Google Sites = (Jotspot – Lots of Features)+Gadgets

Google finally added the long waited Jotspot services to their Apps. I was looking at the features provided by the new Google Sites and started feeling that it is a condensed version of the original offering (Jotspot). Jotspot offered a bunch of ready-made applications (Project mgmt, Bug-report, Directory services etc.,) which did not find a place in the Google Sites. Though  it is kind of cool to allow people to add iGoogle gadgets to their  sites, they do not add any special business value to the product.

Anxiously waiting for the next version …

Orkut getting redesigned??

Technorati tags: Google, Orkut, Social networks

Google made an announcement yesterday that it is revamping its Orkut service and will be rolling out the new interface pretty soon.

Redesign Preview: True Blue Simplicity

3 hours ago by Google
When you think Google, you picture primary colors; when you think orkut, you see blue. And though we’re updating out look, we’re staying true to blue. We’ve added some rounded corners and new icons that make orkut look a little more …

The above text is from Google Blogsearch. Looks like the Orkut blog was updated with some screenshots. But for some strange reason, google removed them in less than 3 hrs . Anything fishy??

P.S> If anyone has access to the screenshots please provide a link to them.

Social Networks in India

Technorati tags: social networks, india, web2.0

Its been really long time that I wrote any thing here. I am in India right now and just thinking to write some of the interesting web2.0 trends here.

Most of the startups in India are concentrating on developing social networks which are more tuned for Indian audience. Orkut is the leader here in this area.  bharathstudent.com is trying hard to take that position. Reliance Group is trying its luck with Bigadda.com. Minglebox.com and IndyaRocks.com are the other social networks which already got some good number of audience. I personally did not find any ‘ unique reason’ for a person to join that particular social network. There is no unique selling point for any of them. Most of them (if not all) allow users to share photos, videos apart from usual messages. Here is a screenshot of alexa data.

 

As you can clearly see bigadda.com with its huge publicity and advertisements is trying to gain the popularity while minglebox is giving a tight competition. I might have missed many more social networking sites here. If any of you know some better sites, please feel free to write them in the comments section.

Comics 2.0

 

Technorati tags: Comics, Avatars

The new trend on the web…. “Comic Strips”. Creating Comic Strips/ 3D Avatars is gaining momentum now a days. You can try creating your own Avatar here, and if you have slightly more time you can as well create a comic strip either here or here. Please let me know which one you liked the most.

Joost – 5(ome) more tokens!!

Technorati tags: Joost

I just got  5 Joost tokens. Give me your email addresses for getting an invitation.  

TiSP and Gmail Paper

Technorati tags: Google, Gmail, TiSP, April First

By this time everyone might have noticed two new (:P) services from Google for this years Fools Day!!

TiSP and Gmail Paper. I liked the Google Logo found on the TiSP FAQ!!

Click on the Google TiSP image and you will see a nice Google Error Page that says -

(and truth be told, this is by far the most likely scenario) you might have reached a page that we meant to create but didn’t get around to it, since this year’s April Fool’s joke got hacked together at the last minute, more or less the same way this one did. And this one. And this one, and this one, and this one…

Google Rocks!!

Few Invitations!!

Technorati tags: Joost, Jaman

I got a few invitations for Joost and Jaman. Feel free to leave your address and I will send an invitation to the service.

Gmail 2.8 GB and counting (and the number is browser dependent?)

I am not a great java script guy .. but I had a strange observation looking at the Gmail website. Here is a screen shot of what I observed.

(Click for a full-screen view)

There is a difference in the Gmail Space that is being counted. The last digit shows differently on Firefox and Internet Explorer. Can any one please tell me the reason for this ? Thanx in advance

Apple calls it iPhone …

Technorati tags: iPhone, Meizu M8, LG Prada, Samsung, Google Switch

I have been dreaming about iPhone for a while now.. but looks like there are a lot of touch screen phones that are coming out pretty soon. The funny thing is almost all of them look alike. Just thought it would be good to have all the “Touch Screen Phones” at a single place. The phones are:-

iPhone and Meizu M8. [Donot get confused, the one on the left is iPhone ]

LG claims that Apple has copied iPhone from them

Samsung Ultra Powerful F700

Adding to this list is a fictious image of a phone called “Google Switch”

By the time I post this blog, guess there will be a few more companies coming up with their own !Phones …!!

My early experiences with the TV 2.0 aka Joost

Technorati tags: The Venice Project, Joost, Web 2.0

I was lucky enough to get an invite to “The Venice Project” a week back. I just logged in today to download the latest Joost Client. The installations was pretty straight forward except for the fact that my old Latitude D600 did not match its expectations.

Keeping my fingers crossed, I installed the client and finally got the client working. I liked the easy to use interface very much. It was fast, the video was pretty sharp and the program skipping was pretty smooth. The browsing options looked a lot like that of an iPod.

You can skip through the programs, get info related to a particular program, browse through favorites etc. The client being based on Mozilla framework (more from here), allows a user to add a few available plugins including a jabber client. Hope a lot of plugins are on their way. There is a search box that can be used to search various programs available on all the channels. There is a tiny stand by button that pauses/minimizes the client to the system tray.

On the flip side, the client hogged my network and I saw TVPRunner’s (the client) CPU utilization oscillating between 53% to 79%. Since the project is still in beta, there are not many channels that can be browsed or many programs that can be viewed. There is a considerable amount of delay whenever the channels are skipped (is it because of my internet ??). The video plays in the background when various options are being accessed, it will be good to actually pause the video automatically when the options are being selected (just like Brightcove).