Beginning PHP and MySQL: From Novice to Professional, Third Edition

CHAPTER 23Building Web Sites for the World

The Web makes it incredibly easy for you to communicate your message to anybody with an Internet connection and a Web browser, no matter if they're sitting in a café in Moscow's Red Square, in a farmhouse in Ohio, in a cubicle in a Shanghai high-rise, or in an Israeli classroom. Except there is one tiny issue: only about 29 percent of the total Internet population actually speaks English.¹ The rest speak Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, German, French, or one of several dozen other languages. Therefore, if you're interested in truly reaching a global audience, you need to think about creating a Web site conforming to not only the visitor's native language, but also standards (most prevalently, currency, ...