The Week That Was: July 26th, 2012
First off, on behalf of the Arabian Bytes team we would like to wish all our readers Ramadan Kareem – we hope that your first week of the Holy Season has been pleasant so far.
So firstly, we’re following on from last week’s report, bringing you another social Ramadan story from Google.
Google Puts Social Twist on Ramadan Traditions
With the Ramadan YouTube channel reaching over 10,000 subscribers in a week, it appears Google’s initiative to socialize Ramadan has been a hit. In line with this, Google is also hosting a series of 30 Google+ Hangouts – one every day over the Holy Month. The Hangouts feature a range of informative and fun Hangouts, including celebrity chefs and their favourite Iftar recipes, healthy eating tips from doctors, actors sharing their favourite religious shows, and poets discussing their favourite religious literature.
For the full story, click here.
Not another World Record?
We all know that Dubai has its Guinness World Record-achieving skill down to a tee, what with having a few famous achievements under its belt such as; the world’s tallest man-made structure, the world’s tallest tower, the world’s biggest shopping mall, and the world’s longest driverless urban metro rail system. But did you know that Dubai has also achieved a series of lesser known world records?
A fun feature in Gulf News this week highlighted some of Dubai’s lesser known Guinness World Records. Here’s our alternative Top 5:
1 - The longest cake The longest cake which stretched 2.53 kilometre and weighed 74,000 kilogrammes, was baked as a tribute to the late UAE President H.H. Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan. The cake took 507 chef’s to bake from 23 of Dubai’s premier hotels. It formed the main highlight of the UAE’s National Day celebrations in 1996.
2 - The largest mattress
Measuring 10 metres long and eight metres wide, with a thickness of 60 centimetres, the world’s longest mattress weighed 2.5 tonnes. The mattress took over 700 man hours to make and four hours to move by crane!
3 - The largest Shawarma
The world’s largest Shwarma consisted of 1,850 kilogrammes of boneless chicken cooked in a specially fabricated grill of six metres in 2000.
4 - The biggest Abaya
Ghareem Shaila and Abaya sponsored the largest Abaya at 8.37 metres long and 3.66 metres wide.
5 - The largest gathering of people with the same first name
Around 1,096 Mohammed’s gathered at the event as part of the DSF at Creek Park, Dubai, on 10 February 2005.
For the full feature and list, click here.
London’s skyline mood ring
In a very interesting social media campaign by EDF Energy, Twitter sentiment towards the London 2012 Olympic Games is set to light up the London Eye.
Enlisting the help of MIT graduates, EDF Energy will monitor Twitter for Tweets surrounding the Games, with phrases such as “Olympics,” “Torch Relay,” “#energy2012″ and “London 2012” being scanned. The amount of positive and negative messaging in the Tweets will then be reflected through the colour of the London Eye lights for 30 minutes every evening during the Games. Yellow reflects positive sentiment, green reflects neutral, whist purple reflects negative.
For the full story, click here.
In other news…
Photobomb it like Beckham
Beck’s surprised unwitting shoppers at Westfield Stratford City in London this week, prompting tears of delight from unsuspecting men, women and children who thought they were merely having their photos taken in a show of support for TeamGB!
Watch the video here.
For the full story, click here.
Rupert Murdoch resigns as News International director
Rupert Murdoch, 81, has quit a string of directorships at NI Group Ltd, NewsCorp Investments and Times Newspaper Holdings, including his position as News International director at News Corporation UK. News Corp now plans to split into two firms, separating newspapers / book publishing, and TV and film enterprises. According to BBC News, a spokesman said: “This is nothing more than a corporate house-cleaning exercise prior to the company split.”
For the full story, click here.
Foursquare rolls out first ads
Promoted Tweets and Highlighted Posts are now standard advertising tools in offering businesses extra exposure. Adding to this Foursquare has now launched its “Promoted Updates” feature, which allows business owners to send local updates to customers nearby. The ads are also designed to target users whose friends frequently check in, or often visit similar venues in the area.
For the full story, click here.