Gulf News published an interesting article about the golden rules for online social networking, these rules were compiled by Debrett’s following a survey conducted by Orange, Debrett’s is a British publisher offering advice on international etiquette, manners, good taste, style and sophistication.
This survey revealed that 66% of social networkers are frustrated and confused by online etiquette, while 25% are uncertain about how to respond to unwelcome pokes or messages.
The golden rules compiled by Debrett’s with Orange are:
1. You don’t have to make friends with people you don’t know. Think before you poke.
2. Wait 24 hours before accepting or removing someone as a friend. The delay will help you gather your thoughts.
3. Birthdays, engagements and weddings are not “virtual” events. Always send cards or phone friends when there is an important event.
4. Think before posting a friend’s photo what you would feel like if it was you.
5. Think carefully about your profile picture. Would you want it to be appearing in your local newspaper?
I would like to add few more rules, compiled by jazarah! 
1. Don’t add me unless you really found me interesting enough to be friend with, this is similar to Debrett’s first one, but I really want to highlight it as many people added me to their facebook then removed me, then re-added me, some of those people I don’t even know, so I guess you should make up your mind.
2. Don’t suggest friends.
3. Don’t invite me to every stupid application you use, I don’t want to be your pet, I don’t want to join your mafia war, I don’t want to be a vampire, I’m begging you, stop it.
4. Enough with creating all these pointless groups, since it’s free to do so it doesn’t mean that you can keep creating and inviting people to join more groups about silly things like oh my baby started walking or vote the best smile on facebook.
5. Check before you create an event or a group, some people might done it already, so it’s better to invite people to one entry instead of having five groups for the same issue.
6. Enough poking and let’s just have sex already.
7. Easy on the funwall and the superwall, it’s nice of you to send me cool stuff but don’t over use it.
This is really interesting, OMD Digital, the digital arm of Omnicom Media Group one of the largest advertising groups in the world, penetrated a new advertising medium; games!
The first client to tap into this new digital medium is the Saudi mobile operator Mobily, which will benefit of a range of advertising options in the games like virtual banners, street signs and outdoor billboards, and at the same time it will add a touch of reality to the game, but for some it could be annoying, especially those who hate advertising.
I’m not sure how powerful is their monitoring system in order to manage the impressions, not to mention the targeting, it’s easy to target them by country cause of IP, but what about genders and age groups? It would be easy if each player had a detailed profile, or they will just have to guess based on the type of the game, but for a branding campaign for a client that targets the mass, it’s not a problem, everyone is targeted.
According to their press release: For its initial project, OMD Digital bought 250,000 impressions over two months in Saudi homes, across major X-Box and PC titles, including Burnout (X-Box 360), Guitar Hero (PC and X-Box 360), Tony Hawk’s Wasteland (PC and X Box 360), NFS Pro Street (PC and X-Box 360), Pro Evolution Soccer (PC and X-Box 360). The ads are downloaded onto new-generation game consoles and PCs linked to the Internet.
The search engine giant - Google is hiring creative minds for its operations in the Middle East, such an opportunity should not slip away! If interested please contact nabilk@google.com
Google Engineering Site Director (Arabic Fluent) – Middle East
Google is looking for a highly technical, hands-on Engineering Site Director to drive Product and Technology initiatives for the Middle East/Arab World.
As the most senior engineer for Google in the region, the Engineering Site Director will be the face for Google’s engineering effort in the Arab World.
The Engineering Site Director will be responsible for the overall planning, execution and success of projects with both regional and global impact.
In addition to leading the engineering team or teams in the Arab markets, the Engineering Site Director will work closely with Google’s senior management team,
as well as local officials, universities and professional organizations.
Please note that engineering management at Google is technical, i.e., candidates are expected to have a strong track record of technical accomplishments in
addition to management accomplishments. Consequently a candidate must posses a strong and broad background in most aspects of Computer Science.
Candidates will be asked technical questions during your interviews.
Requirements:
* At least 10+ years of exceptional technical competence and accomplishment with a strong product development track record and continuing and enduring technical leadership throughout career
* Software background and large scale success developing web-based applications, ideally launched in the Arab market
* Entrepreneurial drive plus demonstrated ability to achieve goals in an innovative environment
* Relevant experience as hands-on manager of a large fast-paced dynamic engineering team
* Solid leadership skills and success in building a strong engineering team
* Strong project-management skills and proven history in product delivery
* Ability to operate and thrive in the face of ambiguity
* Can fit in well within an informal startup environment and quickly establish credibility with very capable engineers
* MS in Computer Science/Computer Engineering or PhD (preferred)
Please email a chronological resume to Nabil Khatib nabilk@google.com
Do not hesitate to share with anyone or any group that could be interested.
———————————————————————
Software Product Managers (Arabic Fluent) - Middle East
One of the many reasons Google consistently brings innovative, world-changing products to market is because of the collaborative work we do in Product Management. With eyes focused squarely on the future, our team works closely with creative and prolific engineers to help design and develop technologies that improve access to the world’s information. We’re responsible for guiding products throughout the execution cycle, focusing specifically on analysing, positioning, packaging, promoting and tailoring our solutions to all the markets where Google does business.
As a Product Manager at Google, you bridge the needs of our customers (users, advertisers and partners) and the creativity of our engineering teams. You combine outstanding product vision with the hands-on skills to work with engineers and deliver new products and features quickly to markets across Africa. Google Product Managers come from a wide range of backgrounds: many have successfully run their own software/web companies whilst others have delivered successful products for large software companies. They all combine a great instinct for developing compelling products with a strong academic background and technical aptitude to work with a world class engineering team and the business sense to drive local product goals and strategies.
Responsibilities:
* Launch products
* Identify market opportunities and define product vision and strategy
* Understand customer needs and gather product requirements
* Develop new products and enhance existing products
* Engage closely with the engineering team to help determine the best technical implementation methods as well as a reasonable execution schedule
Requirements:
* Computer Science degree. Masters or PhD preferred
* MBA degree highly regarded
* End to end Product Management experience of software / web technologies
* Hands-on developing Internet products and technologies
* Entrepreneurial drive with appreciation of user-experience, business, and commercial issues
* Understanding of the Internet, Search Engine, and On-Line Advertising spaces
Please email a chronological resume to Nabil Khatib nabilk@google.com
Do not hesitate to share with anyone or any group that could be interested.
———————————————————————
Experienced Software Engineers (Arabic Fluent) - Middle East
Software Engineering Technical Leads/ Managers (Arabic Fluent) - Middle East
Software Engineering positions require a significant work history, experience developing web-based applications, expertise in data structures, algorithms, and complexity analysis, fluency in one or more of C, C++, Java, fluency in one of more of Shell, PHP, Perl or Python, solid working knowledge of Unix, preferably Linux, SQL and MySQL are a plus. Applicants must have BA/BS in Computer Science, MS or PhD (a plus).
These positions require exceptional programming skills, excellent algorithmic and analytical skills, and a strong aptitude for building high-performance, scalable computer systems. Our recent work encompasses a broad spectrum of computer science research areas, including: Large scale distributed systems design, Information retrieval, Natural language processing, machine learning and data mining, algorithms and data structures research and user interface research.
To get a clearer idea about your experience, please briefly reply to these questions and email back with your chronological resume:
* What are your strongest areas of expertise and interest?
* What are your preferred programming languages? Please rate yourself in them as (beginner, intermediate or advanced).
* If working, how much programming do you typically do during a week in your last 2 jobs? Please indicate in percentage (%) form.
* Please briefly describe your experience and knowledge of the technology market in the Arab World.
Please email a chronological resume to Nabil Khatib nabilk@google.com
Do not hesitate to share with anyone or any group that could be interested.
