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Special Feature: Social Media Activism – Beyond Tweets & Likes. B
2011-12-28 10:14:00
In a few days 2011 will come to an end and this is the perfect time to stop for a few minutes and look back at the events that transpired during the course of the year. Social media has been at the forefront on numerous occasions during 2011. What was considered primarily as a platform to market, promote or connect was in the news for serving a totally different purpose. Social media activism and online activism came into the fore in 2011 and generated a lot of debate. It made indelible changes in the world’s geopolitical and sociopolitical structure, which even a year back seemed impossible and change which no political commentator could have predicted. We have all read about, watched television footage of and shared our views online regarding the Arab Spring movement and the Jasmine Revolution. No one could have predicted that Twitter would be the primary tool for the protesters on the street in the Arab world. Yet that is exactly what happened and authoritarian regimes, whic...
More About: Media , Activism , Feature , Special

60Mn+ Growing User Base On Google+: How Many Are Active Though?
2011-12-28 09:51:00
Paul Allen, an unofficial traffic analyst for Google ’s social network, has confirmed in a post that Google+’s current user base stands at 62 Million. Google+ may boast of such a huge number, but the real questions are how have they reached there? & What are the “users” actually doing? Are they active or dormant? Paul Allen doges this important question in his report. However, the numbers seem to corroborate with comScore which reported G+ had grown to 67 million monthly unique visitors in November. But this number is pertaining to “Active User s” & that too 50 Million More than Allen’s figures! The only way to make some sense out of these tall claims is to look into the way these two gathered the data: While Allen doesn’t reveal, comScore’s methodology involves sampling of browsing habits from people who have monitoring software installed on their computers (we hope with prior consent!). So the research firm has been counting “clicks” to plus.google...
More About: Growing

Tickets For Auto Expo 2012 Available On BookMyShow.com
2011-12-28 08:56:00
BookMyShow.com has just confirmed that tickets for the Auto Expo 2012 have gone live on it’s website. Entertainment Ticketing Portal Bookmyshow.com is the official ticketing partner for Auto Expo 2012. Auto-Expo 2012 is the largest official automotive show in India & is being jointly organized by Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). This year’s or shall we say the next year’s Auto-Show is very special as it will have about 50 New Launches. The country will witness new additions in the cars, two-wheelers and commercial vehicles segment. It’s a global event with 24 of the launches being domestic cars and 8 global cars, 8 domestic launches in two-wheelers and one global launch. The rest will be in the commercial vehicles and the ‘others’ category. 1,500 exhibitors from 24 countries are expected to participate in the trade show. S. Sandilya, president...
More About: Tickets

Are Passwords Becoming Obsolete?
2011-12-28 06:58:00
Your password is the key to unlocking the web so you can easily work, chat and collaborate with people from a verified account. Our lives have been almost completely transferred to the Internet. Our bank details, our credit cards, our online orders, our social lives and our secrets are all there on the cloud. And the only thing stopping these things from being accessed by others is because of this 8 character password! Isn’t that astounding!Our reliance on passwords is based on sound logic. We make these passwords complex using alph-numeric combinations and keep them to ourselves. Till some years back this was the best way to keep your online accounts secure. But in today’s day and age this is getting to be a problem. As you all know that Cyber Crime is on the rise in India. Spams and Phishing emails are common. How then do we protect our online identity? As any seasoned veteran on the Internet will tell you – Don’t share your password with anyone, even your closest rel...
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Can Your Employer Own Your Twitter Account?
2011-12-27 14:44:00
Twitter has been a runaway hit as a micro-blogging service. It sports the who’s who of the world as its customer base apart from regular people. Companies use it to further their reach to potential clients and consumers. Employees of a company may use their twitter accounts to engage with their followers and address any queries that they have. This is fairly normal and productive. But what happens after an employee quits? Is that Twitter account owned by the employee or the company? The answer to this dilemma may be pretty straightforward to many but what if the employer thinks otherwise? In a case which might set a precedent as to how all these questions may be redressed, Noah Kravitz is disputing his previous company’s claim that his Twitter account and tweets are property of the company. Noah Kravitz was a writer working for popular phone site called Phonedog.com, which he quit after a period of 4 years. While working at the company, Noah used to tweet using the Twitter han...
More About: Twitter

Airtel Networks Down In Mumbai As Data Centre Catches Fire
2011-12-27 13:46:00
The service provider with the largest number of subscribers in India, Airtel,  is facing major disruptions in the commercial capital of India, Mumbai . Various reports saying that networks have been down since early Tuesday morning. People are unable to send and receive calls and SMS. Further, both GPRS and 3G services are unavailable. The cause of the disruption is a fire having taken place at an Airtel Data Center in Malad. Airtel, really needs to learn about fire-proofing. This is not the first case of their networks being down due to a fire. In 2008, a fire at their Lower Parel offices caused network disruptions. In 2010, their networks were majorly disrupted in Bangalore. As usual, everyone came to know about the network disruption through Twitter. Consumers started complaining about network disruptions along with the area they were located in. Airtel’s Official Twitter handle @Airtel_Presence was tagged in the tweets. Airtel officially responded through Twitter by sayi...
More About: Networks , Fire

Yahoo Offers Shared News Through Facebook Integration: Following Google&rsq
2011-12-27 10:38:00
A new “Activity” feature launched by Yahoo will feature news stories read & shared by friends through Facebook. A move closely resembling Google ’s +1’d content that featured articles read & shared by Google’s users, Yahoo, which recently supported Microsoft, seems to have put the ubiquitous “Like” button of Facebook to good use. It today announced a deeper collaboration with Facebook whereby it offered a deeply personalized, social news experience to over 7 million unique visitors of Yahoo! India News . Yahoo! Activity, as the feature is called, is an opt-in service, which lets users discover news articles their friends have read and automatically share what they are reading with their Facebook network, in a seamless manner.“As the world’s most popular online news destination, Yahoo! News delivers the most compelling content on the Web through a combination of local editors, advanced technologies, and now, your friends,” said Blake Irving, Chief Product O...
More About: Integration , Offers

Use Anna Hazare Emoticon On Facebook With New Emoticon System
2011-12-27 10:00:00
Online Chat has always been an activity we have enjoyed. First we had public chat rooms. Then we had ICQ. Then we had IRC Chat. Then Hotmail and MSN Messenger ruled the roost for some years. GTalk then became the default medium for IM. And then came Facebook Chat. In the short period that it has existed, it has successfully engulfed them all. Nowadays most people only use Facebook chat for Instant Messaging. Emoticons are a fun way to express emotions via chat. They started out with Smiley Faces and Sad Faces. They then grew more complex, with animated smileys and Emoji. Now, Facebook has completely revamped their system of Emoticons.   Here is how you can use Anna Hazare as an emoticon: 1) Log Into Facebook 2) Open Chat and click on a friend 3) In the text box, type [[112139268868861]]. 4) You now have an Anna Hazare emoticon! Basically, you have to enter a Facebook Page or Profile’s Unique ID between two pairs of square brackets: [[ ]] You can get a WAT Blog ID by entering...
More About: System

Media Ads Introduced In Search Results: Destroying Sanctity Of Search?
2011-12-27 08:45:00
Google India, in association with Star TV network has introduced Media Ads. or advertisements displayed prominently on top of your search results. Unlike other video formats Media Ads is an exclusive format designed to put video ads front and center. Recently, Google tested multiple ad platforms & chose this especially for  the rechristened Star One, now called as Life OK. A unique aspect is that Media Ads will be fully automated not like usual keyword search ads on google.com or google.co.in where advertiser are allowed to pick competing keywords, sometimes on Real time ad exchanges. Why Google India? We all know India is a very lucrative market for advertising. Many internet giants too feel so. Hence, why not leverage the attitudes of people to serve them ads? Our sentiments are echoed by Praveen Sharma, head, media sales, Google India, “The media & entertainment category search volumes on Google search have shown phenomenal growth. In the last two years the query volu...
More About: Results , Search

10 Times Growth A Firm Possibility Reveals Flipkart CEO: Whats Their Secret
2011-12-27 08:42:00
Sachin Bansal, CEO Flipkart, is confident at achieving 10 fold growth in revenue this year. Mr. Bansal recently confirmed in a statement, “In terms of revenue, we are looking at Rs. 500 Crores to Rs. 600 Crores in thecurrent financial year”. In retrospection, the company had managed a revenue of 50 Crores last year. The confident, IIT & ex-Amazon Duo Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal is targeting USD 1 Billion (Rs. 5000 Crores) in the next 2 to 3 years! He further added, “Our target is not just those who shop online. We want to highlight the convenience of e-commerce to traditional offline shoppers and, thus, help grow the market.” Flipkart is already into multiple categories & started with the aim of being the largest online retailer of books & recently added, computer peripherals, kitchen appliances, televisions, home theatre systems etc. to its product range. All in all, Flipkart is into 12 Major categories. but, the CEO has confirmed that they will stay away fr...
More About: Growth , Secret , Times

Special Feature: Review Of The Pre-launch Campaign Of Pepperfry.in
2011-12-27 07:00:00
There is much speculation about the newest e-commerce start-up on the block! PepperFry with its zingy name has got many people wondering what exactly the service is about. The venture got funded recently by Norwest Venture Partners to the tune of $ 5 million. That is quite an investment for a service that hasn’t even launched yet. We took a look at their website and found out that it is still under construction. We were graciously treated to one video and links to their social media channels. Titled ‘Jai Jawan decodes PepperFry’, it features the proprietor of the famous eatery, Jai Jawan in Bandra. Well, the video is nicely made and highlights the motivations behind Rajinder Singh setting up Jai Jawan, the eatery. What doesn’t make sense is, what does this have anything to do with PepperFry, the shopping website? As far as we can tell the service is a daily deals site which deals in Clothing, Furniture & Home Décor, Precious & Fashion Jewelry, Lifestyle ...
More About: Review , Feature , Campaign , Special , Launch

Nike Cup Kick-starts Its Digital Campaign With A Video
2011-12-27 05:59:00
Nike is well known for promoting many sporting campaigns worldwide and now they are doing the same in India with the Nike Cup, which is a take on the gully cricket culture that flourished in India’s streets. The tennis ball tournament whose registrations are now closed will begin in January 2012. Nike has launched the first film of this campaign directly online through platforms like Facebook, Youtube and their own website. The film is 90 seconds long and showcases cricket being played on the streets along with the message that ‘the streets are getting ready for the Nike Cup. Are you?’ The website also says that the streets are the training grounds for tomorrow’s champions. The tournament winners will get a shot at training in the National Cricket Academy, which may serve as a big break for the kids playing gully cricket. The agency responsible for the campaign is JWT India. One of the sources of the JWT India  says, “The Nike Cup digital campaign is a true blue com...
More About: Video , Nike , Campaign , Digital

Interactive Christmas Google Doodle Delights World
2011-12-26 13:19:00
Google pays a lot of attention to its ever-popular Google Doodles. These are basically redesigns of their landing page Google.com, where millions and millions of people land up every day. They do this redesign for special occasions, celebrations, mournings and festivals. For example, they had a special Children’s Day Doodle, a PacMan Doodle, and even a doodle for the death of guitarist Les Paul. Keeping up the Christmas spirit, Google made a special Doodle for Christmas. Instead of the G-O-O-G-L-E letters, there are Christmasy icons like snowflakes, santa, bells, snowmen, candles and a gift. Also the theme is with a black background and starts, giving it a very Christmasy look. What’s so special about the Doodle was that it was interactive. There were a row of different colored keys. One clicking on each key, a different musical note was sounded. The notes were the ones used in the Jingle Bell Christmas Carol. Also one can click on the icon with the musical note and h...
More About: Google , World , Interactive

Vodafone Wishes Merry Christmas By Launching Zoozoo App: Milking The Zoozoo
2011-12-26 11:30:00
Companies are really getting into the Christmas  spirit. The festive season is a great time to engage with customers, who always appreciate the human touch. That’s why most brands With Google’s Christmas Doodle playing Jingle Bells for searchers, Vodafone too has something up their sleeve. We all remember Vodafone Zoozoo’s. First introduced in the 2009 season of IPL, they captured the imagination of Indians just as much, if not more, than Vodafone’s iconic pug dog. For those who may not recall, Zoozoo’s were a series of ad campaigns featuring cartoon-like, white colored people. They had painted faces and looked like cartoons, when in fact they were real people in costume. The Zoozoo’s were also used extensively in the Vodafone 3G campaign. They had a Super-Zoozoo who showed the various features of 3G. Now, Vodafone has decided to once again bring back the Zoozoo’s, this time using the power of Social Media. They have launched a Facebook ap...
More About: Wishes

Special Feature: What is SOPA? And Why Are So Many Internet Companies Again
2011-12-26 10:23:00
In the past few days we have all heard and read about SOPA. We have read how some big-name tech companies are either for SOPA or against it. So, let us first break it down and explain in layman terms what SOPA exactly is. SOPA = Stop Online Piracy Act This is the official name but has also been referred as the PROTECT IP ACT. The US House of Representatives will be debating on SOPA next month and if the bill gets passed it will basically mean that ISP’s will have the right to block any domain/s if the content hosted under that domain violates copyright. Let me explain it in a little more details. Site A has infringed a copyright law. Going by what SOPA proposes, “services connected or tangential” to Site A will be the ones to face the music first and not Site A. So any advertiser or payment processor (like a PayPal) will have to remove Site A from its services within five days or be considered to be violating the law. This is not all. A search engine (like Google), which has ...
More About: Internet , Companies , Feature , Special

Indirect Censorship: Reliance Communication Heading The Crusade As Per Gove
2011-12-26 10:02:00
Hundreds of users connecting to the Internet through Reliance ’s internet gateway (Reliance broadband), found themselves unable to access file-sharing websites. Reliance has come forth saying the Government of India made them do it. The ISP Reliance Communication has blocked many popular websites like: Megaupload and Filesonic. People trying to access these are greeted with a “This site has been blocked“, & the insult continues, with a line saying that the message has been “copyrighted” by Reliance Entertainment! The method may be a small step to curb piracy, but, it ironically violates the law itself as the authority to block websites in India rests only with Department of Information and Technology (DIT) and even if a court has ordered blocking of a website, the procedure has to be initiated by DIT officials. Though Government’s pal Reliance is sheltering itself “Under Section 79 of the IT Act”, it’s agenda is to stop the rampant piracy of...
More About: Censorship , Crusade

GoDaddy.com Faces Huge Protests For Its SOPA Support. Drops Support For SOP
2011-12-26 09:00:00
GoDaddy.com is the go-to place for registering your website online. It is one of the big players in domain registering in the digital world. Their website claims that they manage over 50 million domain names for more than 9 million customers worldwide. Now, imagine all those domains going away to their competitors in a stroke! Why? Because they support the controversial bill known as the SOPA. We have covered it earlier and explained why this bill is counter-productive to the workings and proliferation of the Internet at large. Many Internet entrepreneurs have come together to denounce this bill because they strongly believe that this bill is not healthy for the spread of information through the web. After coming to know that it was one of the companies listed as supporting the SOPA, many website owners and entrepreneurs who are dead against this bill have threatened a complete boycott of GoDaddy’s services. Foremost of among them is Ben Huh, CEO of Cheezburger which runs a coll...
More About: Faces , Support , Huge

Rs. 50,000 Cap On Mobile Transactions Removed By RBI: Brave Or Risky Move?
2011-12-26 07:56:00
In a bold new move, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has allowed banks to give their customers flexibility to transact over Rs. 50,000 per day, using mobile banking. This move, timed perfectly to holiday season, should have positive impact on the 900 Million odd mobile users, many of whom use mobiles for monetary transactions. However, RBI has put the “risk” into Bank’s court, stating, though the the volume and value of mobile banking transactions is showing an uptrend, each bank should fix limit per transaction based on their own risk perception and with prior approval of its board members. Enhancing of limits started last year, when RBI raised it from 5000 to 50,000. Further good news is that, under the new system, a bank customer can easily transfer funds from his account to another using even a simple GPRS enabled low-end mobile phone through a pre-loaded software. The software should take care of authentication & linkage of accounts & transactions. RBI had placed a lo...
More About: Mobile , Transactions , Move

“Facebook” Is The Top Keyword Of 2011: Social Networking The King?
2011-12-26 07:22:00
Web-monitoring firm Experian Hitwise has revealed that in 2011, the search term “Facebook” topped the list followed closely by YouTube. According to Hitwise, the the top ten keywords punched into Google & other search engines, consisted of four variations of heavy-weight Facebook – Facebook.com, Facebook, Facebook login and of course www.facebook.com. Not surprisingly, Social Networking has remained dominant in the second consecutive year, with a 46% rise over earlier year. This was closely followed by popular video-sharing site YouTube. In the United Kingdom, people are known for their brevity & here, they merely chose the abbreviation ‘FB’ & that made the top ten for the first time this year. The top 10 most searched for terms for 2011 in US were: Facebook YouTube Facebook login Craigslist Facebook.com Yahoo eBay www.facebook.com Mapquest Yahoo.com As evident above ‘Navigational searches’ dominated the top search results as “users typed in terms a...
More About: Social Networking , The King , Keyword

WWW: WAT Weekly WrapUp 18th – 25th December, 2011
2011-12-26 06:24:00
Last we reported that there was certain change in the 3G issue where DoT instructs all the 3G providers to stop theri 3G activity immediately. Last week WatBlog also reported that Google+ was slowly gaining popularity surveyed by comScore. comSore also surveyed that throughout the year 2011 E-commerce in India had taken a different route and became one of the preferred medium of shopping by many Indians. all this and more in the last week’s wrapup. Post Via WATBlog.com DoT Instructs Providers To Stop 3G Roaming Immediately Sify Launches Cloud Based Storage Solution, MyStorage ComScore Shows That Google+ Is Growing Slowly And Steadily Facebook Reveals Its List Of Top 10 Games Of 2011; Cityville Is Not The Numero Uno Yahoo Ponders Over Reducing It’s 40% Stake In Alibaba Press Releases Via WATPr.com Indian Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Raise the Issue of Defiance by the Department of Telecommunications with Prime Minister Simplify360 Launches a Social Media Buzz Rep...
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DoT Instructs Providers To Stop 3G Roaming Immediately
2011-12-23 13:10:00
With the number of controversies 3G has caused in the past year, telecom providers must be wondering whether it was really worth it. Providers like Vodafone, Idea and Airtel had entered into roaming agreements with each other. Someone complained about this to the TRAI, who issued a notice to them to stop doing so. The operators in turn said that this was perfectly within their rights, with Vodafone threatening to give back their license and Airtel saying this would be a policy change. We gave our readers a roundup on what 3G Roaming really consists of here. After this, the TRAI probed further into the matter to see what is to be done.  The latest development is that the Telecom Ministry has made a decision and asked Vodafone, Airtel and Idea to call of their Mutual Agreement of 3G Roaming. Their reason being this causes potential losses to the government and is in violation of their Telecom licenses. Said Mr. R Chandrasekhar, Secretary of DoT, “The decision has been taken t...
More About: Stop

Sify Launches Cloud Based Storage Solution, MyStorage
2011-12-23 13:07:00
Cloud Computing has been a phrase on everyone’s lips. Be it Google’s Chromebooks, which store all your data on the cloud. Or Cloud Storage and Syncing solutions like DropBox, which have revolutionized the way people manage data between multiple persons and devices. Asus too has its own EeeStorage. The most loved and hated brand around, Apple, has iCloud Storage where users get cloud based storage. Microsoft offers users 25GB Free Space via its SkyDrive service. Manufacturers like HTC and Sony Ericssion give their users Box.Net Cloud Storage. Now we have another entrant: Sify. Sify Tech Ltd. have launched Sify MyStorage, which is “a cloud-based online storage and backup solution targeted at Consumers and Small Businesses. With a MyStorage account, users can backup and store documents from any number of devices. A file saved in Sify MyStorage can be accessed online from anywhere or can be shared with friends and family easily.” Says Natesh Mani of Sify Technol...
More About: Cloud

ComScore Shows That Google+ Is Growing Slowly And Steadily
2011-12-23 12:47:00
Google+, Google’s new social project is the center of a lot of speculation since it launched. Originally described as a Facebook killer but now Internet prophets are spelling its doom. The number of people that the network is attracting is being studied very carefully by Industry specialists. ComScore, a third-party analytics company, has released an estimation of what the traffic might be like. According to ComScore, Google+ has grown 65 million people in October to 67 million people in November. This data is totally based on the traffic that is hitting plus.google.com. That is not a big rise but this is just a month we are talking about and getting 3 million people in a month is not such a small deal. Some say that Google+ is a ghost town but that does not explain the increase in the number of people visiting the site. Here is a chart comparing Google+ data to other prominent social networks for the month of November. Worldwide  Total              Unique Visitor ...
More About: Google , Growing

Facebook Reveals Its List Of Top 10 Games Of 2011; Cityville Is Not The Num
2011-12-23 12:46:00
There are trends and then there are TRENDS. When the concept of social gaming first surfaced, many dismissed it as a fad. When the ‘fad’ persisted experts commented that this is just a trend and will soon be replaced by another. Now this ‘trend’ has become a part of millions of people’s daily online activity. A recent comScore survey reported that “3 out of every 4 minutes spent on a social networking site is on Facebook and every 7th online minute is spent on Facebook”. We know very well, from our own experiences and those of our friends and colleagues, that a large chunk of our Facebook time is dedicated to playing silly, addictive online social games. So, Facebook’s ‘Top 10 Games of 2011’ is one list we would all like to know about. Yesterday, Facebook released the list of the most popular games played on the social networking platform. Year-list’s have a tendency to be predictable as we all kind of figure out what to expect in them. This list throws up qui...
More About: List

Yahoo Ponders Over Reducing It’s 40% Stake In Alibaba
2011-12-23 12:45:00
Internet giant Yahoo is considering selling a part of its stake in Alibaba, recent reports say. The recently troubled company has a 40% stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and is mulling over the prospect of cutting down the share to 15%.  Yahoo had acquired a 40% stake in Alibaba, based in Hangzhou, eastern China, for about $1 billion in 2005. Alibaba, China’s biggest e-commerce company, wants to re-purchase its share in a tax-free manner from Yahoo. The deal values the assets at about $14 dollars a Yahoo share, pitching the Yahoo stake at about $17 billion. Yahoo would also sell off its stake in Yahoo Japan Corp. Alibaba doubled its efforts to buy back its share after the September sacking of its CEO, Carol Bartz, who had opposed the sale. With the change in management, the deal is moving forward, reports say. If it could, Yahoo would have wanted to hold on to it for a few more years. China’s e-commerce is entering a period of structured growth. Alibaba, through its Ta...

The Business Of Shaadi Is A lucrative Affair: But Will The Peak Last?
2011-12-23 08:00:00
With the recent sell-off of Yahoo’s share in BharatMatrimony for a whopping 100 Crores, a new insight into the Online Matrimony websites has come forth. Online matrimonial sites are booming & industry sources peg the valuation of this organized part of the “industry” at Rs. 400 Crores!. The valuation of BaharatMatrimony, alone, comes to about 900 Crores! With India’s population rushing to the internet to buy everything from groceries to baby products, searching for a life partner too, is set for a 30% Year-On-Year growth at least for the next 20 Years feels a confident Anupam Mittal, founder and CEO of Shaadi.com. It just makes good business sense: Unlike regular websites that thrive or survive on advertisement revenue, the marriage portals make money from offering various slabs of Subscription based services. 95% of the total revenue is usually obtained through subscriptions that offer services like, portfolio designing, focus services, horoscope & requirement filt...
More About: Business

11.4 Million YouTube Video Views Per Hour In 2011
2011-12-23 07:15:00
Google’s Online Video behemoth, YouTube, has released a Video Report, titled: 2011: World In Review, where they have compiled some interesting statistics on the way the netizens of the world viewed YouTube videos in 2011. According to YouTube, there were 1 TRILLION views of YouTube Videos this year so far. 1,000,000,000,000 is one thousand billion, or one million million views. If you look at the kind of videos the world viewed, it is very diverse. From protests in Egypt, to Cats Dancing. From  Halloween Pranks, to Rebecca Black and Kolavari Di! Unsurprisingly, the genre that got the most views was that of Official Music Videos of Music Labels. Said the company, in a statement, ““We rewind through the videos and channels that absorbed our collective global attention this year. To compile these lists, we looked at global view counts of popular videos uploaded throughout this year, and, in some instances, we aggregated views across multiple versions of the same video...
More About: Youtube , Views

Online Shopping Surges In India, Reveals ComScore
2011-12-22 14:09:00
comScore recently released a report on the retail and coupon sites visited by India ns in the past month. The report suggested that the online shopping scenario in India is improving and the number of people shopping online is increasing.  Nearly 60% of the online users in India visited retail sites in November, 2011, with the number of online shoppers increasing by 18% compared to last year. India is also taking a liking for coupon sites, with 16.5% of online users visiting that category. Recently, we reported that Asians, particularly Indians and Chinese, are changing their way of shopping and are going online. Brands are also making sure that their sales increase through online shopping. Indians, who were quite skeptical about online transactions, have welcomed these changes. In addition, e-commerce portals have attracted huge funds from VCs. Food and groceries can also be ordered online nowadays. Recently, Domino’s said that they plan to make India their premier e-commer...
More About: Shopping , Online , Online shopping

HTC Looks Optimistic Even After Apple Win In Patent Case
2011-12-22 14:07:00
Some days back we heard that Apple had won the hearing against one of its premier competitor HTC over 1 patent that Apple claims that the Taiwanese company infringed upon. HTC has now begun testing technology which will not infringe on Apple’s patents and they seem confident that this ruling won’t bring them down. HTC, however won’t have to go through these troubled times alone. They have banked solidly on Google by adopting Android and now Google is now helping them out on avoiding such legal issues again. Google’s merger with Motorola Mobility gives them a lot of crucial patents that Motorola had which it can then use to safegaurd Android and its partners from harm. HTC’s CEO, Peter Chou and Google’s Senior Vice-President for Mobile, Andy Rubin spoke to the media in the companies Taiwanese headquarters where they clarified the company’s stance towards the Patent ruling. Mr. Chou thinks that Apple is using its legal clout to stop innovation in many sectors of mobile ...
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LinkedIn Rapidly Gaining Popularity In India With Over 13 Million Users
2011-12-22 12:06:00
Indians are in love with social networking. This year Indians became the 2nd largest group on Facebook and also on the professional social network, LinkedIn. In June 2011 WATBlog reported that Indians constitute more than 10 million registered users on LinkedIn, which makes India the 2nd largest community on LinkedIn. In less than 6 months that number has increased to more than 13 million. This is quite a significant number as LinkedIn has a total user base of about 120 million. Professional networking is becoming quite popular in India. This is aided by the fact that LinkedIn has realized the potential of the Asia-Pacific region and India in particular and have ramped up their marketing efforts in the region. Earlier this year LinkedIn setup its Asia-Pacific headquarter in Singapore and also opened a R&D centre in Bangalore, which further highlighted their interest in the region. It has not only established itself as the premier professional network, but also provides other cr...
More About: India , Gaining