Karmatopia

Alright, this was too good to pass up.  I have been extremely busy lately but all this buzz was enough for me to come out of my hiatus and throw my 2 cents in.  Here’s where we are:

- Microsoft pulled offer this weekend

- Yahoo! is still pursuing Google and other alternatives

- Jerry Yang still open to talk with Microsoft….WAIT, let’s back up again

- Microsoft pulled offer this weekend

Hmmm…this dear friends, is called the recursion trap in programming…we’re stuck in an infinite loop with no exit statement.  Anyway, there’s a great video interview with Sue Decker on Tech|Ticker here with their side of the story.

I’m not going to turn this into a post about speculation.  Yahoo! is still (and always has been) my home page.  Although, I do use the Google search box on my menu bar for all internet searches.  Anyway, in this image there is a list of Yahoo! services that come up when I load my home page.

I’ve put in a thumbs up/down based on my take on them.  So, here’s my summary on all of them (of course this is biased personal opinion based on my usage):

1. Answers - Although there is tons of activity, I’m not sure who is using this.  It does not fullfills our “instant gratification” driven society.  You post a question and await a response…..vs….you Google it and voila….tons of answers.  Moreover, one of the ‘Best Questions’ is “How do I make my apartment smell nice?”….hmmm.
2. Autos - I like Autos.  Although I feel that if they try and make this more like “Top Gear on the web”, they will have a surefire hit on their hands.
3. Finance - Hands down the best freely available comprehenive information.  I do like to indulge in the Message Boards for some great posts like the one posted a minute ago on the YHOO board….”Decker goes to Rehab for nervous laugh”.
4. Games - I’m not an avid gamer but this is a great service for a great market.  They should increase focus on community-based games that allow you to play with everyone else online.
5. Groups - I’m a purist from the Deja.com group days so I defaulted to Google groups since the acquisition.
6. HotJobs - Sure, as good as most other job sites.
7. Maps - Nope.  Google is taking over the Earth…and Moon, Mars and everything else.
8. Mobile Web - Again, great market to be in with a lot of upward mobility.  More apps + services please.
9. Movies - I love movies and I like this service.  It has everything I need, showtimes, trailers, reviews, etc.
10. Music - People love their music and although a “thumbs up”…this could be a lot better.  Some pointers from LastFm - would be nice to have some community features like who’s listening now, listeners also liked <blah>, and the ability to join groups like ‘Die hard fans of Arcade Fire’ or something. 
11. Personals - What?  You don’t offer the 147 degrees of compatibility test….screw this then.
12. Real Estate - Good revamp to this service last year.  Since I’m in the market for a house, I tend to use this from time to time.  Good information but a little outdated.  Good tie into Maps to offer Neighborhood views.
13. Shopping - Amazon has this one covered.
14. Sports - I only follow Football (aka soccer here in the US).  Good coverage….I’m sure the other sports are covered as well.
15. Tech - I like Tech Ticker…..good addition.
16. Travel - A friend turned me on to this.  This is a great service, one stop shop for all travel planning.  A definite thumbs up.
17. TV - Hmmm….who watches TV these days anyway?
18. Yellow Pages - Googling this one too.
19. Buzz - You cannot come up with a version of Digg years later and call it a ‘new’ service.  Sorry.
20. Shine - Only noticed it this morning.  It’s like the Oxygen channel online.  I guess it is a pretty good demographic to go after but you have to figure out a way to attract loyal communities that have already flocked to other sites.

There you have it.  Based on my usage of services that were on my page this morning….I have 11 thumbs up and 8 thumbs down.  Not bad.  And this does not include other services I use that were not on my page (Flickr).

Apple has opened up the iPhone API for third-party developers.  In Facebook/Bay Partners fashion, Kleiner Perkins announced a $100 million fund for app development.  They are calling it……wait for it……the iFund.  Cute!

So it is only a matter of time that you can install the “Vampires” application on your iPhone.  And yes, of course you will be able to text message every single person on your address book with a “Arrrrrrr! You’ve been bitten!” message (I know, it sounds more like the “Pirates” application).  Yipee, can’t wait!

Like flies on crap, there is way too much buzzing around this pile.  A quick recap of what’s happened in the past 72 hours:

• Microsoft put out an unsolicited bid for Yahoo, price tag…$42billion
• Rumors build that News Corp wants to jump in with their own bid
• Google starts screaming foul play
• Microsoft rebuttles, “No, no, fair play, fair play!”
• Rumors emerge that Yahoo is looking to shop the offer…looking a Google partnership maybe

Phew!  I’m sure there will be a ton of more developments in the next coming days.  I’m sticking to my original guns, my 2 cents remain the same.

• Yahoo is, and will remain, the most trafficked destination on the internet by a mile
• Convert traffic into dollars before you lose that no. 1 spot

Don’t throw in the towel just yet…there’s miles to go before we sleep.

Yes, every blog has one. Yes, it is Day 11 in the New Year and this is not perfectly timed. So, I will keep it short and concise. My top 5 predictions for the year are:

#5 - Online Advertising will boom

The online advertising sector will continue to grow exponentially. Companies, ancillaries and anyone related to this sector will thrive.

#4 - YouTube will be a very expensive acquisition

Google will dole out a lot of cash in relation to copyright infringement suits with YouTube.

#3 - Corporate Social-Networking will boom

Social-networking in the corporate sector will thrive. LinkedIn’s IPO will do tremendously well.

#2 - Television will be #1 dumbing-agent for society

The WGA strike (now in it’s third month) will continue forever. People will continue to be dumbed down by watching ridiculous reality TV shows. Thank God for the internet…

#1 - IPGA will be formed and go on strike the same day

Some original content providers will form the Internet Publishers Guild of America. It will go on strike the same day. All publishers across multiple content sharing sites will strike about the millions of dollars of ad-revenues not shared by companies. All original content will be pulled and deleted from the internet. People will be forced to watch online streams of ridiculous reality TV shows on the web.

On my morning ritual of reading TechCrunch, I was reading the NYTimes.com post on how their traffic is through the roof ever since they broke down their subscription based content model.

Although I subscribe to the Sunday NYTimes (in print), I had not been to their “new and improved” free website until after my daily ritual. Yes, it’s great…but I can’t help but be biased towards my Indian ePapers that I’ve grown to love.

The 2 leading Indian newspapers, The Hindustan Times and The Times of India, both have had a free ePaper available online for 2 years now (might have been longer, but I only jumped on this bandwagon 2 years ago).

Both their formats are similar and simple - the ePapers look exactly like the printed versions.  Navigation is simple, almost like paging through the printed paper itself (ads and everything).

Some screenshots from today’s HT ePaper are below:

Easy navigation on the left as well as a set of Next/Previous/First/Last (not shown) buttons at the bottom of the screen.  Clicking on any story, pops up a new window as shown below:

WYSIWYG at its best.  What you see, in print, is really what you get online.

This is where the NYTimes “Today’s Newspaper” kind of falls short.  Sure it has all the content, but no previews for the pages except the front page.  The plus - it does have cooler sharing options (Digg, Delicious, etc.) and a good recommendation feature when you save a page (People who saved this articles also saved….yada, yada, yada).

In the Desi 2.0 world, where every online desi company seems to ripoff a page from an international counterpart (DesiMartini coverage in previous posts), it is refreshing to see an original implementation that has been in place for a long time.