The World Wide Web: another English-speaking colony?

Even though the diffusion of information and communication technologies promises almost limitless learning resources through the World Wide Web, language differences deny access for much of the world´s population. Sixty percent of the pages on the Web are composed in English, the primary language used by only 29% of those accessing them. The preponderance of English maintains an especially pernicious form of digital divide that widens as citizens of developing nations gain access to technology. An ongoing project at IBM Research aims at removing some of the linguistic barriers peculiar to the Web. This is done by providing a translator for reading, a better page presentation mechanism, failure-driven inspection and fast search engines.