Rubénerd!

I've been informed that it's not just Chinese New Year (Gong Xi Gong Xi Gong Xi Ni! Gong Xi Gong Xi Gong Xi Ni!) but its also Valentine's Day. So in the spirit of the day I thought I'd wish all my blog readers here, Google Reader buddies and Twitter followers happy Valentines Day, because you make my life just that little bit less lonely, and I love each and every one of you! Don't ever change! Except Neal, you should move closer to inner Dublin so when a freak blizzard messes up our schedule its easier to meet up.

Sincerely and with lots of hugs (or manhugs, as the situation may warrant),
Ruben

Starbucks have released a PDF of their opening hours during the Chinese New Year long weekend. Their branches at Liat Towers, Pacific Plaza, Plaza Singapura (with the exception of Tuesday), Raffles City, Northpoint and all the airport terminals are still open 24 hours. All the branches in the CBD around Raffles Place are completely closed.

No word at all on the Coffee Bean's website whether they're open or not. Killiney Kopitiam seems to be closed from the ones I've been to.

This has been a public service announcement from the Rubénerd.com Coffee Obsessors Association, Pte Ltd, Pty Ltd, GmBH, Sdn Bhd, LLLLLLLP.

Google's creative and unconventional logos celebrating certain events and milestones throughout the year are fun to watch, but their latest one for Google Singapore shows the local versions of their sites aren't so local!

The current localised Google Singapore logo is the same Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics logo featured on the primary Google.com site. While it certainly is cheaper to do homogenous worldwide marketing, one would think the local Google Singapore site would have reflected an infinitely more important celebration here and the rest of the Sino world: Chinese New Year.

In terms of value and importance, CNY is the equivalent of every Western holiday rolled into one. I walked along Orchard Road early this afternoon -- one of the busiest shopping precincts in South-East Asia -- and it was practically deserted. It is HUGE here. No, let me say that properly:

Chinese New Year is HUGE here

The other thing to keep in mind is Singapore is a tropical country. The temperature barely ever falls below 29 degrees C during the day. People here could barely care less about Winter Olympics, especially during this time of the year.

Something screwy going on?

I hadn't even thought of this, but Dean (@dg01844) on Twitter even suggested an ulterior motive for not putting Chinese New Year graphics on their Singapore site:

@Rubenerd could be a snub given their troubles with China

If that's true, and it could very well be, it's a snub against independent Chinese communities around the world and not just the PRC with whom they've had difficulties. I would be extremely disappointed and quite angry if that were the case.

Anyway some free advice to Google if they're listening: if you're going to operate local versions of sites, you would do yourself a huge favour by celebrating (or even just acknowledging) local holidays and events and not using blanket marketing for sites around the world that some of your customers either don't know or care about.

The weird thing is, I remember seeing Chinese New Year graphics on Google in the past. Again I hope they're not snubbing all Chinese people around the world just because they've had a spat with the PRC, and perhaps on a lesser level I hope they don't really think a Winter Olympics here are somehow more important otherwise I worry about the long term viability of their "local" site!

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