ABSTRACT
Consumers all over the world can access the Internet, making it a unique medium with
global reach. Although a Web site may be hosted in the United States, consumers
everywhere can surf that site. Despite the worldwide reach of the Internet, most Web sites
are offered only in English (Fox, 2000). This was not much of an issue in 1996 when
80% of web users’ first language was English. Today, less than half of web users’ first
language is English. In two years, projections indicate that only one third of web users
will speak English as their first language (Crockett, 2000).
