I was surprised to see this because “Moldovenească/Moldovan” is not really a language, It’s just how the communists in Moldova call Romanian language. I’m not the one saying this but the U.S. government – Moldovan (official, virtually the same as the Romanian language) – and that is why I’m going to send Google (and to all Romanian speaking staff at Google) this memo regarding the Romanian version of Google.md.
I want Google to change the term from “Moldovan language” to “Romanian language”.
Please note that the term „Romanian language” is used to by the UN, European Union, World Bank, CIA, U.S. Department of State, etc. when referring to the language spoken in Moldova.
The 1989 law on language of the Moldavian SSR, which is still effective in Moldova according to the Constitution, asserts the real existence of “linguistic Moldo-Romanian identity”. Title I, Article 13 of the Moldovan Constitution, names it “the national language of the country” (the original Moldovan/Romanian uses the term “limba de stat”, which literally means the language of the state, or official language, thus avoiding the term national, whose sense is that of ethnicity). In the breakaway region of Transnistria, it is co-official with Ukrainian and Russian.
My first mail goes to Radu Tudorache (Country Consultant Romania) but I also want to ask Romanian speaking bloggers to write about this and to ping the official Google blog.
AdEvolution made a top regarding the online spenders in Romanian online advertising. The data comes from direct clients and agencies.
NOTE: the figures shown below are based on the rate-card costs (the actual figures are lower because of the discounts).
The top involved 363 small and medium companies and the budgets were directed towards display advertising, viral marketing, contextual advertising, direct emailing, newsletter advertising, unconventional exposure (e-branding, video-insert etc).
This news is also a teaser for HotNews.ro (the champion of Romanian online advertising in 2007) as the plans for Ele.ro are above ARBOmedia’s on going sales target for 2007. My guess is that in 2008 HotNews plans to sell over 1.000.000 EUR meaning that this website keeps ARBOmedia running (although the risk of loosing it’s out here since everyone wants to work with HotNews).
A small ethnical group in Romania (0.2%) is Turkish (mostly Muslim). In honor of the celebration of the month of Ramadan by Romania’s Muslim community, US Ambassador Nicholas Taubman donated the “Ambassador’s Collection” of books to the library of the Kemal Ataturk Turkish-language National College in Medgidia. The donation included a wide range of books appropriate for ages 5-17 on American History, US culture and values, including reference books, historical fiction, biographies and books on art and literature. English-learning books and English-Romanian dictionaries were also included. Kemal Ataturk National College is an accredited Romanian school, offering instruction in Romanian, Turkish and English, with approximately 220 students from grades 1-12 attending the school. Continue reading ‘Ramadan in Romania – Iftar’
BitDefender®, a division of Romanian SOFTWIN, provides superior threat management to over 41 million home and corporate users in more than 100 countries, with offices in the United States, Romania, Germany and Spain: Continue reading ‘BitDefender Total Security 2008′
Iuliu Winkler, Minister of Communications & Information Technology, announced that recent studies by MCTI show that 90% of Romanian companies use at least one Internet connection, while 33% of homes in Romania have at least one computer – with 44% in urban areas and 20% in the rural. Internet penetration grew 78% in one last year, to 4,5 million connections at the end of June 2007. Most Internet users (85%) are 15-40 year old. The minister also mentioned that the government spending on installing computer systems ant connecting the schools to the Internet amounted to 2.26 milion lei (over 700,000 euro) in the first phase of the project.
Eastern European countries continue to be an attractive region for foreign direct investment. However Romania distinguishes itself by truly fulfilling the criteria necessary to create the ideal investment opportunity.
Romania has recently made considerable legislative and economic progress. With the introduction of the 16% unique taxation rate on profit, 70% of economic activity now in private hands, advanced price liberalization, an open foreign trade regime, and significant and ongoing advances in the opening of key markets such as energy and infrastructure, the sector is poised for IT investors and partnerships. Romania also continues to improve legislation in the area of corporate governance, for example by introducing new mandatory voting requirements for publicly held companies. Continue reading ‘Romania IT’
Our movie promoting the vote will be broadcasted today on B1TV and National TV.
My first idea was to film someone from behind and say it’s Elodia (and she wants to vote this Sunday) – prime time coverage on all stations and 24h live analysis on OTV… maybe next time.
Google published the top *gaining queries for October 2007 in Romania and here is the top 15:
1. download mozilla
2. scufita rosie (little red riding hood)
3. codul civil (Civil Code)
4. vanzari case (houses for sale)
5. ciorba de burta (tripe soup) Continue reading ‘Google Zeitgeist for October 2007′
I’m happy to announce a new section on trafic.ro: the LIFESTYLE section.
The sales agencies already have “Lifestyle/Going out” inserts in their rate-cards and it was about time to add this section for monitoring. Starting today, the section is available for the webmasters and probably this morning there will be a press release on the matter.
Since I have 3 websites on this profile, I have to credit special thanks to all the guys working at trafic.ro and I’m more than sure that this improvement will be great for the business.
The eye-tracking studies are just great for testing online products and I’m always happy when I get my hands on these types of studies and results. Here are 23 tips that you can use in order to improve the design of a page or blog:
1. Text attracts attention before graphics.
2. Initial eye movement focuses on the upper left corner of the page.
3. Users initially look at the top left and upper portion of the page before moving down and to the right.
4. Readers ignore banners.
5. Fancy formatting and fonts are ignored. Continue reading ‘23 tips from Eye-Tracking Studies’
I was very surprised to read this article in a local Romanian newspaper.
The article states that there is a project called “Google came to school” focusing on educating young people from isolated communities. I had no idea that Google has this kind of projects in Romania and it seems they are very discreet about this matter (I couldn’t find any press release and I used Google to search).
CIA updated the world factbook on Moldova. Here is a very objective profile I found on their website:
Background: Formerly part of Romania, Moldova was incorporated into the Soviet Union at the close of World War II. Although independent from the USSR since 1991, Russian forces have remained on Moldovan territory east of the Dniester River supporting the Slavic majority population, mostly Ukrainians and Russians, who have proclaimed a “Transnistria” republic. The poorest nation in Europe, Moldova became the first former Soviet state to elect a Communist as its president in 2001.
Location: Eastern Europe, northeast of Romania
Ethnic groups: Moldovan/Romanian 78.2%, Ukrainian 8.4%, Russian 5.8%, Gagauz 4.4%, Bulgarian 1.9%, other 1.3% (2004 census)
Languages: Moldovan (official, virtually the same as the Romanian language), Russian, Gagauz (a Turkish dialect)
Flag description: same color scheme as Romania – three equal vertical bands of blue (hoist side), yellow, and red; emblem in center of flag is of a Roman eagle of gold outlined in black with a red beak and talons carrying a yellow cross in its beak and a green olive branch in its right talons and a yellow scepter in its left talons;
Exports partners: Russia 22.8%, Germany 12.2%, Italy 11.1%, Romania 9.7%, Ukraine 9.6%, Belarus 5.7% (2006)
Imports partners: Russia 20.8%, Ukraine 16.9%, Romania 13.4%, Germany 8.7%, Italy 6.1%, Poland 4.4% (2006)
Telephone system: international: country code – 373; service through Romania and Russia via landline; satellite earth stations – Intelsat, Eutelsat, and Intersputnik (2006).
I was invited to speak about relationships@work and since I was amazed to find out today how many people watched this late show last night on Euforia TV, I have to say a few things.
Although the show was a friendly chat, I tried to promote the fact that a relationship at the workplace can really affect both the company and your career and you should think twice for at least 2 weeks before asking out a colleague (I know that love has nothing to do with human resources management but has something to do with your energy/good spirit/productivity/etc)
The other thing you should know is that the examples I gave in the show were really based on real-life stories (a Romanian company really lost a $3 million team because of a inappropriate relationship).
Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says crude prices, hovering close to $US100 a barrel, are still lower than the actual value.
“The pressure on the fossil energy (oil) market is not artificial and the price of this commodity is lower than its actual price,” Mr Ahmadinejad said before leaving Tehran for an summit of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Saudi Arabia.
D. Bill Tancer had another interesting analysis one year ago called “Dropping Gas Prices Fuel Online Retail Visits”. The effect of rising gas prices had quite a healthy impact not only online shopping visits but also on the environment (I might ad). Analyzing online human behavior from this perspective (gas consumption) is something all of us should think about in the next years and indeed this might be a great chance for the e-commerce/e-government all over the world
DUBAI (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia could order another 24 Eurofighter Typhoon combat jets from BAE Systems for about 1.5 billion pounds ($3.06 billion).
Saudi Arabia and Britain already announced in September a 4.43 billion pound deal for 72 of the Eurofighters (not F-15s).
Today I’m meeting the candidates for the European Parliament in Tulcea.
Click here and here for more details.
Tulcea – City Highlights
Tulcea The city of Tulcea, laid out on seven hills like Rome, has been an important harbor since ancient times. Founded in the 7th century BC by the Dacians, Aegyssus, as the city was known in antiquity, was conquered by the Romans who rebuilt it after their plans, their technique and architectural vision. Aegussyus was first mentioned in the documents of Diodorus of Sicily (3rd century BC) and later, in the works of the Latin poet, Ovid, who referred to it in Ex Ponto, attesting that the name traces its origin back to its founder, a Dacian named Carpyus Aegyssus.
The town was successively under Byzantine (5th – 7th century), Genoese (10th – 13th century) and Ottoman rule before finally being reunited with Romania in 1878.
Also in the movie: Roberta Anastase, Adrian Cioroianu, Daciana Sarbu, Karoly Borbely, Elena Basescu, Irina Tudor, Catalin Avramescu, Dorin Matei, Dan Stoenescu, Valentin Raducanu and Eugen Tomac.
As we speak, Mihai Fanache/MediaCafe sells Yahoo advertising spaces in Romania.
I don’t know the terms of their contract but I do know that Yahoo Inc. is now directly interested in Romania and already started a local research.
According to Alexa.com, Yahoo is the no.1 portal in Romania.
MediaCafe has a 1 million EUR sales target for Yahoo advertising in 2007 and it seems they won’t make it unless a miracle happens by the end of December. I don’t know how will Yahoo Inc. will react to this failure but I do know that the new Yahoo.ro is just a matter of time and dns.
I’m glad to see that Google added Romania in the monthly Zeitgeist list. Below are the top 15 keywords from September 2007:
1. colin farrell
(Actor)
This is quite a surprise for me and I can’t explain it right now. I expect Elodia to be no.1 in October.
2. casa poporului
(building in Bucharest)
When talking about country branding, Romania has Dracula and Casa Poporului – after all, this is the second biggest building in the world.
4. christopher uckermann
(singer/songwriter/actor)
This made me think that Google has some problems with the ip database… maybe some addresses seem to be allocated to Romania but since Google is never wrong, I found out what’s behind this mistery. Uckermann is a Mexican singer-songwriter and actor, best known as a member of the pop band RBD, a very popular band among Romanian teens.
5. achizitii publice
(public acquisitions)
I have an explanation for this
Many governmental workers have access to the Internet but don’t know how to use it. Often, they type words in the browser’s address bar – because of this, the governmental it technicians configured the web browser to perform automatic Google searches.
But something has to be wrong with this keyword because is not a very popular one – the website ranking no.1 on Google search when typing “achizitii publice” has a very small traffic. Maybe it was some scandal in the press in september because I have trouble explaining this keyword. Continue reading ‘Google publishes the monthly Zeitgeist for Romania’
Gabi Boaca started a debate about Internetics and Romanian Internet while Doru Panaitescu commented on the online advertising budgets and estimates for 2007 – they made me think how great were things in the old days when blogging was not “politically correct” and every posting was a fight, a rebellion and a long talk about how to make money online and how the market is growing under our very eyes.
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