BlogAllAlong

As I was talking to my inlaw yesterday about the Cisco Teleprecense, and as I was joking about it, I realized it’s seriously bringing a whole new dimension of problems to Kuwait. Imagine this. Every holiday season big fights arise about banning celebrities from coming to Kuwait. Kuwait has authority to ban them from coming. But what if I use Teleprecense for virtual live show? Now the singer technically didn’t come to Kuwait, so what are you going to do about it?

But let’s be frank here, no matter how good, people like to see celebrities in flesh and blood. There is however another thing similar and more serious. Some popular Islamic figure have caused recently big debates about coming to Kuwait, and how they should be banned. Away from politics and religion, now what if those banned people start giving their Islamic lectures through this teleprecense, and there is no law against it. There is no law that says you cannot download and listen to this lecture, and this is just a very advanced video version of it.

New laws need to be in place that controls and governs those areas, and clarifies them. I’m not suggesting here to ban or fight this wonderful technology, not at all. But such new game changing technologies should have clear laws governing them, otherwise we will end up with same Bashar & Jassem jailing story for a comment on their site, as they were mistreated like a published newspaper. Or when it’s too late, MOC will come up with similar law to VoIP, saying this is a crime!

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The bug of the eight digits with Wataniya came back yesterday, but this time it has evolved into something worse. Not only I couldn’t make a call at the intersection, but I kept calling while going forward to Fahaheel and I got like 5 consecutive “We cannot redirect your call, please add #2 infront of the number and dial again” Ofcourse, I’m calling Batriq @ 1888000, so it’s already changed to new numbering plan. I then got another 5 busy or idle responses, the type that happens when there is coverage problems. The problem started from 2nd Ring Road & Fahaheel intersection, and went on till Cairo St. #35 a Fahaheel Road. Such a long way to call it a cell handover problem isn’t it? Unless ofcourse if the edge of the cells run all along this Fahaheel Road area, which would be simply bad design and/or worse installation and configuration.

 

I wonder what happened to the guy roaming the world over the red carpet really :)

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This is a follow up to the disappointing first fix to enforce Google.com as default search engine. While it have worked for few days on all browsers, today and all of a sudden, Google Chrome bar default searches took me back to Google.com.kw. I don’t want you for God’s sake! Do I need to give away my nationality for a decent Google.com search?

Luckily, I have quickly found another way. To do so, click on the spanner icon in the top right corner of Google Chrome. and select Options.

Then, under Basics tab, click on Manage from Default search:

If you see an item here with keyword Google.com.kw, remove it. It would probably have (Default) beside it, indicating it’s the default address bar search engine. Now look for another existing Google entry, or Add a new one if no one exist. In my case, I found and edited this Google entry:

Alter they keyword here to your likings, and the URL to whats shown in the image: “http://www.google.com/search?q=%s”

Click OK when done, select the engine you just edited and click on the Make Default button on right side of the pop-up screen. Close, Close and you should be done :)

Hope that’s the last of it.

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For the people so much annoyed with Google forcing them to go to their local domain version, e.g. Google.com.kw or what ever your region is, this is how to switch back to normal Google.com as your default search. Simply go to your local Google home page, e.g. Google.com.kw, and then click on Google.com in English.

 

 

 

NOTE: At time of Google.com.kw launch, this same solution did not use to work as it should. It would take you back then to Google.com, but if you use the browser default Google search engine you would land again on .KW domain. Next day, it was working properly. So I’m not sure if this same link works the same way on domains other than .KW. Let me know how it goes with you.

 

UPDATE: Bad news. Google.com.kw is enforced on me back again and I assume many others when searching using Chrome Address Bar. Same trick does not work. Firefox Google Search Engine and address bar both dont have the same problem. Looks like we’re gonna need a hack for it ;/. Thank you Google for not doing evil. Thank you.

 

UPDATE 2: I have tried to contact Google Chrome feedback for reporting this behavior. Not the best place, but it is a place that they will read at least.

 

UPDATE 3: I found the solution for Chrome Google Default Search. You can read it here.

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I was really surprised to see this “Signup Now. Your information will be confidential” box as I was browsing the 6alabat.com page, as I still recall the day they sold us out for spam. 

 

So I thought maybe that’s my mistake I didn’t read their privacy policy clearly. I went on to their Privacy Policy page, and at the bottom of the page, under Usage of Information you find this:

 

 

So part of the administrative purposes is sending us those emails I presume:

 

Or was it a judgmental order back then? I’m confused!

 

Thank you, but no thank you. I have made my mind back then. No more 6alabat for me.

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Following yesterday’s sudden launch and pushing of Google.com.kw on all Kuwait, there was a big strong reactions against it. It turns out most people hated to be forced for Google.com.kw, as they lose some the gadget search it seems along with some other stuff, and what they hated more was the Arabic interface. I’m not sure if it’s something I did, but the force of Google Kuwait is gone for me.

 

Are you still being forced to it?

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Google today have released and pushed to the people of Kuwait their new Google.com.kw domain. If you have gone already to Google.com, you may have well noticed as I did you’re being redirected to the Google.com.kw domain instead. While this is not a Kuwait only search engine as we intended to do with Q8Ba7th, it is a global search engine biased for Kuwait results. Try searching for “العربي” for example on Google global and Google Kuwait:

 

Google.com Results

 

Google.com.kw Result

 

You can clearly see Al-Arabi sport club showing in first few results in Google.com.kw. Yes it is more targeted, if you wish to have such results, keep it your default search engine. I have to say however, I was not imporessed with Google’s “Do No Evil” way of pushing the new search engine in my face, and with an ugly Arabic interface. The side options link are barely readable, and getting English results from left to right is definitely not the best way to browse the results. Not what fairy tales would tell you about how Google takes +2 points difference in font size as a serious unforgivable mistake. The least they could’ve done is maintained my English interface. That way I won’t feel more confused.

I am also still wondering how can I set Google.com as the default search engine. I can go to Google.com.kw main page, click on “Google.com In English” link. However I want the default Google Chrome address bar to give me results from Google.com. How can I do that now?

WONDER IF: I also wonder if that’s got anything to do with Google.com.sa agent calling me to offer changing my Adwords account to Saudi Arabia billing address few weeks ago as Google has no presence in Kuwait, saying he can manage it that way. Was it an attempt to take away Kuwait Adwords accounts before they can take control over it? Maybe. But I wouldn’t care either ways.

 

Related Buzz Around The Blogosphere:

http://dr-mahbob.com/blog/2008/12/11/google-kuwait/

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