David Notik

Shalom can mean either hello or goodbye in Hebrew.

In this case it means hello. Today, Google announced the official launch of its operations in Israel.

From one article:

Woodside added that Google would “convert” most of its products to Hebrew within the next 18 months.

From another article:

"Israelis are chronic searchers. The search is the main use they make of Internet, while for Americans, the main use of Internet is e-mail. The Israeli surfer adopts technologies faster," TheMarker quoted Brand as saying.

and:

TheMarker speculated that because the company has invested extensively in the new Israel office, including worker training and securing local contracts, "(Google's) doing a lot more here than creating a search engine in Hebrew."

Bill Gates said recently that Israel "is part of the Silicon Valley", the area in the States known for its concentration of high-tech industries.

I also posted recently about Intel expanding its own Israel operations.