MagicBricks…a real estate portal that’s trying to innovate

The Times of India group has recently launched a real estate portal called MagicBricks. With this, the online real estate space in India has actually got quite crowded. We already have quite a few real estate portals (99acres.com, PerSquareYard.com, IndiaProperty.com etc) and all of them look (more or less) the same to me. Magic Bricks ...

NowPos- the revenge of the sound bytes…

The internet comprises of content in various formats- text, images, video, audio, animations, document files etc. The bulk of it (about 72%) is just text, followed by images, video & animations in that order. The contribution of audio (via sound files) is probably the least amongst the media formats. But an Indian startup has sets its ...

KoolPool- World’s first carpool service via SMS

Last month, in this post (on my personal blog), I pointed to the current trend wherein some of the successful consumer software products of today are coming not from software companies but from ‘fringe’ players like web design studios, usability companies, media companies etc. Well, I didn’t include NGOs in that list of fringe players, because ...

SeventyMM…national footprint is eagerly awaited

The online DVD rental business in India is on the verge of taking off. Here are four reasons why I think so. Firstly, unlike most other web businesses, this has a clearly defined (and proven) revenue model, the bugbear of the internet economy. Secondly, the blueprint for a viable service model has been provided by the ...

RBI plays spoilsport with Wallet365

Two weeks ago, I had profiled Wallet365, the 'E-Wallet' launched by the Times of India group, expressing my skepticism about TOI's ability to make a success out of this. It seems that TOI has been saved the blushes by the Reserve Bank of India. For, the RBI has banned electronic purse schemes being run by non-banking institutions ...

Complore- Web2.0 props up academic research

The Web2.0 era has spawned a host of applications that aim to build a community of dedicated users having some shared interests. Complore is one such product that aims to bring the academic research community on a common platform. Complore is derived from ‘com’ (with, together) and ‘explore’ (search, research). It has been started by two ...

IndiMoto- it’s ‘cool to pool’ in India now…

If you are reading this blog, it’s likely that you live in one of India’s metros. If so, it’s more likely that your daily commute to work takes about 30-45 minutes, you spend anything between 2000-5000 Rs every month on fare or fuel, your office travelogue is a daily saga of minor accidents, road rages and ...

Picsquare- offline photosharing for Indians

How many web applications are you aware of, where you can upload and share photographs online? Flickr, Ringo, Photobucket, Smugmug, Picturetrail...there are hundreds of them on the web. Now, imagine you want to take prints of these photos and send them to your (non computer savvy) Indian friends & family members. How many of those websites ...

Tezaa- harnessing the wisdom of the crowds

Ever wished you could harness the proverbial ‘wisdom of the crowds’ in some matter of personal or professional decision making? Well, I have, on various occasions, but never came across a simple way of doing that. That’s set to change, for an Indian startup has created a web application called Tezaa, that seeks to generate ...