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Website Globalization Semiotics

When examining website localization semiotics, we can evoke the thoughts of theorists. Peirce, one of the founders of semiotics as a discipline, distinguishes three basic types of sign: icon, index, and symbol. A website icon bears a resemblance to its object. A website index is a sign with a direct existential connection with its object - in the offline world, smoke is an index of fire. A website symbol is a sign whose connection with its object is a matter of convention oragreement. Words and numbers are symbols; so is the red cross.


Web globalization has led to increased use of icons. Websites frequented by international travelers use icons because they are not linked with language. They also help with faster information processing. Other examples are the use of diagrams on websites such as bar or pie charts in reports and presentations. Website icons, indexes, and symbols are part of the fundamental semiotic instruments used for web advertising. Language codes, signs, symbols, and gestures are all rituals of culture and define cultural groups. Culture is the shared ability to recognize, decode, and produce signs and symbols, so culture also is a combination of semiotic habits. Differences in semiotic habits delineate cultures and they way the navigate a website in Spanish as opposed to one in English or French or German or Chinese or Japanese.

Website Globalization Semiotics, the study of website signs and symbols, is in many countries an integral part of web advertising theory, although used more in some countries (France, eastern Europe) than in others. Some cultures use more website symbols in web page advertising than do others. This is related to website content translation, writing and language. The Japanese and other Asians using the kanji script seem to have a greater ability to perceive and use symbols. Experience with Japanese students in a non-Japanese learning environment shows that, compared with Western students, they tend to be more comfortable with web pictures and symbols than with language, particularly if the language is not their native language.

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