Barcamp in Pune

Finally!!! I might get to attend my first barcamp. I came to know about the barcamp concept just a couple of months back and have been dying to witness one for myself. If i manage to go there will write in detail about the whole experience...by the way this Barcamp is being held at SICSR no 16th and 17th Dec.
For those who are coming across "Barcamp" term for the first time...Barcamp as they say is an "unconference"...its where people meet and talk about new things in the tech sphere and their applications...well this is all as i have read and heard about it from friends...will give a detailed description only after i experience it...
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I missed it again :( guess will have to catch it someother time and some other place...

Google getting into Print Ads

How would all of you here react if i say that Google is on its way to become a full fledged ad broker and who knows in future it might just become an ad agency. Google is planning to become a mediator between the newspapers and the companies bidding for adwords. when a company bids through the adword campaign, Google will send it to the papers and then it is the decision of the papers to accept that bid and design that ad. I doubt the feasibility of this step.

1. its not in sync with what Google represents at present

2. we all know that companies are leaving newspapers and turing to internet advertising, then why would a company want to go back to newspaper advertising.

3. arent there enough companies already who handle the print medium and TV medium ads?? what is Google offering as a differentiator.

One thing Google can do is place the ads in online version of the papers, but then these papers take so much time to upload and offer almost no benefit over the normal news websites, that they are going to obsolete very soon. I wonder what is Google's logic behind this decision....

Wink

A new social network search engine called wink has been introduced. At present the site just includes contacts from bebo, myspace and linkedin. Here you can just put in the name and it lets you view the people by that name and wink them, i.e. send them messages from the same place that is wink....
Initially i thought it allows you to search everyone on a network but thank God i was wrong. You can search even if u are not a member, but only those people who have signed into wink are in the search database. It also allows people to bookmark good links, or to store good links about a particular subject, which in wink parlance is called "collection". I would say its just an ofshoot of the social networks mania.

Social networking or Spamming???

For all those, who have been flooded with invitations from their friends to join Gazzag, have a look at this article.

http://www.oreillynet.com/xml/blog/2006/11/gazzagcom_is_my_new_enemy.html

Google and Yahoo! targeting mobile phones

Google and Yahoo! are planning to target mobile customers for advts. The advts. might be text based, images or video clips. This will just increase the clutter that is there on our mobiles. Already there are a lot of calls advertising about credit cards and what not. I don't think this measure will be much effective as the customers are bound to object to advt. messages disturbing them every now and then. I guess the companies will have to come out with something like a "Do not Disturb policy for the customers. Lets see what happens in near future.

Yahoo to come out with IM in Mail box

Yahoo copies Google once again, it is planning to come out with IM service in Mail box, just like own dear Google has Gtalk in Gmail. I fail to understand what is the problem in Yahoo!. I have hardly seen any genuine ideas from them. For a full article about the same topic visit

http://www.tech2.com/india/news/internet/yahoo-to-offer-im-inside-email/2771/0

Yahoo! ads on Indian Television

Yahoo! has come up with ads in TV. I guess ads of such a product are coming for the first time in Indian television history. I guess this is enough to re-inforce the fact that mass media still holds an important position in Indian market place. True that in internet services, word-of-mouth is the best method, but in India where very few people have an email account, what better way to inform the first time users. Though this ads beats all the creativity blocks. This ad clearly shows the aggression of Yahoo! towards Indian customers. Recently Google's head, Eric Schimdt has also hinted on Google targetting India.

Google goes Solar

Google has announced employing huge solar panels to provide around 1.6 MW energy for its Googleplex, surprisingly this meets only 30 percent of its energy needs. This will be the largets corporate US solar installation. The costs of the installation are not known, but it has been designed by El Solutions and Google plans to recover the costs in around 10 years. Seeing the energy needs of Google i would say a significant and critical investment by them.

A local search for India

Finally a much needed search engine for India, exclusively. This search engine is local in true sense. This search engine has been started by two IIT graduates, and has been funded by Sequoi capital. With the internet penetration rate of around 5 percent, there are already around 60 million searches from India and Guruji certainly has a large market for itself.

ok now enough for the background of the site, some experience of using the site. I used guruji local search, ya there is local search even within India, for "pizza pune", and it gave me the addresses of various pizza places in Pune. just one addition needed, the search should also show the url of the site, if available.

but i must say a very nice piece of work. Accolades to the developers!!!

Yahoo Surrogate email

I must commend Yahoo! on one innovation in its mail system. It has come out with a much needed surrogate email id, which you can delete as and when u want and it works more or less like a normal email id. A good way to control the spams that come from registrations to various sites...

Yahoo launches mail beta

Yahoo comes out with yet another improvement in mail to compete with Gmail. A few good things about it, its faster, the tab system is quiet helful..ok for now i could find only these many good points.....now for the bad points...the window is just tooo cluttered now.....they hav done away with the check boxes, but i guess that was much easier to handle for a technically averse person...attachments still take that much time...Yahoo has shown no innovation, first it emulates outlook, something like Google calendar has been added , you can add events in that calendar, you have a notepad, much like Google notepad, which infact is downloadable and not just limited to mails.....comeone Yahoo! instead of providing a mixture of things already present why not come out with something new and how about a little improvement in performance.....

one more thing i would like to add here...today i had a mail in which there was a big table embedded, and it was really tough to read the table properly in the same frame called reading pane, there should be a way to expand it to window size, and if there already is, Yahoo! should make it a bit obvious, cause E-mailing is a daily thing and I cant waste my time and energy figuring out hidden ways of doing something....

all this makes me more and more convinced that decision to migrate to Gmail was right....

Yahoo! Search Builder

Yahoo has launched its search engine builder, options for search for one's site, for customised web search and for yahoo news search.
In customised web search they provide options to prioritise the web sites to look into while searching, to give the priority search words, and also to exclude a few searches. I have been trying to put this search box since long in this blog and its creating errors. But yahoo search builder needs some improvements like, though i have given priority words, the search results do come with irrelevant results, not related to the words i have given at all, then the excluded words are not always properly excluded and might appear in one form or the other. Just a few of the errors i have been able to spot till now...havent been able to put it up on the blog yet, its code is creating errors in the blog, hope to do that soon.
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sponsored links in orkut

hey guys check out the communities in Orkut...you ll find a new section for sponsored links in the bottom section of the page....

Connect2Develope

This is a little astray from the topics i have been recently posting about, just a discovery i want to share with all of you. I recently came across an online networking site for the techies, so not just another Orkut or MySpace, but exclusively for the techies to discuss their ideas and develope over them in collaboration using the site as the platform. Its called "techtribe" and I m as they say a "triber" in it and have found it quiet exciting. It is aimed at providing an identity for the Indian technology professionals.
Also the company has a campaign called connect2develop, which rewards innovative ideas in technology -- to the tune of Rs. 1 million every month. They just launched it at a press conference in Delhi with the President of NASSCOM.
If you want to check it out, go to www.techtribe.com
This is the first such network focus only on India.
Recently Zensar collaborated with this site to provide a platform to his employees. To read about it more check out http://www.ciol.com/content/search/showarticle1.asp?artid=89124

Branding Google

I was searching for a Brand management presentation topic and landed on brandchannel.com, and as here again i found my beloved Google. Just posting the links for everyone to see...
http://www.brandchannel.com/features_profile.asp?pr_id=30
http://www.brandchannel.com/features_profile.asp?pr_id=216
http://www.brandchannel.com/features_profile.asp?pr_id=279
Happy Reading!!!!!

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One small point, the article in the first link is of 2001, so do the necessary filtering and adjustments while reading.

Blog Search

At present there is a lot of talk about blogs. About blogs being used in marketing, customized advertising, customer feedback, customer reviews, “word of mouth” marketing, etc. We are all seeing an increase in the number of blogs being created everyday, hundreds of them just cluttering the web space, like remains of past satellites or spacecrafts cluttering space. They don’t have anything significant to say, no contribution, a great majority of them have been “under construction” since years. When I m searching about some topic, blogs come very low in the list, what comes first are established sites like wikipedia, news sites, etc. When I look at blogs many of them are just about a person’s personal life, his/her daily life, now how useful is that? Yes, it’s a medium of expression for the person, but apart from that what else. In this whole clutter of personal, under construction or just blank blogs how do I find something that I m looking for. It’s only by chance that I’ll land up at the right blog at the right time. So how much can the companies advertising on a particular blog actually make? Yes, I know they are paying only per click. But doesn’t that mean all that talk about blogs being a good medium for internet marketing. Blogs are no doubt a good source of information provided we spot the right one when we actually need it. So what’s the future of blogging? I think they are not going to last for long, till someone somewhere comes out with a way to make available all the information at one place. Our own blogger.com does give us a way to search the blog space for a particular topic, but how many of us actually go to blogger.com to search for anything. What if Google adds blogsearch to it main page, just like image search, video search etc. This will give a lot of blogs a new lease of life, and thus blogging a new lease of life. So happy blogging!!!

Opppppsssss.......................there is always a google blog search http://blogsearch.google.com/

its just not on the home page...i guess we ll see it there soon enuf

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Search Engine Marketing

Search Engine Marketing or SEM, is another business out of the Google economy. Google Economy has been discussed in the earlier posts. A few days back I had doubts about the effectiveness of Google Adwords campaign. I read somewhere and had also observed this in people, that when we search for something in Google, we know that the right hand side will have sponsored links and thus don’t give it much attention. My doubt was cleared when during a recent class discussion we were told that Google makes around 90 percent of its revenues from Adwords program. This fact was validated by a recent Economic Times article, where it is mentioned that Adwords generated over 5 Billion USD in revenue, which is around 99 percent of the total revenue. One more thing that clears my doubt is the emergence of a number of search marketing firms, not just in the developed nations, where we know Internet economy is quiet developed, but also in India. In a class discussion we were introduced to Pinstrom, a highly successful SEM firm from India. More about the company can be found at its site. In the same Economic Times article I found the names of three more Indian SEM firms, Communicate2, Webchutney and Quasar media, I bet if I go a search right now I will find lots more. So what happens in SEM. I will write here what all I have understood about SEM till now, the learning is still on. An SEM firm acts as a mediator between a company who wants to advertise on Google, through Adwords obviously, and Google itself. So suppose a company X wants to place ads on Google for its products or services. It will approach an SEM firm say Y. Y will decide on the key words for which ads for X should be placed, It would make the complete Adwords campaign, which involves, text, region to which the ads have to be targeted, etc. and then signs up for it. So the ads of company X appear on Google search from a particular region (might be a country, state, city, or a smaller region), for a particular set of key words. This is SEM in a nut shell, will post as and when I discover new things about SEM.

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The Google Story

An insight into Google by David A. Vise and Mark Malseed. A little about the authors from the info I found at the book’s website. David has worked with Washington Post for 22 years as a reporter and at present he is the senior commentator of Breakingviews.com. David has written on various topics and The Google Story is his fourth book. His first book, Eagle on the street, written with Steve Coll won him the Pulitzer Prize, 1990. Malseed has been a researcher for well known journalist, Bob Woodward. He has been a guest commentator on the BBC, ABC News, etc. He has got extensive knowledge about travel and has written a travel column in Boston Herald and for several travel guides.Now, 'The Google Story'. This book is literally a story about Google. It describes in detail about the inception of Google, the obstacles Larry and Sergey had to face and how they overcame those obstacles. For example when they wanted to sell licenses of their search technology, the rejections they had to face, and how they dealt with it. And this was a blessing in disguise I should say. The book describes how the founders had tough times raising money. In fact its mentioned in the book that Google was formed when the founders received a check from their angel investor and it was in the name of Google Inc. I do not remember the name of the angel investor at present. The book describes how Eric Schmidt, the current CEO came into Google. The founders were actually forced to employ someone with a business perspective by their venture capitalists. They had delayed this for long and rejected a large number of candidates. They finally recruited Eric Schmidt, but even this guy had to find ways to develop a synergy with the founders, who were quiet resistant to him. Then the book discusses in detail the growth of Google to its present position. It is a must read for anyone interested in Google.

The Google Economy

Google has brought about a big change in the way marketing people think, before Google came internet marketing was very well present, but not widespread and limited to only to the companies with big advt budgets, search marketing wasn’t heard of. Now small companies can use Google Adwords program for search marketing.

Companies have come up which do the search marketing for another company, right from deciding upon the keywords to the text of the sponsored links. These companies are thriving on Google.

Companies have come up for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), that is making changes in a webpage so that it comes in the first page of Google search for a few words. This is a debatable issue as the search sites are continuously making their algorithms SEO proof.

Blogging has also got a new life because of google. Expression of views will always remain the main reason for blog creation, but people have also started looking at the commercial aspect of starting a blog. Google Adsense is the reason behind this. Some of the successful blogs are earning lots due to Google sponsored ads in their blogs.

So its not just Google that is growing but a whole lot of other fields as mentioned above. Google has brought about a drastic change in the way internet is seen.

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Google pages

One more thing Google comes out with...Google pages....Google already has blogger then why does it need Google pages???? I havent been able to figure out how different it is from blogger, i do see a few problems with it...first its not as easy to use as blogger...u dont get a dashboard link when u open it...u need to login to google pages first....in blogger i can any day open my blog and sign in from there and make the changes.....its so easy....see the blog and make changes then and there.....at this stage I fail to understand the whole purpose of coming out with google pages....

For all the google haters

http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060313-161500

How Reliable??????????

A recent experience...
i had gone to the office of a major cell phone company, unfortunately i have taken their connection and cant get out of it. There i saw something completely incredulous...the employees of the company were shouting on a customer, and i mean shouting in literal sense, i think even people outside the shop wud have heard. I agree that sometimes companies due get irritating customers but are they to be treated like this...and even if those customers deserve such a treatement is it good for the companie's image (ya ya Brand Image, equity, blah blah). What will a prospective customer carry back. Couldn't the customer representative taken the customer aside and discussed this in private???? How much training is the company giving its front-end employees for customer handling...or does it think that customer training is only for call center employees?????? How much have the biz empires of India learnt with regards to customer relations, i think they need some fresh and radical blood.....but who will be ready to work for such a company...atleast not me..............

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Discussion Forum

A discussion forum for us...

For All

i was trying to put a yell box here but nai ho raha........
but if any of u want to write something about any experience here....please do write it as comment....will copy paste it here

A question for all

ok.........again something for google :)
we all use orkut....its our lifeline in classes......:)
i have one basic question about which i havent been able to find any answer yet....
How will Google earn money from Orkut ?????
is it going to be through the same word ads or some other way this time..i dont think they are ever going to make it paid...
i hope u all know how orkut started......for those who dont a very brief history....
Google has a policy of giving every employee 20% of their work time for their own projects....and orkut is the result of one of such projects by its employees....and if u dont know the name find out from orkut.. :)

customer care

India .........known for customer care to the developed nations.....but do we have customer care here in India.....
i had a billing problem with one of the largest telecome players in India....and they the level of customer care provided i dont think this company will last for long...atleast not in the B2C segment.....ok...at present we have many price sensitive people like me......but long term this company has no chance....
first it takes atleast 30 minutes to get to talk to their CCR and through a very convoluted path.....then i get a complaint registered....no respoonse for weeks....finally after 2 weeks they say my problem has been solvd....i check it but it hasnt been solved...another complaint....and again the same...and now i have given up on the company....how long can such companies work in India...they are just playing on prices...how long can they sustain it......and i think those guys forgot what WOM is.....heheh...

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOGLE

more than a fan i think i have fallen in luv with Google.....:) ..nandy asked why??????
i was in google world that time so wasnt able to utter any sensible words............
so here it is.....
Google i love for its founders....the kind of obstacles they got over....their intelligence to actually come up with something like this.....
and then the way they understood the customer.........they were able to cut through established players like yahoo........infact when google larry and sergy offered their search technology to yahoo they were kicked out.........
and then there is their development at present.......gmail......made me shift completely from yahoo...and yahoo for me is just for bulk mail.......why???? first cause its very fast......second..i dont see those irritating disturbing advts and third its very easy.......ya i like to use tech things...but at the end of the day..daily use things have to be easy on u..........rest later....

intro

hi all....
this let us all write something about the things we love and what makes us love those things....i ll definitely write a lot about Google cause i just love it..wish one day
lets write something about what we hate...and why we hate it......
just a place to share our experiences.......
enjoy