Official ABC Mundi blog

We are adding the first non-English speaking country to our directory.

Guatemala is known for having some of the most striking contrasts in the world. It’s also known for its ebullient web community and for being one of the first nations to adopt the web for banking, industry, and business.

Names like deguate.com (a web portal), lahora.com.gt (one of the longest running and most user-friendly online newspapers in any language), or centramerica.com have aged well and their results are usually at the top of Latin American search results.

We found more than 500 websites across banking, academia, government, and business.

A typical country scene in Guatemala

Some additional recommendations:

In English:

Casa Xelaju, a famed English language school

Visit Guatemala, official tourism website

Pollo Campero, a restaurant chain. An ongoing success story and a welcoming sight for migrant Latin Americans whether in Los Angeles, Madrid, or New Delhi.

Vestex a website for the promotion of apparel and textiles

In Spanish:

El Quetzalteco, a newspaper describing life as it happens in the country’s second city and a must for the avid Spanish language enthusiast.

Revista Industria, a monthly magazine for the Chamber of Industry

This is our first regional entry and it applies to websites that benefit Europe as a whole.  They are usually multilanguage sites.

The .eu top level domain contains European Union federations, organizations,  research bodies, and it is the perfect starting point for the ABC Mundi EU site.  Expect to find here any collaborative efforts that spread across multiple European countries.

Our recommendations:

Listenlive.eu An ultra lean directory for virtually all FM radio stations in Europe. Check out the new additions section.

Abceu.eu A B2B marketplace for Czech and Slovak leads among others. It is quite remarkable the use of English as the main language and acting almost as a  ‘mediator’.

readyforequity.eu Entrepreneurship training

urbact.eu a 29-country effort to promote sustainable urban development in European cities.

cbi.eu Centre for the promotion of imports from developing countries. At a time when export is the usual subject in developing countries in the EU, it is refreshing to find a place where imports are discussed.

mastersportal.eu a search portal for advanced studies looking to continue Masters degrees

We blogged last September that the title of the Irish Prime minister’s website had the word ‘Google’ in it (presumably to increase its ranking).

Well, after months of waiting, this apparent mishap has now been fixed and surprise, surprise:  world order has been restored.

Both Google and Bing now return the Wikipedia entry with a higher rank.

Google results for query "irish prime minister"

Speaking of Bing, it seems so weird that the count of approximate results is identical to the one returned by Google.  That alone would merit an entire new blog to dissect.