Desi Angle to YouTube

I hope you already aware with the huge hit video sharing website called YouTube and its 1.65 billion dollar acquisition by Google recently.

Now here is the list of some Desi online video sharing center:

ApnaTube is "Desi Broadcasting" video sharing website with a cool interface and large collection of videos. Its also has some social networking characterstics which allowing you to create your profile and to make new friends. Annoying thing about ApnaTube is that you need to get registered even if you want to see only videos.

MeraVideo is another video sharing desi website with large collection of videos and is currently in alpha stage.

Infeedia is a South Asian Community based website. As per Infeedia it allows the community rather than a editor to submit and review the content on the site.

AapkaVideo is a recently launched beta stage video sharing website with cool slogan "Director Ban Jao"(Become a Director) with the aim of helping and creating buddying directors. Also videos can be browsed category-wise like General, Comedy, Sports and so on.
Check out a nice video of telecom ad with Gandhiji here.

VideoDubba is the another latest clone for video website dedicated to sharing and broadcasting of Desi Videos.

SaddeGeet is Punjabi media sharing website which also includes a forum and chat service.

CricTube has collection of thousands of cricket videos from classic videos and to latest highlights from around the world. Check out a funny cricket moment here.

MeroVideo a purely entertainment platform for online Nepalese community around the world.

Common behavior of many(not all) of this websites are that they are web2.0 websites from Indian or South Asian origin and its contents are also targeted to Indian and/or South Asian audience. They also have services like tagging, tag search, social networking etc. They are preferable for client with broadband connection for smooth streaming of media. As broadband usage are rapidly growing in this area so this websites have scope of survival here.

It seems that mobile integration of this website can also enhance their scope of growth and to acquire wide user base even though they have internal and global competition.

Tag Serach Simplified with TagBulb

TagBulb is an Ajax based search tool that lets you to search for tags from multiple Web 2.0 websites simultaneously. It supports tags from various websites like RawSugar, Grouper, Google video, Flickr, YouTube, Technorati, Indeed etc and many more are added continuously.

It provides categorical search of tags in various categories like images, videos, books, products, blogs, jobs, podcasts, bookmarks, questions, events and goals.

TagUniverse allows you to see tag cloud and to take a look on what the world is searching for.

Data on Paper : Seems Interesting But ...

As reported in Arab News, A Kerala MCA student Sainul Abideen has developed a technique for portable data whereby the data can now be stored on ordinary paper.

The two interesting feature of his technology are:

Rainbow Technology :- It uses Rainbow Formatting for data storage i.e. geometric shapes like circles, triangles with various colors instead of usual 0 and 1 bit. So all data has to be converted into this format for storage which i think needs extra calculation and computing time. Also for me this format is like enhanced version of Bar Code.

Biodegradable:- Another controversial feature is biodegradable as its uses normal paper for storage. As most of the papers are created using trees (so there is more cutting :-( ). Also using paper is like we are circling back to file era of previous decades.

He also proposes that it will reduce the cost from normal CD or DVD but there are some others who have some questions with support of various mathematical calculations for feasibility (or in-feasibility) of this technology or roughly considers it as scam. I don't think it is a scam because he did not made any false money yet instead he presented his thought or say his research work which may be right or wrong.

Anyway there is still not enough information available to conclude anything.

For Better Campus Recruitment

I already mentioned about emerging job boards around the World and now an Indian job board CampusChai is here with slogan "Campus Recruitment Done Better" with fresh, clean interface and sleek Web2.0 website using AJAX technology.

CampusChai is targetting Indian Market specially students and freshers. Their services includes placement strategy for colleges and collaborating between employers and Universities/Colleges/Students.

The best part of CampusChai which I like is Tips. You can search and browse through tips of fellow members and also can share tips and questions.

So if you are student or fresher and looking for a job or are employers and looking for fresh talents then you must take a sip of CampusChai ;-).

GMail goes Mobile

Google now provides a downloadable gmail application for java-enabled phones to browse your email in a familiar web based user interface of Gmail. It is faster to access and also pre-fetch the messages. So now you can read, compose, search your inbox, view and add attachments including images and PDF files through your mobiles only.

To download the application, go to gmail.com/app and follow the instructions.

Rediscover the Web with Firefox 2

Few days ago Microsoft officially launched its new browser Internet Explore 7 (IE7) and now Firefox 2 is the next generation release of the award-winning Firefox web browser from Mozilla. Its faster, more secure with phishing protection and customizable.

What's New in Firefox 2:

• A new theme and user interface (obviously)
• Built-in phishing protection
• Improved tabbed browsing and each tab will now have a close tab button(like Opera)
  
• Resuming your browsing session (Opera already has this feature from long time)
• Built-in spell checker enables users to quickly check the spelling of text entered into Web forms (something very useful)
  
• Support to JavaScript 1.7

You can download Firefox 2 from here and can personalize and enhance your browser with this list of recommended Add-ons by Mozilla website.

Guruji to take on Google in India

Here comes the very Desi local Internet search engine named, guruji.com, started by two ex-IIT Delhi alumni, Anurag Dod and Gaurav Mishra. The objective is to serve all Indian result as local as possible with the focus of capturing Indian market and to satisfy Indian web consumers.

Guruji.com is the first crawler based search engine for India and India related content with proprietary algorithm which automatically identifies India related content on the web and organizes it in such a way that you get the most relevant results fast.

The technique is to stores only the India related content after crawling and throws out the irrelevant (non-Indian) data which allows Guruji to crawl more, go deeper and hence index more India related data. They also have supporting directory of Indian web sites.

Even though it's still in beta stage but I like the speed with which it serves the result. I think it has capability to become the Baidu of India. What do you say ??

FYI: According to a study done by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IMAI) there are about 65 million people who use search engines in India regularly.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 is here

Microsoft Corp. is giving its web browser software its first major upgrade in years. The new release brings Microsoft's browser more in line with competing products such as Opera and Firefox.

So what's new in IE7:

• A New Look (Obviously)
• Tabbed Browsing like Firefox with thumbnail images of open tabs like Opera 9
• Better interface for printing documents (something new)
• RSS feeds syndication (need of the time)
• Integrated Search Box (again like Opera and FireFox)
• Improved security feature including phishing detection (must needed feature for all Microsoft product)

You can get IE7 from Microsoft's site here.

Mission Gandhigiri

A Bollywood movie Lage Raho Munnabhai has entertained many people like me but it also inspired many souls and one of them come up with http://www.gandhigiri.org which has slogan "If Munnabhai can then why can't we do Gandhigiri".

The idea is to create a platform to share information from people who have mission for any cause or social issue. It also has forum to discuss these issues with other fellow members and helps in gathering support for their cause.

A community group for Gandhigiri on Orkut can be found here.

To get more information about Mahatma Gandhi and his work, visit here.

Favourite Blogs

BusinessWeek.com come up with special report on blogging. It is the list of reader's top choices of blogging site based on a survey conducted by BusinessWeek.com.

And at the top of the list is TechCrunch which is also my favourite. There are other very good blogging site like Engadget, Blog Maverick etc and it contains little information about bloggers also.
You can check out list here.

Microsoft Zune

Zune is a player by Microsoft which will give direct competition to Apple iPod.

Zune is a 30 GB Player which means you can store up to 7,500 songs, 25,000 pictures, or 100 hours of video. Zune also has a built-in FM Tuner. Advanced tuning capabilities allows to see the name of the song currently playing on select frequencies local FM radio stations.

ZuneInsider is a dedicated blog for Zune where you can get daily updates and more details. A teaser site of Zune by Microsoft.

And here is the factsheet, press release and all details about Zune.

Meanwhile Apple Computer also unveiled its long-rumored video iPod, as well as a new iMac and an updated version of iTunes that lets users buy music videos, TV shows and movies. Check out news here.

Google Image Labeler

Google just started a game to label random images by players where they have to tag images in 90 second period and simultaneously other player will also tag it. If there is any tag match happens then their score points will move ahead.

The objective of game is to improve the quality of image search results by Google.

So if you have little time or like to have some fun then you must try this.... remember in this way you are helping Google to improve their search facility.

Check out here: http://images.google.com/imagelabeler/

Kerala : Free and Open Source

After banning Coke and Pepsi, Kerala(a state in India) is distancing from Microsoft now.

Here on, nearly 1.5 million students in the 2,650 government and government-aided high schools in the state will no longer use the Windows platform for computer education. Instead, they have switched over to the free GNU/Linux software.

"We have decided that we will use only free software for computer education in Kerala schools. We have implemented the Linux platform in high schools; it will be implemented in other schools step by step," Kerala Education Minister M A Baby told rediff.com.

They also started giving training of the Linux platform to around 56,000 teachers.

Linux PC dealers are excited about the government decision to promote Linux platforms in schools and also receiving lots of inquiries now.

Microsoft VISTA on Sale

The most awaited Operating System, Vista by Microsoft is on preorder sale by Amazon.com and would be available by January 30 , 2007.

Amazon's Web site reveals that the company has started taking pre-orders for different versions of Vista, priced between $100 and $399.

Check out here.

Google Book Search Offers Downloads

Google Book Search has just started offering downloads of public domain ("A public domain book is one that was never subject to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired," as per Google) books as PDF files.

The Book Search Service by Google unveiled in December 2004, to digitise books from major libraries around the world and make them searchable online.

Check here and see download link at right side.

Free Mock GATE

GATE(Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering) is an all India examination conducted by the seven Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. GATE-2007 will be conducted on February 11, 2007.

Gateforum is organising an all-India free mock test of GATE on September 3, 2006 in over 25 cities across the country(India).they will evaluate your performance of test through the section-wise comparative analysis and also will give scholarships for few top ranker's.

you can get more details here.

Emerging Job Boards

There is a new trend shown by established blogging site and web based service providing companies. They are coming up with Job Boards.

Common feature between all of them is that they are following Web2.0 rituals like they are using ajax technologies, they are categorizing jobs and providing RSS feeds of their contents based on that categories, they are also providing widgets for their contents and finally they are also charging for posting of jobs.

TechCrunch a very good blog site which keeps track of new technologies, web services and web launches also has job board called CrunchBoard. They have a benefit of very high user base which reads their blog daily.
Check out here : http://www.crunchboard.com/

GigaOm which has blogs by Om Malik and associates on various technologies and web services. Few days ago they also launched Job Board targeting hi-tech professionals.
Check out here : http://jobs.gigaom.com/

37Signals which has many state of the art web based applications has recently launched job board. They are targeting designers, programmers and tech savvy people.
Check out here : http://jobs.37signals.com/jobs

ProBlogger which blogs on various topics are also come up with job board. They are charging very low rate for posting of jobs for limited time.
Check out here : http://jobs.problogger.net/

If you constantly looks out for new jobs for you and/or your friends or like to see(or analyse) changing demands of professionals, technology or criteria then you must subscribe to feeds of these job boards.

World's 10 Richest Tech Titans

Forbes recently release the information regarding The World's Billionaires and here is the list of top ten tech titans of the world.

The World's 10 Richest Tech Titans
Rank	Name	Company	Net worth
1	Bill Gates	Microsoft Co-founder	$50 billion
2	Paul Allen	Microsoft Co-founder	$22 billion
3	Michael Dell	Dell, Founder	$17.1 billion
4	Larry Ellison	Oracle, Co-founder	$16 billion
5	Steve Ballmer	Microsoft CEO	$13.6 billion
6	Azim Premji	Wipro Chairman	$13.3 billion
7/8	Sergey Brin and Larry Page	Google Co-Founders	(Brin): $12.9 billion (Page): $12.8 billion
9	Pierre Omidyar	eBay Founder	$10.1 billion
10	Hasso Plattner	SAP Founder	$6.4 billion

Bill Gates, worth $50 billion, has been the world's richest man for 12 consecutive years. Azim Premji, Chairman of Wipro (India) is placed at 6th position.

You can view slideshow of this here.

If you have an Idea

My Dream App is a contest for new ideas of best shareware product(A Killer Application) for Macintosh (Don't worry you don't need to be Mac user for this).

They are giving away 18 iPods and 6 Macintosh computers as prizes. Also they will help in shareware development of 3 best ideas with lifetime royalty.

I strongly suggest that you should enter in this even if you don't have any big/cracking/fundoo ideas.

Social Meter

Social Meter is an excellent AJAX based site to find the popularity of any website in different social networking site. Currently it supports scanning from Del.icio.us, Digg, Furl, Google, Jots, Linkroll, Netscape, Reddit, Shadows, Spurl, Technorati, and Yahoo My Web.

I am sure it will be enormously helpful for web developers like me to get the current web stats and to change and enhance strategy for web marketing.

New! Google Desktop 4

Google Desktop 4 is now out of beta status. It gives you easy access to information on your PC and from the web by providing full text search over your email, files, music, photos, chats, Gmail, web pages that you’ve viewed, and much more.

It makes searching your computer as easy as searching the web with Google. It also has numerous widgets created by google and other developers for various perposes like stock ticker, weather etc. It supports 26 languages at present.

Yahoo! also has similar stuff for desktop called Yahoo! Widget Engine.

Google’s Writely

Writely is an AJAX based online word processor acquired by Google in March.

Writely is collaboration friendly, can import Word documents, save to PDF, OpenOffice, Rich Text Format and zip.The system offers online storage and autosaves your documents every 10 seconds.
It allows bookmarks for long documents, spell check, tags, image insert and also post to blogging site like blogger.

Other online word processing services provider are zohowriter, thinkfree, glidewrite, rallypoint and writeboard.

You can check a comparison of some of this services by CNet

Google Code Jam 2006

Registration for Google’s annual online coding competition i.e. Google Code Jam 2006 is started from 14th Aug 2006.

The top 100 contestants win an all expenses paid trip to New York City to compete in the finals at Google’s New York Engineering Office.

Grand Prize for this event is : $10,000.

Registration for Google Code Jam closes September 5, and the qualifying round begins on the same day

You can get more information here : http://www.google.com/codejam2006

So be ready to show some programming skills and creativity to solve.

All the Best.

Google Acquisition and Updates

Google acquired Neven Vision which will deal with better organization of photoes. Google already have Picasa for organization of pictures but Neven Vision will help in extraction of information from photo like photo contains a person or not, face recognition etc.

A similar service is also provide by Riya.

Google also unveils new beta version of blogger.com. You can take a look of this at beta.blogger.com. One of the feature will be instead of republishing the entire blog after each post it will now publish individual posts to the Blogspot servers, other features include tagging of blog, drag and drop.

Keep Googling ;-)

Google : A Dream Company.

Google began as a research project in January, 1996 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two Ph.D. students at Stanford University, California.

When Google was a Stanford research project, it was nicknamed BackRub because the technology checks backlinks to determine a site's importance.

The name "Google" originated from a misspelling of "googol".

Google is widely recognized as the "world's best search engine" because it is fast, accurate and easy to use.

This is one of the first logo of Google used in somewhere 1996-1998 :

If you love Google then you will love their accessosories also ...yes they do sell Google Accessory for googlers check out here

And one of the best page of Google is here : http://labs.google.com/

Also you can find few words about Google by Google-people here i.e. Official Google Blog.

Google recently ( probably on 10th Aug, 2006) updated their homepage ie www.google.com by removing few links like froogle and adding a new link for video search.

Keep Googling ;-)

Namaskar

Hello Friends,

Finally, I am here to create some web logs or better say blogs.

It will mostly informative kind of knowledge regarding Web-World and Internet. As I am very big fan of Google, thus I will share much space for it.

Also my blog will revolve around useful services, new websites and sites which are using AJAX to enhance user's experience.

I hope you will support me by your nice comments, suggestions, and feedbacks which will help me to improve and enhance my knowledge.

Have Fun ;-)
Deep.