Tag: Fwix

  • Talk of the Town

    A while back I’d read about Burrp, which started out as a great restaurant reviews site, expanding into lifestyle events – Art, Dance, Fashion, Film, Fairs & Festivals, Theater, and so on. Check out the entire bunch here. They’d also added TV listings. While it’s quite a diversification, I thought it was quite in sync with what they were doing so far, but it also means that it broadens their competition. 

    Among the bunch in the link mentioned, I thought Yulop was a great package, with their services spread across web and mobile. Meanwhile, I’ve been coming across a lot of websites appearing in the restaurant based services space – Grubhogs , which has reviews, and already shows the beginning of an event calendar, and A Place to Dine, which, in addition to listings, also allows for online orders and table reservations, and services for restaurant owners from website setting up and hosting to loyalty programs. It even has mobile versions. A very interesting path.

    I guess these new services ‘justify’ Burrp’s move into the events space, an expansion of the value proposition. I found some interesting associations here. Burrp has tie ups with Mirror (The Times Group) websites- Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata. I also read today that Buzzintown has tied up with MyToday SMS services, to provide its users events related information on the mobile, in three cities. 

    There are some very cool happening in the events space. Buzzd , a service in the US allows the user to find and share local events on the mobile. They have recently tied up with Virgin to provide data to the operator’s subscribers. I’m not sure on how the numbers are for city based searches on mobile, but I wonder if Yulop, with all their services and info, could benefit by tying up with an Airtel/ Vodafone. While on local events, Placecast, which describes itself as  “the world’s largest place-based interactive media company” has tied up with Eventful to produce some interesting location based advertising options. (via Mashable) 

    With the increasing usage of social networks, even events are finding their own long tails. So there are services which offer event planning for smaller groups. And while there are several event planning services available (including an Indian one called Funpiper), Doodle scores by having a facebook application that lets users collaborate on events. It also sends emails to non-Facebook users. Another service that stands out is Zipiko, which offers event planning on mobile.(via Center Networks)

    But before we get there, I think there’s a lot of scope for city based social networks, especially the mobile version. I came across an interesting net based service – Fwix, which, in addition to the usual stuff, and integration with Twitter, Yelp, Flickr etc, shows you “the most relevant and trendy information and media in your local area. It aggregates about 500,000 news stories per day, and delivers roughly 2,000 relevant news stories of those 500,000.” (via Startup Meme). But i guess, that will take us back to this earlier post of mine.

    until next time, text and the city

  • 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