• Blurring Social Networking lines

    ET had a story sometime back on how sites like Facebook, LinkedIn etc are helping SMEs and entrepreneurs gain business. It adds on to my belief that when the target is niche market segments, the net is the best medium to try out.The more encouraging part for me is that since these media are working for them, they even plan You Tube ads. So, they grow the medium, and the medium grows them!!

    Yes, social networking is not exactly the most known thing in the world, as this article would argue, but as far as online behaviour goes, the Indian stats are a bit encouraging on some parameters. And, with efforts like these, our internet penetration figures might start looking up sonner rather than later.

    So what have the social networks been upto? Lets start with business networking, where I’ve been reading about a lot of new launches. A new business network called ZaaBiz has been launched in India. More details on its activities can be found here.

    Konnects hopes to bridge the gap between Facebook and LinkedIn. According to them, Facebook has not been designed for business purposes, while LinkedIn is too restrictive. So, Konnects has come out with a few features, that will even enable even fresh graduates, who don’t have many years of work experience or projects to show, to share the projects they’re working on. Konnects, based on your profile, will reccomend groups and discussions that you should be part of, and plans to introduce IM and VoIP integration in the future. (via Mashable) I think all these together make it a very differentiated value proposition.

    The third interesting new site I came across is Publictivity. It aims to use social networking to boost productivity, by allowing users (in organisatons)to create work groups, and share information, files and it even has a video viewing mechanism. What I loved the site for, and it has nothing to do with the service, is that they have used Dunder Mifflin (of The Office fame) and an option to chat with Dwight!! Awesome example!!

    The last one I came across is 2Vouch, an Australian social recruiting website which offers referral rewards, with an option to donate to charity also. Companies don’t have to pay to advertise, they only need to pay if they hire a candidate. (via Mashable) The concept is interesting but I wonder about possible loopholes. Is it, for example, possible for a company to get the contact details of a candidate and then route it through other means?

    So, what has LinkedIn been upto meanwhile? For one, it’s been adding small features, like highlighting the sections of a profile that have changed, since you last saw it. (via Digital Inspiration) It has added enhanced group features, that includes a centralised group hub page. (via Tech Crunch). It has also tied up with CNBC to air content generated by its users on CNBC. (via PluggdIn) I share the view that most of these are quite basic features, and LinkedIn not only needs to be adding such things much faster, but introducing innovations too.

    This is of more significance, when we consider that the competition is not only new business networking sites, which are coming out with some neat innovations and targeting specific requirements, its also generic social networking sites like Facebook, if we go by certain studies, which raises the possibility of  business networking on Facebook superceding that on LinkedIn.

    Speaking of social networks, the interesting part is that inspite of the demise of entities like Yahoo Mash, new social networks still seem to be popping up. I read a post on Fwix, which, in addition to a great GUI, also shows the user, the most trendy information going on in his locality, by aggegating about 500000 stories per day. It also allows add on services, the list includes YouTube, MeetUp, Eventful Delicious, Twitter, Flickr and just about any you can think up. BBC has also launched its radio social networking site Radio PoP. And the omnipresent Google, in addition to its own social network Orkut, has opened up another front by adding a twitter-like ‘following feature’ to its blogging service – Blogger, so that users can now become ‘fans’ of other blogs. They have integrated it with Google Reader, and also plan to integrate Google Friend Connect into this, which brings it closer to creating blog based communities. (via The Inquisitr)

    There are new tools that are emerging in the social media space. How Sociable, which allows you to track your brand in the social media space; Lotame, an online advertising agency that is looking at changing the way advertising happens in social media,  Edopter, a way to discover and share trends in fashion, lifestyle, music and so on. New models are on the horizon, like contextual search in social media. The tools are there, its now for individuals and brands to make sure that they are used to their full potential. Like this article correctly states, business can no longer afford to ignore social media, and what GM has done – launching an anti-misinformation site, is perhaps a great start.

    until next time, socialise

  • bon South

    We heard about it last weekend, when we were chided for not having visited it when it was in our own ‘backyard’ – Koramangala, and then again, when a friend suggested we meet up there. The latter didn’t happen, since my dinner on other days would’ve been adversely affected if I reviewed the place without the better half as my dinner companion. But yes, the universe did conspire to get us there, even though other reviews had convinced us that our wallets would be left significantly lighter.

    Its relatively easy to find, on the 80ft road in Koramangala. At the Sony World Junction on the Indiranagar – Koramangala ring road, take a left turn when coming from Indiranagar, and you’ll find this on the right after the Levis outlet and Barista. There’s valet parking, but not for two wheelers. Damn!! 😉

    We’d reserved in advance, which would be a good thing to do, since there was a crowd, and we saw people having to wait. The place practically screams snob value, from the word go. That’s not intended as a put-down, its just smart positioning. We had to wait for a few minutes, while our table was being cleaned, and they did a smart thing by showing us around the place, to keep us from fidgeting around. Though the space is very optimally used, it manages to retain a cosy feel, largely due to the comfortable seating and dimly lit ambience. I had a brief ‘flight’ moment, when they offered us a cold wet towel. Hmm, was that a bon connection (voyage, and south). Okay, got it, we’ll just talk about the food.

    The menu features cuisine from the four South Indian states, complete with soups, starters, main course and desserts. The place also serves alcohol, no, not necessarily from these states!!! We decided to skip the soup, since they were mostly the thin type, and instead ordered a starter, Kori Kempu Bezule, which is ‘tender pieces of boneless chicken marinated in a mangalorean home style masala, and deep fried’. Now, I have not been to mangalorean homes, but it tasted good – the chicken was actually tender, and the masala had a distinct flavor without being excessively spicy.

    For the main course, we tried to give representation to all states, but TN got left out. We ordered a Kozhi Varutharacha Curry, which is ‘boneless chicken with roasted coconut and spices’, an excellent Kerala dish, if done well; a Chappala Pulusu, a tangy and spicy Andhra fish curry, and to go alongwith that, podi masla appams, and Sajjige Roti (a thick bread made with semolina, coconut, green chillies and curry leaves). Once the food was served, we realised that it may not be sufficient, and ordered egg appams too. Now, I knew that appams and the chicken would go well together, but I’m sure it would help if there was some advice offered on the correct combinations. In this case, the fish curry was not exactly a great match.

    The chicken dish, though it differed marginally from the taste we were familiar with, was very well made. The fish was a bit too tangy and not spicy enough for our liking. The gravy portions are just sufficient for two people. The appams are not miniscule, thankfully, and are the regular size we make at home. The podi masala appam has podi and masala onion laden onto the regular appams. The egg appam is well, like the name suggests and both were made well. But since, appamd are fluffy by nature, even two per person won’t be sufficient. The Sajjige roti was quite unlike anything else we’ve tasted, and deserves a try. You get four rotis per plate, and its not too heavy. There were dessert options, but we passed, though if you’re not very familiar with South indian desserts, you should give it a try.

    So, the meal went quite well, but they delayed in clearing the table, giving us finger bowls and presenting the bill. I find it very strange when restaurants do this, especially while people are kept waiting outside. Isn’t it in their interest to get us out of there after we conclude our business? Anyway, they first presented us a bill upwards of Rs.2300. Thankfully, before my heart reacted violently, i realised it wasn’t ours, but even the correct one came upto just less than Rs.1300. So there was a tiny lurch, though I was prepared for it. I wonder if they had this in mind when they said that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.

    So, if the idea is just to taste some South Indian food, I’d say, try out Malgudi (though we weren’t very impressed with the service the last time we visited), Annachi (though I have a problem with their small portions) or even 3 Storys, (no complaints, and though it is not an all South cuisine, it offers some great Coorgi stuff to compensate). But if you’re in the mood to splurge, and want an upmarket experience, with decent food and a liberal splattering of snob appeal, you should try bon South.

    And we’ll end with a thanks to the young lady in a party dress at the adjacent table, whose expression on seeing a couple in ragged tees and cargo trousers walk out as she walked in, made up for the exorbitant bill. 😉

    bon South, 749, 10th Main, 80 ft road, Koramangala. Ph: 080 40543434.

    Update: Shifted to Malleswaram

  • Chrome and the quest for ubiquity

    I honestly wanted to write something else, but there was so much excitement generated by two tools this week, across the web, and in me, that I felt that I had to share it. I am still exploring both of these, so it’d be great if you also read the links i share in the post, in case you want to know more.

    Lets start with Chrome. That made up 80% of the conversation in Twitter on Tuesday and Wednesday. And made up about 10% of my offline conversations, in which I was spreading the word about it being Google’s new browser, and arguing with convinced individuals that Google did not own Firefox. Which made me wonder, just like the guys at Center Networks, whether all this is important only to some part of a long tail of browser users. I can relate to that. When I redesigned my personal blog a couple of years back, someone told me that it looked weird in Firefox. I asked him what that was!!!! Mozilla became my preferred browser less than a year back. And though I’ve downloaded Opera and Pogo, I’m yet to try them out, while the Flock browser, an excellent tool for social media enthusiasts, is used once in a while. So i guess I can be excused for being shocked  when I read of folk who talk of it being a Windows killer!! The people who should be really afraid are the Firefox guys, this is a good read on that topic.

    Meanwhile, all this shouldn’t take away anything from the massive buzz that Google managed to generate, and part of the credit should go to the very unique way of launch – through a comic, which explains the whys and the whats. If we go by this article, Google has been at it for a couple of years now. A couple of good posts to give you a complete picture.

    For those who are wondering, Chrome will not give you any more web ecstasy than the stuff that is already out there. But it is fast, with no clutter (even the right click throws up an uncluttered menu), and thus ends up making the screen look bigger. There are some things I miss from my first few days of tinkering. Inspite of the Omnibox, I’d still like a Google search toolbar. I miss my Twitter and del.icio.us plugins. Its eerie though, how my FF crashed right in the middle of the post, and i completed it in Chrome!! It raises some interesting questions on the future of browsing, but for now, Google can pat itself on its back because we hear only good things, though I get scared by such observations. (the last link courtesy @rajivdingra)

    The second tool that I got really kicked about was Ubiquity, from Mozilla Labs, an experiment to make common web tasks easier and quicker. You can read about what can be done with this tool here. I tested out mail and twitter with this and it was quite interesting, and easy. But its most definitely work in progress and will take some doing before it can lay claim to ubiquity.

    Meanwhile, Microsoft‘s launch of  IE 8 Beta 2 seems to have got lost in all this frenzy. Is that an indication? On another front, GMDesk, an application that lets you run multiple Google apps without opening up several windows/tabs, seems like something interesting. Google, hmmm.. Google likes Wikipedia, but will still have its own Knol, it likes Firefox, but will still have Chrome. And that leaves me me wondering about Google, about not being evil, and the quest for ubiquity, that it unrelentingly chases, but rarely admits.

    until next time, keep browsing

    Update 09/08/08: Now, this I will love Chrome for. Allowing users to have 2 GMail accounts open at the same time. 🙂

  • Exposure

    Sitting in an official meeting, opposite someone who’s seen you in the nude, was uncomfortable. She dreaded the inevitable moment when he’d bring it up. Everyone stared when he said “You know, the last time I saw her, she was nude. Keeping her dress on was obviously not her strength….. as a 2 year old”

    until next time, the bare truth

  • The times, they gotta be changin…

    The last few days saw a frenzy of activity in the Indiatimes space. But before we go there, I read a few interesting things that I thought would make good starters. One site I chanced upon was Local Signal, which allows you to choose a city (its a limited list, for now) and once you have, gives you news, events, Q&A, and even blogs from that area. A pretty neat utility site, from what I saw. And now for some news. Hi5, which is really irritating me with invites from people I really haven’t even heard of, has gone mobile. And lastly, AlooTechie tells me that MIH (of the Ibibo ‘fame’) has invested in ‘Singapore-based BuzzCity, which owns a mobile social network myGamma that has more than six lakh members from India’.

    But the action has been happening very much at home!! Indiatimes has been rolling out services, like there’s no tomorrow. I first read about Indiatimes’ tie up with Onyomo, for a local search service. With Sulekha having announced some major plans just a few days back, this space has become very interesting indeed. Then it was the launch of AdRingles, an Ad Ringback Tone service (the link explains it well) and MocoLife, a group SMS service which also offers content on subscription. I remember reading that OnMobile, a VAS company had launched its ARBT a couple of months earlier. Since we are mentioning Indiatimes, I just read that they have also launched QnA.

    All this made me wonder (as I always do) on what exactly Indiatimes (both web and mobile) is upto. There’s clearly nothing profoundly innovative happening since all the services mentioned above are things that have been done by others, even Mocolife. Incidentally, Medianama has a good analysis of the last one.

    Now, I don’t see any decrease in the dominance of the Google, MSN, Yahoo, Rediff in the Indian webspace, unless Indiatimes manages to pull some rabbit out of their hat. With their track record, I wouldn’t bet on that. Which means, they would have to use the mobile platform to gain a foothold in the digital space. One way to do it is to launch cloned services and use their offline media might to build traction. But that wouldn’t be a great strategy since users would slowly shift to better services, once they get comfortable with the medium. I’d still say that the best bet for them is to create synergy with offline products right from a product level (right now its just using them as a communication tool).

    For example, look at the multiple editions that TOI has. How difficult would it be to use the TOI backend to provide news/business/events and even the listings (local search) part (Times Classifieds would have tonnes of data), build in the newly launched Flubber, sorry QnA into it, and make city specific sites that would add on to Indiatimes. Now, how difficult would it be to experiment with the iTimes platform of theirs, which anyways is idle (i don’t have stats, but i don’t know anyone who uses it, maybe I’m just not social enough) to build communities around this structure, make a mobile version, and then top it up with services like MocoLife? Digital communities which have a one stop shop for all requirements in their cities – local search, QnA, events……  and even have a group sms service to communicate all this!! Maybe its worth an effort..

    Indiatimes better move fast, since Big Adda is pushing the mobile version very hard, judging by the TVCs, and knowing Reliance, they won’t be satisfied by anything less than the premium position in any vertical they operate in. It perhaps is a calculated strategy from them, after seeing the dizzying pace of mobile growth in India. After all, even the great Google sometimes chases mobile more than they do the internet.

    until next time, the changing times