Dotcom Dossier: connecting dots......

Naukri Launches Professional Networking Site - Brijj

noreply@blogger.com (Web Guru) — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 05:07:00 +0000

Info Edge (Naukri.com) has launched a professional networking site, Brijj.com, reports WATBlog. From the About Us page, the mandate of the site seems fairly similar to Linked In - introductions, business opportunities and jobs.

During a recent earnings call, Naukri CEO Sanjeev Bikhchandani had explained their need for a professional networking site: Job sites don’t tap passive candidates, and Bikhchandani believes that a networking site can plug that gap. Naukri.com has a database of over 10 million resumes, and a possible integration with Brijj gives it the opportunity to engage better with those for whom Naukri goes off the radar when they’re not looking for a job.

However, Naukri is not the first Indian company to try the professional networking site. Rediff had launched Connexions as a professional networking site, then there’s also Techtribe, which recently received funding from Canaan Partners; they’re attempting the reverse: a tech networking site trying to make inroads into the tech jobs space with a referral system.

Source: ContentSutra

Interested in becoming a Google Business Referral Representative?

noreply@blogger.com (Web Guru) — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 04:19:00 +0000

Why should you become a Google Business Referral Representative?

Joining the Google Local Business Referrals (LBR) program is a great way to earn some money while connecting people to the businesses in your neighborhood. The information you collect could be seen by millions of people who use Google every day. And you'll be helping the businesses you refer attract new customers while also making it easier for people in your community to find the products and services they're searching for.
What will you be doing as a representative?

As a Google Business Referral Representative, you'll visit local businesses to collect information (such as hours of operation, types of payment accepted, etc.) for Google Maps, and tell them about Google Maps and Google AdWords. You'll also take a few digital photos of the business that will appear on the Google Maps listing along with the business information. After the visit, you submit the business' info and photo(s) to Google through your Local Business Referrals Center, and we'll pay you up to $10 for each listing that is approved by Google and verified by the business.

All you need to be a successful Business Referral Representative is a passion for helping local businesses succeed, a love for the Internet (some knowledge of Google is great, too), and access to a computer and a digital camera.
How much will you be paid? How will you be paid?

You can earn up to $10 for each approved, verified referral you submit. This includes $2 when a business referral is approved by Google; and $8 when an approved business verifies that the information you submitted is accurate. Referrals are approved by Google based on the completeness and quality of data supplied by representatives. Businesses verify their information either by sending us a response postcard or verifying their information online.

As long as your earnings total at least $25 a month, you'll receive a monthly check.
Why is Google doing this?

In keeping with our mission to organize the world's information, we're always looking for new ways to make that information more universally accessible and useful. With the Google Local Business Referrals (LBR) program, we're focusing our efforts on small businesses across the United States, helping connect them with potential customers in their communities.
Will you be a Google employee?

No. Google Business Referral Representatives are independent contractors to Google, not employees. As a contractor, you'll be paid according to the terms of the program, but won't receive employment benefits such as health insurance or paid vacation. Your payments will be mailed to you by check and can be tracked on your personal Local Business Referrals Center.

Source: Google

Matrimonial websites losing out to dating websites

noreply@blogger.com (Web Guru) — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 05:04:00 +0000

Matrimonial sites like Bharat Matrimony and Shaadi.com have been around for a decade as compared to dating and friendship sites which are just around three years old in India.

Yet, a majority (51 per cent) of Indian youth online are registering with dating and friendship sites rather than marriage websites.

This makes dating the tenth-most popular activity online, ahead of matrimonial services, according to a recent report on matrimonial services by research firm Juxt Consult. Dating is three ranks ahead of matrimonial services which follows at number 13 with a close to 48 per cent of the online users using the service.

With 60 per cent of the online user population below the age of 25, “dating and friendship is bound to attract more users than matrimonial services,” reasons Mrutyunjay Mishra, director, Juxt Consult.

In 2006, matrimonial services had a mere 15 per cent of the online users population availing the service as compared to 24 per cent of the youth registering with popular dating and friendship sites.

The trend continued in 2007, with dating and friendship having a larger user base at 51 per cent as compared to matrimonial sites recording a 48 per cent of the overall user base registering with them.

The Year-on-Year (Y-o-Y) growth, however, is higher for matrimonial services at 130 per cent as compared to 88 per cent for dating and friendship sites, noted the report.

However, "unlike the matrimonial sites that command high user loyalty and brand premium for dating, social networking sites like Orkut and Fropper, chat rooms like Yahoo and even search engine Google, where users random search for sites with dating options, displaying no loyalty" observed Mishra.

The reason for no popular focused dating sites "is that the Indian culture does not have a concept of dating before marriage. And one would not register on a dating site for finding a life partner," Murugaval Janakiraman, chief executive officer, Bharatmatrimony.com stated emphatically.

"Dating sites would just be misused here ," he added. Bharatmatrimony.com is one of the largest online matrimonial services having 35 per cent of the market share

Interestingly, online India is not completely breaking away from the age old social norms by dating frivolously "There is a huge overlap between dating and matrimonial services. Almost 37 per cent of Internet users are into both the activities," said Mishra, adding: "Almost 72 per cent of the people who are into dating and friendship online are also registered with matrimonial search sites. Similarly, 77 per cent of the registered users of matrimonial services are also undertaking dating activities on the net."

Source: BusinessStandard

Bharti Airtel partners with Google

noreply@blogger.com (Web Guru) — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 05:02:00 +0000

India's largest private telecom services provider Bharti Airtel Ltd said it has partnered with Google Inc to provide customised services such as email, chat and searching to its subscribers.

In a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange, Bharti said the suite of services will be offered free of cost to all Airtel broadband subscribers.

Source: Forbes

Internet Co-Inventor Launches Startup

noreply@blogger.com (Web Guru) — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 05:01:00 +0000

Larry Roberts, who was part of a team that gave birth to the Internet, launched a new networking company on Monday called Anagran and its first product.

The networking startup's first product is the Anagran FR-1000 Flow Router, designed for new generation video, voice, data, and wireless applications. The FR-1000 can eliminate network performance issues in applications like telepresence, Internet Protocol TV, and voice over IP, and consumes 80% less power than traditional Layer 3 routers, according to Roberts, Anagran's founder and CEO.

The FR-1000 watches and evaluates all traffic that travels through it. Instead of processing and routing individual packets, the router processes traffic based on specified priorities and assign the highest quality of performance to critical information. It uses the Intelligent Flow Discard approach to eliminate delay and packet losses.

The router also uses Behavioral Traffic Control to prohibit any traffic from using more than their suitable share of network resources. Thus, Anagran is able to guarantee quality video and voice, faster downloads, and minimal delay for all traffic, the company said.

The FR-1000 can be plugged into an existing IP network infrastructure. It works with other routers, WAN optimization or deep packet inspection products. But Anagran claims with the FR-1000, additional special-purpose appliances may not be necessary to improve network and application performance.

Anagran's router has been tested in multiple service provider and corporate network environments for over six months, and it's now widely available.

Source: InformationWeek

Google’s GPhone to be unveiled by 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Web Guru) — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 04:51:00 +0000

Google GPhone Search engine giant Google is in the works of coming up with a mobile phone by early 2008, through which its users will be able to surf the web while on-the-move.

According to the Telegraph, Google’s is crossing fingers that it’s ‘GPhone” will be as well-known as Apple’s iPhone, which was launched in the US in June amidst a lot of hype.

Several Google services such as search engine, e-mail and interactive maps, will be loaded on to the forthcoming GPhone.

Google services, such as its search engine, e-mail and interactive maps, will be loaded on to the phone. It is thought Google will derive its revenue from the lucrative mobile advertising market.

One manufacturer believes that the phone could be launched in Europe at a 3GSM Conference early in 2008.

Source: TechShout

Local search gets intelligent

noreply@blogger.com (Web Guru) — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 04:49:00 +0000

Your search for local information on and around your locality is set to end soon. Four Interactive, a Bangalore-based start up has developed an intelligent search engine www.asklaila.com, which aims at giving online search a shape ‘never’ seen before.

To start with, the company has launched the search engine for Bangalore city, and plans to include local information of all metros and 22 cities in the next one year.

The technology involved in the search engine is an advanced algorithm that dissipates all available information and contextualises each word or a set of words to search a desired information, to give accurate local information.

The search can give information for instance on the availability of home-delivered food, place for hair cut, priest or a shop to repair mobile phones or electronic goods with options of zeroing in on the service to the micro level up to the block, phase and even lane level.

The company was founded in December 2006 by Kiran Konduri and Shriram Adukoorie who started their careers in Wipro and then joined Microsoft. Konduri was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug about 10 years ago.

Source: BusinessStandard

Online retail spreads its net

noreply@blogger.com (Web Guru) — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 04:44:00 +0000

Here's no secret about selling online. It's a simple three-step formula: lure more users to your website, hook them on to your site and see profits soar. It's all about being able to drive more traffic by creating better user experience. Then when these new users finally show up, you retain their interest and finally convert their interest into a sale.

But how do you get the traffic in the first place?

Interestingly, online retailers are looking beyond traditional online advertising methods like search engines, banner ads and email marketing to lure online consumers. Many online entrepreneurs these days are finding gold elsewhere—offline marketing is what's helping them boost their online sales!

Real world doorway to online shop
If you happened to notice the huddle around this tiny kiosk right in front of Big Bazaar at Lower Parel, Mumbai on January 26 this year, you'd know exactly what we are talking about. This was one of the first few offline experiments that Future Bazaar, the online arm of the Future Group, tried. And it was a runaway success.

What they did was set up tiny kiosks in some key areas in various towns including Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad. These kiosks had catalogues of the merchandise that sell on their website. One had to simply walk into the kiosk, look at these catalogues and approach the sales people to place an order. These sales people in turn would log on to the Future Bazaar site and place an order for the items which would be delivered to the customer at home.

What worked with the kiosks is the fact that although the sale was happening online, the consumer never had to log on to the web. This made them more comfortable while placing an online order.

Although these kiosks were temporary initiatives, there is no denying their success. A normal retail outlet such as Big Bazaar has an annualised sale ratio of Rs 8,000 per square foot, while on sale days their annualised sale ratio can touch Rs 20,000 - Rs 25,000 per square foot. "But the kiosk did about 20 times more sales per unit of area as compared to the sale a normal retail outlet does even on sale days!" says Sankarson Banerjee, CEO Future Bazaar.

Thanks to this success, Future Group is planning to make these kiosks a permanent fixture at various locations in suburbs of metros and tire-2 cities.

Wooing customers from smaller cities
What prompted Future Bazaar to try this experiment? There are many facets to this, say analysts. The biggest factor is about location. As with brick-and-mortar retail, finding the right location is the most important factor for online sale too. Metros are important of course, but the real test comes when you are trying to attract non-metro customers. These customers are neither as tech-savvy as their metro counterparts nor do they have easy access to the internet.

Take for instance a city like Asansol which is a three hour drive away from Kolkata. Here the population is rich enough to be able to buy expensive brands, but they don't want to drive all the way to Kolkata to buy it. Nor are they comfortable about logging on to the internet on their own to buy products. This is the kind of population these offline marketing plans target. And these strategically placed kiosks do exactly this.

"Interestingly these kiosks helped us attract a very different kind of customer," says Banerjee. "For instance, a much larger percentage of women came to the kiosk than come online. We also saw people from different walks of life—from senior professionals to daily wage earners—wanting to take advantage of the offers available through this format," he adds.

Ironically, these offline initiatives have been very successful in the metros too. Future Bazaar's experiment at the Lower Parel Big Bazaar for instance, saw large number of customers who had just finished shopping in the store come and pick up more products at the kiosk. "This is because the same customer will buy different things at different times inside a Big Bazaar and for home delivery," said Banerjee

Partners in the game
Players like eBay have given a slightly different twist to the kiosk strategy. They are tapping internet cafes around India.

"We have partnered with Reliance Web World in 100 Web Worlds in 16 cities with plans of scaling up this quarter to 140 Web Worlds in 24 cities," says Rathin Lahiri, CMO, eBay India.

It works almost similar to the kiosks, the only difference being that the consumer goes to an internet cafe instead, where the cafe owner handholds her though the entire process of buying online.

There is no denying the fact that even today, the most widely used window to the internet is still cyber cafes. According to IAMAI (Internet and Mobile Association of India) 24% of India's 50 million-odd internet users still accesses the net via pay-and-surf cyber cafes. So it makes superb business sense to have these cafe owners bring in newbies to your website. The strategy has worked for eBay India at least.

"Reliance Web Worlds were among our top three new user acquisition channels for the year,” says Lahiri.

Campaigning for more
Then of course there is the good old print media that online players are reaping benefits from that. Like the Indiatimes ad campaign called 'Readers offers'. Here, Indiatimes would select a product each day and place print ads with a special price in frontline publications such as TOI or the Mumbai Mirror. These offers would also run parallel on the Indiatimes site (www.indiatimes.com).

"The response so far has been brilliant. With this we managed to capture the entire readership of the print dailies which runs into lakhs of Indians," said an Indiatimes spokesperson.

Celebrity charm
Then of course there is the old trick of using celebrities to charm users into buying your product. eBay India has been running campaigns like 'Green House' that were heavily publicised in multiple channels such as radio and print ads. The campaign spoke about sports anchor Mandira Bedi decorating her house in Bandra with items bought only from the eBay India site. This worked wonders for the site, as people would log in to buy just the same products as Bedi. The number of hits soared for sections such as home décor and furnishings.

The same went for the apparel section which now ranks among the top accessed sections on eBay thanks to the 'Style Diva' campaign. This saw thousands of users voting for Kareena Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra or Bipasha Basu as their best dressed style icon.

Source: TimesofIndia

George Zacharias quits Yahoo! India

noreply@blogger.com (Web Guru) — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 04:43:00 +0000

George Zacharias, MD, Yahoo! India has decided to move on from the Internet company to pursue his own entrepreneurial interests. Keith Nilsson, VP – International Emerging Markets, who is based in Singapore, will step in to head the Yahoo! India leadership team. Zacharias would continue to work with the team over the next 4-6 weeks to ensure a smooth transition, an official communiqué stated.

Speaking on his decision to move out of the company, Zacharias said, “Yahoo! India has been growing at a robust pace and the journey has been both challenging and rewarding. This decision has been a tough one but as I leave a well-oiled, strong leadership team and move on to set up a young organisation, I wish to thank Yahoo! for all the support during my tenure and know that Yahoo! India will continue to scale greater heights as the leading Internet company in this country.”

Nilsson said, “We wish George success in achieving his personal goals. As India continues to be a major focus for Yahoo!, we are excited about the aggressive pace that we have set ourselves to realize the enormous opportunities in this market, and grow the business both organically and inorganically”

Source: Exchange4Media

Microsoft to Offer Free Version of Works

noreply@blogger.com (Web Guru) — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 13:42:00 +0000

Microsoft Corp. said that it will offer a free, advertising-supported version of its basic productivity software, Microsoft Works, as part of a test program with computers manufacturers.

The world's largest software maker has been pondering the future of Microsoft Works, its basic spreadsheet and word processing software, in the face of rising competition from Google Inc.'s suite of business software services.

Unlike Google Docs and Spreadsheets, which are delivered through an Internet browser, Microsoft plans to pre-install Works on computers and display advertisements stored in cache. The software normally retails for $39.99.

When a user connects to the Internet while using Works, that cache of ads will refresh, said Melissa Stern, a Microsoft senior product manager in the Office group.

The company plans to roll out the advertising-supported Microsoft Works SE 9 in a few months. Microsoft would not disclose either the PC makers with which it was working or the markets for the test program.

Source: FoxNews

'G' for G-Phone

noreply@blogger.com (Web Guru) — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 04:33:00 +0000

News of the so-called "GPhone" or "G-Phone" broke quietly about two weeks ago in the island nation of Singapore, where Jennifer Tan of Reuters subsidiary Anian Research filed a report on July 12.

Tan cited "industry sources," "U.S. sources," and "manufacturing and component supply chain sources" in backing her assertion that after year-long delays finding a manufacturer, Google contracted Taiwan-based smartphone maker High Tech Computer (HTC) to design its phone hardware. HTC is best-known for its Windows Mobile smartphones, however, and Tan offered no conjecture about who might supply the phone's Linux-based operating system.

Additional details reported by Tan include:

* The G-Phone will have a large color screen with a predictive Qwerty keypad to simplify Google searching
* A follow-up 3G-capable model (Edge is considered "2.75G") will use a Qualcomm chipset
* Scheduled for production in Q1 of 2006, the Google phone will hit retail shelves next spring
* Call minutes and text messages are to be funded by "mobile advertising"
* Google originally hoped to launch a phone this year, but was delayed by "difficulties in nailing down a deal with a handset maker"
* T-Mobile will carrier the phone in the U.S., along with (possibly) Orange in other markets

Tan quotes Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Marianne Wolk as having said, "A mobile offering would be consistent with Google's goal to make search accessible. We believe Google would design a solution to facilitate greater use of Google Search and other applications like Google Talk, Gmail, Google Maps, encourage wireless video, and leverage this usage to hasten the market for mobile advertising."

Google itself has declined to comment on rumors it plans to produce a phone, Tan reported.

Tan's coverage also includes an overview of Google's financial outlook, and its prospects for success in the mobile phone marketplace. The article appears to survive for now only in Google's own web cache, here.

Source: LinuxDevices

Zapak launches CASH Back

noreply@blogger.com (Web Guru) — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 04:30:00 +0000

Zapak, which is one of the leading casual game developers in India has come out with yet another game that is based on a movie! They have sent word that CASH Back, which is a casual game based on the movie CASH has been launched. The movie is about three unique diamonds, two teams of thieves and one big heist that spins into a fight for the ultimate prize, the CASH.

In the game ‘CASH Back’, the player can steer the streetluge with the left and right arrow keys and accelerate with ‘A’. The objective of the game is to collect all the diamonds and reach the end. The top ten scorers win Music CD’s and premier tickets for the movie CASH.

Zapak has a penchant for tying up with the movie world for games. Some time ago, they hade released a game based on Ocean’s 13.

Source: GameGuru

Clickindia.com Beta successful

noreply@blogger.com (Web Guru) — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 04:25:00 +0000

It will no longer be a Herculean task to locate a math tutor for your kid in Janak Puri (New Delhi). Nor will one have to run through numerous newspaper ads before finding the second hand Maruti Swift in Ludhiana (Punjab). Paying per word for a newspaper ad to find a suitable match for your daughter, or for a job vacancy in your office is a passé too. Solution, thy name is www.Clickindia.com.

Clickindia.com is India’s free online community notice board where anyone can post classified offers, ads and public announcements under more than 100 categories ranging from jobs, matrimony, education, travel, electronics, to household items, mobiles, services, etc. Within six months of its Beta launch, the website already has 50,000 active ads (less than 8 weeks old). With well over 1,500 unique visitors per day, the website is fast gaining popularity among the average Indian Internet user.

Within a year Clickindia.com aims at becoming the most simple and effective online notice board for any Indian to post buy / sell offers, find jobs, life partners or announce their messages across at local/national level. So, if you have an old car to sell, a room to let out to a paying guest, buying mobile phone or are looking for a Pooch for your daughter’s birthday gift, log on to www.clickindia.com and spread the word!

Source: PRLeap

Linux growing on Indian desktops

noreply@blogger.com (Web Guru) — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 05:40:00 +0000

The Penguin (named Tux) is finally making inroads as an operating system (OS) on desktops too. While it has an over 20 per cent market share when we speak of servers in India, the free OS called Linux has just around 5 per cent market share in the country when it comes to desktops – the lion’s share going to Microsoft Windows.

The scenario is gradually changing, it appears. Novell along with the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT) is installing Suse Linux in around 40,000 desktops in the entire state. Over 50 per cent of the estimated Rs 200 crore project – which has been put up on YouTube too – has already been completed, according to C Umashankar, managing director, ELCOT.

This is the second largest implementation of Linux on the desktop – the biggest one being that of around 60,000 desktops in LIC of India by Red Hat, which is estimated to have implemented over 200,000 desktop OS installations. Canara Bank too has around 10,000 Linux OS desktops.

LINUX SPREADING WINGS
Project area

No of PCs
LIC of India 60,000
Higher secondary schools (TN)* 30,000
Common service centres (WB)# 15,000
Canara Bank 10,000
Panchayats (TN)* 6,000
University of Delhi 5,000
Government offices (TN)* 4,000
* Tamil Nadu,
# West Bengal

ELCOT migrated its entire IT infrastructure from Windows to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and SUSE Linux Enterprise desktop. ELCOT is the implementing agency for the prestigious Tamil Nadu State Wide Area Network Project (TN-SWAN) and is in the process of commissioning the state’s data centre and disaster recovery centre too.

The growth of Linux on the desktop, according to analysts, has been stymied by piracy. Many people prefer to use pirated Windows OS on their desktops. However, since Microsoft is hardening its coming down hard on piracy, more users may opt for Linux since it reduces the cost of the PC.

Source: BusinessWorld

Want to make fast money? Be a online tutor.

noreply@blogger.com (Web Guru) — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 05:37:00 +0000

Indu Ananth is a professional mathematics tutor. But her teaching starts at 8:30 in the evening over the e-mail. And that’s when her student from Forment in the US returns from school.

She earns Rs 8, 000 for five hours a day for her trouble. Most often she works for five days a week. She is attached to tutor vista, which has 250 teachers all over India who work from home.

But for tutors worldwide, another online tutorial, functions like a BPO. A US-based Socratic systems, an online tutorial firm, outsources work to it.

“This is definitely an emerging offshore service from India and it can become yet another BPO or its service. In the five years time I’ve seen tremendous growth here,” says a professional tutor, Mahalingam V.

Tutors worldwide are part of a $132 billion programme the US government has for online tuitions. It charges each student $100 for unlimited tutoring every month and pays its Indian teachers in rupees.

Tutor vista has 2,500 customers, most of them in the US and it hopes to expand that to 10,000 by the end of the year.

So if you think you are good at teaching subjects like math, physics, chemistry or biology and don't want to handle a pack of seven-to-14 year olds, this might be your chance to make a few bucks.

Source: IBNLive

UTV lines up Movies for Online Distribution

noreply@blogger.com (Web Guru) — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 16:16:00 +0000

UTV Motion Pictures is all set to redefine the landscape of film distribution. The company has inked tie-ups with three portals that will premiere UTV Motion Pictures’ two forthcoming film releases online, along with other films from the company's library.

Vikram Bhatt directed Fear premieres on 10 August across three portals, www.rajshri.com, www.bigflicks.com, www.indyaondemand.com. This film will be released online without a theatrical release, a first for an Indian film.

Further, Vishal Bhardwaj's The Blue Umbrella also releases online on 10 August, the same day as its theatrical release in India. Each online movie download is priced at $ 9.99 for a standard download and $ 19.99 for a higher resolution download. This is targeted at audiences in markets like the US, UK, South East Asia and the Middle East. Both movies will be available on a 'download to own' instead of the usual 'download to rent' with 72 hours DRM.

Some of the other UTV films that one can see online include: Swades, Rang De Basanti, Taxi No 9211, Bluffmaster, Chup Chup Ke, Khosla Ka Ghosla, Humko Deewana Kar Gaye, Hattrick and Life in a Metro.

As of now, this paid for content is being consumed primarily by the overseas audience and the revenue stream thus generated has a limited impact on the overall revenue of films. However, the next generation of film distribution will see online and IPTV contributing much larger ratios to overall film revenues.

Source: BusinessOfCinema

Social Networking = Recruiter's Paradise

noreply@blogger.com (Web Guru) — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 16:11:00 +0000

Orkut, LinkedIn, Facebook and other similar popular social networking sites are fast doubling up as the modern day employment exchanges with job seekers as well as companies and recruiters head hunting for talent. The social networking sites, immensely popular with the netizens, especially the young, are having increasing number of 'communities' helping both job seekers and employers.

With 100 million Internet users in the country, E-recruitment is gaining ground as a preferred medium of hiring in India, according to Assocham. Especially for job seekers, the Internet has opened up the world of job searching, turning it into a 24-hour-a day market place. Internet is arguably the most immediate, convenient and comprehensive medium for employment seekers to research and prospect for jobs.

Upon a search for 'jobs', communities such as Orkut throw up about a 1,000 odd related communities such as 'IT jobs India walk-ins','Freshers','Retail Jobs in India', 'Walk in for Jobs', Job Sampark' etc.

Staffing services providers like Cloud 9 India, Pathway Recruitment Agency use such sites as a platform to hire and have links to their own websites. Populated with thousands of members each of these communities have a huge database of job seekers and can reach them within seconds.

"Of all new services on the internet, social networking sites hold the most promise. The reason for this is that these community-driven sites have the ability to leverage their user base across other verticals," says R Sunder, President, Times Business Solutions.

He further adds," Most of the growth in the social networking space has happened in the last one year. It will continue to grow at an accelerated pace as more people gain high-speed Internet access. It has come down to mobile phones and with web 2.0 coming to market, the future seems to be limited only by the imagination."

Young people are making most of it. Says Neha Kapoor a fresh graduate from Kanpur, "I got a job in one of the best BPOs in Delhi thanks to a 'scrap'", a term used by Orkut to describe the messages that are posted on the Net.

B Sudhir, software engineer, 25, moderator of a community 'Walk in for Jobs' in Orkut says, "I started this community as an hobby, as I am Internet savvy and had gone through the grind of trying to find a job. I wanted to create a platform for freshers."

His community claims to have membership of over 30,000 members. Sudhir says, "Other than the recruitment agencies many corporate houses directly post their requirements on the site."

He also has a blog whose members receive job opening postings into their mail boxes. Although most of these services are free yet there are ways to monetise these communities by dividing the jobs into free and paid categories, in which the recruiter pays for some specific advertisements.

There are many networking sites other than Orkut such as Facebook, Myspace, Yaari and also very popular professional networking site like LinkedIn, Ecademy, Doostang, Xing, Plaxo, etc.

Source: IndiaTimes

Amazon To Launch Payments Services; Will Compete With PayPal and Google Checkout

noreply@blogger.com (Web Guru) — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 05:50:00 +0000

Look for a launch announcement by Amazon this week or next of a new web service around payments, adding to their S3 (storage), EC2 (virtual server) and other services. They’ve been quietly testing the service, which will compete with PayPal and Google Checkout, for a few weeks. It is an extension of the existing Amazon Payments, which allows third parties selling items on Amazon’s extended network to receive payments from buyers.

We hear that for now at least this is a redirect service only, like Google Checkout. Users will be redirected to Amazon’s servers to complete the payment and then returned to the original site. PayPal also offers an integrated solution that allows users to remain on the original ecommerce site, an attractive feature for larger partners. The service will also allow sites to use Amazon to manage payments between users, and receive confirmation of transactions. This will be particularly useful for the new crop of online money management services.

PayPal, owned by eBay, still dominates this space, and the spats between them and Google are becoming legendary.

Source: TechCrunch

Answers.com Sees 28% Traffic Drop As Google Algortihm Changes

noreply@blogger.com (Web Guru) — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 05:43:00 +0000

Reference service Answers.com has seen its traffic drop about 28% in the last week after Google changed its search algorithm. The site is heavily dependent on Google for search-related traffic, and this would also mean serious impacts on its revenues and stock price.

In turn, this may mean some complications in its proposed $100 million buyout of Dictionary.com, which is based on its ability to raise that amount of money on the open market ($140 million, to be exact).

However Answers' CEO Bob Rosenschein assures the investors in an issued release: “This change only demonstrates the sound business rationale behind our agreement to purchase Dictionary.com, because it underscores a primary motivation for the deal: to secure a steady source of direct traffic and mitigate our current dependence on search engine algorithms."

Source: Forbes

Google spending hundreds of millions on mobile

noreply@blogger.com (Web Guru) — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 05:22:00 +0000

Google Inc. has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in its cell phone project and is courting U.S. and European mobile operators, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

Anian, a Reuters company that tracks industry trends for institutional investors, reported last month that Google had engaged Taiwan's High Tech Computer Corp to design a Linux software-based phone for launch in the first quarter of 2008.

The Anian report cited industry sources as saying that T-Mobile, owned by Deutsche Telekom, would likely be Google's U.S. partner with France Telecom's Orange selling the phones in other markets.

The Journal said on Thursday that Google had also approached the two biggest U.S. wireless services, AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless, in recent months to ask them to sell phones with Google service.

Google has also developed prototype phones and talked over technical specifications with manufacturers including LG Electronics, the Journal said.

Mobile advertising is still a relatively small market but advertisers and wireless experts expect this to change.

Yankee Group has forecast the mobile ad market more than quadrupling to $275 million in 2007 and eventually increasing to $2.2 billion in 2010, up from an estimated $60 million in 2006. Some experts are forecasting an even bigger market.

Source: Reuters

Indian Bloggers Top Charts

noreply@blogger.com (Web Guru) — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 05:13:00 +0000

A Recent surveys and market intelligence reports shows that India is a major contributor in Web 2.0 growth worldwide along with its good old neighbour China.

A report by IDC, a premier global market intelligence firm estimated that a third of all Internet users in 2007 are Web 2.0 users in India, 83% for the same in Korea, and 70% in People's Republic of China.

With the new facet of dotcom companies quickly revamping into Web 2.0 style along with premiere companies already estabilished like Zoho Sheets of chennai, these local economies like that of India will attract new VCs, venture capital, angel investors likewise to other frequent web startups in any other part of globe.

A new Synovate Asiabus study reveal that most active bloggers are from India with figure of 83% of total India internet users. These bloggers are either write their own blog or contribute to other's blogs. With bloggers like Amit Agarwal, Om Malik and person who coined term SMO (Social Media Optimization) Rohit Bhargava , it indeed a true statement for global blogosphere that Indian Bloggers are has perpetually contributed, participated in incubating Web 2.0 right from the very start.

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Monster Asks: What's Your Job Sign?

noreply@blogger.com (Web Guru) — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 05:10:00 +0000

MONSTER.COM HAS LAUNCHED "JOB Sign," an online viral campaign designed to bring the Monster brand front-of-mind with job seekers. Portland, ME-based VIA is the marketing and communications agency behind the effort.

The campaign provides a tongue-in-cheek way for users to determine their workplace personality--or "Job Sign"--and how it impacts their interactions with others in the office hierarchy.

The rich media site features ambient workplace noise, such as keyboard clicks and slivers of phone conversations, and Flash-based sequences posing questions such as "Which t-shirt would you wear under your work clothes?"--all leading up to a classification as one of nine archetypes that include Glory Hound, Rebel of the Roundtable, and even the dreaded Corporate Cockroach.

Users can upload their own photos for display on a tarot-like card in the site's gallery, and check out the Job Signs of others in their industry or even their company. VIA partnered with Brooklyn, NY-based Domani Studios for the Web site development and functionality.

The nine Job Signs are loosely based on the Myers-Briggs personality type indicator, an often-cited questionnaire stemming from Carl Jung's psychological theories. VIA's creative team developed the idea after initially brainstorming with Monster about a work-based horoscope email campaign and then deciding that the effort needed to involve more user participation.

Monster competitor Careerbuilder.com propelled itself into the category-leading position last year with the wildly popular and hugely viral Monkeymail campaign in which consumers could choose different email personalities to send text and voice messages.

Source: MediaPost

AOL Loses Subscribers, And Ad Growth Drops

noreply@blogger.com (Web Guru) — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 05:46:00 +0000

AOL continued to lose subscribers and advertising growth slowed, signaling trouble for the online media company's recent shift in strategy.

Dulles-based AOL posted its weakest quarter of advertising growth since announcing a year ago that it would try to drive traffic to its ad-supported Web sites by giving away AOL.com e-mail accounts, software and other features once reserved for paying customers.

AOL, Time Warner's online division, had $522 million in ad revenues in the quarter ended June 30, a 16 percent increase from $449 million in the corresponding quarter a year earlier. By contrast, ad revenues grew 40 percent or more in each of the previous four quarters.

Ad growth remained too meager to fully offset declines in subscription revenue, which continued to plummet, as expected, after last August's strategy shift. AOL had 10.9 million U.S. subscribers paying for Internet access as of June 30, a 59 percent drop from its peak of 26.7 million in September 2002.

Overall revenue at AOL dropped 38 percent, to $1.3 billion. AOL accounts for 11 percent of Time Warner's revenue, about half of the 20 percent it had contributed until last June.

Source: WashingtonPost

Disney Acquires Web Site for Children

noreply@blogger.com (Web Guru) — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 05:45:00 +0000

Racing to solidify its dominant position in children’s entertainment on the Internet, the Walt Disney Company said Wednesday that it had acquired a subscription Web site aimed at preteenagers, Club Penguin, in a deal that could total $700 million.

Disney said it would pay $350 million for Club Penguin, a virtual community that has soared in popularity since its founding in late 2005. More than 700,000 users now pay $5.95 a month to customize penguin characters and then chat and play games with other “penguins.”

And Disney has agreed to pay the founders, three fathers based in Kelowna, British Columbia, up to $350 million more by the end of 2009 if the site meets growth targets. “They could earn all of it or none of it,” said Thomas O. Staggs, Disney’s chief financial officer. “The growth they have to achieve is attractive enough that we would be pleased to pay.”

Source: NYTimes

CareerBuilder.com Launches CareerPath.com

noreply@blogger.com (Web Guru) — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 05:38:00 +0000

CareerBuilder.com is launching a new Web site, http://www.careerpath.com to Connect the More than One-Third of Workers Considering a Career Change with Available Jobs.

A comprehensive resource for workers who are interested in trying out a different career. CareerPath.com centers around a free assessment test made up of 36 questions about skills, abilities, personal values and interests that are then correlated to competencies that are necessary for certain fields of work. The test is based on the well known Holland Theory that suggests that people who work in an environment that closely mirrors their personality will be more successful and feel more fulfilled. Visitors to the site can take the test, obtain career advice and find new career opportunities.

"It used to be that you began a career after high school or college and 40 years later you retired still working in the same field, but today it's common for workers to not only change jobs, but careers numerous times in their lives," said Liz Harvey, director of Consumer Products for CareerBuilder.com. "The workplace dynamic has changed - smart phones, laptops and the internet have blurred the line between work and home and today's job seekers are increasingly interested in careers that mirror their own personal interests. CareerPath.com was designed to help job seekers understand how their interests and skills can be translated into new career opportunities."

Source: CNNMoney