As our site grows every day we want to share some information with you on the way we are operating the project. We call this section «Business Blog» as it is similar to doing a log book where data is recorded in a chronological order. «Blogging» is gaining popularity with more and more people picking up the habit of publishing their experiences and thoughts on the Internet. Our Blog covers various topics — from TOEFL, TOEIC, MBA, GMAT, ESL/EFL test preperation to cultural traditions and current political events.
There will also be some Internet marketing terminology and if you have any questions regarding the information simply let us know.

The Business Blog is written by Torsten Daerr and edited by Alan Townend.

2003 — September 04
Our server problems seem to have been solved and this episode could be filed under «The little peculiarities of daily life» as it turned out there was no «irreparable damage» at all — the reason for the server difficulties was very simple if not to say banal and now that Slava has found it and pointed it out to our ISP so they could react appropriately and everything appears to be in perfect order.
What's so funny about all this is that it would have taken only just a moment's thought for the technician at our ISP to point us in the right direction. How did that expression from the great poet go — «All's well…»?

A friendly person by the name of Shane Spencer — an ESL teacher from the UK has found our website and posted the address to a Chinese English language forum. He initiated a thread of messages from people located in China taking Alan's tests and reading the other materials on our site. Some people in the forum said they could not open the tests and Shane Spencer gave them directions and even submitted a thumbnail of the site. It's so amazing to see how people from around the globe are finding our project useful…

2003 — September 03
Today I had an interesting conversation with the co-founder of the company that hosts our virtual server. My phone call was prompted by an email I received from our ISP (Internet Service Provider). The email simply read that we had to reinstall all our databases and set up the server anew from scratch. Now, Slava has invested hundreds of hours over the past 4 months building the system which, for example, allows us to add new interactive tests or edit texts in real time with only very basic HTML skills. The discussion I had with Mr L once again reminded me that we are far from being a high standard service country and that people all too often tend to forget that their customers are not computers but human beings. When I asked Mr L what kind of errors he had detected on our server he asked me how I knew that there were any errors. Now, I don't want to recount the entire conversation but the bottom line was that this company sends emails 'signed support department' and when a customer wants clarification via phone they can't identify the origin of their own messages.
Technology is a blessing...

2003 — September 02
Yesterday the first person who can be identified as being a citizen of the People’s Republic of China has subscribed to our newsletter. How do we know the person is from «Red China»? Very simple — her email address has the top level domain .cn

Well, some of you might argue that there are lots of companies around the world that are using a «.cn» domain and yes, you would be right. But her name also sounds very Chinese so it’s very likely she is from the country with the fastest growing internet population. It is estimated that the number of people using the internet in China will exceed 200 million by 2005. Can you imagine the tremendous potential the Chinese internet market holds?

2003 — September 01
You might wonder why I'm dwelling upon the dealings and achievements of Google. What's it all about? Well, like it or not, Google's turned into a force you can't quite ignore. The vast majority of internet users turn to it when they search for information on any conceivable topic. Yet Google isn't just the most popular search engine at present but also the story of two students realizing an amazing vision and creating more than 1,000 jobs worldwide. Although I don't personally know any Google employees, from what I know I can imagine that a job at Google provides you with what many people look for: a pleasant working environment, a fast-growing international company and huge potential for promotion. And for me there is another interesting fact about Google: the two founders of the company are from two countries that not so long ago were the bitterest enemies. Do you remember what Ronald Reagan called Moscow? — «the home of evil». Before the existence of the internet, Sergey Brin wouldn't in his wildest dreams have imagined the opportunities he's provided with today.