Popular Online games Sites
Yahoo games
Pogo
Shockwave
AOL Games
Newgrounds
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Popular Video Websites
Youtube (ha who doesnt know)
Heavy
Metacafe
Sharkle
Rewer
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Popular Mashup Sites
Flash Earth
Goocam
Doggdot
Weather Bonk
FindNearby
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Popular Online Call Sites
Skype
Vonage
Apple iChat
Grand Central
Gizmo Project
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Popular Widgets
Rock you
iLike
Photobucket
Slide
Flixster
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Enter a shopping mall in Dubai and it is quite possible that at the end of a couple of hours, after going through the numerous shops, you still haven’t found the deal you are looking for or end up with a fear of missing a better deal elsewhere!
Consumers today have a surfeit of choices; range of brands, products and models. They also have plenty of bargains to look for as well. But lack of proper information as well as failure of many conventional communication channels has resulted in depriving many from availing great deals. Recently launched dubaisavers.com aims to cut through the maze of deals and offers information, and provides consumers with genuine, crisp and relevant information.
Dubaisavers.com features all the latest shopping and dining deals across Dubai. The site features information on Discount sales, bundle offers, Sales Promotions, exchange offers, Raffles, Free Samples, Sweepstakes, new arrivals, new releases, contests, new outlets, all you can eat and happy hours offers in Dubai. Since the portal does not charge merchants for publishing their promotions, content featured on the website will be impartial and unbiased.
Promoters of the site assure that by visiting dubaisavers.com residents of Dubai as well as tourists will never miss a shopping or dining deal in Dubai. In addition to this, the site also features a neutral forum for consumers to post their opinion on various promotions to deter unscrupulous traders from offering deceptive promotional offers thus fulfilling the goal of `Customer empowerment”
Even as most of the online business-to-consumer sites are going in for fulfillment, Dubaisavers.com will remain a reference site for shoppers and diners.
Promoters of the site are currently talking to potential investors for launching the website in other big cities around the globe as this is first of its kind in the world.
Visit www.dubaisavers.com
Global spending in online ads will hit $106.6bn in 2011, accounting for almost 14% of the total advertising market, according to a report by IDC. The US will lead all countries in online ad spending with $45bn in 2011, but the fastest growing regions will be Central and Eastern Europe and Middle East and Africa with average annual growth rates of 42.1% and 29.8& respectively.
According to Madar Research 2007, a high percentage of Middle Eastern brands and conglomerates are still sceptical about the ways of tapping into the highly heterogeneous world of online advertising.
Below may not apply to all firms and their marketing departments and agencies, the below will list and discuss the various reasons behind the fear that brands face when deciding to integrate digital media in their marketing campaigns.
1) I never paid attention to or clicked on a banner
A common comment you often hear from a marketing guru. A handful of clients still approach online media the same way they approach other traditional media. Marketers still do not fully understand that online media can be measured from the instant the user sees the banner until the moment the user registers on the client’s website. Online is the most accurate, transparent, and reliable type of media.
2) Lack of agency support/knowledge
Since planning and reporting for online media is different from traditional media, you are often faced with agencies that themselves fear bringing up online advertising as a part of their integrated media proposal. Jargon such as CPM, click, page view, CTR and CPC is common in the digital world. But the question remains, how many media agencies in the Middle East really know what all of those mean? Although it is hard to quantify, to some agencies, all of the above is mumbo jumbo. Agencies should get acquainted with such terms, because, sooner or later, a client will ask about it.
3) Lack of collaboration between portals and media agencies
Based on the above, a portal which depends on advertising as a revenue source would prefer to approach a client directly if it believes that the client’s media agency does not have the appropriate resources and skills to recommend online as part of the media plan. This is very true and we encounter it on a daily basis. This will ultimately backfire on the media agency and, in turn, this creates a conflict between the client, the portal and the media agency.
4) The fear of going beyond the comfort zone
Typical and old school marketing managers would still prefer to see their advertising in a magazine rather than on a portal such as Yahoo or Google. A 50 year old marketing manager raised on traditional media would not risk spending his budget on something he does not understand or maybe has no time left to tackle.
5) Follower rather than a leader
Although it is hard to confess it, some brands in the Middle East tend to be followers rather than leaders. Look at the IT Industry and you will see that big brands such as HP, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, LG Electronics etc are investing a good sum of money online, but is this because they truly understand online or because someone else is there filling up the digital space? The same applies to other industries.
Looking at the solutions
So, now that we know what the forces behind the uncertainty of using online media are, it would be worthwhile discussing the solutions.
Online media is the most measurable type of media. This means that we know how many users a portal has, the user’s age, gender, geographical location and even their occupation. We can know who clicked on a banner and what this user ended up doing. So a comment like ‘I never clicked on a banner’ is, in a way, invalid.
Again, agencies should tap into the online world even if to a minimum extent and at least be aware of the advantages of advertising online, the means of measurement and how to plan an online campaign. This can be done through getting closer to portals and attending seminars and training conventions which are starting to take place in the Middle East. In the end, a media planner should think of how online can benefit a client whose needs are too specific to be placed on outdoor and magazines.
Marketing managers should also help and listen when it comes to online advertising proposals. It might be difficult to understand how online media works, but if you don’t put the effort in, your competitor will. In the UK, online media has surpassed print media, so this is an indication of where the region will be heading in the near future. It is the client’s call to be a leader or just another follower.
Marketers should attend online media seminars and get acquainted with terms such as Web 2.0, search marketing, contextual advertising and others. They should also think of how Facebook and Google can help reach their audience.
According to the latest count, there are more than 22 million Internet users in the Mena region- isn’t this enough for a brand to consider online options?
Positive trends
Despite all of all the above, there are positive signs that online media is picking up. Some trends which are noticeable and which will definitely change the way brands perceive online are:
1) Google’s approach to the Middle Eastern market through opening a regional office in Egypt.
2) International and local brands assigning their own digital marketing specialists.
3) Media agencies integrating an online media division within their agency.
4) The steady and growing trend in the online media budgets (above 50% annually, according to Madar Research)
5) The use of sophisticated ad serving and tracking software which in turn ensure a better experience for the marketers.
6) The increasing number of seminars, workshops and conferences focusing on the advantages of, and use of, digital media in the Middle East region.
In conclusion, while obstacles still persist in following a systematic approach in tackling our online media initiatives, brands are keeping an open eye to the advantages of online advertising. Portals, media agencies and clients all share the same responsibility of taking digital media into a real point of contact with the online audience.
When the internet suddenly collapsed last fortnight across the Gulf countries and India, with the snapping of a one inch thick cable, it provided a grim prospect of the net being hostage to terrorist attacks. Though the precise cause of the cables snapping is not clear, what is clear is that the net is more vulnerable than we ever thought!!
A new study by the Arab Advisors Group has found that Internet users in Saudi Arabia spent over $3.2bn in 2007, reported Khaleej Times. Almost half of all Internet users questioned stated they had used Net-based e-commerce in 2007, while 48.36% reported purchasing products and services online and through their mobile handsets over the past 12 months. Based on the survey findings, the group estimates e-commerce users in Saudi Arabia to exceed 3.5 million consumers representing 14.26% of the population.
The Web giant will probably fall to Microsoft, and that’s too bad, because it could have become the model for a new-media empire
It’s not like reporters at other outlets aren’t placed in similarly awkward positions. Consider The Wall Street Journal reporting on News Corp. (CNBC covering General Electric or BusinessWeek writing about The McGraw-Hill Companies But the comparison only illustrates what I consider lamentable about Microsoft’s irresistible bid for yahoo.
There’s plenty not to like about Yahoo’s predicament. I agree with those who have said this deal will go through. No, it’s not a good thing for Yahoo, the Valley, or the Internet. And no, in the long run it may not do Microsoft much good either. I don’t agree with Google’s alarmist view that Microsoft will monopolize the Internet, but I am concerned Yahoo won’t flourish under its new owner. I’m equally concerned that the best employees won’t stay. But Yahoo didn’t leave investors any other choice. Former CEO Terry Semel blew it, and current CEO Jerry Yang didn’t do enough to help. Yahoo has simply run out of chances.
Snapped Up
I can’t help but consider this deal from the media angle as well. And it’s from that perspective that I find Microsoft’s acquisition most troublesome—and tragic. Web companies revolutionized the way we distribute and consume news and information, yet none has been able to emerge as a standalone media titan.
MySpace was snapped up by News Corp. And as much as I’d like to think TechCrunch, Gawker Media, or even Digg could become the model new-media empire, they’re more likely to get flogged to old media names. CNET Networks may not long be able to resist pressure from the consortium of activist investors agitating for board control, and Time Warner
Yahoo is (or was) the closest we’ve come to creating a media empire on the back of the Web. Granted, the bulk of its content is aggregated, not homegrown. Yet that content is a big reason Yahoo draws hundreds of millions of visitors a month. Yahoo Finance is among the biggest personal finance portals on the Web, and some of the world’s most prestigious publications depend on Yahoo for a big chunk of traffic. I’d argue Yahoo is the biggest force in media that’s not called a media company.
But the traditional media business is disintegrating and in desperate need of a new business model that supports high-quality journalism and makes money. People want the brevity of a blog, the vibrancy of video, and the in-depth reporting of magazines and newspapers—all via the Web. Yahoo was one of the few sites poised to bring those elements together, to put original and aggregated content in front of more eyeballs than a printed paper or TV screen could promise.
As a business, it’s hardly Google-sexy, but Yahoo wasn’t going to beat Google in search anyway. At least Yahoo was making money and growing. And if that, along with one of the largest audiences online, wasn’t enough for Wall Street, will any public company ever have sexy enough numbers to become the next great media empire? Time was, they didn’t have to. Media companies were frequently private, there were fewer activist hedge funds demanding over-the-top growth, and empires were often built by families who felt a thriving press was vital to national interests.
Not that I’m letting Yahoo off the hook. I’m sad to see a media platform that could have been so promising turn into Microsoft’s latest conquest.
Biomimicry, the practice of designing according to natural principles, has garnered devotees from many industries, producing a wide variety of innovative results
Ten years ago, biologist Janine Benyus wrote a book that effectively outlined how nature is the world’s best designer—and how humans could learn a thing or two by paying attention. Since then, fans have used her way of thinking to create a wide range of products, from a Japanese high-speed train with a distinctively bird-like nose to tony, Dutch furniture modeled after the inner structure of bones. Biomimicry, as the practice is known, is not a product category so much as a method by which designers and engineers look to biological research for clues to how organisms solve complex problems. In other words, design informed by billions of years of evolution. In recent years, that kind of thinking applied in a commercial context has produced all manner of new products such as ultrastrong, nontoxic glues and hyperaerodynamic concept cars.
This October, Benyus—who heads the Biomimicry Institute, a nonprofit research organization, as well as the for-profit Biomimicry Guild, an innovation consultancy—will publish another book: Nature’s 100 Best Technologies. Given the breadth of ideas and processes the book will contain, anticipation among designers and sustainability-oriented business leaders is running high. In the meantime, check out some of Benyus’ favorite recent bio-inspired innovations.
High-Speed Train
With a top speed of some 200 mph, Japan’s 500 Series Shinkansen bullet train is one of the fastest in the world. To enable it to run quietly at high speeds, designers emulated one of the quietest birds, owls. By designing small serrations similar to those on owl feathers, they were able to reduce the noise generated by the train’s pantograph—the component that connects to overhead electrical wires. The most obviously biomimetic design element is the train’s nose cone, which is modeled after a kingfisher’s beak. This allows the bird to dive from air into water with a minimal amount of resistance. On a train, the aerodynamic design reduces the sonic boom that occurs when the train passes from a tunnel back into the open air, reducing noise pollution.
Toxin-Free Glue
Portland (Ore.)-based Columbia Forest Products manufactures a broad range of wood products, including panels used in high-end cabinetry and furniture as well as various flooring surfaces. The company’s researchers developed an ultrastrong glue that contains no toxins by mimicking the composition of the secretions mussels use to cling to surfaces underwater.
Sonar-Enabled Cane
Sound Foresight, a small company in Barnsley, England, created the UltraCane. The high-tech device for the vision-impaired uses a sonar-like technology—similar to the way bats navigate in the dark—to prevent collisions. The cane sends out sound waves ahead of the person holding it. These sense upcoming objects, such as street signs or other people, and provide a tactile warning of an oncoming obstacle’s location through the cane’s handle.
Bone Furniture
Based in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, artist Joris Laarman designed this line of furniture, which mimics the structure of bones. Though partially hollow, these form a strong, almost architectural matrix of support. This polished aluminum chair was created using software that mimics the process by which bones grow over time. This kind of design approach has also inspired improvements in a wide range of products. General Motors , for instance, developed a series of car parts that is lighter than conventionally made components but just as strong.
Self-Healing Pipelines
Brinker Technology in Aberdeen, Scotland, has developed a system inspired by the platelets in the bloodstream that in effect patrol veins, sealing cuts and wounds. The company’s “Platelet Technology” adapts the technique for industrial applications such as oil pipelines. The flow inside a pipeline delivers specially designed “platelets” to cracks and leaks. These stick against the pipe wall, sealing the leak. The material contains a radioisotope that marks a leak’s location so that engineers know to reinforce that section of pipe.
Antibacterial Film
The most common antibacterial technologies—including antibiotics like penicillin—kill bacterial microbes. Over time, this has led to the development of hardy, resistant strains of bacteria. That immunity has increasingly confounded doctors and epidemiologists more than the presence of bacteria itself. Australian company Biosignal studied a type of seaweed in which natural compounds prevent bacteria from gathering. It developed a film that prevents bacteria from colonizing by “jamming” or interfering with the signals used by microbes to communicate with one another. Applied to contact lenses, for instance, this film prevents infection without helping to create superstrains of harmful bacteria.
Bio-Inspired Color Displays
Qualcomm engineers have developed the nature-inspired mirasol display, which conveys color in a manner similar to the way a butterfly shows off its brightly colored wings or a peacock displays its plumage. Rather than showing pigmented pixels, these displays contain tiny structures that variably reflect light in such a way that specific wavelengths of light interfere with one another to create vivid colors. The technology could help cell phones and other electronics reduce their power consumption. Last October, Audiovox began using the technology in its Bluetooth stereo headsets.
Low-Energy Carbon Sequestration
Carbon sequestration—or the removal of harmful carbon emissions—is becoming a major front in sustainable industry. Whereas humans view CO2 as a major poison, plants and animals see it as a fundamental building block, processing it for energy or using it to construct shells, for example. With this in mind, Monmouth Junction (N.J.)-based Carbozyme developed an industrial flue scrubber that mimics the enzymes of mollusks to sequester CO2 from waste gases, converting it to nontoxic limestone powder. Unlike other gas separation methods, it operates at a moderate temperature and pressure.
Self-Cleaning Paint
The hydrophobic surface structure of lotus leaves inspired a line of self-cleaning paints from German company Sto. Seeking a solution that did not require toxic detergents, the company’s scientists studied the microscopic structure of the leaves which—by design—repel water. Imbued with similar surface structures, the paints repel water, meaning that rainwater washes away any dirt.
Rule the web by Seth Godin
The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
by Timothy Ferriss
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Rarely Availab le Photos
1) Tim Berners Lee — Founder of the World Wide Web
6) Larry Page(L) and Sergey Brin(R), founders of Google.
7) Gordon Moore(L) and Bob Noyce(R) ,founders of Intel.
10) Picture taken when INFY was started. This picture was found in the album of the clerk who took this picture…
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