Over the last month 223 of you have made your way to this blog through a search engine, using 178 different keywords, according to the ever-useful Google Analytics service.
Many people came here after searching for information about Anwar Ibrahim, the Malaysian opposition leader, loan sharks and Singapore. Not surprising as that I have given these subjects a lot of coverage over recent weeks.
The most popular inbound search term was "ben bland blog", which led to 24 visits. I can assure you that none of these were vanity searches...
One person arrived at The Asia File after searching for "ben bland journalist photo". I wonder whether I have a secret admirer or if the media police from one of the regions more repressive regimes are after me.
While I hope to satisfy all my readers, some of the searchers will undoubtedly arrive here to much disappointment.
Like the web fiends who googled "asian upskirt blogspot.com" and "search spunking" only to end up at one of the region's most high-brow political blogs.
One apparent entreprenuer searched for "how to start loan shark singapore" but sadly for him/her this blog will have been of little use, other than to provide some basic information about the typical interest rates charged by the illegal moneylenders.
If only they could have connected with the visitor who googled "loan shark needed singapore".
Some of the inbound searches seem to defy logic and question my faith in the supremacy of the Google way.
Why someone would search for "markings on land that no one can explain" and end up here, I cannot understand.
Still, so long as the search engines keep driving traffic here, I cannot complain.
Showing posts with label blogs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogs. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Harvard management guru's Singapore tribute backfires
UPDATE: Perhaps rather predictably, the Straits Times has re-published Davenport's blog as the main piece in its comment section today (Thursday) under the headline "Not perfect, but still a role model". It's ironic that the piece probably came to their attention because of Singaporeans criticising it.
Tom Davenport is an American management guru who has written books such as The Attention Economy, What's the big idea? and Thinking for a living and writes a rather self-elevated blog called The Next Big Thing for Harvard's business publishing unit.
After a recent trip to Singapore he penned a laudatory post about the city-state, suggesting in typical management speak that it could be a "model of judgement" for the US.
He praised Singapore for being hardworking, disciplined, obsessed with education and ethnically diverse with good infrastructure and a strong economy.
So you'd think his comments would go down well with Singaporeans, right? Well, think again. Of the more than 20 reactions all but one or two are highly critical of his rose-tinted view of Singapore.
The commenters seem to take particular umbrage at Davenport's suggestion that "many of the seemingly autocratic regulations might be justified by the ethnic diversity and high population density of the country".
It's interesting that while China's online rabble tend to target blogs that make negative comments about their country, Singapore's internet community tend to go after anyone who is too positive about their nation.
Hat-tip to The Online Citizen.
Tom Davenport is an American management guru who has written books such as The Attention Economy, What's the big idea? and Thinking for a living and writes a rather self-elevated blog called The Next Big Thing for Harvard's business publishing unit.
After a recent trip to Singapore he penned a laudatory post about the city-state, suggesting in typical management speak that it could be a "model of judgement" for the US.
He praised Singapore for being hardworking, disciplined, obsessed with education and ethnically diverse with good infrastructure and a strong economy.
So you'd think his comments would go down well with Singaporeans, right? Well, think again. Of the more than 20 reactions all but one or two are highly critical of his rose-tinted view of Singapore.
The commenters seem to take particular umbrage at Davenport's suggestion that "many of the seemingly autocratic regulations might be justified by the ethnic diversity and high population density of the country".
It's interesting that while China's online rabble tend to target blogs that make negative comments about their country, Singapore's internet community tend to go after anyone who is too positive about their nation.
Hat-tip to The Online Citizen.
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