Uri Breitman Manifesto
Yeah, it's me. That's how I look
(Auto)-Biography



I was born, so my parents told me, in September 1976 at the city of Haifa. I'm a male and I plan to keep it that way. Haifa's a coast-town, at the north-western part of Israel. It's a perfect example of Arab-Jewish co-existence, with perfect harmony and no ethnic disputes. It's very different from Jerusalem's holy madness.

What does the name "URI" mean?
1) In Hebrew - "my fire". Like the Doors' song "Light my fire". You probably also know Uri Geller, right? so that's my first name, too.
2) On the Internet - Universal Resource Identifier. It's similar to "URL" - those addressess of sites you type on your browser window.
3) One of the 26 cantons of Switzerland. I'm not Swiss, although I do own a Swiss knife, and one day - a Swiss bank account.
4) Upper respiratory infection. Medical term for a "cold". Not very nice, but common just the same.

So now you know what "URI" means. Let's move on with our micro-biography.

In 1995 I moved to Tel-Aviv, the central Israeli metropolin city. The reason for the move: serving 3.5 years in the Israeli Army Radio (I've completed my service there, and now retired from reserve duty). I served as a reporter for the Art & Entertainment department. After the long army service, I went through four years of academic studies, and got my degree of Law and Business Administration at Tel Aviv University (TAU).

I love the Internet as a global communication tool.
I admire the way the Internet enables people to find valuable information, exchange goods & services, and interact with other people, all over the globe. I've found a way to deal with my hobby through working on the Net.

Since July 1999 to February 2004, I was part of the editorial staff of one of Israel's leading portals - Nana.co.il. My specialities are web-search, CPC advertising, Interface design and a bit of e-Commerce here and there.

Recently I completed a (Hebrew) seminary work regarding legal aspects of Search Engines, and another seminary work dealing with the Right to be elected in a Post-Democracy. Both were pretty extensive (90-100 pages each), and received good reviews from scholars and readers. In January 2005 I published a book on Progressive Rock, the first of its kind in the Hebrew language. The Israeli separation wall is also a subject I'm concerened about. My mother is one of the board members for the Haifa Women's Crisis Shelter, so I built their modest website.

In 10/8/04 I started working for Quigo Technologies, an Israeli-American company specialising in search engine marketing (SEM) and online contextual advertising. The company provided Paid Inclusion for online merchants (FeedPoint), and targteted text ads for publishers on the net (AdSonar, competitor of Google's Adsense). The company headquarters moved to NYC and sold to AOL, but I stayed here and turned to other areas of search engine business projects (SEO & SEM).

I also worked for an Israeli Internet advertising company (BAIS) for a while - Microsoft is one of her biggest clients. Then moved to Seology for deeper SEO work, and later made some SEO projects for Copernicus Systems.
In August 2006 I've begun heading the search engine marketing division of TBWA\Digital, serving many Israeli clients such as Discount Bank, McDonald's, Toto-Winner, Zhuti, Etzmaleh and Spirit World Productions, which lately started to market a direct flight to the Caribbean Islands.

Shortly thereafter I've opened my Freedom of Search blog, focusing on search engine like Google, tech innovations, pulic policies of the search industry and latest SEO methods.



Israel background
Israel is much smaller than you may think. It has about 6.6 million Israeli citizens, and about 3 million Palestinians, who are not Israeli citizens. That's why I think Israel's a post-democracy, not a real democracy. That's the key to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the Palestinians don't have any civil rights. They are in a much worse position than the black Afro-Americans before the 1965 civil rights act. In fact, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict shares some elements of the American civil war - fighting for basic human rights and against slavery. Israel may be facing an internal civil war regarding the legal status of the Palestinian people.

Contrary to what most of the world thinks, Israel is not *always* a violent, primitive desert with camels and ancient cities. The impression you might get from watching BBC, CNN or any other news network, is heavily distorted. The bottom line is: what you see on TV is not our daily lives. What you see on TV is the extreme moments of some people's lives. It's true - since 1967, Israel is holding lots of innocent people under military rule, and that's highly un-democratic, as the UN keeps reminding everybody. I think the solution is: 1) A Palestinian state; 2) Changing Israel's definition as a "jewish-only" state; 3) Treating the Israeli arabs as equal citizens, and understanding their collective needs, not only their individual rights.

So - we don't ride camels to school. No, we are not surrounded by stormy desert sands. Most of us do NOT speak Arabic - only Hebrew and English. No, Arafat wasn't the prime minister of Israel. It's amazing how many people have a clear view on Israeli politics without having a clue about what's going on here. But it's also pretty amazing how many Israeli citizens don't have a clue about their own country, its history and its problems.

Most of the Israelis are NOT soldiers or Ultra-Orthodox fanatics. They are generally secular - much like the christians in the UK. Many Israelis treat Judaism as a cultural tradition, not a blind faith. Those who do (Ultra-Orthodox, or "Haredim"), are not considered mainstream Israelism.

We have cable TV, Hollywood movies, computers and internet, lots of Universities & Colleges, and many middle-size cities - The most important are Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv, Haifa, Rishon Letzion & Beer-Sheva. Israel's "Miami" is called Eilat.


Hobbies and Contacts
I appreciate artistic movies, Modern Jazz, Progressive Rock, Classical and Israeli music. I played some piano & some electrical bass (and a bit of drums, just for fun, in the past). I can talk for hours about prog-rock bands such as Yes, King Crimson, ELP, Gentle giant, Genesis, the director Hitchcock or such subjects as Aliens (not only the movie series - the real thing too...).

You can talk to me through Facebook.
Learn more about the stuff I wrote, pay a tribute to the late Yitzhak Rabin, or just enjoy the lovely paintings on the classics art museum.

You're welcome to email me freely (uribreitman@gmail.com).

Mobile telephone is also an option:
  • Local number (Israel) -- 0522-470-282
  • International -- +972-522-470282.


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