Good or Bad: Fish Head Curry Restaurant Owner Sues Google and Malaysia Blogger

It’s natural for newspaper articles with headlines Google and bloggers to tickle me. But it commands more of my attention when I see that someone is trying to sue them. Lol. And in The Star, it read Google and Blogger sued by curry fish head restaurant owner. Er, what?

So a Malaysia blogebrity (blog celebrity); Huai Bin aka SixthSeal, published his personal fish head curry experience at a restaurant in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Apparently, the restaurant owner using Google search has filed suit against Huai Bin for his inaccurate review which has affected his business. Furthermore, filed a suit against Google for allowing this defamatory to linger – phbt!

I’ve read Huai Bin’s blog post and though short, may have been really blunt and crude at some corners.

a.k.a. The Worst Fish Head Curry and Banana Leaf Restaurant in the Known Universe

However, I may have written similar if the food was really that bad.

As for trying to sue Google, honestly, what was your lawyer thinking?! *slaps forehead* The first thought which jumped into my mind, being in this industry, you already lost. Google is a search engine. It measures not only whether your review is good, bad or the best. It factors in variables like incoming traffic, internal links and others. In short, it’s a machine.

My Personal Recommendation to this Crisis Management

As much as you may detest Huai Bin now, professionally approach him and formally request the deletion of the article. And if your PR is better than your lawsuit, invite Huai Bin with some of his friends to come over and re-evaluate the food. If I were a restaurant owner proud of my food quality and positive reviews elsewhere, I wouldn’t have a problem pitting my food for a 2nd evaluation. After all, this isn’t MasterChef.

As for dealing with Google, forget about it and try rewriting the bad with the good. I recently read an article on SEOMoz; Our Online Reputation Management Playbook, which I’d recommend taking a gander and pager.

By the way, even if Lonely Planet doesn’t list you in their website anymore, there are other websites like TripAdvisor which had positive feedback dating back to December 1, 2010.

Personally, look at it as an opportunity than a negativity.

Groupon Acquires Malaysia Startup Company GroupsMore

I’ve not followed the GroupsMore startup but I was really excited to hear about this. In truth, I’ve only recently signed up for GroupsMore as an experimentation to purchase a t-shirt printing deal.

Groupon came from the concept of bulk-buying. It leverages the buying group power to tip or win the deal of your choice. And in order to make the deals more exclusive and demanded, it added the woot! concept – 1 deal per day.

But seriously, news of Groupon acquiring a Malaysian startup is big news. Like when Facebook acquired the Malaysia company, Octazen.

There’s not much press circulating about this acquisition. The only press I could spot online came from CNBC.

“The acquisition of GroupsMore is further evidence of Groupon’s strong commitment to working with only the best collective buying sites throughout Asia and across the globe,” said Rob Solomon, president and chief operating officer of Groupon. “We will continue to help shape the way local merchants market themselves in every corner of the world.” Groupon Malaysia has now joined Groupon’s global network, which offers unbeatable deals to more than 50 million subscribers in 40 countries. Groupon employs more than 4,000 people worldwide.

Source: CNBC

And when I told Hawk about this, he mentioned it was the right strategic move from Groupon to acquire a competitor and grow seamlessly into the Malaysia market, or South-East Asia. Well-played, Groupon.

So, who’s the next Malaysia Internet startup to be acquired soon?

Update: January 29, 2011

Groupon entered South East Asia market as early as December 2010. They acquired similar concept Internet companies; Beeconomic in Singapore, uBuyiBuy in Hong Kong and AtLastPost in Taiwan.

Beware of DiGi Automated Facebook Status Subscription Service

When I logged into Facebook today, they informed I had to tighten my personal security. That’s fine. However, when it came to setting up authentication via mobile, be wary of the automated telco service subscription.

Facebook does not charge

Mobile verification is becoming common today. And initial thought was, texting to Facebook wouldn’t give me problems. It didn’t.

But DiGi on the other hand

Note the successful registration. All I did was follow Facebook’s step to text F to 2325. But in return, DiGi tells me I was successfully subscribed to their Facebook mobile service. WTF?! Plus, they would have charged me RM1.00 per week if I didn’t notice this.

Once I got the confirmation code sent to me from Facebook, I didn’t waste time terminating my automated subscription. Because I didn’t want to be subscribed to any service in the first place! This automation has left me a really bad taste in my mouth and impression of DiGi.

So if you’re asked by Facebook to tighten your security like me, and have or want to do the mobile verification, be careful of such automated subscriptions methods from your telco.

By the way, do name your telco if you experienced this.

I Heart Borneo Awareness Campaign

Instead of me telling you about this campaign, this guy tells it much better. Plus, spot the giant bunny!

To my brothers and sisters across the sea

As much as water divides us, our relationship has never weakened. Sure, we may have some differences in culture, but as common bloggers and social media enthusiasts, we love meeting new people.

Allow us on the West side (insert gang sign here) to intrude, befriend, party and at the end of the day, all of us lay on the floor laughing our hearts out from having a great time.

I Heart Borneo and Design

If you’re a designer in the East or West, download the PSD below and communicate your love via design. The only rule is, I Heart Borneo stays and if you’re using the photos from the IHB website, don’t forget the credits.

Have fun and spread the love!

The Future of Web at WebCamp KL 7th Edition

It’s really nostalgic (yet freaky) to remember the times of blinking text and graphics. Then there was the time, Flash introductions in splash pages were the big ‘wow’ factor. But right now, where are we heading with the web? How does website design move forward or most importantly, what’s the next step besides improved user experience?

All in the 7th edition

This’ll be one of the topic of discussion at the upcoming WebCamp KL series. Which will be in it’s 7th edition while hard to believe, it’s now in its 7th month since it started. Kudos to Wu Han who’s seriously driving this, including the speakers and attendees who’s supported this event.

Some of the presentations in this edition:

• Mike Reining, MindValley Founder
  The Future of Affiliate Marketing
• Hilmy, Producer & Game Designer at Titoonic A/S
  Social Gaming and How the Web Media Has Advantages in Games over Consoles
• Aizat Faiz, Software Engineer at Facebook
  Facebook Open Graph (tbc)
• Wu Han
  What’s Next for Web Design? (time permitin’)

WebCamp KL event details

Date: August 26, 2010 (Thursday)

Time: 7:00pm – 11:00pm

Venue: Hall of Awesomeness; MindValley HQ, A-23A-13A Menara UOA Bangsar, Jalan Bangsar Utama 1, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Lately there’s been a lot of web related events happening, SMCKL, Tweetups, Foursquare meetups, WebCamp and others. So it’s unavoidable to find a clash at times.

But if you can’t make it to the event, you can always follow the updates with the Twitter hashtag #wckl later. We’ve a couple of live reporters normally at the event.

Or, if you’d like to know when the 8th edition will happen, join the WebCamp KL Facebook group.