"Trillions of documents circulate in U.S. offices annually. Internet traffic doubles every hundred days. Approximately two hundred messages flood managers' desktops daily. Welcome to the attention economy, in which the new scarcest resource isn't ideas or even talent, but attention itself."

"The preface of the first edition of this book started with 'Writing about software localization is like fighting against time'. In the two years that have passed since the first edition was published, the localization industry has changed quite dramatically. The web has taken over the world and new, web-based localization providers are challenging the larger, established localization vendors by offering advanced translation workflow automation solutions. Translation technology has evolved quickly, with an even greater number of translation tools available than ever before. Global or local web sites have become a necessity rather than a luxury, and more than half of all web pages are now in languages other than English."

"The transformations in the language industry following the groundswell of globalized trade are nothing short of revolutionary. In under 10 years, the translation and software localization businesses have evolved from a cottage industry into the global business imperative. According to the European Commission, the translation services market is valued at over US$30 billion annually and is growing at 15-18 percent per year."