April 2012
13 posts
3 tags
Evolution- from marketing to hacking- else...
Because, the traditional way marketing used to happen is kind of yesterday. With mobile and web platforms executing more and more of marketing options + tactics, it is imperative that you know the technicalities in each of these platforms.
Because each of these platforms are not only about features which you can piggyback on. Each platform is a distribution strategy on it own. Each API can let...
6 tags
Let's build a start-up
It’s a fever now. Disenchanted dreamers, intense iconoclasts, rebels without causes, talent without tether, everyone is getting on the start up dream.
I mean let’s admit- it’s kinda sexy.
Get a brainwave. Get your friend, code your guts out for 72 hours, get the interface live, get a mobile developer, get the app out on the networks, get 2 more of your closest friends, form a...
7 tags
Why mobile matters- even if it is not paying off...
Here is something interesting from Facebook’s S-1 filing. Take a read ( it’s informative) and you will come across this.
“We do not currently directly generate any meaningful revenue from the use of Facebook mobile products, and our ability to do so successfully is unproven. Accordingly, if users continue to increasingly access Facebook mobile products as a substitute for access...
Do you have to let it linger
2 suitcases. National Express to Yorkshire down the M6 . Only yesterday you were typing your last byline. It’s midnight and you are searching quarters at the bus station…to make a call for the pick up…17 hours on the trot…an Arab in the pick up van who shares a few biscuits and then you wake up to see Headingley stadium outside your window…welcome to the University of...
9 tags
Traditional search will be dead- welcome to cloud...
The RSS feedreader is DYING. Being part of the feed will not be enough to those who want to master the next stage of search marketing. That’s because, smaller integrated mobile web communities will make the process of spontaneous discovery far more faster, far more better, leading to better engagement.
The search result will compete against the discovery and recommendation result and beyond...
The Spirit- Of rising against the odds
There is something about a spirit of rising against the odds. It’s inspiring. Tucked behind my Hillfiger glasses and iPhone earplugs, I am hyppocritically saved from the ignominy of witnessing it and doing nothing about it most of the time,( cos I already sold out) but then sometimes it peaks through- enough to channel that irritation into something.
This week I was pursuing the spirit....
3 tags
Walk your city →
I often troll through Kickstarter, only because I never stop to marvel at the different ideas people are working on across the world ( at every moment) to CREATE something NEW. From the unique to the bizarre. It doesn’t matter whether they can change the world. What is amazing is this human spirit of creation.
Walk Your City is one such idea. Originally started as a community activity in...
4 tags
Click my banner- NOT →
Andrew Chen writes a definitive post on what’s ailing the click through marketing mantra for digital marketers.
Like seriously this post should be read by all marketers. It captures why so many marketers break their head when the google ads and the web banners and the tweet links fail to work in getting qualified people on to the site.
The problem is not of the click through. The problem...
4 tags
A cloud dashboard for your mobile phone? →
Yes most smartphones come with a built in software suite that allows you make a desktop application using which you can sync your phone, add photos and do twenty other things. But most of these are buggy, take space and are a pain to work with in terms of functionality.
Imagine if this could be translated to a web browser based cloud service ? Phonedeck does just that. It is a cloud-based...
5 tags
Filemaker ships some updates and an iPad app
I use it sometimes, so when I got the update about the update that it was undergoing, my curiosity got piqued.
Filemaker shipped a brand new set of database tools customized for an iPhone and an iPad today along with an app.
It’s pretty neat. if you want to drag and drop items into your database it’s simple. So from inventory lists, invoices, to monthly budgets, this allows you to...
3 tags
If you are a talented writer go write a book →
Hamilton Nolan writes an amazing rant on Gawker around Advertising as an industry. And I agree.
Fact of the matter is, the service industry can never really have the cream of the most radical talent. Because the radical talent won’t really serve anyone. They will serve their own interests.
So the best writers go and become authors. The best lyricists write the best songs. The best...
5 tags
A lynchpin who planted a forest - 1360 acres of it →
So here’s the thing. To drive change, you can just about do anything. Only you have to be dedicated to it, to an extent that it transcends the borders of a hobby or stunt publicity to something that you do, because it makes you feel alive and becomes the reason for living.
Jadav Payeng is such a lynchpin. in 1979 ( one year after I was born) he planted the first seed on a barren patch of...
The pursuit of Happyness - with a Y
I am pursuing Happyness. She just ducked in the alley across the throughfare and the signals turned. I curse the traffic. Two seconds too early and i would have had her, but the universe conspired to let her escape.
Its been a good chase…albeit tiresome at times…but i got to touch the hem of her skirt at times…and then Happyness vanished again…gossamer as the morning dew...
March 2012
53 posts
4 tags
Google - A drive in the clouds →
Yes. They killed it. But now they are ready to roll. 6 years after they flirted with the idea for the first time.
As the battle for cloud storage heats up, Google is all set to jump into the battle ring.
I have always been amazed at why or how companies like Google or Facebook have never got into this space? Heck they have the technology. Imagine the millions of emails on Gmail or the gazzilion...
6 tags
Kaggle - A Kickstarter for Big Data
So you have got kickstarter for all the artsy rebels. But what do you do about the geeky nerds whose only talent is data crunching ?
You create a platform called Kaggle. Then you ask all those data driven organizations who have a problem to solve, to upload the problem with relevant sets of data, convert it into a contest ( with a sizable prize money) and invite the best data crunchers...
8 tags
The frontier of personal search- and where is...
Here I discussed how search is changing and is slowly adding a personal element to it along with a factual element ?
Think about it; everyday we have millions of conversations ( on matters relevant to us personally ) on Skype chat/ google chat/ email threads/ Facebook messages and various other communication oriented cloud services. These can be discussions over projects, meetings,...
6 tags
Facebook buys 750 patents from IBM →
Who would have though that IBM, that old technology warhorse would be approached by Facebook, the uber cool kid on the block to acquire some technology patents ?
Well it just happened. Facebook has apparently bought 750 patents from IBM for an undisclosed amount thereby “adding intellectual property that may help it counter allegations of patent infringement.”
All set for its...
6 tags
Don't be evil - but then you have to compete
Today I read this amazing piece by Gizmodo’s Mat Honan on why Google has lost its way. It is almost a must read. And then I read a bit more. I do that often when I find something that interests me to find out what others have to say about it.
And yes lately, Google has faced a lot of criticism for deviating from its core values. Maybe.
True. Maybe Google was this wonderful company who...
3 tags
The consumption of news
Has changed. Editors, program managers cannot effectively ever create programming or content mix which suits the consumption tastes of millions of readers in a holistic broadsheet or programming calendar.
My Facebook and twitter news feed are the first places for searching genuinely interesting stuff and more often than not am ahead of the curve in the things I am interested in. That’s...
4 tags
Success is not an overnight sensation →
Lovely point made by Chris Dixon. I did not know that Angry Birds was Rovio’s 52nd game and that Rovio had to wait for 8 years and 51 failed games to taste success. And boy what a success it was.
But then that’s what taking a chance is all about. The process is hardly romantic. But the end result might just be, provided you have the guts to hang in and carry on with your conviction.
...
