DISQUS

Let me clarify. HP did not register the .me domain for the Middle East.

HP used "me" as in "www.hp.com/me" to be a placeholder for their Middle East Web site. They're not the only company to have done this and it's a perfectly reasonable strategy -- at least until Montenegro got hold of the .me domain.

Great point. I'll see what I can do regarding the feed.

John Yunker

Actually, AA does have more localized sites, though they could be easier to find. Here's the link.

Ouch!

Thanks Larry.

I believe so. The key, of course, is in creating a core experience that will translate across cultures. Starbucks clearly believes that it's more than just a coffeehouse, which has given it the flexibility it needs to succeed in a market where coffee isn't hugely popular like, say, China.

And I think that a lot of this evolves naturally. I can't believe that the founder of Starbucks considered China when he started out But Starbucks has come a long way and developed a core experience that has traveled very well so far. But that global/local tension will always be there. Which is why small local coffee houses in the US are still around and, in many cities, are expanding.

I fully agree. Google loves Wikipedia. And the way Wikipedia is structured and language-tagged makes it very easy for Google to spider the site and provide language-specific search results.