Here’s the first one - covering the local search category. Go ahead and vote for your favorite local search related startup.

Additional categories will follow:

Comments

• January 8, 2008, Gaurav commented: Pranav, I used local.google.co.in (not a startup though) and onyomo. They gave me pretty good results.
• January 8, 2008, pranav commented: gaurav, i ruled out google local for obvious reasons - as you mention, its not a startup. Somehow OnyoMo slipped though. I'll add it now. thanks for pointing out. -p
• January 9, 2008, Mahesh V commented: I find metromela is very useful and helpful. I have been extensively using this for my personal and also for my office use. They have lot of relevant and good information. Site is very clean not clustered. Very very good content. I think this co. would be big hit very soon.
• January 9, 2008, Joshua commented: I mean to say just dial is very helpful and google also.
• January 9, 2008, AJay commented: I always use Onyomo, & i got the result whatever i searched for.so i think onyomo is best.
• January 11, 2008, vanaja commented: Metromela is one the best sites I've come across in the recent times. It has all the information that one needs to get the best out of a city. I live in Hyderabad. And I am yet to find such relevant and useful information in any website or publication. Also, the design is uncluttered and easy to navigate. I think metromela will emerge as one of the most popular sites very soon.
• January 11, 2008, Rupali Jain commented: The Site Rocks......
• January 11, 2008, alec commented: when did JustDial become a startup...If i know correctly, JD has been around for 10 years or so?? So is it a 10 year old startup?!! Are we comparing Apples to Oranges - since the question doesnt really ask local search on internet or a specific channel..
• January 11, 2008, pranav commented: @alec, I agree Justdial is not a startup and went back & forth several times wondering whether to include them in list. That was one of the reasons I first decided to seek the public opinion: http://www.startupdunia.com/2007/12/26/wrapping-up-2007/ Besides, justdial has existed for 10 years or so -- but was relatively unheard of. I know - this can be contended and go either ways, but what's done is done.
• January 15, 2008, Anuj commented: Who said justdial is a Startup,i think these guys should remove justdial from the startup list. & yaa if justdial is a Startup then Yahoo, google & etc etc all are Startup.
• January 16, 2008, anurag commented: none of the startups mentioned have gained enough momentum till date. moreover, none of them "actually" overlap as far as the cities they cover is concerned. however, most of these startups are sitting on huge piles of money (almost all of them have been funded) and the big fight for the user's mind share is just around the corner. wait and watch. you never know, someone not heard of till date may take the cake :D
• January 17, 2008, Alok Maheshwari commented: I think the local search war was over even before it started.In my opinion Justdial is the winner. Maybe not now but just give or take 2-3 years and the verdict will be out. Many haven't heard about Justdial but it already has a presence in 44 cities and soon it will be covering more cities.We can just wait and watch but the results are already out, we just need to accept it.
• January 30, 2008, Renie commented: Check out IndiBloogle - search engine for Indian blogs.
• February 1, 2008, Pavan commented: Hey, Even Cityfind.yulop.com is an amazing local search, please have a look, i think it should be added in the poll too., Pavan
• April 25, 2008, vinod commented: Hi guys There is an interesting site that you have left out .It is http://www.findnearyou.com It is cool and available in 5 cities
• June 19, 2008, Abhilash commented: tolmolbol is the best site when it comes to the local search. It is a cool site with all the other web 2.0 features.
• June 21, 2008, Kishore commented: Best local site
• June 26, 2008, rafi bandubai commented: I think tolmolbol is a very good site...it has lots of local info which is quite useful for guys like me........

Related Posts

• Loconomy - your hyper local marketplace
• Comparison of Web Analytics sites
• Wrapping up 2007

Alexa:

Alexa is the grand-daddy of web analytics. Alexa has been around since Web 1.0 days and is often used by several bloggers as a quick reference to statistics related to popular websites.

Methodology: Alexa data is collected via the Alexa toolbar that is installed by willing participants. Their methodology for calculating the statistics is fairly well documented. Based on the classification in my earlier post, Alexa employs user focused, browser toolbar based method for collecting data.

The two main things working in Alexa’s favor are:

a) Alexa data and graphs are free to use. Hence, the service is used by a lot of bloggers to get an insight about traffic details for popular websites

b) Alexa is one of the few website analytics companies that provides international data. For instance, you can view the top websites in India over here.

The main drawback is that Alexa data is unreliable. There is unanimous agreement about this. Ever wondered why ? Well, it is because Alexa provides the ‘Alexa toolbar’ only for IE on Windows. While there are 3rd party extensions for Firefox, they arent the same as the official toolbar.

HitWise:

HitWise employs network centric data collection methods. They have developed proprietary software that is used by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to collect anonymous data. ISP’s from several diverse geographies are used in data collection. The data is then aggregated from all the ISPs and used to compute the final statistics.

HitWise methodology and privacy practices are audited by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

HitWise data is not free and the company makes press releases from time to time.

ComScore:

Comscore employs user focused, panel management based method for data collection. They have a user panel consisting of 2 million participants worldwide. The panelists are recruited through a variety of random recruitment methods. The data gathered from the panel is coupled with surveys and then statistically sampled to yield the final results. You can read more about their methodology here.

With the emergence of Web 2.0, Comscore has enjoyed an upswing in its popularity as it is used as a reference by some of the top tech bloggers. They also recently released statistics related to India.

However, the interesting thing to note is that Comscore data has not been audited yet. They began the process of an audit just recently. Till the audit completes, you’ve gotta take Comscore data at its face value.

Moreover, I’m wondering about how they recruit users for the panel. After all, if I’m a tech savvy user, I’d never be interested in participating in a panel and install some dubious tracking software on my computer.

Compete:

The exact methodology used by Compete is unclear. However, it seems that they use a combination of user panel, ISP based and browser toolbar based methods for data collection. They have a 2 million strong user panel and focus mainly on the US market. Their basic service (with limited options) is free. Additional options are available for paid users.

Since Compete mainly focuses on the US market, it cant be used reliably for websites, whose main user population resides outside the US.

Quantcast:

Quantcast uses a combination of panel based and website based pixel tracker to gather data. Their exact methodology is not very clear at this time. The problem with their approach is that not all websites agree to using 3rd party tracking code in their website. As a result, I’d say they rely more on the panel measurement for data collection.

Now that we’ve reviewed how each service calculates website statistics, the million dollar question arises -

“Which service offers the most reliable data?”

Sadly, the answer is none.

The problem with browser toolbar based approach is obvious - it relies on willing participants who agree to install the toolbar. Moreover, if the toolbar is specific to a browser/platform, it leaves out data collection from other browsers-platforms.

The problem with user panel based data collection is in the details - how are the panel of users recruited ? How does this panel represent the overall Internet population as a whole ? Are users in the panel are aware of how their surfing habits will affect the panel data ?

The problem with website based tracking data is that not all websites would be willing to install the tracking code.

The problem with ISP based data collection is that the data collection depends on which all ISP’s are participating in the data collection process and to what level. Moreover, ISP based data collection doesnt include SSL traffic.

Here’re a few good examples of the web analytics mess.

It’s a shame, but web analytics is at best, just a form of voodoo. Make a best possible guess and if it falls flat, come up with a story to explain the goofup.

Comments

• January 4, 2008, webmaster commented: We were able to take up our Alexa Ranking by over 1000% in under three months. To learn more on how we were able to do this: http://blog.ourwedding.in/?p=7
• January 5, 2008, Pranav commented: Hey Pranav! iam surprised to see what's written in the post! and i beg to differ Here's my views. "Title Says: Comparison of Web Analytics Sites!" Your not comparing Web Analytics Sites.. alexa, Comscore Hitwise all are competitive intelligence sites and no way can be considered as Web Analytics Vendors or ASP Providers. Alexa is the grand-daddy of web analytics: Untrue, they do not fall under Web Analytics service providers, Web Analytics Evolved from the log file analysis from web server. and none of these even should be considered as a way to measure your website performance! only web analytics tools like Google Analytics, Omniture, WebTrends, CoreMetrics, ClickTracks, Indextools, Nedstat to name the major player should be used. So iam afraid the post should be named more on comparison Competitive Intelligence rather Web Analytics.. coz if you just use one of the above Web Analytics Tool.. you will just love the data and the kind of information you get from these tools...!! the best definition for me is, Web Analytics help understand the Pulse of your site visitors.. Cheers Anil
• January 6, 2008, pranav commented: @Anil, Call it web metrics / competitive intelligence / internet measurement / web statistics / traffic data - whatever you feel most comfortable with. the goal of the post is more towards comparing the various services.
• April 10, 2008, dev commented: great comparison!
• April 12, 2008, Rushik Shah commented: Absolutely I completly agree with Pranav The top Web Analytics companies are CoreMetrics, Google Analytics, Omniture, WebTrends, etc.

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The idea is to club the startups in categories and conduct a poll for each of them:

Here’re some of the categories and the startups as part of each category:

Local search:

Asklaila, JustDial, Burrp, Guruji, Metromela, Tolmolbol, Dwaar, Citipals

(Startups focusing on a particular city / region have been intentionally left out. )

Social Networking:

IndyaRocks, MingleBox, DesiMartini, BigAdda, Sumitr, cafe ibibo

Mobile based:

Vakow, SMS GupShup, Chittr, mocodile, activemobs

(mobile, permission based marketing companies have been intentionally left out).

photo sharing and printing:

iTasveer, picsquare, Zoomin, printo

ticket booking:

bookeazy, kyazoonga, bookmyshow

map based:

sadakmap, mapmyindia, routeguru, commuteeasy, mapunity

telephony based:

voiee, tringme, ubona
I am excluding the travel portal and the dvd rental categories since I’ve done those earlier (and given that these verticals have matured a bit).

Some of the companies overlap across categories and so its extremely difficult to categorize them exactly.

And here’s where I need your help –

This post has been written in a jiffy (still on vacation) and so there’s a very good chance that I may have missed out on a few. If you feel that there need to be additional categories / companies that I have missed out, or any of the companies above a mis-categorized, please let me know.

Update: I will launch the poll as soon as the categories / list is finalized

Comments

• December 26, 2007, Amit commented: How about http://www.photoswift.com under photo sharing and printing. I thought they have a cool site.
• December 27, 2007, rg commented: I vote for.....Vakow! but probably you won't count it :)
• December 27, 2007, Vikas commented: For categories - you could add wedding-planning
• December 29, 2007, Sahil commented: I would like to add www.deskaway.com for Project Collaboration. Thanks and have a great New Years!
• January 1, 2008, pranav commented: @rg - your vote will count..all's fair.. @vikas - wedding planning doesnt seem to have sufficient players. besides, its use is limited to a certain demographic
• January 2, 2008, Raseel commented: Here's my bit for 2007 "wrapups" : http://www.raseel.in/blog/?p=11

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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 ?

The other big weakness of their approach is that its not objective. If you read the story, you’ll notice that they put a lot of emphasis on the design and usability of the website. I myself am a huge fan of clean design and usability of a site. However, design cant be the primary factor for comparing and evaluating websites. More objective, tangible features need to be considered. A few excerpts from the PC World story below:

It sports a clean and easy-to-use design with a smart color palette to attract the target audience. The dark background of the site enables it to maintain focus on the right areas while infusing a fresh feel to the site.

India Properties has very attractive colors, good layout and informative graphics. The pleasant blue-ish feel of India Property lends itself to a nice surfing experience while the good background picture makes it visually very appealing.

In terms of design, Shaadi.com was the most popular.Fresh, appealing colors, interesting graphics and convenient layout reinforce visual appeal. However, at times, Shaadi’s pages appear to be somewhat cluttered.

The entire story has similar phrases in almost every category. Such observations and feedback about design are subjective - in this case to the jury. Note that it is unknown as to who constitutes the members of the jury. What is the background of the members of the jury ? It could have a direct bearing on statements, similar to the ones above.

Although, I personally agree with some of their results, I do not see eye-to-eye with their approach and reasoning. No factual comparisons, no feature evaluations. The story seems way to amateurish to me. More so, like a cheap publicity stint to drive magazine sales and get the eyeballs. What a big sham !

Update: Now, MonsterIndia is hoping to capitalize on these lousy ratings by issuing press releases such as this one - that they are rated the best job site in India.

Note that I base my observations on the online edition of the story. I dont know if they have a more in-depth article in the print edition.

Comments

• May 15, 2007, Ashish commented: The text isn't different. They have the occasional screenshot of the site/soundbyte from a member of the jury - and some more content on categories which they did not include - such as classifieds/travel metasearch etc.
• May 15, 2007, pranav commented: ashish - the ratings should work out pretty well for you guys - considering that itasveer topped the photo printing category :-) and thanks for the tip above.
• May 29, 2007, Zaid commented: As a design guy, I go after badly designed sites faster than anyone. But there is a difference in judging design for usability versus judging it for sex appeal. PC World writer seems to have gone with the latter. -Zaid
• May 1, 2008, haider commented: all the indian computer and tech magz sucks...there are filled with mistakes,errors and junk

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Here’s my effort at creating a taxonomy:

The Portals segment is definitely seeing some action lately:

• Yahoo launched two new services during David Filo’s visit to India
• AOL launched their portal for Indian market
• MSN plans to become more aggressive and launches MSN Contribute and MSN Debate
• Rediff launches free unlimited email storage
• Google News now in Hindi

The News and Infotainment sites are going through a makeover phase - with several of them including NDTV, TimesofIndia, HindustanTimes getting a facelift.

Not a lot of news coming in from the E-commerce and Banking-Finance segment.

The verticals segment is seeing all sorts of action - from emergence of new segments (auto,real estate) to PR wars between players to major VC money being pumped into some others (travel):

• PR Wars between Naukri and TimesJobs
• BharatMatrimony knocks on Supreme court against MRTPC order brought in by Shaadi
• VC funding frenzy in the Indian travel portal market

The community - Social networking space is also generating a lot of buzz recently:

• Ibibo launches Cafe Ibibo
• IndyaRocks makes beta launch
• MingleBox gets $7 million from Sequoia
• Orkut plans to offer Indian languages

The segment that comprises of the rest of the Web2.0 sites is also growing fast, with a whole lot of exciting new startups launching in recent times.

On the whole, I think its the upper and lower portions of the pyramid that are seeing and generating majority of the buzz. The activity towards the upper half of the pyramid is more radical and game changing. While the activity towards the lower half is more subtle - like introducing new services, cosmetic changes etc. Of course, this is based on which part of the evolutionary curve they fall into. Portals have become stable and mature while the verticals, SNS and the Web2.0 space are still taking shape.

With this rough classification of the Indian Internet landscape, we now need to cross-pollinate it with the technology adoption life-cycle graph. The portals, infotainment and e-commerce sites have already reached a majority, when it comes to user adoption (in other words, they’ve crossed the chasm). Indian Web 2.0 is still in its infancy and a lot will depend on the shoulders of the early adopter crowds.

But I’ll save this for another post later during the week.

PS - Any incoherence in the grammar-sentences needs to be pardoned. I’m mentally exhausted.

Comments

• May 10, 2007, Abhinav commented: Yahoo! mail also now offers unlimited email storage. BTW, did you check, Reliance's bigadda.com is launched.
• May 11, 2007, pranav commented: Yep..Have already checked BigAdda.com - nothing great..
• May 14, 2007, Rita commented: Well i came across this news aggregation site for India - really liked it. Simple. www.netreputation.co.uk/directory/india
• May 14, 2007, Amit commented: I came across this exclusive classifieds portal called rakoFi recently. I think its a pretty good start. They have only offered rakoFi's to select group of organizations. http://www.rakofi.com
• June 18, 2007, India Internet statistics commented: [...] In an earlier post, I attempted to create a taxonomy of the Indian Internet websites. If you plot this taxonomy against the technology adoption life cycle graph, we can try to roughly estimate where exactly each class of Indian websites lie on the tech adoption life cycle graph. [...]

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On to the results of the poll:

With 22 votes, Cleartrip got 48% of the total votes. MakeMyTrip came in second with 12 votes (26%) followed by Yatra with 8 votes (17%).

I will lock down this poll and brainstorm about the next poll.

Any ideas what the next poll should be about ?

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Obs 1) Several of the portals showed me deals which did not make any sense logistically. For example, while searching for flights from Ahmedabad to Mumbai, a couple of portals showed me a few itineraries with a stopover in Delhi and Hyderabad. Now, why would I opt for a stopover in Delhi or Hyderabad if I intend to go to Mumbai ?

Results from Yatra:

Results from ClearTrip:

Can any of the above travel portals explain the absurdity above ?

Obs 2) MakeMyTrip did not display the total cost of the itinerary till the last screen:

Obs 3) TraveMartIndia was unable to find any flights from Ahmedabad - Mumbai departing 9th Apr - returing 23rd Apr.

Obs 4) TravelGuru just froze on me when I selected to book the itinerary.

I would like to hear what you have to say about this head-to-head comparison.

Also, if you can spare a second and take a quick poll below, it would be great.

Comments

• March 18, 2007, Sandeep commented: I buy this point of absurdity of showing stop overs illogically, but look at the way guys like Yatra evolved themselves, m regular user of their website since last year, m noticing they keep on evolving themselves with better user friendly experience. At least someone is defintely looking at this aspect closely. Showing fares rules is fantastic idea and none of the player is showing as friendly as they are. No doubt cleartrip is clear but at the end of the day, info is the key and hats off to YATRA till we have better one.
• March 19, 2007, Pranav commented: Sandeep, The one thing ClearTrip is doing so right and where Yatra is missing out is soliciting feedback. Cleartrip founders interact directly with the end users through their blog - asking for feedback etc. and then incorporate those changes. If yatra can reduce the clutter to some extent, it would do wonders for their usability -pranav.
• March 23, 2007, Geeta Eral commented: Hi Pranav, Thank you for taking the time for conducting this comparison. This was indeed interesting and informative. We appreciate honest feedback from customers like you, which definitely helps us in improvising our services. We are currently implementing enhancements to our website functionality and appearance, and can assure you that your feedback shall be accorded due consideration, and acted upon. Thank you for mentioning Makemytrip.com on your weblog. Regards, Geeta Eral Manager - Customer Delight Makemytrip.com
• March 25, 2007, pranav commented: Geeta, I'll admit it - it comes as a surprise that MMT is keeping a close tab on blog reviews related to MMT. Will watch out for the changes to MMT website. Pranav.
• March 29, 2007, Saunak commented: Hi Sandeep, It's extremely heartening to get feedback from you. Sincere apologies for letting you down at the final frontier. We're in the process of upgrading our flight engine, and I hope you'll have a much better experience next time you log on to Travelguru. Keep posting till then. It keeps us going. Saunak Ghosh Marketing Manager Travelguru
• March 29, 2007, Saunak commented: Hi Sandeep, Also looking forward to a similar exercise for hotels too. Would love to hear your feedback and comparison for the same and am sure the community will definitely benefit from it. Cheers Saunak
• March 29, 2007, pranav commented: Saunak, I believe your comment is aimed at me - my name is Pranav.
• March 29, 2007, Saunak commented: Sorry Pranav.... Looking forward to your opinion.
• April 17, 2007, namrita commented: hi im doing a research project analysing consumer behaviour and their perceptions towards online travel portals in india. right now im trying to get few insights from the customers who are using the services of these portals. what are the major factors that influence their behavior while purchasing holiday packages and tickets etc from these portals and questions like these. it would be of great help if anyone can give some insights towards my queries. thanks
• April 17, 2007, pranav commented: Namrita, In my opinion, there are three key factors that influence the end customer: 1) First and foremost will be price / cost. 2) Cost / low price does not always guarantee good customer service / end user experience. So, people who were guided solely by factor (1) and had a bad experience will start giving importance to customer service - end user experience. 3) Brand conscious - several people I know love Jet Air's service. and they dont mind paying extra for flying only Jet. I'm pretty sure there can be several other dimensions you can add to the list above. -p
• April 19, 2007, namrita commented: hi pranav thanks for your reply. one more question....... what are the important features that a customer will look in a travel portal? or what features make a travel portal interesting or usable for the customers?
• May 1, 2007, Mukul commented: Have you checked out www.indiflight.com? you can do flight search for multiple days with one click! and you can setup price alerts and much more, Hope you like it
• May 15, 2007, Akash commented: I personally like makemytrip, because of their straight forward and most importantly fast searches. Cleartrip is clean. By clean, I mean easy to load and without ads. Travelguru has VAPI listed in the list of cities (I don't know whether VAPI even has a airport), but Patna is not mention in the list. I think they are supports of MNS [:P].
• May 20, 2007, Rajesh Arjunlal Jaisingh commented: Hi All, A note from someone who has been travelling around a lot in the last two years and has booked most of his tickets on the net. While a lot of focus is on the way the websites present content little attention seems to have been paid to their customer service back bone. I have had problems twice with MakeMyTrip where the same fare has been charged twice on my card. (Note that being a frequent user I am aware and make it a point to click only once on their payment link - Problems happen when the expected page does not load!!) The response timelines when such issues are raised are pathetic. I have had far better service from Yatra. First off, they have not given me reason to complain, the site is more User friendly than any other (Have you tried their price and time filters?? They are a brilliant feature for travellers whose needs are not just to look for the cheapest flights but ones that suit their schedules!) and I find better deals than most other sites. I always check different sites everytime I book and my hit rate for the cheapest ones has been as high as 90% with Yatra! Cheers, Raj
• May 28, 2007, Mahendra Penumathsa commented: Pranav, Great site and community. Check what we are trying to achieve in Birbal.in Birbal (when launched fully) will do three things for the user: 1) Help search and compare options amongst participating OTA's and airlines 2) Help the community to discuss and rate (both objective and subjective) Airlines (Domestic and international), Hotels, Places of Interest and Cities. 3) Transfer the user to the service provider (Whether travel sites or airlines) to make a purchase Travel is being launched first with (airfares and hotels) followed by Consumer Finance,Insurance, Mutual Funds, Telecom, Food, Events, ISPs. Let me know what you think.
• July 6, 2007, Airline Ticket Booking India commented: Birbal sounds interesting (when it launches). Meanwhile, dont know if you guys have tried http://www.ixigo.com We are currently the fastest, most comprehensive (14 Airlines, 3 OTAs) and most unbiased travel search engine in the Indian market. We can confidently claim to have the cheapest fares on any given sector on any given date since between the airlines and OTAs we show fares from, we are bound to found the cheapest options for you within a few seconds. We show all prices with taxes included, and we dont claim to sell any 99 Rs. tickets because we want consumers to know the absolute price that hits their pockets. Finally - try it once, and tell us if any other portal can match our prices, speed or usability, for flights.
• July 21, 2007, Leena commented: Hi... Travelguru.... Is the right place....to plan your holiday. Best Deal always.. Cheers Leena
• July 21, 2007, sudhir commented: Leena, Travelguru doesnt have a refund or ticketing process inplace...why should i buy on that site
• July 21, 2007, Rishi commented: I am not sure what you mean by no refund or ticketing process. I got a nice refund from them recently, and have bought tons of tickets with them. I buy on value alone and their 30% "flat" cashback on my HDFC Titanium card rocked. I got over 10K back from them on my summer vacation tickets. Obvio you have not used the site Sudhir. And all the OTAs have a slight element of hit&miss.
• August 17, 2007, Sumeet commented: Hi, I would like to ask you if you are starting a new poll than please include Hotboy Sabeer's Arzoo.com it would be nice to see which is standing better in providing cheap fares and better services. bye, Cheerz. Sumeet.
• August 18, 2007, Chandra commented: recently I had to book tickets for my father and after visiting all travel portals I finally ended up with ClearTrip.com As a designer may be I am influenced by their easy to use simple interface. Other portals are somewhat cluttered and not user friendly... dint bothered about refunding/cancellation options... best part is even my father with very little exposure to website was able to use the website... full marks to cleartrip...
• August 20, 2007, Bonam commented: Hi Guyz, Dont never use MAKEMYTRIP.com site.It is obsolutely a fraud site and they dont show responsible towards customer.They even dont have a proper faq's about cancellation and they dont even take care about cancellation tickets.I lost my hard earned money $1000 .I am not only the vicim of Makemytrip .There are sever other customers are facing the same problem.
• September 2, 2007, yogesh commented: good post... i agree with u guys Cleartrip is the best ... clear prices no suprises & decent cust service... I guess u missed out Indiatimes Travel ... I must say its worth skipping the effort the most lousy cust service ( the ticket didnt reach me 8 days after booking, luckily i had booked 20 days in advance, 6 rounds of follwo-up calls got me the ticket) In hotels i think Nivalink.com is the best
• November 7, 2007, Unmesh commented: I guess I am a little late to this party :) Anyways, was trying to make an online reservation and my general observation was that the tickets online are generally more expensive than buying through a local agent. Besides not all airline options are available and there are price differences for the same itineraries among the different online travel sites. Was wondering if the Indian online travel sites can benefit from Amazon.com's online book selling model where they show listings from other book-sellers (mom&pop, individuals, other book stores). Our travel sites could similarly aggregate the offerings of local travel agents. So when you search for a flight and price, the offers from local travel agents should also be listed. There is great advantage to the first-mover in this space (local travel agents will be quick to jump on to get online exposure) and the travel site can earn a buck just for making the connection. Food for thought - hope some travel site is reading this ;) -Unmesh. Founder, SadakMap.com SpotMeUrl: http://www.sadakmap.com/spotme/unmesh
• November 22, 2007, Neerav Nagar commented: This discussion has been very interesting. But was surprised to see that nowhere ezeego1 has been mentioned. I have used it and have found good deals. The good thing about them is transperancy as after the search, all-inclusive prices are shown with detailed break-up. However, customer service is not good as I haven't got the reply for my queries through e-mail and their phone lines are always busy. Though I am not a tech savvy person but, as a customer, if I have been kept on hold for 10-15 minutes and then I keep the phone with disappointment,I would be happy if organization calls me back to ask my requirements. Their website is http://www.ezeego1.co.in
• April 4, 2008, Information Madness commented: Found this bug in Yatra.com USA site. http://www.informationmadness.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=751&Itemid=9
• April 18, 2008, Nitin commented: Nice thread.. My own comparison of these three sites at www.nitinsareen.blogspot.com
• May 13, 2008, Anaggh Desai commented: Pretty late at the party. But whilst all of the OTA have their plus & minus; unfortunately since they address the same target & supplies there are always the hidden elements beyond their control. They can only improve with constant consumer feedback; provided they are honest enough to accept it. Some of them are not. Also the data that is used for drop down is standard & not customised every time, so the problem with airport at Vapi etc. Keep up the work mate!
• June 14, 2008, Sudhir commented: * Yatra has no concern for their customers* My experience with Yatra has been otherwise Big names like Reliance etc does not mean that the service rendered would be world clsss. While it looks nice to see things on their Portal, on the ground reality is different ! I had done Hotel bookings thru them this April for family holiday in May and to my surprise even after the money was charged to my CC, I found the Hotels refusing to confirm the bookings. On notifying the anomaly to them, 11th hour attempt by Yatra yielded result that they found a hotel some 145 kms away from my destination ! Finally I had to search a hotel which was still some 20kms from the downtown area and pay thru my nose for an up-down cost of travel by taxis everyday. In the other case, I was offered a very dingy cottage (one can call it a servant room) at a resort instead of a room booked and confirmed thru them. I had to check in at another hotel and pay thru my nose. The very purpose of going on a vacation, with advance bookings done, is to enjoy a hassle free vacation but that is the last of the concerns with the people at Yatra. Till date, despite so many reminders, Yatra has not even bothered to call back. Their sales manager Arpit Seth has no empathy for the poor clients.Net net, my vacation was royally sc***d and my kids and wife were cursing me for no fault of mine.
• August 4, 2008, Sid commented: I also want to be part of this discussion,i personally working in airlines,i know every web site about travel releated,i think no one is good but still there are few travel portal are doing nice job,like MMT,TG.But apart from that new web site i seen on net that's namasteyindia.com,i think these guys are working reallly hard to compete with other travel portal,belive me guys they are giving excellent customer service.I cant explain you guys about my experiance but it's really worhty.

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Why online travel portals ?

The Indian online travel market is H-O-T !! Over the last year, the Indian online travel portal market has seen a lot of action - New players have emerged, VC investments have been made, aggressive online marketing campaigns and now even several international players are considering entering into the market - an all out race to get the biggest market share. Oh, and did I mention that the Indian online travel segment is the fastest growing e-commerce sector ?
I have tried to be as accurate as possible based on my research from publicly available sources. However, if you find any discrepancy, please feel free to let me know and I shall correct it accordingly.

The comparison does not include Rediff FareSearch and IndiaTimes Travel for the following reasons:

1) It is difficult to estimate the traffic and market share for these two sites. Alexa doesnt display the traffic details for the travel sub portal for IndiaTimes. The only detail Alexa provides is that 2% of all visitors to IndiaTimes website visited their travel sub portal. Details for Rediff FareSearch dont even show up in the traffic details for Rediff.com.

2) Rediff FareSearch is more of a travel deal aggregator as opposed to a travel booking portal. What I mean is that they do not provide the ability to book flights on their site. Instead, they redirect you to the corresponding airline’s booking engine to complete the transaction.

So which sites are included in the head to head comparison ?

I have decided to include the five biggest players (Note:IndiaTimes travel may be bigger than some of these but I dont include them based on explanation above) in the online Indian travel segment based on their Alexa traffic details:

MakeMyTrip, Yatra, ClearTrip, TravelGuru, TravelMartIndia

Without further ado, here’s the comparison matrix. Some additional observations follow

Comments

• March 18, 2007, Vishal commented: There is one more such site called flightraja.com. It also has a simple interface and shows all details in clear format. Most importantly, it shows results from Air Deccan and Go Air also which no other sites show. I booked 4 return tickets from Mumbai to Delhi. Flightraja showed total cost as 12.5K while all other sites showed 19K.
• March 18, 2007, Vicky commented: try another very intuitive site called www.ticketvala.com great idea of selling bus tickets online.
• March 19, 2007, pranav commented: @vishal - seems like I overlooked flightraja. They do have a good UI. In terms of traffic, they're pretty much at par with tmartIndia. I played around with flightraja. Seems to be pretty good in terms of flight results. I'll try to incorporate it as part of the comparison. @vicky - are people using the service online bus ticket service ? If so, how popular is it ?
• March 22, 2007, Neha commented: Quite an interesting read. Would be interesting to know how these portals compare when it comes to booking hotels.
• March 22, 2007, Deepak commented: I am Quite fond of this Travel Portal as I have several GooD options available in hand while booking the Air Tickets to any parts of INDIA.
• March 22, 2007, pranav commented: @neha Didnt get around to covering hotels
• March 31, 2007, AMAL commented: Hi, How does the comparision of webportal help me while booking tickets? Its ok when airlines are compared in portal not otherwise. Am I right? Amal.
• April 10, 2007, Gurpreet Singh commented: Hi guys Thank you for sharing useful information.Im a frequent traveler with in India and sometimes abroad.I always book my holidays with in India with www.hotelhihotel.com exclusivly deals with hotels around India and also specailised in International Airtickets ..
• May 8, 2007, Ravi commented: Just comparing different website based on traffic (alexa) may not really make sense ! You might want to see how much of all airline is cover, revenue may be ? which aggregator is used by what audience ? What is the different amongst them ? etc ? Let me know if i can be helpfull in doing a little bit of it.
• July 16, 2007, Prashant Parab commented: I think the UI of http://www.Cleartrip.com rocks simple & Sober Cheers!! Prashant P
• July 16, 2007, Risha commented: Anyone tried iXiGO ? My colleague told me about this site two weeks back - it's http://www.iXiGO.com - now my favourite - simple, easy to use, and I have always found better fares and more options than on Yatra, makemytrip or cleartrip.
• July 25, 2007, Sathya Balan commented: I find http://www.ezeego1.co.in a comprehensive travel booking hub.
• July 30, 2007, India travel Enthusiast commented: Check www.idiscoverindia.com for info on INDIA TRAVEL.
• August 3, 2007, Kavya Chawla commented: Hi, I am a journalist with a travel Magzine and basically covering travel portals these days recently came across Zoomtra.com it is quite a user freindly website. And incase readers of the website come across any new website please do inform me at chawla_kavya@yahoo.co.in.It will increase my avenues for coverage.
• August 4, 2007, Bazooka commented: Kavya - Quit kidding. Journalists dont promote travel sites :-) and usually they dont like spam either.
• August 12, 2007, niranjan gupta commented: viajustgo.com, formerly, flightraja.com there is one fundamental difference in our approach. We are focussed on empowering 10,000+ travel agents in the country by providing them seamless connectivity on all domestic airlines for them to issue tickets to their customers and also earn commission on the same. we have more than 4000 agents in 340 cities registered with us who issue tickets to their customers. we are steadily growing on our B2C share and are confident will have significant market share without obscene adspend which has been the norm in india. niranjan gupta COO via
• August 31, 2007, Rajiv commented: For a more comprehensive analysis of travel sites in India, see: http://trak.in/Tags/Business/2007/08/26/indian-travel-airfare-ticket-search-startup/
• October 31, 2007, Sandor commented: You may want to have a look as well at Sprice.co.in. Sprice is an international travel search engine, with a specific site for India, searching domestic -and- international airfares and hotels.
• November 1, 2007, Leena commented: India Travel Agents Hub created with the association of well known travel service provider of India. We have few selected travel agency with their expertise in particular tour package.
• November 6, 2007, Amit commented: your website is very good.
• November 14, 2007, Unmesh Mayekar commented: Was wondering if the Indian online travel sites can benefit from Amazon.com’s online book selling model where they show listings from other book-sellers (mom&pop, individuals, other book stores). Our travel sites could similarly aggregate the offerings of local travel agents. So when you search for a flight and price, offers from local travel agents will also be listed allowing the users the choice of picking up the tix themselves. There is great advantage to the first-mover in this space (local travel agents will be quick to jump on to get online exposure) and the travel site can earn a buck just for making the connection. Food for thought - hope some travel site is reading this ;) -Unmesh. Founder, SadakMap.com SpotMeUrl: http://www.sadakmap.com/spotme/unmesh
• December 10, 2007, Dinesh commented: Hi Guys, thanks for such informations i get lots information about the Online Travel agency without paying a single penny hahaha. I am just kidding usually i use makemytrip.com for my flight and hotel bookings. I always get a comfort and good price. Customer service is too good they will be in touch with you from the day you made your reservation till you arrive back to ur place. they always ready to helpout their passenger any time. they having a 24*7 customer care with a tollfree number. I just want to say if any body want to tell me abt makemytrip any bad or good exp i m ready to listen but as per my reccomandations you guys should go & try out makemytrip once
• February 15, 2008, Eliza Hardley commented: This is really very informative. But maybe you guys not noticed there is another good India Tour Operator emerging in this competition. If you want to know more then visit http://www.indianholiday.com and let me know your view....:)
• February 18, 2008, palace on wheels commented: As far as informations are provided by this blog ragarding the top competitive travel agency and rates between the them. but if your are thinking about luxury train journey in india palace on wheels then no need to check rates of other travel agent just click on www.aboutpalaceonwheels.com
• February 19, 2008, Hotels in Kerala commented: Truly Said. Online Travel market today is getting very competitive. Well! Further I would only say that we have to be very analytic and clever enough while choosing for a good online tour operator.
• April 1, 2008, Geeta commented: well - i cant afford to travel by air these days so I prefer to use train. after being sick of the slow system that irctc uses i now use rediff train service to find stuff on trains...at least it faster than all the govt sites http://indian-railways.rediff.com/index.php
• April 4, 2008, Krishna Ramesh commented: Try http://www.travel.dwaar.com for rail. All details in a single search. No crazy select class or check availability business. Sort by time , duration , fare or filter by departure. Very useful
• April 9, 2008, Raj commented: Would be interesting to see how the key international OTA players compare - www.travelocity.co.in and expedia.in
• May 2, 2008, CAmmy commented: Guys try booking tickets ( railway, bus, Movie etc)..at Suvidhaa outlets across india... Suvidhaa outlet which are manned & spread across the country enable consumer to Book Tour Packages / Hotel Booking, purchase Railway / Airline / Bus and Cinema tickets - online / offline, besides enabling them to pay electricity and other utility bills online / offline . For more info log on to - www.mysuvidhaa.com
• June 23, 2008, Tasha Ahmed commented: Nice post.
• June 23, 2008, Arjun Rajkumar commented: Yes, interesting post. And I am guilty of launching another one in this already competetive market. But we need some help with the tagline for GreenGambol. http://www.greengambol.com/tag.php Any suggestions?
• July 2, 2008, Sonia Malhotra commented: Try using www.GhumiChale.com India's First Hotels Comparison Engine...it searches over 800,000 Hotel Deals globally
• July 3, 2008, Pankaj Mittal commented: Hi All, It is interesting to see the movement in Indian Travel industry. We are recruiting for 2 travel start-up among top 5. rgds, Pankaj Mittal

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