Month: April 2008

  • Evolution, or is it?

    I read a couple of posts which made me think about this issue – social media’s role in the human mind’s evolution. What started out on  a tangential note here (tangential only because of the context change, on its own its definitely a compelling thought) was given this direction here.

    The idea as expressed quite clearly in the first post’s title is ‘has asking become a substitute for thinking?’ The second post takes it on further and explains how asking for information, that otherwise ‘almost redundant’ info which could have been easily gathered anyway, is asked for, and not gathered, thanks to the proliferation of networks like Twitter.

    Well, this ‘asking’ has been a common phenomenon in the workplace for quite some time, in the garb of ‘info sharing’ and otherwise, only with the advent of the web, the questions are now asked to a collective, the vast expanses of the www. It reminds of something I’d read a while back which basically said that if God could be equated to a collective consciousnes, then perhaps the internet is our first baby step towards reaching God.  And if that is the case, then (like i commented in the second post) this outsourcing of info collection to a collective is perhaps a way of evolving i.e. by crunching the time for ‘lower’ level problems, we will find more resources to tackle the bigger riddles of life. But that could be just wishful thinking,eh?

    Meanwhile, if the crowd is going to supply the info, then it becomes all the more important for brands to be tuned in and be able to ensure that the crowd has enough data, and the right emotions towards the brand. Because going by this trend, the new age consumer will stop doing what he does these days – painstakingly gather information about his next purchase.

    until next time, click away

  • Thus began April

    She answered the doorbell, and told him he was wanted. In his foggy early morning state, he reached the door and found a woman blinking at him. He blinked right back. To diffuse the stalemate he asked what she wanted. She said his wife had told her to wait while she sent the waste outside.

    until next time, not fool’s proof

  • Sab Kuch Mobile main?

    A few days back, it was announced that Airtel and Google had come together to launch Airtel Live.  Since I’ve not been there myself, I’ll take their word for it in terms of quality and the value for customers. Sometime back, the launch of  Google search on Airtel had helped a lot of TV channel sales guys meet their targets. 🙂

    Around the same time, there was also the news of Yahoo and Reliance continuing their association with oneSearch being made available on Reliance. Yahoo Mail and Yahoo messenger were already available. Other services that users can avail of are financial news, Yahoo Answers, Flickr, Wikipedia etc. Its relevant to note that Yahoo also has deals going on with Idea, BSNL among others. At this stage, I’m guessing that this is only applicable to GPRS sets. Meanwhile, its also interesting to note that Reliance’s IPTV dreams will be powered by Microsoft’s platform, though with the dismal broadband penetration, this is a very long term game.

    So, what we’re seeing is good old convergence, not just of content and platforms, but the providers also.  AOL, Rediff- anything happening yet? Reliance has been releasing its blog ads for sometime now. Its quite a neatly made ad, which keeps the message simple. And for the last couple of days, I’ve seen a new ad being aired (damn page refuses to load, though), one thats co branded- Reliance and Yahoo, and thats for messenger. Its again a very simple, neat ad, which clearly succeeds in communicating the message. There’s also some (though not very large) push being given by Yahoo online though a contest where you can win Moto handsets by logging on to YM through your Reliance mobile.

    So Reliance will blog on its own and use Yahoo for services, for which Yahoo has already made a name for itself. Smart. I wonder where all this is going though? Moblogging has been on for quite sometime, without any of these guys being involved.  While this may help broaden the base of bloggers (thanks to the Reliance reach), is there a value add that I get by choosing Reliance blogs over say, blogger? The SMS, MMS also cost a bit, anyway. So, I wonder… Anyone care to educate?

    until next time, a digital maze

  • Imperial + Cream & Fudge Factory

    It’d been a while since i paid a visit to the friendly neighbour joint thats imperial, and someone had to pay for the dessert fetish, that turned out to be keeping dinner to a vfm joint :D. I doubt if Imperial would be the place to test out soups, though starters are a different matter altogether.

    We skipped both (remember dessert?) and chose to have a brain onion fry (half plate) and a tandoori chicken masala, along with Kerala Paratha. For once, I was disappointed with the brain onion fry, it was too salty, and the roles of onions and chillies were interchanged. The quantity has also been reduced drastically.The tandoori chicken masala was also only passable, though the quantity was sufficient. But since the place has been an old favourite, it merits one more chance, especially since Empire’s brain fry doesnt hold a candle to Imperial’s.

    The Cream and Fudge Factory is quite a place for the sweet toothed Bangalorean. I refuse to allow flavors other than chocolate to enter my dessert horizon, and despite this being the second visit, I’ve to make at least 4 more visits to complete the chocolate based stuff there, so you can imagine. This time we had the Cookie dream which had chocolate chips, chocolate cookies, and chocolate fudge with a vanilla base. While there are so many flavours to choose from, thats not all. You can make your own ice cream with your chosen flavor, and an army of toppings ranging from Ferrero Rocher, Snickers, M&M etc to hazelnuts, almonds and sooo many things in between. Yes, it just might be the closest you’d get to the mythical chocolate paradise, and as for price, while it’s not peanuts, it doesnt make you ask for a personal loan either 😀

    The Cream & Fudge Factory, Opposite HDFC Bank, 7th Block, 80 Feet Road, Koramangala. Tel: 41726222.

  • Fooling around

    Other than the regular dose of pranks that say, the print medium does, the digital medium is also becoming quite a treasure trove. The stuff thats being done on print is becoming quite stale which its bound to be since people are expecting a prank, so its really a creativity or more aptly an imagination issue, and since today’s papers leave very little to it……. (Incidentally, Bangalore Times attempted a Saif-Bebo marriage prank, which, during the day became a confirmed fact. To asli fool kaun hain?)Before we get to the point, here are a few links –  this is a very good take and this and this, i’m sure are pranks, though one can never be sure with these guys.

    Now, i got mails from two digital entities on this auspicious day. One was from Contests2Win and the other from Times Jobs. Going by past records, I would’ve expected C2W’s efforts to easily upstage those of Times, who except for the ‘upload CV directly from the banner’ ad have not done anything spectacular. But i was in for a surprise, but I’ll let you judge. This is the C2W video – Ravan ki Kahani, and this is from the Times – Foolmaal.

    Ravan ki Kahani took potshots at everyone’s favourite target – Rakhi. It was exactly what they wished – a very stupid April Fool’s day, though i wonder if they really wished for that. The problem was that there was no context, perfectly valid on the day, if the work itself attempted to fool you, and the end result was the context, but this was just an almost funny video, but yes, they did make an effort, there are loads of entities who didn’t even attempt. Incidentally it is also “Today’s Top Video” on Rediff’s iShare. Definitely not bad publicity 🙂

    Foolmaal is based on the old Golmaal *ing Utpal Dutt and Amol Palekar. In this take UD tries to fool AP in many ways on April 1st using income tax raids, throwing a belt and screaming ‘snake’ among other things. AP doesn’t fall for any, and when UD screams at him in frustration, he shows him his salary cheque and says ‘what to do, sir, ever since i’ve started working in your organisation, being a fool has become a habit’. The execution has been done very well with the voices and character expressions mimicked very well. More importantly, it ties in extremely well with the ‘Stuck in a low paying job’ communication line that Times Jobs is following. The context is there, the humour is good, and the characters are ones which have already stayed in your memory for sometime. Even if you are not Bollywood lovers, and dont know the characters, the humour still works, though at a layer lower. But for a nation obsessed with Bollywood, its a safe bet. And thats why i think its a great effort from Times Jobs.

    until next time, foolfilled 🙂