Archive for the 'internet' Category



MSN Israel – you’ve pissed me off. F$&K YOU!

If the World Wide Web had its Bible and Tablets of Stone, Net Neutrality would be the 1st commandment.

Back in 2009 we all witnessed the Iranian Elections, and the riots following corruption suspicions,  up close and viral via the internet, in what has set twitter as the ‘official’ medium of movements, and was undoubtedly the micro-blogging service biggest moment. Today, we look at twitter for news and updates from a closer country, Egypt, and its government futile efforts at blocking twitter, flickr, youtube and others, to keep the world in the dark.

Google search for eonline

Google search for eonline

And now, to the title of this post, and why MSN Israel are reminding me the dark regimes of Iran and Egypt. Last week, late night, I pointed my browser to the global E! Online website (eonline.com), as I do from time to time (like to read their TV and Movies analysis). To my surprise, I was redirected to the Israeli website (eonline.il.msn.com), a new partnership (Hebrew link) between MSN.co.il and the Israeli branch of E! Online. Websites operating globally use your IP address to direct you to the local website, if applicable. Google are doing it, CNN are doing it, even Microsoft are doing it. But all of them, all, give you an option to revert to the global site. All, expect for MSN Israel. No. MSN Israel have decided to block Israeli users access to the global site and are re-directing ALL traffic to their newly launched, local website.

I don’t know where MSN Israel think they are and which mid-level marketing manager approved this (it won’t help the online division), but they have re-directed the wrong blogger. Who made MSN Israel God of the internet?

MSN Israel – fuck you. You’ve pissed me off.

Update 8 Feb

E! Online.com is back – Ryan, Giuliana, I missed you guys 🙂

Update 2 Feb

  • Ynet just run the story (Hebrew) – Thanks Ido!
  • Still no word from E! Online, E! Online Israel, or MSN.co.il on when the redirect will be solved.

Update 30 January

I was contacted by E! Online Israel Channel Manager. According to her:

  • MSN Israel are not involved in the redirect;
  • E! Online are the cause, as they, allegedly, blocked access to eonline.com from Israel (is that true?)
  • They (E! Online Israel) are working to solve the blockage.

I hate to end a post in a negative tune, plus it’s my first F word in over 4 years of blogging, so join me – let it all out on MSN Israel with Cee Lo Green:

2010 by the numbers

For the past month or so I’ve been reading and sharing a lot of ‘top 10 of 2010’ lists, and true to my nature – why not post a wrap-up of my own. So, here goes.

2010 in numbers - Google Analytics Dashboard

My numbers for 2010

During 2010 I wrote 62 posts (down from 118 in 2009 – damn I wrote a lot in 09!) that received almost 19,700 page views from 12,668 visitors who spent an average of 1:11 min on my blog.

Top pages you were viewing (hopefully reading too, in no particular order) were: The 101 of getting married in NYC (BTW, did a Jewish wedding too, in August), About pageThe real life facebook Like buttonNokia E72 – day 1Just how big is social mediaDay of mourning Carmel FireInterlude.fm, Fidd.me take Techonomy 2010 by stormLotus Notes TravelerOld Spice case study, and FIFA World Cup 2.0.

In the countries section, we have a mini-revolution: Israel surpassed the US and was the #1 referring country, with almost 4,500 visits (US with just over 3,650). Impressive. I write in English since starting to blog some 8 years ago, so knowing that my words are read mostly by Israelies means a lot – Toda Raba people!!!

2010 in numbers - 15,000 visits from 2,788 cities

Just under 15,000 visits from 2,788 cities

A total of 2,788 cities from 132 countries sent traffic to my blog, and the top 10 countries are: Israel, USA, United Kingdom, India, Germany, Canada, Australia, Italy, Netherlands, and France.

Now, some interesting details…

Mobile devices accounted for 700 visits (5% of site total) – iPhone, Symbian, iPad, Android, and iPod make up the top 5. Time spent and pages/visit are obviously down (people on the go, less time to read, screen size), by 17% and 10%, respectively. I’m positive these numbers will increase in 2011.

15:00-19:00 is the period in which most of you (almost 40%) visited my blog, and another 20% of you read me later, probably at home (19:00-24:00).

In terms of Time Spent on Site, interesting metrics – Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Palestine Territories are among the top 10, with over 2:30 minutes spent here. Maybe my blog will bring peace in 2011, who know…

Somewhat of a disappointment, but I’m not judging anyone – 30% of you opted for Internet Explorer, 37% Firefox, and 21% Chrome. Hope to see a change in 2011..

May was the top visited month with over 2,400 visits, probably due to the fact that it was the most posted month (8 posts).

Facebook, twitter, and LinkedIn are #1, #3, and #5 top referring sites (26% of total traffic) to my blog, with planetlotus.org (once an IBMer, always an IBMer I guess) and google taking slots #2 and #4 (all respectively). Social has been a huge content promoter for me in 2010, and I see no reason for this to change in 2011.

Google is the #1 in Search Engine sources, and by far. It accounted for 6,100 visits – more than a 1/3 of total visits, growing month by month – from 250 in January to 800 in December.

Finally, to the 12,668 people who visited my blog in 2010 – it was a blast, I hope you enjoyed, and looking forward to seeing you in 2011.

Thank you and a Happy New Year!!

I just had Sex – SNL Digital Short

No need to introduce Andy Samberg, nor the Digital Short series on SNL. Andy, along with Akiva and Jorma are the trio who formed back in 2001 The Lonely Island, an American comedy group. Many ‘shorts’ have reached internet fame, and the renowned ‘Dick in a Box‘ (featuring Justin Timberlake) even grabbed an Emmy in 2007, for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics.

Their latest creation from this Sat., I just had Sex, featuring Akon, Jessica Alba and Blake Lively, already made some online noise, hilarious as always. Enough with the words, let’s watch some videos!

And here’s the one that started it all, Dick in a Box:

Introduction to Web Analytics and AdWords

Last week I gave a guest lecture to the students of Digital Marketing and Social Media course, at which I serve as assistant lecturer (to Lior Zoref).

It is the first time the course is being offered at The College of Management, and the topics cover most aspects of the discipline, including social networks, micro-blogging and blogging, online advertising, web analytics, location based, video and more. Our goal is to provide the students (all of whom working in marketing departments and ad agencies) with the understanding of what tools and platforms are available, and what is the best way to leverage them.

My lecture focused on the fundamentals of web analytics and Google AdWords platforms. The presentation I used is embedded below and can be downloaded from my slideshare page (recommended – have embedded videos and animation). Replay of the lecture (in Hebrew) can be viewed on Lior Zoref’s uStream. Comments are welcome.

Zeitgeist 2010: Year in Review

We’re closing in on the YE, and the summations/reviews/top-10 lists are already underway.

Zeitgeist (The spirit of the times) is the Google way of telling the world what happened (methodology), by looking into top searches, fastest rising and fastest falling, filtered by country/industry. Interesting to see what different countries are searching for – ‘פייסבוק‘ (facebook in Hebrew) was the #1 search term in Israel, with Youtube clinching the #3 spot. The US was most interested in iPad (fastest rising) and the tragic oil spill (fastest rising in News).

For those in a hurry, here’s the 3min summary of the Google Zeitgeist 2010:

LOTS of data can be found in the Google list, and plenty of insight is available on each search query. There’s also an interactive map where you can zoom in, change timeline and compare events – feel free to explore for yourselves.

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Mobile & Media Consultant. I help startup companies launch products to the consumer market. Reach out: dvir.reznik [at] gmail.com
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This is my personal blog. The postings here do not represent the thoughts, intentions, plans or strategies of my past employers or of my clients. It is solely my opinion.