A recent interview with Mr.Husni Al Khuffash (UAE Country Business Development Manager for Google Inc)to Media ME talking about some of the future plans and commitments to Arab World.

Google believes the Middle East has tremendous growth potential in the online world and we are investing heavily in the region. We came to the region because we saw great potential to be able to add value here. We are investing in the region to help users to access information and enable companies to reach their target audience more effectively.

Ultimately we believe that by helping people access information, we give them more freedom more choice and ultimately more power over their lives. So our goal is to continuously work on improving and developing more products in the local languages of the markets we serve. We have already made some great headways in Arabic with the launch of products like iGoogle, Docs and Blogger and Adsense just to name a few but there is tremendous room for growth and we are excited by this challenge.

We are looking to hire Arabic engineers wherever they are to be able to better understand the needs of Arab users. We also support the region through our initiatives.

Read more on Google is investing heavily in the Middle East's potential at MediaME.com

Really great two resources for SEO's and webmasters, if you really need to peek in to Google's Latest Search Quality Secrets, Google is opening up little bit.

At the same time, from SEO perspective some great thoughts and discussions are going on in Search Engine Land. regarding the latest issues came across in the SEO world, new terms like

1. Google Personalized Search Results
2. Universal Search Results
3. Minus -60 Punishment
4. Google Crawler Rate Drop
5. Google Floating Four (My Favourite)

There are more, let me know any one came across any kind of new behaviour from Google.

Are we heading to Search 4.0?

Best,

Aj

Here is a great opportunity for students who are specializing in marketing to understand the importance of online advertising in the Marketing Mix, especially when it comes to the Global Marketing Challenge.

Google is providing a chance to more than 20,000 students to try Google Advertising platform to gain hands on experience in this new medium. The competition offers student groups to spend a little amount of $200 on Google Adwords, and build a cost effective online marketing campaign for a local business. Team will have to mainly look into the following areas;

1. Develop an Online Marketing Strategy (200$ budget)
2. Run and Optimize the Campaign (3 weeks)
3. Analyze the Results and
4. finally recommendation ideas to carry forward and develop a robust online marketing for the business.

Internal panel will choose the best minds in this challenge.

In the GCC region, it's happening at United Arab Emirates & Saudi Arabia.

United Arab Emirates

Abu Dhabi:

Abu Dhabi University

Dubai:

SP Jain Center of Management- Knowledge Village - My Neighbors
Zayed University Dubai-


Saudi Arabia

Dhahran:

King Fahad University of Petroleum & Minerals


You can read more at Official Google Blog: Global marketing challenge now underway

Looking forward to see the results in July, best of luck guys!

Thanks

Aj