as random as Ek Do 3

Being Indian myself, I can proudly say that Indians are generally more frugal than others. We want to make sure that we are getting the best deal on anything we purchase, and will go to certain lengths to ensure that we do. At the end of the day, if we are buying something, it just makes sense to ensure that we are not spending too much or more importantly, more than our neighbors are.

The idea of Price comparison shopping is not a new one. It has been around for over a decade with some of the large players worth half a billion + $US dollars (LINK). Sites such as Pricegrabber, Shopzilla, Nextag, Smarter, Pronto, Bizrate, Shopping have been extremely successful in the US, UK and other countries with a high IPR (internet penetration rate).

Sure with a population of ~ 1B, one would assume that online shopping in India is also booming, however this is not the case. It has to do with a combination of factors, starting with Indians distrust in Credit Cards and their unwillingness to share that information over the net. Sure the wariness factor is trending towards a more positive outlook as we see the younger demographic getting more accustomed to the net and showing positive signs of shopping online.

Combine the above factor with the very low IPR rate that India claims (~ 7%), along with the Indian values of not carrying debt by trying to pay off everything, online shopping in India displays its challenges. Although the IPR rate is pretty low, it still turns out to be a nice chunk of the earths population to market to (~ 81M people). Point to be noted, out of the ~ 81 M Internet Users in India, only ~ 3M (less than 4%) have Broadband connection.

There are a few online companies bringing awareness about the Price comparison shopping concept to the Indian Internet population, some of which are CompareIndia.com, Naaptol, Compare the Bazaar, Shopmania, Bechna.

Some of the more reputable storefronts to buy your goods online in India are CafeGadgets.in, StoreJi.com, SmartShoppers.in, TechShop.in, Letsbuy.com, StoreCoin.com, IndiaVarta.com, India-Haat.com, India Times Shopping, Rediff Shopping

As internet pricing decreases and IPR rates improve in India, its just a matter of time before Indians start using comparison shopping engines as their initial search for purchasing their next item online. Its a huge market that is just begging to roll…

For a list of all Indian Shopping sites and portals visit www.keemat.com - indian advertising network.

Recently had one of my websites that was once listed in the top 25K sites in the world according to Alexa, dropped from the natural listings of Google altogether.  The site was receiving well over 1.5 M monthly page views, had a sitemap in Google search results and was well indexed in Google, until I noticed a dramatic decrease in new visitors a few days ago, and found the culprit being no more links indexed in the Google natural search results, and the site pretty much removed from existence.  Imagine the horror, after 7 months spent day and night, you pour your heart and soul on a project, just to find that Google has removed your site from their index!!!

This is exactly what I felt like……

What makes the matter worse, is that I am not even sure why it was removed?  I have contacted Google on a number of occasions, but Google being…..”Google” has not responded or even acknowledged receipt of email.  At least if they respond, I would know what was done wrong, so that I can fix the error and not do it again.  I have tried to contact them through their Webmaster Tools and same thing - no response.

The site is an niche online movie aggregator that gathers videos from different sources, embeds those files and displays them in a nice, neat and orderly fashion.  There are numerous online movie aggregators doing exactly what I am doing and even taking it to the next level, where they are hosting some movies directly.   These sites are nicely indexed with Google and have very deep natural links additionally have also been approved for Adsense and I also see them advertising on Adwords, so I have no idea why Google would take offense and remove my website from their natural listings, no warning….nothing.  POOF!

So I decide to take another route by using their Adwords solution and spend money to get Google visitors and here is the exact response I receive from Google after being denied for my first submission:

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At this time, Google policy does not permit the advertisement of websites (including services or products therein) that violate or encourage violation of any applicable laws. In this case, your advertisement directs users to a website that either contains (or claims to contain) copyrighted TV shows, movies, or music that cannot be distributed freely online, or your website promotes the availability of such material without the consent of the copyright holder.

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The part in their response that makes absolutely no sense and shows Google’s double standards is that according to them, the ‘advertisement directs users to a website that contains copyrighted TV shows, movies or music’  in other words….YouTube and Google Videos, BOTH of which are owned and operated by Google.  So if I am directing users to something inappropriate, according to them, then Google should remove those videos from their own properties.  They have basically admitted that there is something inherently wrong with sites that contain copyrighted TV shows, movies or music, which is at the heart, essence and core of their two largest portals - YouTube and Google Videos.  They, themselves are hosting these videos and are refusing my advertisement because I have links to their websites. This is the height of double standards, and needs to be addressed.

All is not lost however, as Yahoo still has the site nicely indexed in their natural listings and is sending a steady stream of new visitors and users.  Although a fraction of the traffic that Google sends, I definitely am glad that Yahoo has separate algorithms in place when it comes to natural search.   With Google taking such a dramatic step by removing my listings, I have learned a major lesson, that Google is not necessarily the solution when it comes to search.  I need more…. I need Yahoo, Live, Ask and more. Previous searches on Google that resulted in my site coming up on the first page no longer show my site in the first 50 (i stopped looking after 50 pages).  This leads me to believe that the selection process and algorithms Google has in place may not necessarily be giving us the full spectrum of results as we have always imagined.

Khushboo

Haal e Dil

De Taali

Mere Baap Pehle Aap

Don Muthuswami

Aamir

Sarkar Raj

Pranali

Hastey Hastey

Dhoom Dhadaka

Jannat

Anamika

Sirf

Bhootnath

Tashan

Mr White Mr Black

U me aur hum

Krazzy 4

Bhram

Shaurya

more…..

When speaking of Web 2.0, there are a few common phrases thrown that are discussed…collaboration, communities, Peer to Peer, Blogs, Social Networking, Wikis, XML, API’s….the list goes on. One of the key features of having your website 2.0 compliant would include being able to manipulate information from databases and display and present it in a multitude of fashions on your website. As an example if you can create individual tables for relative fields pertaining to your business, that information can be proven invaluable in creating a Web 2.0 atmosphere in your website. This especially applies to websites with large number of products. So for instance, if you are creating a Perfume Website, some of the filters that can be created are:

• Gender
• Box Size
• Price
• Brand

So for Gender the attributes would be ‘Male or Female’. Box Size could have attributes of S, M, L, XL. Price could display options such as 1-50, 51-100, 101-151, 151-200, 200+. Finally for Brand, you could list out all Perfume Brands.

When putting together your website, these fields that are in your mySQL files can be used as Filtering Options on your website, and can provide an amazing shopping experience for your users. They will be able to narrow down their choice by using these filtering options that are present in your tables if arranged and displayed in a neat and orderly fashion. A user could choose a Medium box of Ralph Lauren perfume for females in the 100 price range; run a query and presto - your results.

Your website can adapt and transform itself almost instantaneously and with hardly any cost, just by spending a little time managing your data base which will lay the foundation to gain entry into a whole new world - a web 2.0 world!

Recently I needed to locate the Buy.com Customer Service phone number for a client, and did the usual Google search. The first result takes you to someone’s answering machine. The second and third, etc… all direct you to a number that tells you to call another number. Now, Buy.com has a great website and I understand that they probably want consumers to continue browsing through their site to find solutions to their questions, however… I see a whole new marketing campaign for Buy.com with their phone number. Its an amazing phone number.

You ready for it. Here it is……

Have been messing with importing, exporting and sharing databases and came across a post that has really helped me understand DB structure a whole lot. Once you have a database created, you can back it up using the following directions:

• Open phpMyAdmin
• Click on Export
• Under Export - Select the database you want to backup
• Select SQL
  - (In red only if you are migrating from local to remote installation)
• In SQL export compatibility: select - MySQL40
  - NOTE Some earlier versions of phpMyAdmin do not have this SQL export compatibility feature.
• Select
  - Structure
  - Add DROP TABLE
  - Add IF NO EXISTS
  - Add AUTO_INCREMENT VALUE
  - Enclose table and field names with backquotes.
• Select
  - Data
  - Complete inserts
  - Extended inserts
  - Use hexadecimal for binary fields.
• Select Save as file
• In File name template: _DB_name your db here. (Here you can use any name you want)
• In Compression specify your choice.
• Click Go.

How to restore a Database using phpMyAdmin

• Open phpMyAdmin
• On the far right hand side, click on the little SQL box and a window should open.
• In this window click on Import Files.
• Use the browse button to find the database file.
• In Compression select the option you chose to export the database.
• Click Go.

With these basic instructions, you will have your data backed up and be able to do whatever you want with it. You can modify the data, import it into a new site, create interesting ajax applications, display the data in a host of different fashions, and much more.  Most importantly, your data and data structure will be backed up in case your site host goes Kabooom. Although most hosts run backups typically on a daily or weekly basis, I cannot stress enough how important it is to keep backups on your local computer or removable media.  You can run additional backups at any time through cPanel backup manager.

Life as easy as EKDO3

So here’s the scoop… MSN.com is launching a huge marketing campaign in order to gain market share for homepage dominance. Recent research studies show that mature internet users(10 years or more online) tend to begin their searches for information on either Google or Yahoo, primarily for their relevant results, and most have either one of those bookmarked as their home page. Knowing that it cannot compete with the big ‘G,’ MSN has begun its quest to battle it out with Yahoo for 2nd place in the ‘Homepage’ Showdown.

In looking over its competition, MSN will have to revamp its homepage to make it more useable, functional and appealing to its users as well as new users signing up for their hotmail email service. They will have to offer something above and beyond what their competition is currently offering, and they believe they have found their answer in ’social causes’. Very soon, MSN will be launching its ‘for a cause’ campaign. What exactly does that mean?

In conducting their tests, internet users are looking for the following features when using a website, listed in order of importance:

1) Credibility
2) Informational
3) Ease Of Use
4) Site Design

That said, MSN along with other portals are already pretty Credible and Filled with information. Ease of Use and Site Design are two features that MSN will be improving on; that in itself will not be enough though. So MSN has decided to move forward with the ‘for a cause’ feature. Their thinking goes along the lines that if users are searching for information online, they might as well use MSN.com since MSN will be donating a portion of the advertising revenue generated to any organization of the users choosing. So, once the user creates a hotmail account, they will at that time determine a ’cause’ of their choice.  It could be anything such as fighting poverty, world hunger, global warming or any other charity/cause of the users choice.  If the user stays logged in, and begins searching on MSN or its affiliate sites such as Live.com, a portion of the advertising revenue that is generated during that session will be donated to the charity the user has designated.

Sure everyone feels good by donating, however it does come at a cost; the cost in this case being a change in users internet behaviour.  Without a particular marketing angle such as Yahoooooo, the question remains….Will MSN be able to convert millions of users to its service?  That is yet TBD.

Latest earthquakes

Real Estate:
Zillow
Redfin
California Tax Collector links

Stocks:
Stockpickr
MN1
TheStreet

Affiliate Programs:
CJ
Performics
Linkshare

Sports:
ESPN
SportsInteraction
Yahoo Fantasy Sports

Akamai recently launched the ‘Real time web monitor’ which monitors global internet connections around the clock.  This is an excellent way of checking out traffic, latency and web attacks throughout the world in real time.  Here is the direct link to Akamai’s Real Time web monitor.