Instead of spending a loathsome afternoon with a salesman, customers of Auto-by-Tel, the leading Internet car-buying service, simply tell the service what kind of car they want, and wait for nearby dealerships to make their best offer.

ECONOMIST: Electronic commerce

And whenever I go to Iraqi Kurdistan or whenever I go to Turkey, I say, hey, look, the United States, for example, is friendly with Israel, we're also friendly with Saudi Arabia, and we don't let Riyadh and we don't let Tel Aviv tell us to not be friendly with the others.

NPR: After Turkish Airstrikes, Rice Visits Kirkuk

The word from those who ply their trade in Tel Aviv tell a story of a techonomy that is much closer knit than its northern Californian counterpart, which streamlines the process of getting things done and make projects tackled there quicker to come to fruition.

FORBES: The World's Top 4 Tech Capitals To Watch (after Silicon Valley and New York)