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I'd also point out that Google CDNs don't work in China and make your websites broken for 1/5th of the world's population. (Not to mention your leaking your use

by geokon 6y ago

I'd also point out that Google CDNs don't work in China and make your websites broken for 1/5th of the world's population. (Not to mention your leaking your user's info to Google - which is a dick move..)

franciscop 6y ago
They also don't work with, well, Chinese or most of the Asian languages for that matter. Also most of the population in Asia don't consume the web in English. So you are definitely not missing 1/5th of the world just because your fonts don't render the same, you are missing them because of no localization.
- geokon 6y ago
  If it's your knitting blog then maybe it doesn't matter. It really depends on the content. If you're selling software then it matters. They purchase software licenses like everyone else - so you're losing clients. If it's a code related thing then software developers in China will also look at it just because there is never enough programming resources for obscure issues. They just might not post issues and "engage". My perennial annoyance was how StackOverflow was always subtly broken in China b/c they refuse to host some of their JS. On my own website I noticed that the default MathJAX CDN was also impossibly slow. Fortunately you can just forked a copy on github and use that - which was much snappier. Github-as-CDN
  - franciscop 6y ago
    "They purchase software licenses like everyone else" no they don't, in countries where English is not common they favour software in their language, willing to give up a margin in software quality for it being localized. So they don't purchase "like everyone else". I am not in China but in Japan, and I'm tired of seeing second-class clones of US companies that strongly win the local market just because they are localized. Only with translating their websites, western companies would be able to win a lot of the market. And if they can also localize it, then it's a lot better. But if they do neither, as long as there is some sort of local alternative, your software is dead on the water.
    - geokon 6y ago
      I don't think China and Japan are alike in that regard. At least that wasn't my experience in China. I personally know they bought licenses for things like Matlab and TouchDesigner and whatnot. There are no local equivalents and local brands are not very highly respected. In my very short interning experience in Japan - thing were much more insular and they like their own Japanese brands
nova22033 6y ago
which is a dick move Perhaps blocking a big part of the internet is the real dick move?
- account42 6y ago
  Both can be dick moves.
ffpip 6y ago
> which is a dick move Ah yes. It is Google's problem that xi jinping doesn't like Chinese people having an open internet.

by geokon 6y ago

franciscop 6y ago

They also don't work with, well, Chinese or most of the Asian languages for that matter. Also most of the population in Asia don't consume the web in English. So you are definitely not missing 1/5th of the world just because your fonts don't render the same, you are missing them because of no localization.

geokon 6y ago
If it's your knitting blog then maybe it doesn't matter. It really depends on the content. If you're selling software then it matters. They purchase software licenses like everyone else - so you're losing clients. If it's a code related thing then software developers in China will also look at it just because there is never enough programming resources for obscure issues. They just might not post issues and "engage". My perennial annoyance was how StackOverflow was always subtly broken in China b/c they refuse to host some of their JS. On my own website I noticed that the default MathJAX CDN was also impossibly slow. Fortunately you can just forked a copy on github and use that - which was much snappier. Github-as-CDN
- franciscop 6y ago
  "They purchase software licenses like everyone else" no they don't, in countries where English is not common they favour software in their language, willing to give up a margin in software quality for it being localized. So they don't purchase "like everyone else". I am not in China but in Japan, and I'm tired of seeing second-class clones of US companies that strongly win the local market just because they are localized. Only with translating their websites, western companies would be able to win a lot of the market. And if they can also localize it, then it's a lot better. But if they do neither, as long as there is some sort of local alternative, your software is dead on the water.
  - geokon 6y ago
    I don't think China and Japan are alike in that regard. At least that wasn't my experience in China. I personally know they bought licenses for things like Matlab and TouchDesigner and whatnot. There are no local equivalents and local brands are not very highly respected. In my very short interning experience in Japan - thing were much more insular and they like their own Japanese brands

nova22033 6y ago

which is a dick move Perhaps blocking a big part of the internet is the real dick move?

account42 6y ago
Both can be dick moves.

ffpip 6y ago

> which is a dick move Ah yes. It is Google's problem that xi jinping doesn't like Chinese people having an open internet.