​Google bu sene Bilim Fuarı’nın ikincisini gerçekleştiriyor. Tüm dünyadan 13-18 yaş arasındaki öğrencilerin katılımına açık olan yarışmada geleceğin bilim insanları yaratıcılıklarını sergilemesi planlanıyor. Türkiye’den katılmak isteyen öğrenciler 1 Nisan’a kadar http://www.google.com/sciencefair adresine başvuru yapabilecek.

Google ile birlikte CERN, The Lego Group, National Geographic ve Scientific American’in desteği ile gerçekleştirilen bu etkinlik; tüm dünyadan 13 ile 18 yaş arasındaki öğrencileri bilime özendirmek, bilimsel deneyler yapmalarını ve bilimsel konularda merak uyandıran soruları sormalarını sağlamak amacıyla düzenleniyor.

Fuarda yarışabilmek için öğrencilerin bir okulda tam zamanlı eğitim alıyor olmaları ve ‘Google’ hesabına sahip olmaları gerekiyor. Öğrenciler bilimsel deneylerini Google ürünlerini kullanarak kuracakları web sitesinde 2 dakikalık kısa bir video ile ya da 20 slaytlık bir sunum şeklinde belirlenen 13 dilden birini seçerek paylaşabilecek. Projelerin bilgisayar, matematik, dünya ve çevre bilimleri, davranış ve sosyal bilimler, enerji, uzay, inovasyon, fizik, biyoloji, kimya, gıda, elektrik&elektronik gibi konularından biri olması gerekiyor. Öğrenciler projelerini hazırlarken Google docs, Youtube, Maps, Google Earth, Google Search ve diğer Google ürünlerinden faydalanabilecekler.

Dereceye giren öğrenciler Google’dan 50.000 dolarlık eğitim bursunun yanı sıra, National Geographic rehberlerinden biri eşliğinde 10 gün velileriyle birlikte Galapagos Adaları’na bilim gezisi yapma şansı elde edecekler. Ayrıca kazananlara Google, CERN, The LEGO Group’tan birinde staj imkânı sunulacak. Bu yıl Scientific American tarafından verilecek ’Science in Action’ özel ödülü ise yerel toplulukların yaşamında farklılık yaratacak sosyal, çevresel, etnik, sağlık ve sosyal yardım içerikli projelerin uygulanabilirliğini gösteren projelere verilecek. Finalistler Google’ın Kaliforniya Mountain View’deki merkez üssünde aralarında Vint Cerf, Sylvie Earle, Nobel Lauretes gibi dünyaca unlu bilim insanlarının bulunduğu jüriye projelerini sunacak. 13-14, 15-16 ve 17-18 yaş kategorilerinde ödül kazananlar 23 Temmuz’da açıklanacak.

Kaynak: TurkcellPartner

Twitter bugün 2400 reklamvereni, 100 milyondan fazla aktif üyesi, 50 milyondan fazla günde toplam 250 milyon tweet atan üyesi ve ortalama 8 milyar dolarlık değeri ile dışarıdan çok parlak bir görünüm çizse de içeride işler farklı gidiyor.

Bugün Bussiness Insider’da çıkan bir makaleye göre bir Twitter çalışanın itirafları, belki de bugün büyümek isteyen birçok işletmenin insan kaynaklarını politikasına ders olabilecek nitelikte. Şirket 2011 yılı itibariyle, kadrosuna yüzlerce yazılım mühendisi dahil etmesine rağmen, yazılım liderleri ve üst düzey pazarlama-satış pozisyonlarında çalışan ekiplerini kaybetmiş durumda.

Kim internet dünyasında en parlak büyümeyi sürdüren, yüzmilyonların favorisi böyle bir şirketten kendi isteğiyle ayrılmak ister ki?

Twitter’da çalışan ve kimliğinin gizli tutulmasını isteyen arkadaşımıza göre sorunlar sıralanmış, bana göre de en önemli olanları şu şekilde:

• Büyümeye devam eden diğer benzer şirtketlere göre (örneğin Facebook) yeni çalışmaya başlayanlardan ürünleri geliştirecek, değiştirecek ve yenileyecek fikirler de sunulması bekleniyor ve bunlar uygulanıyor. Fakat Twitter’da işe girenlere sadece şu söyleniyor “ Bu ürün bizim. Sadece mükemmelleştirmeye çalış.”

• Twitter’ın kendi içindekilerin bir kısmı da bu başarının aslında biraz kazayla-şansla oluştuğunu ve bu şansı bozmamak için aynı şekilde devam ederek hiçbirşeyi değiştirmemek gerektiğine inanıyor.

• Bu nokta bana göre çok önemli. 2010 yılında şirket resmi olarak açıklanmasa da bir parti düzenliyor. Las Vegas’ın meşhur Blush klubünde düzenlenen partinin ismi de Twitterati. Doğal olarak bütün çalışanlar davet edilemiyor. Bununla beraber problem bütün üst düzey yöneticilerin orada olması değil. Orta sınıf yöneticiler, şirkete büyük katkıları olan diğer çalışanların yerine asistan pozisyonunda çalışan özellikle çekici ve güzel çalışanlar da partiye davet ediliyor. Şöyle bir empati yapılabilir, şirketiniz bir parti veriyor üst düzey katılımı var ve siz orta düzey bir yöneticisiniz, size davetiye gelmiyor fakat seksi ve güzel yardımcınız partiye davet ediliyor. Bu olay birçok çalışanı etkiliyor ve konuşulup büyütülmeye devam ediyor. En önemlisi 3-5 saatlik bir parti birçok insanın şirkete olan aidiyet duygusunun kaybolmasına neden oluyor.

• Bir start-up gelebileceği en üst noktalardan biri olan Twitter’da insan kaynakları politikasında eski çalışanlar (özellikle yazılım mühendisleri) önemli yer tutuyor. Bu bağlamda onlara kendi ekiplerini kurmaları için sınırsız yetki veriliyor. Bu yazılımcıların birçoğu hakikatten çok yetenekli insanlar. Fakat bazıları sadece yeni kurulmakta olan bir yerde çalışmaya başlamış orta halde yazılımcılar. Ve sadece eski oldukları için onların da ekiplerini kurma yetkisi var. Meşhur hikaye Twitter için geçerli oluyor ve A sınıf çalışanlar A sınıf çalışanlardan ekip kuruyor, B’le ise C’leri işe alıyor. Yapı bozulmaya başlıyor. Google ve benzer şirketler eski yazılımcılarına sadece havalı ünvanlar ve daha iyi maddi imkanlar sağlasa da eleman alımı konusunda asla yetkilendirmiyor.

Bu ilginç değerlendirme yazısından benim ilgimi çeken noktalar bunlar. Aslında her gün ofislerimizde karşılaştıklarımızdan farklı değil…Fakat 8 milyar dolarlık bir şirket çalışanının ağzından duyunca İnsan Kaynakları politikalarının bir şirket için ölümcül değerini tekrar kavramış oluyoruz.

Yazının tamamına buradan ulaşabilirsiniz:

http://www.businessinsider.com/why-twitter-engineers-and-execs-keep-quitting–one-insiders-brutal-explanation-2011-12#ixzz1gOXiQ26h

comScore, Inc, a leader in measuring the digital world, today released an overview of Internet usage in Europe, showing 368.6 million unique visitors went online in June 2011 for an average of 26.1 hours per person. This release highlights Internet usage in 49 European markets aggregated under the European region and provides individual reporting on 18 markets. Among the reportable markets, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, and Turkey continued to show the highest average engagement, with users from these markets spending an average of more than 31 hours online in the past month.

Spotlight: Newspaper Site Audience Increases 11 Percent in the Past Year

In June 2011, a total of 167.2 million unique visitors went to Newspaper properties in Europe (up 11 percent from a year ago), spending 40.5 minutes on average during the month. The most visited Newspaper property in Europe was the British Daily Mail, drawing 17.2 million unique visitors who each spent an average of 25.9 minutes on the site. The Daily Mail also currently ranks as the second most popular Newspaper site worldwide.

The Guardian ranked second in Europe with 13.5 million unique visitors, followed by the German newspaper Bild with 9.9 million unique visitors.

Turkish newspapers Hürriyet and Milliyet also ranked among the top five Newspaper properties, drawing 9.5 million unique visitors and 8.8 million unique visitors, respectively. Also among the top sites for June 2011 were French newspapers Le Monde and Le Figaro and Komsomolskaya Pravda and RIA Novosti from Russia. The New York Times property, the only non-European site in the list of top Newspaper entities, attracted nearly 5.7 million online readers from Europe.

Google today acquired Dealmap, a San Francisco-based start-up that aggregates local and daily deals, in a push to further its efforts in the fiercely-competitive mobile payment market as to Forbes.

Dealmap, started in May 2010, announced the deal but didn’t disclose the terms of the deal. The company has over two million users and 85 million monthly users on its network of Web, mobile social and e-mail products.

“In Google we’ve found the perfect partner that shares our passion — helping people save money while having great local experiences,” a Dealmap spokesman said. “We believe that joining Google will help us innovate in new and unexplored areas of commerce.”

For now, Google said it will support Dealmap’s partners, but the Internet search giant is pushing ahead with its mobile payment plans. Google is expected to integrate Dealmap into its “Google Offers” service, to deliver discounts to online customers from local businesses.

Groupon famously rebuffed Google’s $6 billion offer last year. Since then, the Mountain View, Calif.-based company introduced “Google Wallet,” a service that lets Android owners buy goods and services by tapping or swiping their devices at a merchant’s payment reader, using near-field communications, or NFC, technology. Google is testing Google Wallet in New York, San Francisco and Portland this summer.

Once up and running, Google Offers will work with Google Wallet. The combination will let users search for, and redeem, online coupons at the point of sale.

The combination of Google Wallet and Offers marks a serious push by the search engine giant into mobile payments, an emerging market already filled with competitors. Some, like the Isis initiative between major credit card companies and AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, mirror Google Wallet’s approach of NFC-based point-of-purchase transactions.

Others, like the recently announced partnership between Verizon and American Express, rely on software and apps to store financial information that can be used anywhere connected to the Internet.

Amid mounting competition, Google’s suite of services may gain a foothold, especially if its Offers feature gains steam with consumers enamored with daily deals. The addition of Dealmap’s technology to Offers to aggregate the burgeoning slate of local coupon services may create an enticing entry point for Google’s mobile financial services, enabling it to build a strong user base.

Dealmap was founded by Jennifer Dulski, a former Yahoo executive, and Chandu Thota, the lead programmer on Microsoft Virtual Earth.

Source: Forbes

Facebook Receives $1 Billion from Goldman Sachs Overseas Offering; Digital Sky Technologies and Goldman Sachs Also Recently Made $500 Million Direct Investment Investment Values Facebook at $50 Billion Facebook yesterday announced it has raised U.S.$1.5 billion at a valuation of approximately $50 billion.

The transaction consisted of two parts. Today, Goldman Sachs completed an oversubscribed offering to its non-U.S. clients in a fund that invested $1 billion in Facebook Class A common stock. In December, Digital Sky Technologies (DST), The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., and funds managed by Goldman Sachs invested $500 million in Facebook Class A common stock at the same valuation.

“Our business continues to perform well, and we are pleased to be able to bolster our cash position with this new financing,” said David Ebersman, Facebook’s chief financial officer. “With this investment completed, we now have greater financial flexibility to explore whatever opportunities lie ahead.”

The investment generated a significant number of questions from interested parties and Facebook has addressed the most common ones below.

Why did Facebook raise this money?

DST and Goldman Sachs approached Facebook to express their interest in making an investment, and Facebook decided it was an attractive opportunity to bolster its cash reserves and increase its financial flexibility with limited dilution to existing shareholders.

Why did Facebook choose to raise $1 billion in the overseas offering?

Under the transaction’s terms, Facebook had the option to accept between $375 million and $1.5 billion from the Goldman Sachs overseas offering, at the discretion of Facebook. While the offering was oversubscribed, Facebook made a business decision to limit the offering to $1 billion.

What are Facebook’s plans for the proceeds of this transaction?

There are no immediate plans for these funds. Facebook will continue investing to build and expand its operations.

Does this investment mean that Facebook will have more than 500 shareholders?

Even before the investment from Goldman Sachs, Facebook had expected to pass 500 shareholders at some point in 2011, and therefore expects to start filing public financial reports no later than April 30, 2012.

About Facebook

Founded in February 2004, Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected. Anyone can sign up for Facebook and interact with the people they know in a trusted environment. Facebook is a privately held company and is headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif.

On February 16, 2010, Google CEO Eric Schmidt spoke at the Mobile World Congress on the pace at which “ mobile web adoption is growing 8X faster than the equivalent point 10 yrs ago for the desktop; that smart phone sales are projected to outperform global PC sales within 3 years and half of new internet connections are from mobile devices. From Google’s perspective, there are more searches on mobile than from desktop in emerging countries like Indonesia and South Africa.”

Both Google and Apple are heavily invested in the mobile market segments. Google spent over $750 million acquiring Admob in 2009. Apple has sold over 51 million iPhones since launch and that number keeps growing every day. Over 5 billion people are using mobile phones in 2010 and that number keeps growing every day too. Whenever people leave their homes, a cell phone is one of three items that they carried with them all the time. The other two are keys and wallet. With these two giant companies pioneering efforts for mobile devices, the potential for success using Mobile Monopoly is huge.

Did you know that 80% of a local business comes from people who live or work within five miles from your location? Mobile marketing with location based services could reach this audience easily. Traditional advertising mediums like phone directory, newspapers, TV, telemarketing, direct mail, print ads and email are losing their effectiveness. The open rate for SMS text messages are above 90% within the first 15 minutes whereas email has an average open rate of only 3%-5% sporadically.

Mobile marketing can include any combination of simple text messages, click to call ads, voice messages, pay per call and mobile landing pages. QR codes, matrix barcode, are becoming more common among businesses. Smart phone users can easily scan these codes and get to a destination URL. Mobile marketing campaigns has a 5X bigger market than traditional internet marketing. There is definitely a huge advantage when using mobile marketing and Mobile Monopoly techniques.

Mobile Monopoly opens up a huge market opportunity for people who want to reach bigger local audiences quicker and faster. They are also better equipped when working with local businesses to advertise their products and services through mobile devices.

Adam Horowitz, the founder of Mobile Monopoly, streamlines mobile marketing education for internet marketers through a series of 50 videos with easy to follow step-by-step instructions. Harness the power of mobile marketing today.

More information can be found online at http://goo.gl/lNZ9P

Google has announced the top 100 website traffic ranks in Turkey.

Rank Site Unique Visitors (users) Reach Page Views Has Advertising
1 facebook.com 16000000 75.8% 36000000000 Yes
2 live.com 11000000 52.8% 970000000 Yes
3 msn.com 5600000 26.7% 250000000 Yes
4 mynet.com 5000000 24.1% 1000000000 Yes
5 izlesene.com 4600000 22% 190000000 Yes
6 blogcu.com 4300000 20.5% 65000000 Yes
7 dailymotion.com 3800000 18.4% 110000000 Yes
8 hurriyet.com.tr 3500000 16.6% 590000000 Yes
9 microsoft.com 3500000 16.7% 61000000 Yes
10 wikipedia.org 3500000 16.7% 60000000 No
11 milliyet.com.tr 3200000 15.3% 590000000 Yes
12 sahibinden.com 3100000 14.9% 1200000000 Yes
13 gittigidiyor.com 3100000 15% 210000000 Yes
14 ekolay.net 2600000 12.4% 250000000 Yes
15 oyunlar1.com 2100000 10.3% 280000000 Yes
16 vidivodo.com 2000000 9.4% 46000000 Yes
17 yahoo.com 2000000 9.4% 170000000 Yes
18 donanimhaber.com 1900000 9.3% 34000000 Yes
19 haberturk.com 1800000 8.6% 210000000 Yes
20 travian.com.tr 1800000 8.5% 170000000 No
21 hepsiburada.com 1600000 7.8% 97000000 No
22 garanti.com.tr 1600000 7.7% 80000000 Yes
23 facebookvideoindir.gen.tr 1600000 7.9% 29000000 Yes
24 sgk.gov.tr 1600000 7.8% 170000000 No
25 frmtr.com 1600000 7.8% 18000000 Yes
26 haberler.com 1500000 7.1% 56000000 Yes
27 memurlar.net 1500000 7.1% 96000000 Yes
28 bing.com 1500000 7% 34000000 Yes
29 imageshack.us 1500000 7.1% 20000000 Yes
30 adobe.com 1500000 7% 19000000 Yes
31 rapidshare.com 1500000 7.2% 38000000 Yes
32 gezginler.net 1500000 7% 21000000 Yes
33 msxlabs.org 1500000 7.1% 14000000 Yes
34 wordpress.com 1400000 6.5% 15000000 Yes
35 oyunskor.com 1300000 6.4% 230000000 Yes
36 sabah.com.tr 1300000 6.3% 190000000 Yes
37 timsah.com 1300000 6.4% 28000000 Yes
38 twitter.com 1300000 6.3% 97000000 Yes
39 hotfile.com 1300000 6.4% 31000000 No
40 turkcebilgi.com 1300000 6.3% 12000000 Yes
41 haber7.com 1200000 5.9% 97000000 Yes
42 uludagsozluk.com 1200000 5.8% 8200000 Yes
43 fanatik.ekolay.net 1100000 5.2% 110000000 No
44 gazetevatan.com 1100000 5.3% 310000000 Yes
45 turkcell.com.tr 1100000 5.3% 41000000 No
46 isbank.com.tr 1100000 5.3% 61000000 No
47 maxicep.com 1100000 5.3% 13000000 Yes
48 webhatti.com 1100000 5.3% 6700000 Yes
49 ttnet.com.tr 1100000 5.3% 19000000 Yes
50 antoloji.com 1100000 5.3% 24000000 Yes
51 iminent.com 1000000 4.9% 50000000 Yes
52 internethaber.com 1000000 4.8% 66000000 Yes
53 araba.com 1000000 4.8% 170000000 Yes
54 osym.gov.tr 1000000 4.8% 50000000 No
55 eksisozluk.com 990000 4.7% 19000000 Yes
56 tr.gg 990000 4.8% 23000000 Yes
57 tamindir.com 920000 4.4% 14000000 Yes
58 millipiyango.gov.tr 920000 4.4% 12000000 No
59 arabam.com 920000 4.4% 97000000 Yes
60 uzmantv.com 920000 4.4% 21000000 Yes
61 saglikalani.com 910000 4.4% 9000000 No
62 anadolu.edu.tr 910000 4.4% 61000000 Yes
63 izafet.com 910000 4.3% 5100000 Yes
64 sehirfirsati.com 900000 4.3% 8200000 No
65 ntvmsnbc.com 840000 4% 45000000 Yes
66 mozilla.com 840000 4% 13000000 Yes
67 ask.com 840000 4% 28000000 Yes
68 meleklermekani.com 840000 4% 9900000 Yes
69 sahadan.com 840000 4% 98000000 Yes
70 meteor.gov.tr 840000 4% 45000000 No
71 kendincos.net 830000 4% 11000000 Yes
72 kariyer.net 830000 4% 230000000 Yes
73 tumgazeteler.com 830000 4% 7400000 Yes
74 hotmail.com 820000 4% 14000000 Yes
75 video-klipleri.org 820000 3.9% 14000000 Yes
76 itusozluk.com 820000 4% 11000000 Yes
77 alternatifim.com 760000 3.6% 14000000 Yes
78 akbank.com 750000 3.6% 21000000 No
79 kanald.com.tr 750000 3.6% 28000000 Yes
80 tatliaskim.com 750000 3.6% 6800000 Yes
81 beyazgazete.com 740000 3.6% 9000000 Yes
82 vodafone.com.tr 690000 3.3% 50000000 Yes
83 yapikredi.com.tr 690000 3.3% 38000000 Yes
84 zaman.com.tr 690000 3.3% 24000000 Yes
85 diziport.com 690000 3.3% 55000000 Yes
86 metacafe.com 680000 3.2% 6700000 Yes
87 fizy.com 680000 3.3% 130000000 No
88 inndir.com 680000 3.3% 11000000 Yes
89 opendns.com 630000 3% 16000000 Yes
90 ensonhaber.com 630000 3% 46000000 Yes
91 sinemalar.com 630000 3% 19000000 Yes
92 fotomac.com.tr 620000 3% 73000000 Yes
93 zaplat.com 620000 3% 8300000 Yes
94 kadinlarkulubu.com 620000 3% 19000000 Yes
95 netlog.com 570000 2.7% 74000000 Yes
96 sporx.com 570000 2.7% 46000000 Yes
97 usagc.org 560000 2.7% 3100000 Yes
98 dizifrm.com 560000 2.7% 16000000 Yes
99 htspor.com 560000 2.7% 11000000 Yes
100 samanyoluhaber.com

A new feature from Google!

Google has introduced Live Preview option in their search results. The option has a zoom icon placed next to each search results’ title.

You have to click the site desription just under the site title to use this option.

Clicking on the zoom icon will generate a quick snapshot of the result page in a simple graphic design with parts of the page.  The feature is quite fast and can is helpful to give a overall idea about the page you are going to visit.

I tried it on Firefox browser and liked it. This live preview gives an idea about the content before you visit the web site.

The preview shows a complete screenshot of the web page. In case if the height of the webpage crosses a particular length, the image at the end will be cropped.

Search results looks like in the social media browser Rock Melt, the browser I’ve met via YoutTube.

Unlike Instant Search and keyword suggestions, I couldn’t find any disable this option right now.  I’m sure we will have a Firefox add-on soon and never disable it on Internet Explorer

As well known, Cloud Computing is online-based computing, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices on demand, like the electricity grid.

Cloud computing allows you to host your files on the web, run your own applications, launching operating systems and scale them.

Amazon.com the Online shopping site from the earth’s biggest selection of books is also one of the biggest cloud computing services on the market. Also there are other big boys on the park as Appistry-Cloud computing middleware, GoGrid, Flexiscale, Microsoft Live Mesh, Force.com, 3Tera and more familiar;  Google App Engine.

One of the biggest advantages of cloud computing is it’s global, private hard disk across the Internet; accessing from any computer and smartphone or even cell phone. Cloud computing offers you world class accessibility.

Is it really so?

This is fact that internet is global, but the laws are not.

Not long ago, Turkey has coincidentally blocked access several Google services, including Google Docs and its translation service because Turkey already blocked YouTube and some of the Google services use the same ips with YouTube. According to users in the country, docs.google.com, translate.google.com, books.google.com, google-analytics.com and tools.google.com are affected by the ban.

On another note, Turkey wants Google to pay 30 million lira (about $18.7 million) in taxes.

Users couldn’t access their Google Docs spreadsheets and documents. They couldn’t measure their web sites using Google Analytics.

Today, Iran, UAE, Thailand, Morocco, Iraq, Brazil, Australia (in schools) are blocking YouTube.  Do you see how many people can be affected with their cloud computing services?

Same had happened in 2009, because The Great Firewall of China blocked some of the Google Apps services.

China’s internet authorities blocked many Google searches for terms and websites deemed politically sensitive.

These are just popular issues and can be multiplied. People who use cloud computing services around the world, cannot always benefit from it’s global Access as it was told. As IT budgets pointing to the cloud computing this is still risky.

So far the issues are about Google App Engine but it’s clear that the risks and trust building mechanisms of cloud computing should be reconsidered.