Airtel-Google - The Airtel Google ad the Indiana Jones rip off for a story line is a great flick for anyone who understands the Indiana Jones series and the quest for knowledge that is emphasized in all of Indie’s adventures but for some reason I think this concept will be wasted on Indians who would feel that the ad is a bit odd but must say it is a bit lengthy but overall fun and something different. First time I saw the ad I thought it was a Indianna jones movie trailer

ulta perk - yep this ad is also good but here is what I find odd the dog chasing a postman is something that you associate in the US and not in India. For some reason I feel Like this might be a rip off from some foreign ad just like the Airtel-Google

Neo Sports India-Pakistan series - Yep this is the best ad out there right now first time I thought it was a public service ad for viewers to check their LPG gas stoves at home but the ad is good and well executed and passes a strong message to the viewers

Hcl Leaptop - Yep the one in the coffee shop one is good and hilarious the

Well today came across scrabulous and online scrabble game developed by two indian brothers well first of all the game is highly addictive. I signed up for it the sign up process is a bit troublesome there is Ajax used but not to its web 2.0 potential but after that just entered a game and created a table and was soon joined by a fellow player for a game it was nice but then I wanted more but then again I had to get back to work so could not play but will head there anytime I want break from my work and some exercise to challenge my grey cells.

Scrabulous is a venture undertaken by two brothers they are claiming that they have 5 million page views a month which is remarkable and the brothers do plan to launch the game in many international versions and also adding more games to their offering. well good luck to them it is a great offering and I think they are cool enough to pull off more success stories in online gaming space. the website is built on php and the actual game is built as a java applet this is what i didn’t like it was a flash widget then it would have been good but java applets now are considered to be irritating but then again am sure they must be making plans to migrate it to either a pure ajax app or a flash based one. The site also has a basic social networking features like buddy list etc but overall it is a great game and very innovative it is good to see young Indians like this keeping the innovation alive and now as they have released this as a facebook app they will be reaching a much bigger target audience which is good for them.

Do try it out if you liked scrabble am sure you will like this online avatar of the game. am waiting to see what more good games the brothers can come up with one of them is still in college and is 21 years old.

well the number 1 reason being that there is a whole lot of money flowing into the sport which is a good thing but is the money that is flowing in actually having a impact on the outcome of the game is what I want to know? A simple example the recently concluded Twenty twenty world cup which India won but was india suppose to be in the final, can australia the world champions in cricket lose a match from a position that they are sure to win the match. Was the india - pakistan final just so that that the advertisers (mostly indian companies ) had their target audience watching the match.

Here is a scenario the main sponsor of the tournament is Reliance mobile a company which has presence only in India (so far) so would a final of Australia and New Zealand be of any real benefit to them I don’t think so. And not to forget the ad slots prizes went up so the TV channels piled in all the cash from the sale of the ad inventory for the finals which was a India- Pakistan final something which most advertisers in India would definitely give their arm and leg for.

Here are some interesting figures apparently India’s early exit from the world cup costs advertisers close to 600 crores (wow thats a lot of money) when ad campaigns etc had to be pulled of the air and then most of this advertisers decided to move their interest to something else which is less risky like the use of film stars rather then cricketers for endorsing their products And some of the advertisers were considering never to look at cricket tournaments as a platform to reach their targeted audience. BCCI had to do something drastic and This win by india is exactly what they wanted but most of you must be wondering this is perfect timing but according to me it is not the entire event seems fabricated that India reached the final so that the indian television audience would watch the matches.

India defeating England yes the one over from Yuvraj did it for India but comprehending that Australia can lose to India in the semi final from the position that they were in is totally nonsensical to me as they were not Bangladesh or South Africa to choke under pressure but they did throw the match away. I have not seen Ricky Ponting happy sometimes even when he has won the match but he was happy to lose to India. If you see the video footage you see him smiling.

After all BCCI is the richest cricket board in India and if they were exiting tournaments early it would impact the ICC more then BCCI as some of the major tournaments for ICC seem to have indian sponsors the simple fact being the booming economy and loads of cash for companies to promote themselves so the ICC will be at the mercy of BCCI for money.

The lots of money flowing in is good for the game but if the match outcome is influenced by this money then I think it is really sad for everyone who enjoys watching a good old contest between the bat, ball and human spirit. Well with India winning the T20 world cup the advertisers are all upbeat about cricket again and even some of the ads from that 600 crore world cup debacle of India are making their way back onto the TV screens.

If you think this post is crap then this simple questions will clear your mind
Would you as a Indian charged with emotion watch the final if India was not playing in it? and would you see the many reliance mobile ads that were shown?? If you still have doubts why do all the teams in the tournaments that India is playing in the deciding match is always the last match of the series?? (see India’s England tour before the T20 after the initial drubbing at the hands of the English suddenly India rise and win then for the last match of the series it is do or die situation if India had lost the series before the final match then hardly the last few matches would have drawn any serious viewership) I think the only countries that are playing to their potential is countries like Bangladesh,Zimbabwe etc

The last few weeks have been hectic as well as eventful in my life
why you ask?
well
for one I quit my job yes yes I resigned from a nice 9 to 5 job (well it was a job it was not one of those cozy jobs where a person works from 9 to 5 goes home and at the beginning of the next month comes to collect the pay cheque for me the job was a lot more hectic then having my own venture)
why you ask again?
Well I suddenly got the bad uncontrollable itch of becoming a entrepreneur and so I did not with one venture but floating three ventures at a time yes yes I thought one would not be challenging enough so went ahead and started three yes if you are still in shock I said three ventures and more are in the pipeline but for the first year I just want to build this three up to become leaders in the sectors they are in and then move onto other challenges in other sectors.
so the three ventures are in nascent stages now and will blog about them once the world is ready to know about them at present all I can say is one is local and will affect Goa and the other two ones have a global impact.

Well what about the current company that I am working at since I did play a significant role in getting it on track (I would say I still have not yet made it reach all its goals and would have loved too continue to build it up but now I have a new challenge and would like to pursue that) so will continue to be on board till the new management takes over.

Till I am totally out of the present employers company I am operating 4 ventures which is beginning to take its toll on me. I am in a totally f****d up state right now. physically and mentally tired need a vacation to revitalize myself but no time to take one and also cant afford one financially with me investing all my money in myself and also trying to raise more capital from friends first and then will try to raise some from the market (raising capital in india is a headache and will write a separate post on that later).

the other fun thing I did today other then reading friends outstanding blog posts and commenting is did some good old fashion reading of a paperbook the book is Business Miscellany (it is a gem of a book and very informative) also went through the latest issue of business world and will read the latest issue of business today tomorrow as my copy is borrowed by a friend and will be getting it back tomorrow. Well normally also I do read a lot at nights I scour through around 28 sources of tech and biz news with all this information I consume in a day maybe that explains why I get only a few hours of sleep daily. But reading online and reading a physical book is totally different experience and I prefer a book to a computer screen anytime.

Once I finish with this I have more books which I have bought from pune during my pune trip and have not had time to go through them yet but now will make it a point to read atleast half an hour from one of the books daily.

Also the other things that I have been doing is putting together all the paperwork necessary for the new ventures and all I can say is it is boring and a total turn off to an entrepreneur it is a troublesome affair but I guess everyone has to go through it and makes the person wiser about the working of the govt departments and how to handle all the different officers whose sole purpose of holding govt jobs is not to do any work and occupy the chairs and get paid from the govt treasury.Well the paperwork is going on and hopefully will soon be complete.

It will be difficult to get the blog updated frequently now but whenever I get time will write a few words about my journey through life and the new ventures.

The other news is of Hilton Hotel Corp being acquired by the buyout firm Blackstone Group for a whooping 26 billion dollars wowie Paris Hilton is now even more rich after she got out jail (hahahaha) I wonder if her going to jail got Blackstone Group’s attention to make this deal (hahahaha)
anyway paris hilton has more pocket change now and maybe she can take a break from partying give her fortune to charity and join a nunnery somewhere who knows it might happen tomorrow and shock the world tomorrow
Hilton is a prestigious chain of hotels I remember Jay Leno of the Tonight Show saying that Paris should have been made to stay in one of the Hilton’s instead of a jail that would have been more torturing.
Well personally I have not stayed in a Hilton but been to one of them in a place called Fujairah in UAE nice little small property on the Shores of Fujairah facing the arabian sea. It forms a get away from the corp world for the big guns form the main commercial hub of UAE which is Dubai.

source for the above statements are source 1 and source 2

Whats a pholog you ask? yes pholog is a short term for photo blog.

Well without any further ado my pholog can be reached here happy viewing.

Please note it is in beta stages right now so it might not be stable hahahahahaha which product out there is not in beta hahahaha anyway enjoy and let me know what you feel about the Pholog.

Well bloggingtofame is another startup related to blogs they are looking at publishing a blog magazine by pulling in content from ace bloggers and at present they are hunting for ace bloggers they have a contest running now more info click here the first prize is a cool 25k $$ a nice pocket change to have I must add.

The teams visit there was to promote bloggingtofame.com and I Guess they must have done that well for me nope I don’t think I have the makings of a fame blogger so will stay out of the contest hahahahaha

The Launch presentation was given by Rajiv Dingra of WATConsult and Jasmeet Singh who is the VP of product marketing at Rediff.
The Initial talking and showing of screenshots was done by Rajiv and then after the first few slides and intro there were questions from the public and Rajiv told the audience that it would be good if the questions were held till last when the presentation was over. Once the initial feature set and screenshots were shown the questions started pouring in most of them were valid questions and were rapidly fired by some of the people in the audience.

The answers given to the questions were not satisfactory(not just my opinion many others felt this too) plus it was shocking to see the response of both Rajiv and Jasmeet of some of the criticism coming their way apparently they were considering their offering was god sent and bloggers will accept it with their eyes closed no questions asked. I was more shocked with the fact that Rajiv was also having a bit of a problem with criticism which is not at all good for a person in charge of a startup being open minded to criticism helps in survival in this fierce competitive world.

The problem with this product is that it adds to the problem of information overload affecting all us net junkies.
Personally there were lots of issues which were not good for the users of the service things like them using the content from the blogs onto their portal and with mainstream content. pulling stuff from blogs and putting it without modification does not work as bloggers tend to be colloquial in their writing.
Plus the fact that the meta content generated around your content was Rediff property plus it pulls your rss feed so if you give full post in your feed you wont as that will not get traffic onto your site so the question is will you maintain two feeds one for full post and one special one to submit to blogshowcase.

The Logic behind the entire product is you give us access to your feed and we give you an audience but the question is will be audience be willing to go through hundreds of posts everyday (it is a well known fact that most users just go to the Digg homepage only) the product will fail if not positioned properly for both bloggers and rediff users.

Well me being a blogger would not use the product why you ask?
Simply because my doubts about the product have not been cleared and also with the fact that if you sign up and once they crawl your feed and copy the content onto their servers and what do you know how they will use your content?
apparently Rediff is so dumb they didn’t even bother to put a terms and conditions page they just expect people to come there and submit their details with no assurance.

Overall from this launch I have learned some important lessons

• never launch a half baked product
• be open to criticism
• come up with better way of presenting to target audience
• research well to see if there is a market for the product
• always think about monetizing if you cant find a way don’t get into it

The product did not create any much buzz in the blogosphere also plus the main stream media also didn’t cover it much.

To read the blogshowcase teams blog read this they are trying to explain here how their offering is different from digg

Well now to my thoughts about them well I didn’t attend their demo and talk on ezblogs as I was attending another talk then but abhimanyu and sarvesh did attend their talk and I dont think that they have even tried out their service yet even after attending their talk but I interacted with their team on the stall (basically a table and some chairs with their banner) the questions I asked were basically like

Q)what is fropper all about?
A) It is a social networking site

Q)who is your target audience you are big on dating is that niche you’ll want to pursue?
A) No we dont want to be a niche market player we want to be a india centric social network

Q) how different is your offering from orkut or any other social network used in india?
A) We are working on making our social network india centric that is what we want to do

Well after all their replies I lost interest their team was like why are you annoying us we are here because my boss wants me too and he is worried that we are not burning our VC money at a fast pace and that is why we are giving you caps here and why the hell are we bothered about orkut?? They are not India centric we are india centric and that is what the indian web community needs not a global social network but a indian one (then why the hell are tatas.

YEAH RIGHT ( my advice to companies who send teams to such events send people who are enthusiastic and can interact with people since for a consumer oriented company it is important to maintain a good face towards the consumer for your success if you cant do that then say good bye to your startup)

Well fropper is one of the services offered by people group interactive their other famous offerings are shaadi.com and mauj they have other not so well known offerings too like an indian astrology site called astrolife.com. People group is funded by VC’s but I guess the VC’s are looking at only shaadi and mauj to get back good returns on their investments as even though the team on site said they are moving away from dating and onto the social networking space and competing with sites like orkut.com etc their parent company site still introduces them as a dating site hahahaha so much for knowing how a parent company is controlling the future of one of its groups offerings.

Well I like their TV ads they are humorous(in my perspective they are) their users are so frustrated that they jump in the sea to commit suicide and they are rescued by fisher folk with fropper accounts (hahahahahhaha this is my interpretation of the ad)

Every talk and every veteran was interested in giving the new people the feeling that if you want to blog then the ultimate nirvana is to become a celebrity blogger and get yourself interviewed on TV and print media and that is what you should aim for which was quite shocking actually since there is a segment of bloggers like me who don’t do any marketing for their blog no link building, SEO,SEM etc etc and are happy with just a few friends and family members who keep themselves updated about you from your blog. All this must have been a definite turn off for the newbies as it will make them weary of getting onto the blogging bandwagon with fears like my english is not good, what do I write etc etc

I think the notion that a blog is a personal diary is lost somewhere in the web 2.0 social media hype that is building up now.

The walk out attitude is still not there in India if something is being discussed which you don’t think is adding a layer to your intellect you should walk out and attend some other talk that is the basic thing everyone attending barcamps do they jump talks, jump threads and since this was the first time such a event was held there should have been like a 5 mins break between talks which gives people (who think it is impolite to walk out when someone is talking ) the time to leave gracefully.

The reasons I attended the blogcamp are I am working with a few others on Two products which will be a great in assisting bloggers everywhere and I wanted to feel the pulse of bloggers their fears and their doubts and what do they want and the other reason was to see if anyone got any demos of any blog related products they were working on. I was so tempted to give a demo of my product there which is in late alpha stages now but then it would have been premature but one thing I Learned from the rediff launch of their blogshowcase was HOW NOT TO LAUNCH A PRODUCT(the blogshowcase will be a seperate post)

But overall a few things done right would have made this event a success I guess this same mistakes wont be repeated for the barcamp to be held at pspl pune more info found here (this also I will try to attend if time permits)