Which Is The Biggest Social Networking Site In India

Today's Times of India carries a small news story about Viadeo acquiring apna circle, a networking site. Such acquisitions are daily occurrences. One thing I found funny was that apna circle was referred to as India's number 1 social and networking site. It's not even among the top 10.

According to a recent press release by comscore, Orkut is #1 and Facebook is a distant #2.

I still don't know how to insert a table on blogger or wud have certainly pasted the list.

Bharat Student dot Com is the biggest Indian social networking site with 3.3 million visitors in December 2008. Over half of internet users in India visit one or more social media sites.

Apna Circle may have a point though. They have an option for a separate social and professional profile, so it's kind of Facebook + Linked In rolled into one :) ... One expected a bit more innovation from Mr.Bhatia.

Online Social Networks are very brittle and as people tire of communities on Orkut and applications on Facebook I won't be surprised if Twitter makes an entry in the list within a year.

Related Posts :
Facebook Email Launched! : 16.11.2010
Twitter Dominates Google Real Time Search : 28.08.2010
Facebook is the Largest Social Networking Site in India : 27.08.2010
Facebook Number One Site In The United States : 18.03.2010

Yahoo Briefcase Is Closing

Yahoo is closing their briefcase service. Incase u have files saved on Yahoo briefcase plz transfer them to someplace safe. I ignored the message when Yahoo photos was shifted to Flickr and lost lots of valuable pics. Need to check which documents I have saved in Yahoo briefcase.





Dear Yahoo! Briefcase user,

We will officially close Yahoo! Briefcase on March 30, 2009. Until then, we are offering you the opportunity to download your files back to your computer. You need to take action before we close, after which any files remaining on Yahoo! Briefcase will be deleted and no longer accessible.

To access your Yahoo! Briefcase account, click the link below:

http://in.briefcase.yahoo.com/

If you are a Yahoo! Briefcase Premium subscriber, your current subscription will be cancelled on March 30, 2009. We will refund the unused portion of your Premium subscription, if any. The refund will appear as a credit via the billing method we have on file for you. So please make sure that your billing information is correct and up-to-date. For more information, please visit https://billing.yahoo.com.

For additional information or to review a list of our frequently asked questions, click the link below:
Briefcase Help
We sincerely appreciate your being a Yahoo! Briefcase user.
Sincerely,
Yahoo! Customer Support

PS : Hyperlinks Removed. Sorry for the inconvenience, have been having some issues with the robots.txt files.

Beauty Lies In The Sex Of The Beholder

Researchers at the University of Baleares in Palma de Mallorca, Spain havn't been able to explain why - and how - the human capacity to appreciate beauty evolved. However, we do know that men and women perceive beauty in a different manner.

10 men and 10 women were shown paintings and photos of urban scenes and landscapes and were asked to rate them as either 'beautiful' or 'not beautiful'. Simultaneously, the scientists monitored the magnetic fields produced by electrical currents in the brains of these men and women. For both sexes the most active region was the parietal lobe, but it was focused on the right side of the brain in men while both sides participated in women.

According to Camilo Cela-Conde, "When women consider a visual object they link it to language while men concentrate on the spatial aspects of the obeject."

This is certainly interesting. I get the point about the spatial aspects but do men and women perceive colours differently too or is it more of a cultural thing. Nice subject for a post in future.

Meanwhile enjoy the beauty and colours of Rio.







News Source : TOI Press Version
Pics From : China Daily

Related Posts :
The Maths Behind Beauty : 20.01.2010
Quotes and Proverbs on Beauty : 19.03.2009
Beauty : 06.10.2008

Freedom Of Speech On Social Media

A two person bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice P Sathasivam refused to protect a 19 year old boy, who had started a community on a networking site, against a political party. An FIR was lodged against him, by the political party under sections 506 and 295 A, pertaining to hurting public sentiment.

The accused moved the court saying the contents were restricted to communication within the community and did not have defamation value. With the supreme court ruling against this petition, saying content posted on social networking and blogging platforms may result in libel and even prosecution, bloggers are no longer immune.

Seems fine to me. There have been instances of entire networking sites been banned in the country, for short periods of time, due to various reasons. Organisations have recognized that social media has the power to influence views of people. They take their image on these platforms as a serious and sensitive issue.

While going through the terms and conditions of blogger I realised that google does not monitor the content posted. So even though transmitting pornography is illegal in India, I came across many pornographic blogs set up by Indians, don't ask me the url's.

Internet throws up new challenges. Duplicating content is super easy and a hosting / service provider site may have no physical presence in the state where it created a controversy. Howver this ruling has made it clear that content posted on the net will ultimately have to follow the same laws which are followed by content posted on other media.

News Source : TOI

Related Post :

Pavan Duggal : Copyright and IPR for Indian Bloggers : 22.02.2009

Gulzar Wins Oscars

It seems Gulzar also won an Oscar! He won it alongside Rahman for the Best Song for the lyrics of the song Jai Ho which won the Best Song. Jai Ho according to Rahman in an interview, is a dedication to Satyameva Jayate, the national motto of India. Indians can be further proud that the song glorifying the national motto won the Oscar for the Best Song.

Sorry about the unintended mistake in the last post. Congratulations Gulzar Sahab!

News Source : Music Aloud

Related Posts :
Avatar Becomes All-Time Top Grosser : 08.01.2010
Oscar, Rahman Wins 2 Oscars : 23.02.2009
Rahman Wins 3 Oscars : How Will You Celebrate : 14.02.2009
'Slumdog Millionaire' Danny Boyle Wins DGA : Rahman, Gulzar Win Oscars 2009 : 02.02.2009
Gulzar and Rahman Will Win Oscar For Slumdog Millionaire : 23.01.2009

Edited 24.02.2009

In all 'Slumdog Millionaire' won 8 Oscars :

Best Film : Christian Colson
Best Director : Danny Boyle
Best Original Score : A R Rahman
Best Original Song : A R Rahman and Gulzar
Best Adapted Screenplay : Simon Beaufoy
Best Sound Mixing : Resul Pookutty, Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke
Best Cinematography : Anthony Dod Mantle
Best Editing : Chris Dickens

So far the $ 15 million movie has made $ 163 million at the box office. Collections in India have been dismal; below $ 10 million. It has won a total of 108 awards, including the Oscars. Nice figure.

Source : TOI

For the complete list of this years Oscar winners plz visit : Oscar Winners

Yesterday saw a nice spike in traffic on this blog.



I wonder why ;)

Oscar, Rahman Wins 2 Oscars

I predicted he will win 3. I am still happy as A R Rahman has won 2 Oscars. 'Slumdog Millionaire' won 6 Oscars. Good Show! It seems Gulzar did not win. It is going to be one my shortest posts but don't feel like writing right now. Am happy that's why wanted to share the news. So how would you celebrate now?

News Source : Express India

Related Posts :

Gulzar Wins Oscars : 23.02.2009
Rahman Wins 3 Oscars : How Will You Celebrate : 14.02.2009
'Slumdog Millionaire' Danny Boyle Wins DGA : Rahman, Gulzar Win Oscars 2009 : 02.02.2009
Gulzar and Rahman Will Win Oscar For Slumdog Millionaire : 23.01.2009

Pavan Duggal : Copyright and IPR for Indian Bloggers

Highlight of the Day 2 at Wordpress Wordcamp India meet was Pavan Duggal's lucid and interactive presentation on 'Copyright and IPR Issue'. The focus was on emerging media and the problems associated with ownership and distribution rights. Pavan is an advocate in the Supreme Court of India and presented interesting case studies to tingle the gray cells of even those who are not aware regarding the laws related to IPR and Copyright. I learnt a lot of things during the talk.

* We also have a Copyleft. Need to study the term. Sounds interesting.
* Viewing pornography is not an offence in India. Transmitting pornography is.
* One cannot patent a software or a business model in India. Copyright is the best the Indian legal system has to offer right now.

Pavan intends to become a blogger and recommended Cyber Law India. You can also contact him thru email --> pduggal at gmail dot com.

The day started with Ankesh Kothari's presentation on monetizing a blog, or how to run a professional blog. Nice tips I'd say. Would implement them when I start a content based commercial site. The idea is to use ads to pay for hosting and writing fees. Developing front-end products like audio books to cover the ad budget of the blog and finally offering tangible products to make ur blog a money making monster.

Aditya Mukherjee made a presentation on WP and Adobe Air and Kathik Bala on writing Wordpress plugins. Well coding and computor languages scare me, but I did learn that Wordpress is written using pHp. Adobe Reps made a presentation on Adobe Air.

Matt Mullenweg and Om Malik were late. Matt does seem a very nice guy and was not disturbed by the numerous requests for pics and autographs. I did see him having Indian food for lunch yesterday. Though it's his first visit to India he seems to have really adapted well to the Indian culture. Hope he does not carry back the Indian attitude towards time and being punctual to the US.

Matt made a presentation on Wordpress TV and there was a Feature Suggestion Contest for Wordpress. Shanker Bakshi won the contest. It had something to do with a suggestion regarding Wordpress and Buddypress. In the chaos couldn't actually hear what the suggestion was. Well done Shanker!

One thing I noticed during the Wordcamp is that Wordpress is trying to expand. Would it change internet the way Google did? Difficult to predict but who would have thought 10 years ago that Google would be so huge. Matt seems committed to the Open Source philosophy. Let's hope the expansion of Wordpress won't dilute his commitment.

I learnt a lot during the Word Camp. Thanx a lot to all the people who made this event possible. And the Adobe facility is great. It has complicate angles, nice curves and bright colours. A great place to make one's creative juices flow.

Related Posts :

Freedom Of Speech On Social Media : 24.02.2009
Matt Mullenweg And The Future Of Softwares : 21.02.2009

Matt Mullenweg And The Future Of Softwares

Hope You Don't Get A Delli Belli Matt

I tried migrating this blog to Wordpress, it seemed the links became dead so decided on remaining on Blogger. There is no doubt Wordpress is rising steadily and may soon replace Blogger as the leading platform for blogging. However, Wordpress is much more than a blogging platform, it is an entire Content Management System. What that means is you can have a proper website or even a radio station managed using Wordpress.

Today was the first day of India's First Wordpress Camp. It was nice to see some of the bloggers whose blogs I often skim for information. There were great sessions by Om Malik, Shreyas of Radio Verve, Abhijeet Mukherjee, Abhinav Gulyani and Amit Agarwal apart from the 'State of the Word' address by Matt Mullenweg; the guiding force behind the Wordpress movement.

Two things which stood out for me...

*CRI ---> Context, Relevance, Intelligence. Om Malik who runs his blogging company said in his address that as blogging matures, what people would look for is the context, relevance and intelligence in the manner in which the information, view is provided. At the same time enjoy blogging, consider a blog like a white paper.
Make the blog worth your time and people will certainly visit your blog.

*Humble, Agile and Global ---> The future of softwares. According to Matt Mullenweg the future of softwares and internet lies in personalization. Softwares would be humble (user driven), agile (thru plugins) and global (available in all countries and languages and free!). Though I admire Open Source a lot and believe it will certainly help India become a developed country I wan't aware one can sell Open Source softwares.

Good Job Matt!

Infact there were a few more sessions but had a bit of a hangover so left early. Would update blog tomorrow with happenings on Day 2 of Word Camp India.

Related Posts :
Windows Live To Shut Down Users Shifted To WordPress : 29.09.2010
Ubuntu Gentoo Linux Support In Dehradun : 22.09.2010
Copyright and IPR for Indian Bloggers : 22.02.2009

Τα ελληνικά δεν είναι ελληνικά για με

Αυτό είναι η πρώτη blog θέση μου που δεν είναι στα αγγλικά. Πήρα την ιδέα του γραψίματος μιας θέσης στα ελληνικά από έναν επισκέπτη που άφησε τα σχόλια στο blog στα ελληνικά. Χρησιμοποίησα ένα σε απευθείας σύνδεση λογισμικό μεταφράσεων για να απαντήσω σε εκείνα τα σχόλια.

Είναι έξι μήνες δεδομένου ότι τώρα. Επιθυμώ και ελπίζω να συνεχίσω επί μεγάλο χρονικό διάστημα. Δεν έχω καμία ιδέα πώς δημοφιλές είναι στην Ελλάδα αλλά ξέρω ένα ελληνικό Blogger που blogs στο αγγλικό http://dienekes.blogspot.com. Ενδιαφέρομαι στην ανθρωπολογία και ελέγξτε έξω το blog του μερικοί χρόνοι κάθε μήνας. Ένα πολύ και παραγωγικό blogger πρέπει να πω. Έχω θελήσει πάντα να μιλήσω πολλές γλώσσες αλλά μπορώ να μιλήσω μόνο Hindi και αγγλικά.

Ίσως μια ημέρα που θα επισκεφτώ την Ελλάδα και θα δω όλες τις ιστορικές θέσεις Ελλάδα είναι διάσημος ξέν. Έως τότε μπορώ να επικοινωνήσω μέσω του Διαδικτύου.

Πάρτε την προσοχή

Thanx a lot : Systran

CP: Λυπάμαι πραγματικά εάν το λογισμικό έκανε οποιαδήποτε λάθη



OMG the first paragraph translates back to :

This is my first blog place that is not in the English. I took the idea of writing of place in the Greek from visitor that left the comments in blog in the Greek. I used a in direct connection software of translations in order to I answer in those comments.

Whereas originally it was :

This is my first blog post which is not in English. I got the idea of writing a post in Greek from a visitor who left comments on the blog in Greek. I used an online translation software to reply to those comments.
---------
Will keep looking for better free online translation softwares. My apologies to all speakers of Greek. It is the software's fault not mine.

Been blogging for 6 months. Need a break to rethink my strategy for promoting this blog. Alexa Rank 872,139 (according to website grader), want to break into the top 100,000 within the next 3 months. Will be back in 3 days.

How To Generate Content For A Personal Blog : If You Are A Jack

Focussing on a particular topic for a long period is very challenging for me. Before I am able to figure the ins and outs of that field, I am distracted by something more interesting.

Since blogging has become my primary hobby, I note down ideas for posts, url's of interesting blogs and websites so that my brain has an anchor. A few days ago I jotted down the main categories on which I have posted in the past 6 months or so. I also noted the subjects on which I might not have posted much but which interest me.

I came up with a list of around 20 topics. I guess this list is too big for an individual to cover and since there are successful blogs on several topics which interest me I sometimes wonder whether I should focus on just 2 or 3 of these categories. While I want to compete with other blogs and rank high on Google Page Rank, Technorati Blog Rank and Alexa Traffic Rank, I also realise that sustaining a regular stream of posts would be only possible if I write about things which interest and excite me. I don't like being contained.

So Incase you have a personal blog and are wondering what to write about - and don't have an expertise on any of the topics which interest you - my suggestion would be to make a list of things, subjects, individuals you like. Then brainstorm for possible post ideas on each of these subjects. Combining these categories would lead to a further proliferation of subjects to post on.

For example, I like Blogging, Microblogging, Statistics, cricket and History, among other things. Instead of copy-pasting a news-story on one of these topics and appending it with my view, I can create a relatively more original and personalized post by writing on the history and statistics related to Micro-Blogging. Since it's a new development you won't have to visit a library to get the reference material. You can write on how Microblogging started and has evolved, top Microblogging platforms, top Microblogging countries by number of users, top 5 users on individual Microblogging platforms, etc.

Well that's the path I'm trying to follow. Let's see how successful it proves to be.

An important thing I've learnt is to title the posts appropriately so that search engines display your post on the first page and your mix and match posts continue getting visitors long after you have published them. Explaining this in detail would make this post too long. For the time being, I would suggest - think from the perspective of a potential visitor. Which keywords would that individual use to find material on that topic? Once you've got the keywords...incorporate them in the post title...without making it too long and look too search engine optimized.

Normally a keyword density of 5-8% is recommended. I find it artificial so don't stick to it. Give it a try, may help your posts rank higher on SERP's.



Related Posts :
Use Google Hot Trends to Generate Blog Content : 25.03.2009
Blogging : My Mistakes - III : 27.12.2008
Blogging : My Mistakes - II : 23.11.2008
Blogging : My Mistakes - I : 26.10.2008

Who Uses Twitter In New Delhi : Bloggers

There go the people. I must follow them for I am their leader.
~ Alexander Ledru - Rollin

Twitter is still not very popular in India. It is debatable how popular it is in the United States with different estimates regarding the total and active users on this microblogging platform. However it is the buzzword in social media and most people expect it to give facebook a run for it's money.

Orkut happens to be the biggest social media site in India and South Asia. I guess it is so as it's much less clutterred than Facebook and has a strong focus on communities rather than apps.

I joined Twitter after reading about it in newspapers for around 6 months. The folks at Twitter are certainly using the print media well :) . Another reason was that I has started blogging and wanted to attract traffic to my blog (which I am still struggling at). Initially Twitter did not impress me much. However, after using Twitter for a few months I am convinced that this platform does have potential to stand out. It is certainly a disruptive influence on other social media like regular blogging and social networking sites. Else why would seasoned bloggers mention Twitter on their blog : You Can’t Build Authority and Thought Leadership via Twitter , Am I Twittering away or Frittering away my time?.

Just as blogging and other social media sites broke the stranglehold of the big corporations on the net, Twitter is challenging the established, big boys of blogging.

So, who is on Twitter in New Delhi. A cursory glance on the top 100 Twitterers page on Twitterholic (New Delhi) would say it's the bloggers. 73 out of the 100 have a URL next to their profile. I'll assume most of these URL's are for blogs as most are hosted on subdomains. That also brings out another observation, blogging hasn't matured yet in India, or in New Delhi atleast.

Twitter is still not making any money and it's user base is very small compared to Facebook, Blogger or Wordpress but the very fact that these platforms consider Twitter a threat means it is able to attract people and provide them some value.

Related Posts :

Facebook is the Largest Social Networking Site in India : 27.08.2010
Twitter Profile Analysis January 2009 : 31.01.2009
Twitter Statistics : Top 100 Twitterers or Twitter Users ---> Jan 2009 : 12.01.2009

Rahman Wins 3 Oscars : How Will You Celebrate

After the Golden Globe and the Bafta it's the Oscars. A R Rahman is no stranger to awards. He has won 4 national film awards, 12 screen awards and 21 filmfare prizes before attainin global recognition for 'Slumdog Millionaire'. A R Rahman is also a 'Padamshree'.

He has always been experimental. Trying new sounds, voices and integrating influences from all over the world. A lot has been written about A R Rahman and his music and I have nothing new to add. So, how would you celebrate if Rahman wins 3 Oscars at the Oscars 200?

I am not sure how I would celebrate A R Rahman winning 3 Oscars at this years Oscars Awards. I have a few MP3 discs of Rahman's music and don't have a disc player. Been hopping from one place to another for some time now. Need to settle down.

Since the Oscars would be awarded in the last week of the month won't have money to party out either. Maybe would drink a bit and listen his music on music channels on TV. I am sure the music channels would primarily broadcast Rahman and Gulzar's music before and after the Oscars ceremony.

So how will you celebrate Rahman and Gulzar winning Oscars 2009?

Related Posts :

Oscar, Rahman Wins 2 Oscars : 23.02.2009
Oscar Nominated 'Slumdog Millionaire' Wins BAFTA Awards : 09.02.2009
Gulzar and Rahman Will Win Oscar For Slumdog Millionaire
: 23.01.2009



Wish you a lovely Valentine's Day.
The title song of 'Slumdog Millionaire" has crossed the 1 million hit mark on you tube.

Best Asian, African, European Blogs and Blog Directories

I covered the better Indian blog directories I am aware about in an earlier post so thought about making a post on Asian, African, European and North American blog directories.

AFRICA

* AFRIGATOR
Apart from blogs, Afrigator has news, photos, videos and discussions from Africa. The interface is neat. You can search the blogs by countries and recent posts. I find this directory nice because Africa is the most neglected continent and one rarely hears news from Africa, by African sources. The relatively democratic nature of internet makes platforms like Afrigator possible. Though, if you notice, 9 out of the top 10 blogs on Afrigator are from South Africa. It is not possible to have a 100% democratic setup.

* AFRICAN BLOGS
An initiative by a group of African online bloggers, writers, artists, entertainers and producers committed to the common purpose of uplifting of African image and culture through the promoting and sharing of positive African events, news, activities, and developments using uplifting and imaginative pictures, videos, stories, articles, poems, essays, speeches and more. Unfortunately hasn't been updated in 2009.

ASIA

* RICE BOWL JOURNALS
Neat interface. More than 5000 blogs by Asian writers. You can search the blogs by Asian countries. Has a list of top 100 bloggers. Has nice buttons. I may join the directory after I finish this post.

* BEST BLOGS ASIA
A nice looking Asian Blog Directory with articles on blogging and monetizing blogs.

* NEW EURASIA
Another nice initiative from a neglected region of the world. New Eurasia is a network of weblogs coordinated and written by bright young individuals from Central Asia and the Caucasus together with their peers around the globe. Among the languages spoken by the authors are English, German, French, Italian, Russian, Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Kazakh, Farsi, Azeri, Armenian and Chinese.


EUROPE

* BLOGRANKING EU
Nice interface with thumbanails of blogs.

* NICK BURCHER - Top European Blogs in Ad Age Power 150
The AdAge Power 150 is a comprehensive ranking of the worlds top media and marketing blogs. Mr. Burcher has made a list of the top European Blogs in Ad Age Power 150. Mr. Burcher has been blogging for over a decade now. One of the oldest blogs I have seen on the net.

Next Month I'll try and make a post about North and South American and Australasian Blog Directories.

Related Posts :

Google, Technorati and Alexa Rankings for Top 10 Indian Blogs : 07.02.2009

Top 5 Must Join Blog Directories in 2009 : 05.02.2009

Happy Birthday Charles Darwin

Pic From : Darwin 200

Today is Charles Darwin's 200th Birthday. More than 300 birthday celebrations are taking place around UK alone, including his hometown Shrewsbury. Darwin revolutionized our understanding of adaptation and development of species and there are hot debates even today whether his theories are correct or not.

I am quite ok with the idea of having evolved from our primate cousins. Ofocurse an individual's life span is so short that we don't see much change in a species or an environment during our life. It is always good to hear different view points. Recently a friend recommended online books by Harun Yahya. I havn't downloaded these books yet as I want to learn more about blogging. Would certainly take a look a few months later.

What can we say about Darwin which hasn't been said or discussed already. Not much. There are some individuals who make a profound impact on the humanity as a whole and who are ahead of their times. Charles Darwin was one such individual.

Happy 200th Birthday Charles Darwin!

Please visit : Darwin Online for complete works of Charles Darwin.

Related Post :

Sorry Charles : 15.09.2008

Best Online SEO Tools For $1 This Month

SEOMOZ is one of the best resources for Search Engine Optimization on the internet.

What I really like about SEOMOZ are the free tools available for online analysis of blogs and websites. A couple of times each month I login to SEOMOZ and use different free SEO tools available to check how my blog has improved or deteriorated. I always wish I had access to the paid tools SEOMOZ has. However, they are quite expensive and not really affordable for amateur bloggers like me.

The good news is SEOMOZ is offering a a full month of it's PRO membership for only $1! The offer's been sent out to 122,451 SEOmoz members, and it's only valid for the first 5,000 people who respond. A lot of members would have responded, I'm sure, as I got the initial mail on the 5th of this month. Visit www.seomoz.org/trypro and enter SUCCESS09 as your promo code. The code expires February 13th.

I would have loved to have access to all the cool SEO tools used by pros, unfortunately I don't have a credit card. Be sure to stay on top of the account coz the regular monthly charge is much higher and like all evil Capitalist Corporations the account here would most probably be on auto-renewal :)

Thanx a lot to Rand Fishkin for replying promptly to my doubts regarding the offer and the need for a credit card to apply for the one month trial membership. Incase you are in a similar situation please email sitesupport @ seomoz dot org . I didn't bother emailing SEOMOZ support as I realise I would need a credit card in the long run to get my own domain name, etc and I need to focus more on improving my content right now.

So sign up for this great offer and increase the SEO strength of your blog.

Blog Strength Score: 32%

Related Post :

All of Google's Blogs : The Google Blog Directory : 09.02.2009



PS : Dear Google Bot, this is not a sponsored post. I just wanted to thank SEOMOZ for the free SEO tools they offer poor bloggers like me.

All of Google's Blogs : The Google Blog Directory

Google is a master at using social media to create a buzz about it's products and services. Of particular interest to those interested in Website and Blog promotion is the traffic originating from search engines. It is a long term source of traffic, unlike social media sites and normally people who get to your blog thru search engines would spend more time on it. Search Engine Optimization is a big industry and since Google is without doubt the biggest search engine, most SEO's focus on optimizing the blog or website content for Google. I have been surfing for SEO information for blogs for the past few months and one limitation I've noticed, as far as blogs on SEO are concerned is that most of them are owned by companies which obviously try to promote their product. It's always best to hear it from the horse's mouth.

Please visit the Google Blog Directory incase you would like to know more about Google and Google's products and services.

GOOGLE BLOG DIRECTORY

The Google Blog Directory is divided in 5 sections:

* Google Wide
* Products
* Ads
* Developer
* Region

Incase promoting your content on the net is your focus area, I would recommend the following three blogs:

* Blogger Buzz : The Official Blogger Blog
* Google Webmaster Central Blog : Also sign up for Google Wemasters Tool using ur Gmail ID
* Google Analytics Blog : Sign up for Google Analytics Tools too. I signed up a few weeks ago but havn't put the verification code in the blog template so far. HTML scares me.

My experience is that most blogs on SEO take the data from Google Blogs and then put their own spin on how to increase rankings on Google SERP's and Page Rank. There might be short cuts but it's always good to undertans how things work and then tweak them. I found the Google SEO Starter Guide very helpful. Google launched a new Sitemap Generator last month. Creating a sitemap for ur blog or website is one of the basic steps of SEO.

I have to learn a lot about the technical stuff related to SEO and implement it on this blog.

Related Post :

Best Online SEO Tools For $1 This Month : 10.02.2009
Google Page Rank Update January 2009 : Thank You Google : 14.01.2009

Oscar Nominated 'Slumdog Millionaire' Wins BAFTA Awards

The dream run of 'Slumdog Millioanire' continues. Last night it won 7 of the 11 awards it was nominated for in the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards 2009.

Resul Pookutty (Best Sound) and AR Rahman (Best Music) were among the winners. A R Rahman is the first Indian musician to win the BAFTA Award. Earlier Rahman became the first Indian to bag a Golden Globe award. He also has three nominations for the Oscars 2009 which would be held later this month, Best Original Score and Best Original Song categories for two of his compositions -- Jai Ho and O Saya.

'Slumdog Millionaire' produced by the Fox Studios and Directed by Danny Boyle is a movie about a Mumbai street boy's rise from poverty to game-show triumph. BAFTAs, have a reputation for predicting who will win at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles. All four of last year's acting prize winners went on to take home Oscars.

Herez the Title Track of the movie - Jai Ho. It has had nearly 1 million views on youtube so far.



The movie was shot on a low budget and at one point in time a direct DVD release was considered a real possibility.

Related Posts :
Avatar Becomes All-Time Top Grosser : 08.01.2010
Oscar, Rahman Wins 2 Oscars : 23.03.2009
Rahman Wins 3 Oscars : How Will You Celebrate : 14.02.2009
'Slumdog Millionaire' Danny Boyle Wins DGA : Rahman, Gulzar Win Oscars 2009 : 02.02.2009
Gulzar and Rahman Will Win Oscar For Slumdog Millionaire : 23.01.2009

Why Is The Night Sky Dark? Olbers' Paradox

We become familiar to our environement over time and adapt to it. Very rarely do we question the things we see around us. I like to know new things but was really surprised when I read about Olbers' Paradox a few days ago. As a child I would look at the night sky and wonder about the stars. After learning that light takes a few minutes to reach us from our Sun, I was pretty sure the light from distant stars must take longer and the stars we see right now are the way they were many years ago. Asked some people my question but perhaps wasn't able to explain myself clearly or maybe they did not have the answer. Some years later saw a TV program which confirmed my thought. I never questioned why the night sky was dark. The teachers told us... at night we are away from the Sun and the other half has day and we night. That explanation was enough for me.I did not know plenty of scientists have spent a great deal of time on this trivial question.

Olber's paradox states that the Universe is not stable and infinitely old, as scientists once thought. If it were so, the night sky should blaze with the light of the stars that lie in all directions, even those far away.

Below are possible explanations for Olbers' Paradox :

* There's too much dust to see the distant stars.
* The Universe has only a finite number of stars.
* The distribution of stars is not uniform. So, for example, there could be an infinity of stars, but they hide behind one another so that only a finite angular area is subtended by them.
* The Universe is expanding, so distant stars are red-shifted into obscurity.
* The Universe is young. Distant light hasn't even reached us yet.

Well I don't know enough Maths, Physics, Cosmology or Astronomy to delve deep into the topic, found it interesting and worth sharing.

Sources :

Math UCR Edu
Arachnoid dot Com

Google, Technorati and Alexa Rankings for Top 10 Indian Blogs

A few weeks into blogging, I started searching the net for a list of top ranking Indian blogs. A blogger had initiated 'Ploterati', ranking blogs filed under the Tag 'India', on Technorati. However, it seems 'Ploterati' has been discontinued. I left comments on some blogs and that didn't yield anything.

A few days ago I was glad to find a detailed analysis of top blogs listed on Indibloggger on Binary Day. I like comparing numbers and though the list has a few mistakes, it is a welcome first step no doubt.

Blogging and internet are chaotic and always in a state of flux. However, I think it's certainly possible to have a more crystallized view of the rankings in the Indian blogosphere.

As of now I am aware about these Indian blog directories :

* Indiblogger - Rankings done by Binary Day, hopefully would be updated every few months if not every month.

* Labnol India Blogs - Nice Directory. In order to be listed a blog has to be atleast 5 months old and have atleast 50 posts.

* Blog Street India - Has a list of top 100 and most influential blogs.

* Blog Adda - I have logged in a few times and AFAIK there is no list of top blogs.

It would be great if fellow bloggers or these directories themselves could monitor the Google Page Rank, Technorati Blog Rank and Alexa Traffic Rank of blogs listed and then these lists can be combined to provide a more definitive list of top Indian blogs.

This would be a time consuming process and would require regular updates.

To provide some momentum to Binary Day's initiative I randomly selected 10 blogs listed on Labnol and found out their Google Page Rank, Technorati Blog Rank and Alexa Traffic Rank using Website Grader. I still don't know how to export an excel sheet to blogger.

So here is the RANDOM list of (top) 10 blogs listed on Labnol.

* Big B GPR - 4 TBR - 15,388 ATR - 3,081
I find this blog interesting. Not bcoz of the header or post-titles but bcoz it's one of the few blogs I've noticed which has a lower Technorati Blog Rank than Alexa Traffic Rank.

* Labnol GPR - 6 TBR - 202 ATR - 15,759
One of the best tech blogs, not just in the Indian Blogoshere.

* Web Analytics World GPR - 6 TBR - 44,286 ATR 85,859

* SAJA Forum GPR - 6 TBR - 31,907 ATR - 226,350 The South Asian Journalists Association ... Nice resource for news related to South Asia.

* Selective Amnesia GPR - 5 TBR - 93,841 ATR - 325,760 There was a point to this. But I forgot :)

* Press Talk GPR - 4 TBR - 184,659 ATR - 438,034

* Twisted DNA GPR - 4 TBR - 42,653 ATR - 536,497

* Offline Blog GPR - 4 TBR - 144,013 ATR - 643,475

* Career Bright GPR - 3 TBR - 579,780 ATR - 987,173

* Calamur Gargi GPR - 4 TBR - 184,659 ATR - 1,170,830

Finding out the Google Page Rank, Technorati Blog Rank and Alexa Traafic Rank of all the blogs listed on Labnol and then sorting these blogs manually would require lots of man hours. If there is a software for this purpose, the job would be much easier.

It would be great if Indibloggers could get together to come up with the list of atleast top 100 Indian blogs. Something like the list of Top 100 Australian Blogs.

New York : Maple Syrup Mist Mystery Solved

Saw an interesting news item on CNN a couple of hours ago.

For some years now, people in New York were treated to the smell of Maple Syrup occassionally. No one knew the exact source of the smell. Now, it seems the source of the Maple Syrup Mist has been located. According to the Mayor of the city, the aroma originates from soem plants manufacturing fragrances and food flavors. One firm, Frutarom is said to be the major contributor to the smell.

The CNN newspiece said the smell originates from Esters (combination of alcohol and acid), which are safe for health. Depending on the direction of the wind, dwellers in certain parts of New York were treated to the Maple Syrup Mist.

Most residents do not seem to be complaining about the smell. I won't either :)

Pic From : VT Only dot Com
Please See : Scientific American Blog

Treat Your Headset With Respect

Life can be crappy at times. I had never thought I would work in a Call Centre. It's been two years and I've learnt a lot here. These two years plus two years working as an illegal labourer in S Korea have made me realise that the beauty of work primarily lies not in how much money you make at the end of the day but in how well you do your job and how many individuals benefit from your work. While you work, give in your best and you'll look back at the job done with satisfaction.

The person at the other end of the phone is a human being like you. Troubled coz he is not able to keep up with the payments you are trying to collect,coz his computer won't connect to the net. He/She has to wait on the IVR and then lands up in the wrong department coz the routing software and switches still have glitches.

He did not get the products/services which were promised to him by theLife can be crappy global giants about whom we read in the fortune magazine and when he wants to speak to someone higher up in the organization, all he is offerred is a sorry looking post-box number.

The concept of customer care is new to India, however, domestic call centres have proliferated in the past few years. Consider your own experience when you've called one such number and you'll know how you should do the job. We all remember helpful people fondly. There will always be some disgruntled souls who would complain, for various reasons. Try and help them too.

I will always remember two incidents from this industry. First one was a man dying of cancer, he was not able to keep up with his monthly payments on a car and the previous agent threatened him that the car will be taken back and he jailed. The man explained to me that he wants to clear all his debts before he dies. He did not have money as he could not work and his son had no money either. I explained to him that he needs to give the car back to the dealer from whom he purchased it and the dealer would pay the credit finance company the difference.

The other caller was a physically challenged old lade. I was able to resolve the issue with her inkjet printer and she requested a special user manual with big print size and pictures and even her husband had difficulty understanding the normal one (which was located on the company's website). She explained she has been loyal to the brand for over two decades and deserves better treatment. I requested the supervisor (pretty unlikeable character, quick with words but slow of thought) and he refused, telling me 'the company pays you, not the customer.' The lady broke down and said they were very poor and the computer, internet and the printer were their only source of informationa and entertainment. They don't or can't go out for movies or meals. Well, you can't always help out people.

Each individual is unique. Try and understand the issue and resolve it. If even after trying your best, you fail...have a few pegs of Vodka, listen to music you like and go to bed.

Be the best, achieve your targets, but remember human beings are far more important than any numbers.

Best Top 5 Must Join Blog Directories in 2009

If you are new to blogging and wondering how to sort out the grain from chaff, I would recommend these blog directories.

* TECHNORATI

The mother of all blog directories. It's absolutely huge and work a bit like the Google search engine, so you won't get any traffic unless you are top of the pops.

Technorati authority and rank are important parameters to measure a blog's worth so try and exchange comments with the blogs listed on Technorati. The directory recently got a new look and added it's own advertising network. Infrastructure is a bit weak and the irritating 'Duh! The monster escaped again' error pops up often.

Front page lists rising blog posts and news stories. Try and become familiar with different ways to search blogs on Technorati, would be helpful in the long run.

* BLOG CATALOG

Nice blog directory. Would help even newbies attract traffic, provided they are active on differentgroups and discussions. Helps aggregate different social media profiles like Twitter, Facebook, Blog Feed, etc. and create a combined feed.

Spend some time filling in your profile details and getting acquainted with the features available before you start participating in the discussions. Use the 'Shameless Blog Promotion' section to promote your latest blog post.

* My Blog Log

Has a nice site-analytics feature but the premium version lasts only a week or so and the free version has limited features. You will see all the big bloggers on My Blog Log with their communities.

Claim your profiles on different social media sites and create your own community on My Blog Log. Get a nice signature for your email with buttons for all social media sites you are on, the link for your blog and a thumbnail of your pic. I deleted some lines of the code and put the buttons under about me :)

* Fuel My Blog

I am a Fire-Snake (strong fire) and really like their icon.

Have logged in 4 or 5 times on this directory so not really aware about the features available. It does have a forum and a section for competitions. Check it out and let me know your experiences on Fuel My Blog.

* Blog Top List

I like this directory coz you register once and then forget about it. No discussion forums, no communities, just a simple weekly rank. A vote counts as 100 unique visits and scores are reset every week, so gives new bloggers a chance to rise up the ranks.

There are thousands of blog directories and newer ones keep coming up. Incase you are aware about really nice directories plz share.

Next week I'll make a post about Indian Blog Directories I've found useful.

Related Post :

Blog Directories : 05.11.2008

Woork : Tweak Your Blogger Blog To Give It A Professional Look

A couple of months ago into blogging I learnt that Wordpress, for Various reasons, is a better blogging platform than blogger. A few weeks ago I exported this blog to Wordpress but realized it would be a waste of time getting used to a new format. That time would be better spent generating content. Another reason I stayed on is blogs like Woork.



Blog of the month : Woork is remarkable for various reasons. First, it demolishes the myth that blogs hosted on subdomains can't be popular. Woork has a Google Page Rank of 6, Technorati Rank of 2010 and Alexa Traffic Rank of 162,255. You need to be good at something and people will visit your blog. Doesn't matter whether it's hosted on a self or sub-domain.

Woork is a blog by Antonio Lupetti, an Engineer, Pro-Blogger and a self-confessed web addict, who lives in Rome, Italy.

Work also transcends the line between a blog and a website, not just bcoz Antonio has the expertise to make the dates from the posts disappear. The quality of the content is real good and it gives the posts / pages a long shelf life.

I've tried to implement some of the tweaks for the blogger platform, explained on Woork, but failed as HTML is Greek for me, or Italian. Getting into the HTML code of the blog template makes me feel I have entered a South Korean University. Been trying to change to a 3 panel template for some time now, without success.

However I was able to put Google Friend Connect widget on my blog after going thru Anthonio's post on Woork.

Latest post on Woork is Best of Woork in January 2009 . A good point to start benefiting from advise by a blogger blogger.

Molto Buono Antonio!

Related Posts :
Woorkup : A Fresh Charge of Creativity : 06.12.2009
Best Blogs of 2009 : 20.03.2009
Jan ---> Mera Mairawna : 13.01.2009
Dec ---> Strange Maps : 19.12.2008

'Slumdog Millionaire' Danny Boyle Wins DGA : Rahman, Gulzar Win Oscars 2009

Danny Boyle, the director of 'Slumdog Millionaire,' won the top honour on Saturday from the Directors Guild of America.

He is almost sure of winning the same prize on February 22nd, at the Oscars, as the DGA award winner almost always wins the best director trophy at the Oscars.

Apart from the DGA award, so far the movie has won:

* 2009 Screen Actors Guild Awards : Best Cast

* 2009 Producers Guild Awards : Best Theatrical Picture

* 2009 Golden Globe Awards : Best Motion Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Original Score.

Meanwhile, the movie isn't doing well at the Indian Box Office. Despite 350 prints being released, it has managed a net gross of Rupees 90 million only. Fox Studios claimed the movie made Rupees 136 million in it's first week.(According to Yahoo Finance right now 1 US $ = 50 Indian National Rupees right now).

Hindi version of the movie, 'Slumdog Crorepati,' accounted for 60% of the 350 prints released but contributed just 30% of the INR Rs. 90 million revenue.

Perhaps Indians who have a good command over the English language enjoy a higher standard of living and found the poverty appealing. I havn't seen the movie yet.

Good luck Gulzar and Rahman. Yuki Bhambri, Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi made the Australian Open 2009 India's best Grand Slam ever, you go ahead and do the same at the Oscars 2009.

News Source : TOI
Related Posts :
Avatar Becomes All-Time Top Grosser : 08.01.2010
Rahman Wins 3 Oscars : How Will You Celebrate : 14.02.2009
Oscar Nominated 'Slumdog Millionaire' Wins BAFTA Awards : 09.02.2009
Gulzar and Rahman Will Win Oscar For Slumdog Millionaire : 23.01.2009



PS : The other post on 'Slumdog Millionaire' is doing just fine on the slippery slopes of SERP's. It's number one on Google right now for the key phrase 'Rahman Gulzar Win Oscar.'

Moon In Different Cultures

In India, Moon is known as Chanda Mama, in Hindi speaking parts. Mama = Mother's Brother. There are many stories, folk and mythical, associated with Moon. There is a Children's Magazine which is titled Chanda Mama. A famous lullaby, "Chanda Mama Door Ke" too.



Japanese, consider the Sun to be female and believe Moon is male and rabbits reside there and make heaps of rice cakes. Basque tradition refers to both, Sun and Moon as females, (the daughters of Earth). Maoris say a woman with a bucketful of water stays up there and she causes rain. Chinese think god of love and marriage, who ties shoes of couples with invisible strings lives there. Red Indian folklore says a wolf fell in love with a toad and the toad escaped to the Moon. Till this day the wolf remembers the toad and cries out for her on full moon nights. Germans are of the opinion that a man with a heap of sticks resides up there. Pretty imaginative :)

Our moon is only one among 140 known ones in the Solar System. Mercury and Venus have no Moon. The smallest moon is Deimos {Mars} only seven miles in diameter.



Pic From : Astronet dot RU

Related Posts :

Moon Here We Come : 22.10.2008
Full Moon : 13.09.2008