Yahoo launches oneSearch Beta in India
Yahoo has launched their oneSearch beta in India. Users in India can now access News, Finance, Weather, Web, Mobile Web and Flickr from their mobile devices.
You can start using oneSearch by visiting the url http://in.m.yahoo.com in your mobile device’s browser. Alternatively, you can also enter your mobile number here. You’ll be sent a link to Yahoo oneSearch services via SMS.
TATA Indicom and PMS
While reading news on IBNLive, the below ad caught my attention.
Well, as per TATA Indicom’s dictionary, PMS translates to Poor Mobile Network Syndrome. In case you didnt know, this is what PMS actually stands for.
Well, the advertisement did serve its purpose - it did catch my attention. But do you think the ad is offensive ? Or its fair game ? I’d like to know what the female audience thinks of the ad.
Access to early stage funding in India is still not easy
In an interview to Hindu, Anjana Vivek, founder and CEO - VentureBean consulting, a firm focusing on early stage ventures, says that startups needing $1 million or less are still finding it difficult to raise funds. She feels that there are very few risk takers in the early stage financing segment. And several potentially good companies fail to take off due to the inability to find early stage financing. “Too much money is chasing too few startup deals in India, while at the same time established players are often getting a lot of money from VCs”, she says.
She believes that the strength of the founding team is critical to the success of a startup. “What sets successful entrepreneurs apart is their staying power, i.e., the ability to stick through the bad times.â€
Read entire interview here.
ICICI ventures sells stake in InfoMedia for Rs 235 crore
ICICI Ventures is likely to sell its entire 63.3% stake in InfoMedia to Reed Elsevier. At today’s market value, the stake is worth Rs. 235 crores. Infomedia India has a 51-49 joint venture with Reed Business Info, a division of Reed Elsevier.
Infomedia has twelve B2B titles and eight B2C special interest magazines in its repertoire. Infomedia’s flagship product Yellow Pages is the market leader in the business directories segment. The company also plans to introduce Yellow Pages on other platforms like the Web and mobile phones.
via DNA
PC World - Best Indian Websites 2007 - what a sham
Last week PC World India announced the first list of best Indian websites for 2007. I took my time to read through the entire article. Having finished reading the entire story, I cant help but wonder - what a half hearted, lame-ass job they have done at writing the story. For a magazine with their stature and resources, they could have definitely invested more time in researching and taken a more objective, analytical approach.
Following are some of the weaknesses of the PC World ratings approach.
To begin with, they do not define what equates to an Indian website.
Is it a website that caters exclusively to the Indian audience ? Is it a site that needs to have a presence in the Indian market ? Is it a website that has a significant Indian audience ? Without a precise definition, on what basis is a site included as part of the rating process ?
Read more
Web 2.0 is just an easy and lazy name given to User Generated Content (UGC)
So says Satya Prabhakar, Sulekha founder and CEO, in an interview to Hndu. And to a certain extent, I agree - Web 2.0 is merely a moniker.
In the interview, Satya regrets not having capitalized on Sulekha’s early lead in the Indian online space. Losing the early mover advantage has led to awkwardness - more so for some of the other players because Google now dominates search, email and IM in India. But he feels that people will get bored of Orkutting and the fad will wear out. “How much scrapping can one do with the same friends day in and day out? Time is not that cheap!“, he says.
On the question of focusing on the Indian market, he says - “Our market focus was the US in 2001-2004 because that was where the broadband-connected Indians were. Today India adds as many people online per month as there are living in the whole of the US.”
Some of the initiatives Sulekha is taking include increasing the usability of the main page as well as content-related value additions such as integrating interactive maps in the ‘Yellow Pages Local Search’.
You can read the rest of the interview here.
The one point in the story that I disagree with is that Rediff has lost its early mover advantage. I think Rediff is doing fairly well in terms of market share, ad revenues etc…I wouldnt contest the same for Sify, but Rediff is well positioned to take on Yahoo, AOL and Google.
iBibo changes gears, launches ibQash
Ibibo’s 1.5 crore Great Blogger Hunt managed to generate a lot of buzz, criticism and very likely, a huge chunk of traffic. However, as suspected, they failed to attract and generate good quality content. Looks like they’ve decided its time to scrap their contest and change the rules of the game, so that emphasis is placed on the quality of blog posts as well.
They’ve introduced ibQash, a program where you get rewarded based on which league you end up in. The quality of blogs will be the key factor affecting this decision. To quote from their website:
An independent audit of quality will be conducted, with a premium on originality and relevance. This will be applied to every blog.
Independent audit of quality - does it mean audit by an independent agency ? This is unclear and seems to be open to distortion and misinterpretation.
This problem of bad quality UGC is not specific to Ibibo only. A lot of India specific sites, including the heavily publicized Zapak, are plagued with such bad quality UGC.
Rare photos from 1857 Indian uprising
Every once in a while, I post non-tech related stuff that I find very interesting. As part of this post, I’d like to mention about a handful of rare photos from the 1857 Indian uprising. It gives you a rare glimpse into how India looked way back in 1857 - during the uprising.
Check it out here.
7Seas tech launches online gaming portal
7Seas Technologies Ltd. is launching an online gaming portal with 100+ games based on Indian themes and localized for the Indian audience. The portal onlineRealgames.com will be formally launched tomorrow with free registration. Users can play games in 7 Indian languages along with English. For revenue generation, they will rely on licensing revenues from other portals and also in-game advertising. Partnership with Microsoft, mobile operators and other telecom companies is in the works.
Here’s an interesting piece in the story:
“Most of the games revolve around popular Indian countryside scenes such as cock fighting, animal husbandry and hunting.”
Cock fighting !!!! Whoa — now thats localizing games for the Indian audience 
.
via Hindu
CricInfo gets 20 million+ hits during World Cup, big mobile ambitions
CricInfo seems to have been unaffected by team India’s debacle during the recently concluded World cup. The site claims to have received 20 million + hits during the World cup. India lead the list with 3.75 million users, US accounted for 3 million, UK had 2 million followed by the Gulf region. Of the 30 major advertisers, only one exited after the Indian team’s ouster. Even though TV viewership dropped, traffic to the site kept steady because people still tracked match updates on the site.
They are currently in talks with mobile operators in US and UK to offer a new set of mobile services to users.
via Hindu.