to, designing market-specific services with customized features that reflect differences in connection speeds, payment options and attitudes toward sex or violence.

This Associate Press article today highlights how several companies have come to realize the need to not only perform a quality translation of their copy, but to truly localize their content, feature sets and more.

I recall one client I worked with several years ago. Their business involved awarding prizes to site members for participating in various surveys and other activities. They initially approached us with the intention of having us simply localize their content into Japanese. At our urging, the engagement was expanded to include a research phase up front to explore the appeal and even legality of their business model in Japan. It turned out to be a very wise move. The majority of prizes they were planning to offer simply didn't appeal to a Japanese audience, even though they were a huge hit in the U.S. More importantly, we learned that it was against the law to give cash prizes in Japan the size of those they were awarding in the U.S.—and had planned to offer there.

In the end, they adopted an entirely different brand in Japan, offered very different prizes, reduced the size of their cash prizes to adhere to Japanese law and much more. The Japanese entity went on to outlive it's U.S. parent and exceed all projections for revenue and success.

The AP article concludes:

"Creating a national company is like rocket science," said John Strand of Strand Consulting in Denmark. "But creating an international company is like proton physics."

While not easy by any means, I'd say this statement does a grave disservice to the robust language services industry and the many Internet professional services firms who, when empowered to help their clients succeed, have a very strong track record of doing exactly that.

An un-American feel aids expanding US Web firms :: The Associated Press

July 14, 2008

Wieden+Kennedy weathers global growing pains

There is no perfect path to international success, no matter who you are. Weiden+Kennedy, Adweek's reigning Global Agency of the Year, is learning that the hard way. Fortunately, they so far seem to be growing stronger for the struggle.

Their international expansion is the subject of a story in today's Oregonian newspaper. There are some nuggets of wisdom in the article instructive for anyone trying to make a go of it in today's globally connected but culturally and linguistically diverse world.

Wieden+Kennedy has been venturing abroad in cautious steps for 16 years. That may sound like a long time to remain cautious, but that approach has resulted in impressive gains: Almost half its annual revenue of about $165 million now comes from outside the United States. That's especially impressive when you consider the alternatives. In international business, first impressions make all the difference. If you botch your entry into a market, you risk not only the opportunities of that single market, but your worldwide reputation—including back on your home turf. A failed attempt or worse, an embarrassing gaffe, will echo around the world and likely affect potential partnerships, prospects, talent acquisition and financing in subsequent market entry attempts.

Wieden+Kennedy, [Gregory] Solman [Adweek's West Coast editor in Los Angeles] says, has "done a wonderful job at smartly expanding their network globally," always entering a new market for a good business reason. One secret, he says, is the agency's foreign-office recipe: mix one-third Wieden culture, one-third of the host city's DNA and one-third of the office managers' personalities -- then shake

Portland ad agency strives to maintain edgy yet understated hometown profile overseas
Wieden+Kennedy looks to continue expanding globally while retaining its irreverent Oregon attitude

June 06, 2008

See my latest article in June issue of MultiLingual magazine

MultiLingual magazine  |  June 2008Check out my latest article in the June 2008 issue of MultiLingual magazine. It is in a special regional focus section on Japan and is about localizing websites and software for Japan.

It's a fairly short article. I take a brief look back at the history of Japanese localization and then cover some dramatic changes over the past few years. I also touch on some key considerations when localization a website for Japanese visitors and search engines.

Check it out and let me know if you'd like me to elaborate on anything I bring up in the article!

April 17, 2008

Why Facebook is dominating MySpace outside the U.S.

Melissa Chang has written an excellent piece, published yesterday, in the recently relaunched Industry Standard. It looks at how Facebook and MySpace are taking very different approaches to localizing their websites and entering overseas markets. The bottom line: Facebook is winning the popularity contest and shows no signs of slowing down.

MySpace is, perhaps not surprisingly, taking the traditional route; setting up local offices, getting entrenched in the culture and then launching. As part of News Corp — Rupert Murdoch's global media behemoth — this approach may have been imposed on the MySpace unit from above. Or perhaps they simply felt they might as well leverage the enormous influence and resources of News Corp. In either case, they may have overlooked the obvious and will likely pay the price for doing so.

So how is Facebook beating MySpace in their space? With what they know and do best: social networking.

Facebook is building out its foreign language versions with the help of its vast and committed user base. Instead of setting up an office and a staff before launching in new countries, Facebook is putting its audience to work with an online Facebook application that allows translation by the Facebook community.

In other words, Facebook is practicing what they preach and showing the world that it works. There are a number of things that make this a brilliant move on the part of Facebook.

Taking a page out of Google's field-tested playbook, Facebook is keeping translation costs to a minimum by recruting volunteers to do the work of translation for them by way of a highly-intuitive Facebook application developed specifically for this purpose.

But cost savings isn't the only benefit of this approach. It isn't even the top benefit. By getting member volunteers to help with the translation, Facebook is allowing people in countries all over the world to get involved and become directly invested in the translation effort and the resulting local language versions of Facebook. You can bet these members are then going to want to talk with others about what they're doing and show off their handiwork.

By allowing members to suggest languages and then get involved in the translation process, Facebook is able to track demand and prioritize deployment of the many language versions of the site accordingly. They are also rallying a global team of translators that would be prohibitively expensive to hire and manage under a traditional vendor relationship model. This will ultimately allow Facebook to roll out far more language versions far more quickly than if they're were doing all of the translations in house or through a traditional translation vendor.

But surely the quality of the translation can't be on par with that of a professional translation agency. On the contrary; it is likely better than most professional agencies could produce. Wikipedia is a worthwhile example of this kind of community-based quality assurance. Try inserting erroneous information into a popular entry on Wikipedia (though I'd prefer you didn't and simply take my word for it to spare the good Wikipedia elves the trouble). It will typically be corrected within minutes — and sometimes seconds, depending on the vigilance of the volunteer guardians of that particular page.

Facebook handles it slightly differently and in a way that makes much more sense for a site where the user interface is being localized and where phrases likely will not change once they've been translated:

The Translations application by Facebook allows translators all over the world to translate Facebook into different languages. The translation process consists of two steps: submitting translations and voting for translations. You may also discuss the translation process with other translators...

The second step — voting for translations — is the key to quality. Rather than translations being published instantly and corrected later, volunteer translators and reviewers vote on each translation and the highest-rated translation goes live.

The result? Melissa Chang sums it up nicely:

Facebook is currently working on 22 more language translations, and many hundreds of users have left suggestions about other languages that they would like to see translated -- and have volunteered to help with the work.

This savvy approach to new markets will be what wins the international audience for Facebook. In combination with the widely used Facebook Platform, which will allow international developers to build Facebook applications for local audiences, Facebook's international strategy is the better one. MySpace, with its less innovative international approach and still-new and largely untested developer's platform, will not be able to catch up.

I should close by saying that this approach is certainly not right for everyone. It is uniquely appropriate for open source applications and communities, and for social networking environments. That said, I will continue to explore and report on ways that my clients and partners, as well as companies in the news, implement and benefit from community-based localization and quality assurance.

Facebook vs. MySpace: The battle for global social network dominance | The Industry Standard

March 24, 2008

Download the new Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack

In the course of doing some research for a client just now, I found some very welcome news. On March 6, Microsoft released a Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats. It allows you to open, edit, and save documents, workbooks, and presentations in the (far superior in my experience) file formats new to Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007.

I've been using Microsoft Office 2007 Pro since I bought it last summer and I could never go back. I'm not going to write a full review here as there are plenty of those out there, but besides the vast usability improvements, the file sizes are typically at least fifty percent smaller than previous versions. That adds up to a lot of disk space saved and also makes files much easier to transfer and e-mail. I point that out because that's a gain that can be had by using this free compatibility pack.

I use Excel a great deal and some of the improvements there are huge. Typically I'd prefer to send you to a 3rd party review, but Microsoft actually sums up the key improvements accurately here:

Microsoft Excel 2007 Top 10 Benefits

Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack

March 20, 2008

Chrysler looks overseas for growth

Chrysler is the latest U.S. company in the news announcing plans to focus on international markets for profit and growth. As the question mark after the word recession has transformed into a bright red exclamation point over the past few weeks, more and more companies are waking up to the opportunities available overseas and the need to shift more focus there. Chrysler Chief Executive Bob Nardelli summed up the situation:

"We sold a record 238,000 vehicles in international markets in 2007 and we're off to a good start in 2008," Nardelli said. "Our year-to-date international sales are up 10% through February, as we reported our 33rd consecutive month of sales growth outside of North America. By 2012, we plan to increase our international sales to more than 400,000 units..."

Chrysler's U.S. sales were down 13 percent in January and February. Of course, shifts like this don't happen overnight—and especially not in the auto industry. Chrysler has been moving in this direction for some time, but not as boldly as some of its rivals.

Chrysler relied on the U.S. market for almost 90 percent of its overall sales of cars and light trucks in 2007, a higher percentage than its Detroit-based rivals GM and Ford Motor Co, which have been able to count on gains in emerging markets to offset losses at home.

Nardelli said Chrysler was taking steps to bolster its presence in fast-growing auto markets like Brazil, Russia, China and India.

All of this will no doubt come as welcome news to Chrysler's employees and suppliers. Nardelli was brought in by Cerberus Capital Management in August after they purchased Chrysler from Daimler AG and has spent the bulk of his time and efforts so far on cost-cutting measures in the U.S. According to the MarketWatch article, he is now trying to accelerate the auto maker's international focus by funneling both money and personnel to that part of the business.

Links:
Chrysler targets overseas growth; plan on track - Reuters
Chrysler CEO focusing on international sales to improve business - MarketWatch

March 17, 2008

Today: China overtakes U.S. in Web users

Despite having its YouTube site blocked in China over the past few days, Google is bullish on its opportunities there and sees China as a key to weathering the current U.S. recession.

Google Inc.'s position as the most popular Internet search site and sales from fast-growing Asian markets such as China will help the company weather any U.S. recession, Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt said.

"One of the very good sources for Google is the very rapid growth in Asia,"' Schmidt said today at a briefing in Beijing. Historically, people tend to shift their money to the most "highly measured"' advertiser when there are "economic difficulties," he said.

And Google isn't alone in looking abroad for growth opportunities. Warren Buffett's strategy over the past few years to "buy foreign" is already paying off, as manifested when he overtook Bill Gates this year as the richest person in the world.

Buffett has been devoting more of Berkshire to non-U.S. companies and investments, reasoning that Americans' love for buying from abroad has led to higher trade deficits and a falling dollar.

"At Berkshire, we will attempt to further increase our stream of direct and indirect foreign earnings," Buffett said in his annual letter to Berkshire shareholders.

Google already generates about half its sales outside the U.S. and it seems that trend is likely to continue. Tucked quietly away in the Bloomberg article is a startling revelation from Google:

Continue reading "Today: China overtakes U.S. in Web users" »

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