WATBlog.com - Web, Advertising and Technology Blog in India &#187; International

Google Launches Sponsored Ads Model For Youtube - The World’s No.2 Search Engine

Rajiv Dingra — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 05:19:29 +0000

Well the slowdown seems to be a time for Google to build alternative revenue streams so yesterday we broke the story about them working on a new premium ad platform for orkut and today we are blogging about the fact that Google has introduced sponsored ads model (much like google search) into Youtube (http://ads.youtube.com).

Youtube which has overtaken Yahoo and is now the number 2 search engine in the world is now letting advertisers promote their commercial clips alongside the search results of youtube videos. In short a google monetization model for youtube.

The new platform is as of now targetting only users in United States. But I expect this to be rolled out to Indian users soon as Indian content creators are upbeat on the Youtube platform and companies like Rajshri plan to release full length movies on youtube. Even Zoom recently tied up with Youtube for a bollywood hunt contest.

The sponsored ads model for youtube is exactly like google’s sponsored ads on its search engine i.e. a combination of pay per click amount thats bid by the advertiser and whether the ad is relevant enough for users to click on it.

According to US Analyst Sandeep Aggarwal ‘Youtube will generate $180 million to $200 million in revenue this year’. But he expects YouTube’s revenue to double next year to about $400 million.

If you look at it this makes youtube revenue fall into the search revenue pie and not the online video advertising revenue because essentially this product doesn’t have ads on the video per se but instead is using search sponsored ads to promote certain channels and advertiser videos on youtube.

I expect a lot of brand advertisers to look at this product by youtube very closely. Also another set of users could be entertainment content producers who have a pay per download model. Essentially trailers could be uploaded on youtube with the end of the trailer coaxing the user to log on to the pay per download site. This could be very useful for the likes of Rajshri.com to compound their paid downloads via their site for Indian movie content.

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Google Launches Video and Voice Chat Within Gmail - Video Conferencing is Next?

Rajiv Dingra — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 05:50:15 +0000

Trust Google to add amazing features just when you feel they are slowing down on innovation. So Gmail’s chat within email feature sort of revolutionized the way we chat online. Now Google wants you to not only chat but also video chat and voice chat using Gmail.

As most people would know that Yahoo and MSN IM’s have had voice and video chats for years now but none of their email counterparts have a chat within mail forget voice chat or video chat within mail functionality.

Closer home Rediff.com has aped google chat within mail functionality but the question in how many users had a chat list on Rediff Bol in anycase over the years? One thing is for sure video or no video you are more likely to chat where your chat lists of friends is present and thats why Google is a kid still in the IM and chat market when compared to Yahoo and MSN.

Coming back to Google’s new feature it has build this as a plugin which means one needs to download it on one’s computer and its not a default activated feature on the web version of gmail yet nor can it be activated by an online click so a download is must to use it which kinda would reduce the early adoption if you ask me. Also the fact that the video feature shall work on only those machines in which I have this plugin downloaded and installed.

Check the video below to see how it works:

This feature was built by Google acquired Sweden company Marratech which was into online video conferencing solutions before Google acquired it.

I wont be surprised if video conferencing via Gmail is the future of this product and this little feature addition is just the tip of the iceberg to follow. So Webex and closer home Dimdim better watch out!

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Matrimony Goes Offline: BharatMatrimony Takes Magazine Route While JeevanSathi Goes Retail

Rajiv Dingra — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 04:38:22 +0000

The first generation of web services like classifieds are constantly looking at multiple touch points to reach the consumer which go way beyond their main source of revenue i.e. the web. So if the matrimony players foray into both mobile and DTH wasn’t enough now matrimony players are looking to go offline be it offline centres or even matrimony magazines.

So two matrimony players in Bharatmatrimony and Jeevansaathi have taken steps to go offline.

BharatMatrimony is launching a matrimony magazine targetting NRI’s in US and Canada. The magazine will be a free-of-cost called BharatMatrimony Times and will be published once in two months, to begin with. The online version of the magazine will soon be available on www.bharatmatrimonytimes.com Well the NRI marriages with Indian girls has been a trend for quite sometime now and its important for matrimony players like Bharatmatrimony to invest in attracting this segment and therefore the magazine route as other offline options of TV ads (which they have used in India) might be very expensive to do.

Jeevansaathi on the other end is the late bloomer as far as opening offline centres is concerned. It announced its foray into offline centres in april and also announced its plan to open 25-30 centres in 6 months. The launch of the centre in Mumbai is part of this roll out plan. Both Shaadi.com and Bharatmatrimony.com have ventured into the offline touchpoint model a couple of years ago. For Jeevansaathi the challenge is to compete with two equally strong players and brands in Shaadi.com and Bharatmatrimony.com.

As they say in any business the number 1 and 2 players makes money the 3rd breaks even and the others just trail behind. For Jeevansaathi its a game of beating one of these two players.

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Linkedin Launches App Platform - Slideshare Among The First Apps

Rajiv Dingra — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 11:12:02 +0000

Linkedin.com the professional network which according to this research has been touted as the most popular network in India and which was recently in the news for looking out for local tie ups in India to grow its Indian userbase has launched its app platform.

Linkedin app platform is an open social based platform called InApps. From the beginning Linkedin has been very careful from the very beginning to make sure that it is positioned itself as a serious business network for professionals and continuing that approach it has made sure that there is a strict approval process in place for all apps so that only professional and relevant apps get through the system.

Not only this it is also limiting the number of apps a single user can add upto 15 only. And thats not where the restrictions end as unlike its counterparts in facebook and myspace which allow any competing ad network ads to be placed inside the apps Linkedin’s app platform only allows app developers to use LinkedIn’s current ad system which means less customization and targetting availability.

Given that Linkedin offers a huge base of professional Indian users I expect companies to both submit apps as well as explore advertising opportunities within apps as time goes on.

One of the first apps to be featured on the linkedin platform is Slideshare the presentation sharing startup which has offices and delhi and has been covered on WATBlog before.

You can check out the demo of the slideshare app on Linkedin below:

Linkedin essentially has zero competition in India besides for Brijj.com which is not looking at launching apps platform or opening api anytime in the near future. Also apps like slideshare will increase the value that linked provides as a platform for professionals and it would be increasingly difficult for another player to play catch up!

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Zapak & Games2win Go International - We Answer Why? And Question: Is there No Market for Casual Games In India?

Rajiv Dingra — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 20:15:56 +0000

Its seems both the casual gaming sites Reliance ADA backed Zapak.com and Games2win.com which were competing in the Indian market and both of whose CEO’s have been interviewed on WATShow here and here are now looking towards international shores for business.

Lets look at each of their international strategies just the way we analyzed their strategies before and question whether the Indian casual gaming market is non-existent?

Zapak BRIC Strategy

Zapak has announced that it would be targetting the BRIC countries and their next target is Russia.

Why Russia?

Zapak COO Rohit Sharma commented that “After creating an internet gaming success story in the Indian market with Zapak.com, Zapak’s strategy is to focus on BRIC nations to create its global footprint. The reasons for the choice of BRIC nations are similarities in consumer behavior and digital trends i.e. PC and internet penetration.”

And success story it is atleast as far as traffic numbers and brand are concerned. Zapak is ranked as the 81st most popular site (as per alexa) in India and surely with all the TV, OOH, Events and Radio advertising spend its a household name. One look at their traffic sources also tell you that zapak primarily is an Indian gaming site with little or no International traffic.

Russia’s Casual Gaming Market

Rohit is right in saying that the market is similar to India atleast in number of online users it is. Russia has around 31 million online users and the total online gaming market was valued at nearly US$ 80 million with an annual growth rate of close to 100% in 2007 whereas the casual gaming market is expected to exceed US$ 30 million in 2008.

How will Zapak Enter the Russian Market?

Zapak is currently scouting for Joint Venture Opportunities in Russia but it will also invest $500,000 to acquire games from developers in Eastern Europe. Zapak plans to set up a web portal for the games, which will be developed by Russian game developers. Zapak already has Zapakworld.com and aggregator of games targetted at the International market which was launched recently in August.

Games2win Naughty America Strategy

Well Games2win has set its eyes on america if you ask me.. How can I say that? Well just a few hours ago both techcrunch and venturebeat two of the topmost american blogs covered Games2win as the next best thing to happen to casual gaming in America. Obviously this isn’t by accident but is a planned PR exercise by the folks at Games2win to position themselves as a international casual gaming company. They have also made a launch of a flash games search engine in Gamecurry.com which is currently in beta and ofcourse they had earlier launched their own gaming ad network in Inviziads.com which we compared later to Google’s adsense for gaming. All these were initiatives to go international. But its not as if games2win isn’t already International. A look at their traffic sources chart below shows that games2win had a majority of International traffic with India just contributing 16%.

As venturebeat reports games2win has got over 5.1 million unique visitors from 200 different countries. Now all this without even having a single press article in the international press till date speaks volumes of their organic growth doesn’t it? Well sort of unless you consider the naughty part..

What Naughty?

Well firstly a lot of games2win games are scraped and used by addictinggames.com (check example here) which is among the top 500 sites in the world and among the top 150 in the US (as per alexa). But one may say so what?! addictinggames aggregate from a lot of sites! True.. but here is where the naughty part comes in.. Go to games2win.com and check out their naughty section for games you will find atleast 5 games on the home page starting with the keyword naughty i.e. naughty park, naught classroom, naughty beach and naughty hospital as well. Now as soon as such games come on addictinggames.com they see a viral impact and a very high search traction! Dont believe me? Check google trends for naughty park, naughty beach, naughty classroom and so on..

And guess what if you search the same keywords on google.com the no.1 result is Games2win.com - check 1,2 and 3 and not addictinggames.com hence by the virtue of their games being naughty and ofcourse being used by Addicting games Games2win is a beneficiary though whether these users or games are sticky is another debate in itself. No doubt then Venturebeat calls their games trash and ofcouse by the virtue of them being made in India they are inexpensive as well. According to hearsay it costs about Rs.40,000 to 70,000 to build one complete flash game and that is why Games2win is going the assembly line way of churning 16 games a month making sure some of them are naughty enough to be searched

So how do they go beyond Addictinggames?

Well gamecurry.com is the answer. Games2win just launched gamecurry.com a search engine for flash based games and its no surprise that they went to the US blogger community to seed this news and got techcrunch & Venturebeat to cover them. You ask why? Well they have seen the power of search traffic for their site but given how unreliable google algorithm changes are they wanted to secure their position as well as lower their dependency on Addictinggames only and hence comes a flash games search platform in gamecurry.

What will game curry do for them?

It will help them gain insights into top keyword searches for games
It will help them build their own search platform and not depend on google
It will help them develop the right kind of games siting here in India which have high traction in US

But the question that still remains is..

How can they monetize the games that are scraped by aggregator sites like Addictinggames?

This is where their ad platform Inviziads.com comes in which they launched recently. Its their way to embed their own ads on their games so that wherever the games are embedded they earn money. So as Sumant Mandal of Clearstone Ventures the investors in Games2win put it to Venturebeat “The more piracy there is, the better they will do!”

Now the Big question? - Is there Market for Casual Games Non-existent in India?

Well the answer is certainly a BIG NO if you ask me. But what is very very nascent is the monetization of the same both via pay for downloads and advertising. Gaming by design is more of a brand advertising property than a ROI property especially if you look at ingame ads and brand advertisers spend maximum marketing dollars on TV and possibly the least online. Its the Pay for performance be it clicks or even better leads advertisers that have been pumping in the moolah in online advertising and thats why Financial players as well as dotcom players themselves form a large part of the online advertiser market.

With regards to downloadable games the same were reported to be failing which had driven zapak towards merchandising and selling discs model to earn revenue.

So all in all though the numbers are there its still an immature market both from a payment by users and by advertisers perspective and thats what is making these players look international for both scale and revenue till the Indian market comes a full circle.

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Zimbra Co-Founder Funds DimDim.com - Possible Zimbra - Dimdim Collaboration?

Rajiv Dingra — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 07:24:39 +0000

Satish Dharmaraj the Co-founder and CEO of Zimbra the open source messaging and collaboration services which was sold to yahoo for 350 million $ has invested an undisclosed sum in dimdim.com the open source webex competitor which was earlier funded for 5 M $ by Nexus India Capital in 2007 and then in July 2008 for 6 M $ by Index Ventures, Nexus India Capital, and Draper Richards, from the US, Europe, and Asia.

According to venturebeat Satish Dharmaraj sees synergies between what dimdim has to offer and what zimbra is offering and hence the investment. Zimbra already offers a product that provides email, task management and documents management to corporates by funding dimdim the same could be scaled to offering web conferencing as well.

Also dimdim could easily exit to Yahoo/Zimbra which already boasts of fortune 1000 companies as clients and a estimated revenue between 10-20 million $ last year.

Dimdim on the other hand follows a Free-mium model via three products: Dimdim Free, Dimdim Pro and Dimdim Enterprise. Dimdim Free has two editions, open source community and free hosting.

Dimdim Pro has been priced at $99 a year and is highly scalable, while the Enterprise version starts at $2,000 a year. Though the Free version is free for front-end customers, Dimdim gets a share in the revenue from the service providers. The company is also exploring the possibility of revenue from advertisements in the free version. (source)

We have contacted Dimdim Cofounder on the possible strategies and synergies with this new funding and the road ahead for Dimdim.

Updated: Dimdim founder has refused to comment on this news.

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http://www.vimeo.com/1981300

Introducing Fennec - Firefox’s Mobile Browser

Rajiv Dingra — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 06:54:14 +0000

So with a large part of the world quickly going mobile the browser wars are moving from the desktop to the mobile. Firefox which is the No.2 browser in the world in terms of market share has hardly had a browser in the mobile arena. A Mozilla based browser minimo was launched in 2004 and later updated in 2007 but the project was left midway by the developers.

So this new attempt by Firefox to launch a mobile can be termed as its first serious one. Fennec as the mobile browser is called stands for a small desert fox (what else did you expect from Firefox!). Currently the browser is in the alpha stage and can only be tested on a Nokia N810 tablet or on the PC.

Fennec Logo

Check the video below of the Fennec browser walkthrough:

Firefox Popularity

Firefox is extremely popular among the techie audience due to its browser addons feature which is missing from any other browser. We had covered one such extension in ubiquity. Firefox has also been active in involving the developer community in building the browser of the future.

Browser Market

But the browser market got shaken up when Google decided to launch Chrome and has quickly overtakednthe number 3 player Opera in the desktop browser market share.

But mobile is a different ball game and has been largely dominated by Nokia symbian browser, blackberry’s browsers, operamini, Windows pocket internet explorer and of course iPhone’s safari browser which has gained market share very quickly.

Here are some stats on the total browser market the world over:

Why does it matter to India?

On the whole this move is important from an India point of view as my statistics tell me that 40% of WATBlog’s users are from firefox browsers which means that these people would surely be interested in a mobile browser from the firefox stable. Also the fact that mobile subcribers would touch 500 million by 2010 in India it would surely create a sizeable (if not really large) gprs enable phone + subscribers market in india by then.

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Google Launches Adsense For Gaming.. Impact On India?

Rajiv Dingra — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 04:46:37 +0000

So what is Google adsense for games?

The buzz about google launching adsense for online gaming has been around for a while but now google has gone ahead and launched as well as invited prospective game publishers and developers to join the adsense for gaming list of publishers.

Check out the video below to know how the ads might look:

Who have they signed up?

Though it has just been announced given the fact that its google it has already signed up a list of publishers including Konami, Playfish, Zynga, Demand Media, and games network Mochi Media and beta advertisers such as Esurance, Sprint, and Sony Pictures.

How does this impact India?

Well from a publisher perspective it doesn’t as this service is currently only open to publishers with minimum gameplays of 500,000 per day having a traffic of atleast 80% or more from US & UK.

So clearly this adsense isn’t targetted at the long tail of publishers or developers. But this move by google does affect Inviziads.com an ad network for online gaming launched by Indian company Games2win.com and which is targetted primarily at the international markets.

Inviziads Vs Google Adsense for Gaming

Well Inviziads wont be that affected on a publisher front as by the looks of it they are effectively looking at the long tail of publishers given the guidelines in the faqs section. But Inviziads will surely be affected on the advertiser acquisition front as a lot of their current traction from both games2win and addictinggames.com (which is a big publisher for them) comes from outside of India and given the slowdown in the US and entry of google adsense for gaming inviziads would find it tougher to crack the international advertiser market.

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Love is in The Air and on The Web: WATBlog’s Mini Survey on Online Dating Sites & Users

Rushabh Choksi — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 08:02:14 +0000

These women are dying to meet you. Check them out at xyz.com. Such lines are very common in e-mails sent by dating sites. They say love is in the air, I would like to reframe it to Love is on the net. Gone are the days when single used to mingle in a bar, bus stops, libraries, parks, etc. The venue has now shifted to web.

The demand and the rise of dating sites have tremendously increased in past few years. According to a research by Media Research Inc. around 2.5 Million people in USA had participated in online dating activities for a given month in the year 2007. The figures are said to have doubled in the current year. According to the report men were slightly 8 % more in numbers compared to women users, i.e 52.2 % were men while 47.8 % were women.

Why do people prefer dating online?

I asked several questions to various people and some of the points are as follows:

Shy: This is the most common answer expected from both men and women who search for love online. Since in online dating you meet people online maybe on a site or a chat room there are more chances that a person might open up since they need not face you (also can be vice versa).
Net Practice: I also asked many people online why do they flirt online? This is what I got for an answer: Even the greatest batsmen like Sachin Tendulkar needs net practice to keep him going. Same is the case with us. We need to practice so that when the time comes we are ready for a real date.
Mixed flavor: Why do I limit myself to a specific region or country when I can get different flavors from various countries? Besides that who knows someone special might be out there in some foreign country.
Connectivity: Since the entire world is now going online its easy to keep in touch with people whom you barely met. Services like e-mails, ims make our lives easier and we can talk for hours and hours. In a way it helps to save our phone bills. Lol
Stories: This is the easiest part that people fall for. They read some stories on a particular dating site and then all of a sudden all the dreams about Mr. Right starts arousing from nowhere. Most of the people fall for the stories posted on dating sites about how the couple met on the site and fall in love.

Match.com, Yahoo Personals, Catholic Singles.com are among the top sites where people generally hang out to meet and search new people.

The modern day dating has taken a new route. People now Google about a person they meet online. It is after this they decide to move on or dump the person. New York Times has a very interesting article on this you can read it here.

Besides for the dating sites the rise of non dating sites and services is extensively being used for flirting and dating. Sites like orkut, facebook, myspace are the leading ones. Besides for these sites yahoo chat is the most common place where people hang out to meet new ones.

The new generation applications like rate me, flirt with me, etc are the most common way to meet new people. First they rate their pictures, profiles, etc and then send a friends request once accepted the process of flirting starts. Though I am not sure of the outcome but many of them said that the person who sent them the friend request seemed nice for the first time. But gradually they came to know about them and their intentions. So far I have received mixed reactions. Many said they were cheated, while many were smart enough to recognize the person’s intention during the first chat. Many of them were happy and considered themselves lucky enough to meet their loved ones online. There are also ill effects of dating people online you can read it here.

The online dating market is surely huge and has a great potential. But I personally feel that the future is about Social networking sites and second life. Whether love or jobs, I personally feel that people would be searching it on popular social networking sites by being part of various communities and participating in group activities. Specially the second life where people can edit and give a new look to their online face. Besides that you would also have options to select your background where you can carry out conversations in parks, bars, libraries, etc so that you can relive the old moments. A lot more will be done in second life.

I would like to know your thoughts about the future of online dating.

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Dina Mehta On Phweet - A Tool That Enables Voice Conversation On Twitter (Via WATShow)

Rajiv Dingra — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 11:54:27 +0000

We caught up with Dina Mehta a social media evangelist and one of the founder of Mosoci a social media research firm started in 2005. The other founder of Mosoci happens to be Stuart Henshall who also happens to be the founder of Phweet.com. Because of her close association to Stuart and Phweet Dina was more than happy to talk us through phweet.com and what all it can do.

Check out the WATShow below:

Hope you enjoyed the WATShow this week! Check out more such interviews on WATShow.com

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IMDb Launches On-Site Videos; India not on the List

preshit — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 10:34:16 +0000

The Internet Movie Database (IMDb), which has the largest collection of Movie and TV information on the internet, has always been the one-stop for all the information one needs about a Movie or TV Show, Actor or Actress, be it Indian or International. Owned by Amazon, the site claims to be visited by over 57 million people worldwide every month. However, the information flow ended there since it did not offer the visitors trailers or other videos for viewing. Though the site carried photos, they were often of the actors / actresses related to the movie, usually from the special screenings.

Yesterday, the company has announced the launch of Videos on the site, that might come as a happy announcement for quite a few of its loyal followers. The site now carries a collection of 6000 full-length films and TV shows for everyone’s viewing pleasure. It is to be noted that the content is available as a stream and not for download. The videos are completely free to watch and can be viewed without downloading any additional software. According to this report, the content seems to be provided by Hulu and broadcasting corporations such as CBS, Sony and other independent filmmakers are involved too.

Though late, this brings IMDb right into the competition with other big sites that offer streaming videos such as Hulu and Jaman. If you’ve been to the site before, the site has remained unchanged for quite a few years now and has the crammed look. A new user may take some time to get used to site’s content.

Before you go ahead and try to access the site, let us tell you that the videos seem to be available only to visitors from the US. Since the content is largely from the US, there may be copyright issues involved and hence if you try to view a video, you are promptly told that video is not available in your country. To make things clear, a few videos from independent film makers and a few other videos can still be viewed, but movies and TV Shows are out of the bounds. There’s nothing IMDb can do about it, since it is merely showcasing the content from other sources.

Lately, there have been a lot of sites that have sprung up to offer streaming media content, including movies and TV Show online. Even though these require a fairly fat bandwidth pipe, they have had a decent amount of traffic coming their way. Some of the companies from India which offer streaming media include Rajshri.com, BIGFlix.com and WatchIndia.tv

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Google’s Mobile Search, Powered by “My Location” - The Idea, Applications & Limitations

Shāyon — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 18:30:00 +0000

It’s been a while since big-wig search engines like Yahoo, Google and MSN Live had launched their local search engines but how many times have you ever used it to find a certain eatery joint or a movie multiplex nearby? It’s both an irony and heartening to know that OnYoMo manages to quench our thirst for local search much better than any other in the market.

Well, no more. Google has come up with a Mobile Search feature that allows you to search whatever you like that might make use of knowledge regarding your current geographical location.

The Technology

It seems the need for a GPS enabled device just might become redundant even before it took off really well. If Google has its way, you should be able to track your current position to a great level of accuracy. According to Google, “using the Gears Geolocation API, Search with My Location approximates your actual location using the same Cell ID technology used by Google maps for mobile.”

Of course, it is evident that the accuracy of the location depends on the density of the service towers your provider might have installed, around your current geographical location. It’s been quite an age-old practice for mobile users to figure out where they currently are, by checking out the location of the tower’s signal a mobile phone currently receives. Most phones, even the most rudimentary ones, have the feature in them.

Proposed Applications

How do you think such an idea could be used to leverage advertising and business revenue for Google while also enhancing the usage experience of the common man? Here are a few ideas I could come up with -

The most obvious application would be the power of GPS Maps without even paying for it. All you shall need is a GPRS enabled phone and a supported app to help locate your current location and also a direction towards your destination.
Google also says that you can check out the current weather and even shops around your current location by just typing in what you want to know.
This could also turn out to be a very good and extremely targeted advertising model for Google. If I type “Pot Rice” in the search box to find eateries around that serve “Pot Rice”, every affluent enough restaurant shall be more than happy to pay a premium price to end up on my mobile as a search result.
Geo-Tagged Positioning might end up as a very powerful and useful feature if it could be properly integrated with Google’s Friend Connect.
Now, GPS enabled handsets shall no more be a pre-requisite for geo-tagged tweets!

The Limitations

The feature is currently available only for a few Windows Mobile handsets. For the complete list, check out their help page.
The service is currently available only for users in US and UK.
In areas with low density of network towers, the service just might end up being another useless fancy application on your phone.
If Google starts earning revenue off the service, there is a very high chance of service providers wanting a piece of the pie too.
Indian market just might end up witnessing another big bang idea by the time Google’s Local Search gets prominent in the country.

So, what do you think about the new mobile search feature from Google? What are your experiences?

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Google To Provide Satellite Internet Access To The “Other 3 Billion” in Africa

Ankit Saxena — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 09:05:39 +0000

Google has joined hands with HSBC to provide high-speed Internet access to the people of Africa and other emerging countries, reports Forbes. Along with cable operator Liberty Global, Google has joined hands with a group calledO3b Networks to contribute in the project. O3b stands for the “other 3 Billion”.

The project aims at providing the backend to the existing cable operators and Internet Service Providers, who can then sell the Internet services to the end users.

Speaking at a conference in Germany, South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel welcomed the move. He said -

“The information gap is very real and clearly whatever we can do to close it must be encouraged. Any initiative that can leapfrog over traditional means of getting information to people must be encouraged. Information is power and it supports democracy and it supports decision-making.”

The Internet access will be offered through the satellites which orbit in these areas at an altitude lower than the TV satellites. Total project will be costing $ 650 million till the start.

Google is trying to make a new market, it seems. Yes, make, I said. More people on the Internet means more people using the Google services. Again, more advertising revenues for Google.

I was discussing this with Rupesh today. Companies world over have to indulge in philanthropic acts, just to boost their corporate image. The boost in the brand image is the indirect benefit that they are looking for. Google, perhaps, is the only company that can announce such mammoth acts of seemingly philanthropic activities, which directly benefit Google. Think of it, even if a part of the entire non-Internet using population of Africa starts getting online, what are they gonna do? Use Google search, email using Gmail, use image-search. In short, more people using the Google services. More advertising dollars for Google.

Not that it’s a bad thing.

Or is it?

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Historical Newspapers Go Digital, Thanks to Google

preshit — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 07:35:00 +0000

Google, which recently turned 10, has been expanding itself in every direction possible. The search giant has been growing at an alarming scale and is valued around $150 billion in the market with over 20,000 employees under its roof. Google has established itself as the most powerful 10-year-old today. And it certainly has a long way to go. Who would’ve thought that what began as a college research project would become something so huge, powerful and successful.

Today, there are millions and millions of web pages that contain information relevant to one or the other. This information is spread across numerous sites, servers and scattered across continents. Yet, almost all of this information is indexed by Google and its spiders. All this world’s information is neatly organized by the giant, giving you relevant data as you need it.

But what about information that does not exist in the soft form? You see, long long ago, even before you or me were born, newspapers were the lone source of information for the masses. They carried information from far off places and there were various such newspapers available back then. Even today, newspapers are as popular as ever. However, once can hardly deny the fact that the future is all digital. Presently, there is no way to get your hands on these newspapers online. So all the vital information that these priced jewels carried it limited to their existence. Well, not anymore. Google is all set to digitize these historical publications.

The Official Google Blog says that Google has now launched an initiative that will scan these old newspapers and convert them to e-papers, which will then be accessible and searchable online. The giant is partnering with newspaper publishers to digitize these valuable news archives.

These publications will be made available exactly the way they were printed, so you can browse through them as if you were actually reading one. Every page will carry the same content, same format, same ads. The Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph is currently the oldest newspaper on board, publishing activity dating back more than 244 years.

These publications are made available free of cost in the Google News Archive and Google will be adding more in the coming days. The interface is quite similar to the Google Book Search.

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The Idea of Outsourcing SEM to USA - Will it Work?

Maneesh Madambath — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 10:16:18 +0000

One of the simple benefits of blogging is the exchange of ideas that happen so smoothly, without even needing to talk to someone directly. So when Peter Sabbagh wrote his view on the potential that the growing Indian SEM market holds for the folks in USA, it immediately intrigued me. According the Peter, the IAMAI report on the SEM industry in India we spoke about last week points at an opportunity for SEM companies in America to expand through outsourcing.

The idea in itself is not far fetched at all, as Peter backs it up with the points mentioned in IAMAI’s report. The biggest roadblock for the growth of the SEM market in India is lack of skilled man power, while the saturated US markets are looking for newer client opportunities. And what we have is perfect match to be tied in the binds of holy matrimony.

According to Peter,

“…there lies a great opportunity for American SEM and New Media specialists at the Middle (approximately 2 to 5 years), and Senior (approximately 5 to 20 years in SEM and Marketing) SEM professionals to pursue projects in India. Currently, the majority of Middle and Senior level SEM professionals reside in the United States. Many have strong technical, problem solving, creative, and communication skills. These are valuable and necessary skills for best practices SEM.”

Very valid points. And to add to this he also mentions the experience that American SEM professionals will get on global arena which is fast becoming an imperative requirement in the flat world.

However, this suggestion obviously would have its naysayers and doubting Toms, and on my part will play one for now.

The biggest disadvantage to this suggestion is the dynamics of the cost. As much as the growth expected in the industry is true, it is still an Indian industry, and it still presents a huge cost advantage especially related to man power. I am sure the primary reason, Indian companies still look for Indian SEM firms is because of the price advantage that they offer even in a scarcely talented market. How our American counterparts would work this problem out would be an interesting story to read.

The next thorn in the path is understanding the target audience itself. Considering its varied demography with nearly 20 languages and a mightily divided terrain with numerous sub cultures, creating converting copies and marketing efforts under tight spends to a divided base wouldn’t quite be easy even with the decade of additional experience in hand. There are a lot of industries in India with their own sovereign demands quite different from what you would see elsewhere. Understanding the working ethos also therefore would be quite a task at hand for the US firms.

And thirdly, purely going by the number of GAP members, almost every other country has a lot to catch up on. There are only 3 countries with more than 20 Adwords Qualified companies (not including the US). Wouldn’t it be a better option for US based SEM firms to build a base in Europe before Asia? Just a thought.

These are just some of the questions that popped into my mind while I read the article. Surely there exists an opportunity with the huge growth potential predicted, but are the firms in USA equipped to handle a distinctly unique market?

Thanks for the mention and more importantly the post Peter, it is certainly an interesting thought. Hopefully someone can actually take it forward and see if it is an idea that can work.

Image from MSNBC Media

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