Learn to read and pronounce Korean Hangul in 2 days

You don’t need a black belt in Taekwondo to master the Korean language, actually… reading Hangul (Korean writing) is surprisingly easy!

That’s the main point I am trying to make in this post. While the Korean characters seem complex at first, they are easy to read within one week. Skip the touristic English metro maps, and start learning the way the correct way!

Truth is that this information applies for… Continue reading... | 12 Comments

EU Parlement in Brussels (pictures)

Visited the European Parliament Espace Léopold in Brussels today;
The complex is not the official seat of Parliament, which is the Immeuble Louise Weiss in Strasbourg, France, but as most of the other institutions of the European Union are in Brussels, Parliament built the Brussels complex in order to be closer to their activities. A majority of the Parliament’s work is now geared to its Brussels site, but it is legally… Continue reading...

Search engine Empas.com is ready for a comeback in Korea

Empas.com is a South Korean web portal dating back as far as 1998. They became big with their cocky slogan: “If Yahoo can’t find it, Empas can.” Empas ranks five out of five on our list of (most visited) Korean web companies, However, Empas has lost ground against competitors as Naver and Daum, it seems that their strategy was unsuccessful. Currently, Empas is bought by another company, together they… Continue reading...

Daum: boring, but innovative in user generated content

Daum communications is huge, they are the biggest operator of Korean websites and they also operate in China with 365ren.com, and in the U.S. with the acquired Lycos portal. The word ‘Daum’ is Korean for ‘next’, but at first sight, they might come over as another boring web portal aiming for sensational celebrity news, or is it?

Okay, Browsing to Daum.net feels like browsing through time at first. Don’t be surprised to see a banner in the middle of the screen, offering you a Daum car insurance, or other income streams in in-house finance or shopping products. However, Daum.net scores (40 million active users) with UCG (user generated content) and sensational news. Continue reading...

Search engine Naver is best in localized results, example for others?

We see increasing amounts of search engines popping up on the internet, they are using advanced algorithms to come up with better results. Not in Korea, at least not at Naver. Employees analyze, index and produces content for their search engine by hand. Even though this labor intensity, they count for 70% of the search queries in their country, leaving Google far behind. Naver, founded… Continue reading...

Social community Cyworld a trendsetter in E-commerce?

Cyworld is a social networking site, not big, and attempts to go abroad have failed in both Europe and Japan. Currently, they don’t even have an English interface. However, Cyworld got my attention because of their business model, and the generated revenue they receive from it.

While the majority of the social communities get their income primarily from ads, Cyworld demonstrates that a online community can run it’s business better then… Continue reading... | 4 Comments

Moving from Imovie ‘06 to ‘08 was a surprise

I have always been a fan of the quick and easy movie suite for mac called Imovie

I had finally had the chance to play with the latest version ~Imovie ‘08 during the weekend.

At first, Imovie 08 was a bit of a disappointment to me. I expected a program with a timeline (who’s idea was it to leave that out), and extra additions such as themes to spice up… Continue reading... | 1 Comment