New Oban Tool Tests Cultural Reactions to Websites
November 9th, 2009
A new product has just been publicly released that could revolutionize how companies learn about cultural reactions to their websites. GlobalMaxer, a product used by OBAN’s own clients for the last two years, is now being released for commercial usage to other companies. It is the next step in multivariate software, allowing users to test how visitors from specific countries interact with their site.
With cultures from around the world increasingly engaging with the internet, and spending their money online, the product is sure to be useful to those companies wishing to design their site to target specific international markets.
The commercial launch took place earlier in the year at an Oxford University seminar with the help of the World Internet Project and the Oxford Internet Institute.
Though multivariate testing is increasingly popular and readily available, the tool, named GlobalMaxer, is one of the few to take culture into consideration. In addition, since Oban’s expertise lies in international e-commerce and SEO, they are able to provide cultural consultation for each project – providing the knowledge for what to test for each culture.
Earlier this year, Oban tested the product on a Jordanian tourism website. The results, which were revealed on ITP.net and USA Today, showed that French and German cultures react differently to various components on a website.
According to Oban MD Greig Holbrook, GlobalMaxer is a response to the growing need for international SEO and cultural multivariate testing:
“Companies have wised up to the use of international SEO to drive quality visitors to their sites and are now looking to retain those visitors to maximize return.”
The tool is user-friendly, and requires no knowledge of HTML.
With prices set to corporate standards, the tool is for serious global companies who have search and conversion at the heart of their strategies. However, Oban is offering a 30-day free trial for those who want to dip their toe into the multicultural multivariate testing waters.
As GlobalMaxer continues to build its knowledge-base, Oban finds itself holding a very powerful database full of data about how specific cultures respond to specific components on specific types of websites. This database continues to grow and learn at an ever-increasing pace.
