Chandu Thota

The relay

2012-07-26T03:09:00.001-07:00

At google today! :)

Which way to go?

2012-07-25T11:44:00.001-07:00

The new signs for the games, everywhere!

t-3

2012-07-24T14:10:00.001-07:00

The countdown begins!

Unusually beautiful day

2012-07-22T08:47:00.001-07:00

All set for the big games....

2012-07-22T07:34:00.001-07:00

Next week

2012-07-19T10:44:00.001-07:00

Summer is coming to London... well kind of ... 3 days of the week anyway... :)

London: An Offer that I could not refuse!

2012-06-24T12:34:00.000-07:00

It's been almost a year since The Dealmap got acquired by Google and, together with my team, I have been heads-down building out Google Offers offerings.

After working in offers for a while, I got my own very personalized offer that I just could not refuse: "10 % off on all flights to London with a special redemption code" and I just had to take it and move to London! That was how offers-obsessed colleagues from my Mountain View team thought of my move! :)

But in all seriousness, I've moved to London (landed this weekend, together with my family!) to lead engineering efforts from Google London office. So, if you happen to be in London for business or pleasure, make sure to stop by and say hello! Better yet, if you know someone that wants to work in our brilliant and fun offices in London, send them our way! :)

Google acquires The Dealmap!

2011-08-01T09:37:00.000-07:00

I'm super excited to share that The Dealmap has been acquired by Google. It's a dream come true - and it feels like this is just the beginning!

Fourteen years ago, on this day, it was the beginning of my professional career. Back in Hyderabad, India, fresh out of school, I was looking for opportunities to build things bigger and better. A lot had happened since then: moved to the USA, published in numerous publications, wrote three books, built best of breed products at Microsoft, filed for more than fifty patents, founded a company, recruited world class talent, raised millions of venture capital, and built an incredible product from ground-up - it was a journey worth taking.

Every step of the way, it was lots of hard-work, lots of hope, and tons of understanding from my family. Today "I'm feeling lucky" and this marks a new beginning of this long journey.

From today, together with my team members and a number of Googlers, I will continue on the mission that we had started at The Dealmap - to bring the best local offers anywhere, any time on any device. Google offers the key ingredients that every entrepreneur looks for: incredible talent pool, un-constrained resources and freedom of execution - I get excited just by imagining the scale of things that I can accomplish in the local deals space and beyond.

I'm living every entrepreneur's dream and I want take a moment to thank all the advisors, investors and friends that helped me navigate this.

There is so much to do - and it is just the beginning!

Update: Here is NY Times article - http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/08/01/google-acquires-the-dealmap/

The Dealmap + Microsoft = Bing Deals

2011-03-03T11:47:00.000-08:00

I'm super excited to share this update from The Dealmap. Today we have announced our partnership with Microsoft to bring out the local and daily deals to Bing.

This integration is available both on Bing Local as well as Bing Mobile.

This marks yet another major milestone for us as we are going through an explosive growth period.

There is a lot of work that needs to be done - especially around personalization, around transaction, redemption and mobile payments; we are working hard to create innovative solutions in each one of these areas. So, stay tuned!

- Chandu Thota

The Dealmap Surpasses 1.4 Million Users in First Nine Months (Press Release)

2011-02-24T10:46:00.000-08:00

Yet another exciting update from us @ TheDealmap:

The Dealmap Surpasses 1.4 Million Users in First Nine Months

DealExchange Partner API Averaging More Than 11 Million Queries a Day

MENLO PARK, Calif., Feb. 24, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Dealmap® (http://www.thedealmap.com), the leading source for people to find and share local and daily deals, today announced that it has more than 1.4 million users across its branded website, mobile and social applications, and daily deals email. Through its DealExchange™ platform and network of partners, The Dealmap now reaches more than 47 million monthly visitors.(1) In addition, the company revealed that it now indexes deals with more than $10 million in savings available on any given day from national brands, daily deal websites, and local businesses.

"The explosive growth of our consumer applications as well as the unparalleled adoption of our developer and publisher tools cements The Dealmap's position as the leading source and distributor of local and daily deals," said Jennifer Dulski, co-founder and chief executive officer of The Dealmap. "We've had an amazing reaction to our product from both consumers and partners, and we look forward to continuing to innovate to meet their needs."

Since its launch in May, 2010, The Dealmap has grown its multi-channel audience swiftly and received a number of accolades including being named one of the 'Top 10 Mobile Apps of 2010' by the Wall Street Journal. Over the past 6 months, the company has grown a number of key business metrics which illustrate the company's rapid adoption by both consumers and partners:

iPhone and Android app installs have grown 5,173 percent to more than 675,000

DealExchange API queries have increased 424 percent to more than 11 million per day

The number of developers using the DealExchange API and tools has grown 375 percent to 271

The Dealmap has created an infographic that reveals more interesting data and statistics about the company's business, including lists of top deals and brands. The infographic can be viewed at http://www.thedealmap.com/infographic.

Daily Deal Giveaway

To show its appreciation to the people who have helped The Dealmap grow so quickly, the company is giving away free $25 restaurant gift certificates to consumers. People can enter to win a $1,000 grand prize through The Dealmap's Daily Deal Giveaway, and one in every 10 entrants will win a $25 restaurant gift certificate. People can enter the giveaway today by clicking on the "Giveaway" tab on The Dealmap's Facebook page at http://facebook.com/TheDealmap.

About The Dealmap

The Dealmap is the leading source for people to find and share the best local deals, all in one place. The company indexes local deals from hundreds of sources, including national brands, daily deal websites, local businesses and consumers, and makes previously hard-to-find deals easily discoverable. The Dealmap makes local deals available to people when and where they want them, through the company's award-winning mobile apps, its website, social applications, and daily deals email. The Dealmap showcases savings of more than $10 million available each day across multiple business categories.

Through its DealExchange platform, The Dealmap provides tools that allow publishers and developers to easily integrate local deals into their products. The platform also gives small businesses and deal providers the ability to reach more than 47 million visitors through The Dealmap network.

The Dealmap is headquartered in Menlo Park, Calif., and is led by former Microsoft and Yahoo! executives with funding by Norwest Venture Partners and KeyNote Ventures.

Exclusive Offer from Crocs via The Dealmap!

2010-10-22T08:02:00.001-07:00

We are excited to present our first ever national exclusive deal from Crocs. You get 30% off any the entire purchases at any crocs store across the country (about 200 crocs locations in all).

You can see more about this deal on the web, on our iPhone app or our android app or on our local twitter feeds.

This offer is valid until Sunday night, so go pick up some crocs! :)

PS: Greg’s post on this topic can be seen here.

The Dealmap Android App now live!

2010-09-30T07:38:00.001-07:00

Super excited to announce the launch of The Dealmap Android application. Just like our iPhone application, this app is also built on the same set of APIs that we offer to our developer community. Please stay tuned for more stuff to come from us on the mobile front.

Here is a nice post from Venture Beat this morning on the launch:

Center’d is launching its Dealmap Android app today that will let users filter out the chaff and find the best deals nearby.

The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company says it can aggregate daily deals from almost 100 sources and put them all in one place. Center’d previously launched an iPhone app that has been downloaded more than 175,000 times in its first six weeks. The app sorts through more than 350,000 local deals and coupons and makes them available to consumers where they want them on web sites, social apps, daily emails and mobile apps. More than 375,000 people get these updates daily. It can filter 10 business categories and eight deal types.

Sifting through the chaff is a big part of daily life. If your mobile phone can help you do that, it will become an even more indispensable part of your life. If the Dealmap can help, then it may be a good tool for the discovery of what’s around you. Consumers and businesses can upload their own deals, so the company takes advantage of user-generated content. This app can aggregate daily deals from companies such as Groupon and Living Social. It then organizes the deals and maps them, using relevance algorithms.

Center’d has raised $10 million from Norwest Venture Partners and KeyNote Ventures. Angel investors include Bill Harris, former PayPal and Intuit chief executive. Competitors include 8coupons and Yipit, neither of which have a mobile app yet. Center’d was founded in 2007 and the Dealmap web site launched in May. The company has eight employees.

Nokia Replaces CEO with Microsoft Exec

2010-09-10T08:28:00.000-07:00

This is an interesting move... no matter who is at the top @ Nokia, it is going to be an up-hill battle, at least in the Smartphone market.

Nokia Replaces CEO with Microsoft Exec
Nokia has removed its CEO, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, and replaced him with Microsoft executive Stephen Elop. Kallasvuo took the reigns from long-time CEO Jorma Ollila in 2006 and promised the reinvigorate the company's place in the U.S. market. Despite Kallasvuo's efforts, Nokia's share of the U.S. market has continued to decline. ...

Govt to carry out caste census next year

2010-09-09T08:17:00.000-07:00

Caste census? Go figure...

Govt to carry out caste census next year
Bowing to demands by several political parties, govt on Thursday decided to carry out a caste census next year. The exercise would be carried out independent of the ongoing census operation next year.

I am more optimistic on India than China: Vinod Khosla

2010-09-06T15:49:00.000-07:00

Very interesting read...

I am more optimistic on India than China: Vinod Khosla:

"I am more optimistic on India than China: Vinod KhoslaYou did not really have a technology background. You were in the forces. Your dad was in the Indian Army, and yet you moved into this line. What were your growing years like and what really motivated, what got you into ..."

The Dealmap: New Home Page Design & More Cities Added to Daily Deals Emails

2010-09-01T13:36:00.000-07:00

Check out the latest updates on The Dealmap:

The Dealmap: New Home Page Design & More Cities Added to Daily Deals Emails: "We've been hard at work over here at The Dealmap HQ and just unveiled a new home page redesign. After listening to customer feedback since we launched, we made the following enhancements to ..."

The Dealmap iPhone App on Top 25 Apps list

2010-08-12T09:38:00.000-07:00

The Dealmap iPhone App is now officially in the top 25 Free Apps category in the Apple App Store (as of this morning).

1000s of downloads and 4.5 stars.

Thanks for all the love!

The Dealmap iPhone App now live!

2010-08-10T23:54:00.001-07:00

You can get it here form the Apple App Store. Would love to hear your feedback!

Facebook as a search engine? How about a "Paid Like" marketplace?

2010-06-25T11:57:00.001-07:00

There was this big splash yesterday from the allfacebook.com folks about facebook declaring war against google. In that post they said:

"While we suggested that the like had just replaced the link, it has now become abundantly clear what Facebook’s intentions are. Facebook wants to launch the social semantic search engine as we alluded to during f8. Now that the search results are officially showing up as Facebook search results, the war has begun."

Using "Like" as an input into relevance is a fine idea - but Facebook (or Twitter for that matter) are long ways away from building a full-blown search engine purely based on that data. Why do I say that? Fundamentally "Likes" are ambiguous, random and spam-prone (and impossible to detect). These are real big issues for any search engine to solve before they label themselves a search engine.
Google's "Link" approach has many merits over the Facebook's "Like" approach; Link based approach fares better primarily in determining the context, and detecting spam. To that end, technically it is some-what easier to detect a spam link or a link that was "paid" for SEO purposes. However, it is nearly impossible to determine if a Like was a paid Like or a spurious Like. It's just not easy.
On top of this, in Google's eco-system a link is only as important as the link source - or the domain where its coming from. Google has come up with an authority system, Page Rank(PR), for domains based on a very complex but trusted model - this system helps us eliminate spam every time we perform a search on Google. If there were to be an equivalent to this from Facebook, it has to be around the people that are performing the Likes. So even for the sake of argument if you assume a Social Rank (SR) for a given individual based on their interests and friends and the related metadata, it is nearly impossible to determine context around that person's likes and dislikes. Reason? Its extremely complicated and highly error prone to model a human's interaction context.
Now, if Facebook were to combine this Like data with traditional Link based relevance, it could get interesting - but still its an incremental advancement but not a game changer that replaces Google.
I'm sure guys at Facebook are thinking of the potential pitfalls of Like based relevance and the shady "Paid Like" market that it could create. I'm also sure that if Facebook were to launch a "search engine" without proper technology/tools to combat "Like Spam", we all will just grow to Dislike the Like.
As I said before this is not an easy problem to solve, so is Facebook ready to be a Google rival? not a chance, not yet, at least.

Render your own Heatmaps with HeatMapRenderer

2010-06-23T13:48:00.001-07:00

Heatmaps (aka Density Maps) are a neat way to visualize geo data - and these days there are everyhwere - from Starbucks WiFi heatmaps to The Dealmap Local Deals maps! While they are so popular, I was surprised to learn that there are not many (FREE) tools available to generate your own Google Maps ready Heatmap. So I have developed a simple utility, called HeatMapRenderer, that can be used to generate Google Maps Ready heatmap tiles from any geo dataset that has latitude and longitude values.
This utility is built for Windows based machines (with .NET 3.5) and is written in C#. If there is a need and if there is a community that is willing to build on top of what I have I don't mind posting it as an open source, but for now its closed source with extensibility model built into it. Think of HeatmapRenderer as a simple rendering engine you can plug-and-play different data sources to render from. Each data source will have its own adaptor - an adaptor is responsible for reading the latitude/longitude data by implementing a simple interface. HeatMapRender natively supports CSV adaptor, so if you can dump your geodata into a CSV file you can use the Heatmaprender instantly. I will write a follow-up on how to extend and write your own adaptors in my next post.
So for now, let's assume you have your latitude/longitude data in a CSV file. And that the column index for latitude and logitude are 0 and 1. Now you need to add a config section like below in the HeatmapRenderer.exe.config file (from the download):

<add name="us-starbucks"
   sourcetype ="HeatMapRenderer.Sources.SimpleCSVSource, HeatMapRenderer.Sources"
   sourceconnectionstring="sampledata\starbucks.csv"
   sourcearguments="0,1"
   palettefilepath="palette\palette.bmp"
   pointradius="5"
   minmaplevel="1"
   maxmaplevel="10"
   outpath="map-tiles\us-starbucks">
</add>

Once you add a config section as shown above, all you need to do to generate the heatmap tiles, is to type in a command like below:

HeatmapRenderer.exe us-starbucks

As you can see its very straight forward, here is a bit more about the config values:

name = unique name so that you can identify and run the tile generation job.
sourcetype = This is the source adaptor. If you have a CSV file, then you can use the built in CSV source adaptor, and of course you can build your own adaptor too (more on that later)
sourceconnectionstring = points to the CSV file (or if you have a MySql data source this should be the connection string etc);
sourcearguments = if you have a CSV you identify lat/long column index values - you can use this field to send any data that is required for your own adaptor.
palettefilepath = default heatmap palette - you can generate your own palette if needed (the download has a palette file included)
pointradius = default 5pixels. you can reduce or increase the point radius based on your scenarios.
minmaplevel = usually 1. levels map to google maps zoom levels. so 1 is very very high-level map (at world map level)
maxmaplevel = usually determined by your app. but in this case 10. around 15 if you want some-what street level heatmaps
outpath = where to store the heatmap tiles generated - local disk path

Once the tiles are generated, you can easily integrate the tiles into a Google maps mashup using the following steps:
1. First upload your tiles to a web server where they can be accessed w/o any authentication.
2. Then use the code below to integrate

var map = new GMap2(document.getElementById("map_canvas"));
map.setMapType(G_NORMAL_MAP);
map.setCenter(new GLatLng(38.86252601314520,-76.96975322980910), 2);
var myCopyright = new GCopyrightCollection("© Chandu Thota");
myCopyright.addCopyright(new GCopyright('Chandu Thota', new GLatLngBounds(new GLatLng(-90,-180), new GLatLng(90,180)), 0,'2010 chanduthota.com'));
var gtl = new GTileLayer(myCopyright);
gtl.getTileUrl = function(tile,zoom) {
var t = "http://<your host tile path>/" + zoom + tile.x + tile.y + ".png";
return t;
};
gtl.isPng = function() { return true;};
gtl.getOpacity = function() { return 0.5; }
var tilelayer = new GTileLayerOverlay(gtl);
map.addOverlay(tilelayer);

That's it!
You can download the full package with exe, sample adaptor code, palette and sample data files (Starbucks locations and DC crime locations).
Let me know if you find this tool useful.

Get the local deals in a fancy Carousel!

2010-06-23T12:58:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to point out our new Carousel Deal Widget. :) It's part of our Dealmap Widget family but just fancier to display top deals on your site with better experience. Of course we do have the standard ABI sizes if you want them too.

Again, it only takes one line of code to integrate it into your site:

<iframe height="100px" scrolling="no" src="http://widgets.thedealmap.com/carousel/?lat=37.3165&lon=-121.874&d=8&width=420" style="border: 0px;" width="450px"></iframe>

You can check out full widgets here: http://www.thedealmap.com/widgets

What is more important for a product? Fun or Utility?

2010-06-19T14:18:00.001-07:00

Last week when Scoble made the argument that the Goby and The Dealmap are more important than Foursquare, Gowalla and others, the reaction was mixed. In his post, Scoble said:

“why did I say these are more important than Foursquare or Gowalla or the other companies in this space? Well, normal people are still resisting using these location services. But these [The Dealmap & Goby] offer REAL utility and REAL value...”

Nearly everyone missed the point; some bloggers even posted rebuttal like the one here, in which they said:

“The lack of gaming function in Goby or TheDealMap does not render them useless nor uncool nor nonfunctional, just not very fun. We all like useful tools but we love to play games and have fun! And that’s why Goby and TheDealMap are not nearly as important as Foursqaure and Gowalla”

See, its not really about which product is “more important” – the way I read it (and of course also based on my full 3 hr discussion with Scoble) is that Fun and Utility are the most important facets of any product. The role that’s played by a product in ones daily life is decided by how Fun AND Useful that product is.

In other words, Game mechanics promote frequency of actions and Utility aspects add value to those actions – they are simply the Yin and Yang of a successful product. The products that mix these two aspects in just right proportions cross the chasm to have a lasting effect.

And doing that is not that easy, its the perfect combination of art & science that’s hard to achieve!

Photo Credit: Exhibit-M

The Dealmap gets Scobleized!

2010-06-17T16:39:00.001-07:00

Robert Scoble on his blog this morning:

"why did I say these are more important than Foursquare or Gowalla or the other companies in this space? Well, normal people are still resisting using these location services. But these [The Dealmap & Goby] offer REAL utility and REAL value..."

You can also see my full interview in the video below:

Thanks Robert! I love the fact that you and Maryam love The Dealmap!

Starbucks Free WIFI Heatmap

2010-06-15T12:50:00.001-07:00

It was all over the news yesterday about how Starbucks Free WIFI is going to change the way we connect to Internet, so I got curious and generated a "Starbucks Free WIFI Heatmap" based on all Starbucks stores in the United States. The resulting map is seriously stunning, take a look at the image below:

There is a live version running on my machine (will try to upload to my site later for you to play) and I can see how this is gonna make some cities go "WiMax" without actually having "WiMax" :)

Get deals near you via RSS Feeds & Widgets

2010-06-15T08:55:00.001-07:00

We have been busy at The Dealmap HQ working on more ways to get you the local deals in ways that's convenient for you. As part of this push we are launching local deal feeds for top cities and The Dealmap widgets .

Local Deal RSS Feeds

To get a feed for your city, simply go to our local deals directory and pick your city. Then select the type of feed you need (Restaurants vs. Daily Deals) - then simply add "/rss" at the end and add that url in your favorite feed reader!

For example to get all daily deals in San Jose, you would subscribe to: http://www.thedealmap.com/cities/san-jose-ca/daily-deals/rss

Similarly, to get all restaurant deals in Seattle, you would subscribe to: http://www.thedealmap.com/cities/seattle-wa/restaurant-deals/rss

Local Deal Widgets

You can also get local deals in widgets for your site with a single line of simple HTML code. Simply visit The Dealmap Widget maker page and pick a theme/design/size that suites your blog! We have pre-selected some standard IAB sizes so that its easier for you to integrate into your blog/site. Below is a sample widget and the code required to install it:

<iframe height='260px' width='310px' style='padding:0px;border:0px' src='http://widgets.thedealmap.com/?l=Seattle%2c+WA&h=250&w=300&t=black&lcid=1033'></iframe>

It's that simple!

We are working on more ways to get your favorite deals - so stay tuned. And of course, these widgets are built on top of our own Dealmap APIs - so you can build a custom widget yourself if you are a tinkerer!