Globalization and successful technology
time to read 2 min | 218 words

This post talks about why a lot of the cool stuff that geeks likes never catches on outside the geek circle. I found myself nodding along as I read it. I see the same thing in Israel, if it not in Hebrew, a lot of people will not even bother, including many that do know English very well.

The big point about creating successful software is not the 80/20 rule that you heard about. It is about building the software, and then going the extra 10 miles to give the user a pleasant, seamless experience when you use it. I get this experience when I am writing in Word (mostly), and I get angry when it doesn’t work just right.

I much prefer Outlook to OWA, because it has much better support for handling mixed Hebrew & English. And that is the best web application out there. Those are the things that make or break a product, and those are a combination of dozens of little things more than a few important features.

Unless your application is a Must Have (think Napster five or six years ago), you can’t get away with it. And if your application is a Must Have app, you will still get beaten by a competitor that pays attention to the little details.

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