Hi, as always - an interesting , concise and elegant post. thanks!

im currently in australia, i also worked with people from business and academic backgrounds in europe and US. i am beginning to think there is an 'anglo-saxon' coat/blanket/sphere in which internet products and services are created and nurtured. are you getting the same vibe sometimes ? is it just me ?



it would seem a lot of young people , who know english/german/french/spanish seem to converge on they same services and push the trends. i only have particulars to work on, german students who use the same e-bay, twitter, facebook, etc as their counteract in US or australia..and because of the english language - all of the sudden whether its brazilian, german, american or australian - they all want the same things and services (its probably a positive feedback loop). while globalization is now a tired word, it does interest me to note continents are now converging, yet not all of them - the anglo saxons are a prominent one, and i think the asians are building a whole sphere of their own. Perhaps its not continents but traditionally european cultures ?? i work in a lab where half the people are from asian countries - they use a completely different sets of websites/services/content. im pretty sure they are not all in one sphere at the moment (i.e south koreans are separate from chinese which are separate from japanese). But - will they converge ?

and how all this reflect on little israel ? i am away from the centre of action these days (being in OZ...) would you say israelies - who are so keen on technological advances and R&D, are also getting that whiff of anglo-saxonism and so better their products/services ?

:)

sorry for the long post,

long live the queen !

R (aka dutch)

p.s my apologies if this was submitted twice.

Reut, thanks for the long comment.

In Israel, Facebook is a huge success, as well as Linkedin for professional networking. However, there are national networks such as The Marker Cafe who where pretty successful at the time.

US products has a bigger effect on worldwide users as their local market is huge. Then they are able to finance their operation easily and go abroad. Also Pro Geeks are reading US sources of information, so we are pretty much influenced by US applications.

Having said that, it seems that just like in any other aspect of globalization, cultural differences trickle to online application usage. for example, Jaiku was a bigger success in Europe than in the US. As you've mentioned, Asian applications are different from Western applications. As most of the application you mentioned are mainly in the area of social communication, the differences in the way that people interact in real life affect their usage pattern of online apps.

enjoy your coffee ! that was a speedy comment !

hmmm... so the question is if US applications are successful in Israel - then software developers are socially affected and hence understand better (subconsciously perhaps) the psychology behind anglo-saxon services & products and can direct their products more efficiently to the 'BIG' market. (afaik no one really thinks the israeli market in itself is worth investing software wise). Since you cover a lot of startup companies i was wondering if you feel this kind of drift or not.



another point is that if israeli developers are NOT drifting or moving towards that direction (i.e. 'understanding the anglo-saxon world') this might leave them behind in a global world where 3 continents (as i see it the moment of course - OZ, EU & US) combine their skills quite effortlessly. eventually the large numbers will over take ....



i's be delighted to hear your comments. i think you see a bigger picture than i (but who sees the frame....hmmmm)