what is Localization?

Globalization is a process, which tries to integrate the varying economies, societies and cultures of different nations or regions of the world. It happens throught a globe-spanning network of exchange, initiated by technological advancement. The term is mainly used in the context of economy and in this process, national economies integrate through trade, foreign direct investment, flow of capitals and through migration and technology exchange. But it involves economic, technological, socio-cultural, political and biological factors. In a broader senses it is the dissemination of ideas, languages or of popular culture.

In the context of languages, globalization will try to provide knowledge, technology, services and products in such a way that it is accepted by all irrespective of regional, cultural and language barriers. But, globalization becomes a barrier when trying to reach maximum population. So, the international community started to think and work on localization. Localization in computing is a process adapting internationalised software for a specific region or language by adding locale-specific components and translating the user interface text. Like the same, localization of any product or service is to adapt it to particular society, considering the language, culture, living-style and belief-system of the community living there.

Now, the whole global market is repeating the mantra of localization. It knows that localization opens never-before-opened trade opportunities for it. And, with the advancement of technology and modern media of communication, the localization process has become prominent. Now, software giants like Google, Microsoft, Mozilla Firefox and Yahoo! are actively proceeding with localizing their products and services. Electronic gadgets, user manuals, advertisements, everything is localized, to penetrate into new marketing possibility.

The process of localization has created a large business industry and job opportunities in the whole world. And this industry of localization will continue to grow, and make big difference in the world scenario. While the globalization had threatened to vanish the cultural individualities of different societies, localization is promising to strengthen the cultural and regional specialities and at the same time integrating the international community also.