Posts Tagged: google

14
Sep 09

Google is king of the Indian market

To most of you, it wouldnt come as a surprise that Google reigns in the Indian Internet market. From Blogger to Orkut to Google search to Youtube, it is one of the most visited network sites in the Indian market.

For every online hour spent in India, 18 minutes are spent on a Google site. Or in other words, 29 percent of the total online time in India goes to Google network of sites – NYT

I have said this way before and I will say it again – Microsoft and Yahoo battling Google in the US market is probably a battle lost already, but ignoring markets like India and Brazil will basically be repeating that very same mistake again.



Internet — 3 comments

24
Feb 09

Rethinking the User Interface

If you have been following StartupDunia for some time, you would be familiar with my penchant for user interfaces (UI). I have been vocal about my critique for sites with poor UI and have applauded well designed sites. Although I am not a UI designer myself, I think well designed UI is crucial  towards user friendliness and user adoption.

Let us take a look at a few amazing innovations in User Interface and how they have disrupted entire markets:

1) Windows:

Hate it as much as you want, but Microsoft brought the friendly Windows UI to common computer users. Although inspired from the original Mac UI, Windows definitely gets credit for taking the UI mainstream.  Even in today’s date, Linux is still heavily geared towards geeks and Windows and Microsoft office continue to thrive – because of their sheer simplicity and ease of use.

2) iPod:

180px-ipodwheelsvgIts not that digital music players didnt exist before iPod arrived. So, how’s it that iPod virtually ended up dominating the entire digital music market ? For starters, the seamless integration of  iPod – iTunes made buying and discovering digital music really easy. But more than that, iPod has been successful primarily because it is a sleek, sexy and extremely user friendly gadget. The click wheel innovation made the iPod a simplistic gadget with no need of the additional clunky buttons (play, stop, rewind etc.).  If one were to describe the interface using a single word, it would definitely be best said as ‘intuitive’.

Continue reading →



Technology — 5 comments

3
Feb 09

Google launches mobile Internet bus in India

Google is taking to grass root approach to educate and increase Internet awareness in India by starting a mobile Internet bus in India. The bus will tour 15 towns across the state of Tamil Nadu and provide access to content in English and Tamil to people in these towns.

As per Prem Ramaswami, Google product manager,

It is like a pilot study (for us). More than 19 per cent of Tamilians prefer Google Tamil for accessing the Internet and that is also one of the reasons to launch the bus project from Tamil Nadu

What do you think of this grass root approach ? Do you think we need similar approaches to increase Internet adoption in smaller towns and rural areas in India ? Will it fly ?

via release



India broadband — 1 comment

13
Jan 09

Yahoo India releases top searches

Yahoo India has released the year end top searches for the Indian market. Bollywood and cricket dominate the list, which wouldnt come as a surprise to anyone.

here’s Yahoo top 10 searches list for 2008.

yahoo-search

Compare this to Google’s 2008 top searches list for India:

Continue reading →



Internet / Technology — No comments

1
Dec 08

Microsoft ignoring Indian market at its own peril

Microsoft is on a mission. With efforts like Live Mesh, Live Cashback, Azure, Powerset acquisition etc., Microsoft is trying to fend off the competiton and the growing mind share and market share of Google. But while Microsoft still works out its US strategy, is it ignoring the non – US markets ? Especially India ?

I personally think so. Just look at the pace at which Google has been innovating in the Indian market. They launched the ability to search in Indic languages, Google SMS Channels, Indic Transliteration API (which I think is super awesome by the way), Voice and SMS based search and a tonne of new features in Orkut. Even Yahoo, inspite of its recent troubles, has made a few attempts at innovating in the Indian market with services like OurCity, Glue, SpotM.

On the other hand, there’re hardly any such efforts – services being launched by Microsoft India. A few business partnerships here and there, but nothing compared to the likes of Google India.  And that seems to be showing in the traffic to their Internet properties.

 

Continue reading →



Internet — 7 comments

28
Jul 08

Cuil has gotten everyone excited – but why ?

Cuil, a new search engine built by a team of ex-Google employees, launched earlier yesterday. Ever since,  I’ve been hammered by the news of the launch everywhere – RSS Feeds, New York times, Techmeme. Even before I got a chance to try it out, folks were already talking about its 120 billion index of web pages and how Cuil could be a major threat to Google.

As the day passed, folks got sufficient time to try out the search engine and the reviews have been mixed. I tried out the service myself and couldnt agree more. While Cuil does offer some neat features, its nowhere near to usurping Google’s reign anytime soon. The search results seemed mediocre at best.

So, why and how exactly did Cuil end up getting so much hype in spite of having such an okay product ?

I attribute it to three reasons:

1) The core team behind Cuil are ex-Google employees and well respected search experts. That gives them tremendous credibility right from the get go. Building infrastructure and the ability to index 120 billion pages in such a short time is no mean feat by any regards

2) Great stealth and PR tactics by Cuil and the gullibility of the A-list bloggers who took the bait

Continue reading →



Internet — 8 comments

27
May 08

Google – Do Evil as you see fit

Google’s “Do No Evil” mantra would need no introduction to most of you. For those of you, who need to know more about their mantra and its origins, there are hundreds of online articles that explain the same.

While Google has enjoyed immense PR and popularity riding on the back of this mantra, some of its recent actions dont necessarily abide by this “Do No Evil” philosophy. First there was the China censorship, then was the furor related to self promotion of Google products in search results and then Google revealed details about an Orkut user to Brazilian authorities.

In a similar recent incident, Google revealed details about an Orkut user to Indian authorities, which resulted in his arrest. The man was found guilty of writing hate content in the “I hate Sonia Gandhi” community on Orkut.

Ok, I understand. In order to operate and abide by Indian penal laws, they were obligated to reveal the details of the user to the Indian authorities. India is too crucial a market for them and being a little evil helps them keep the truce with the Indian legal system.

But when I read about Google’s counterpoint to the $1 billion lawsuit brought on by ViaCom, I was appalled & shocked by the sheer double standards that Google chooses to operate by. As per Google, Viacom’s lawsuit

“threatens the way hundreds of millions of people legitimately exchange information, news, entertainment and political and artistic expression”

What the fuck ? You seek refuge of “political expression“and “threatens legitimate exchange of information” to fight a lawsuit. And then you turn in those same folks who are expressing themselves on Orkut ?

Google is acting like a self serving, selfish, manipulative, evil bitch. And apparently, this isnt the very first time they’ve resorted to such hypocritical behavior. I dont think this will be their last either.

Shame on you Google. Take a note or two from RIM, for that matter – at least they have the balls not to rat out on their users.



Internet — 10 comments