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Friday, January 23, 2009

WATBlog Update There are 2 new posts in "WATBlog.com - Web, Advertising and Technology Blog in India"

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Techtribe.com Quits (looks for buyer) While FirstNaukri Begins..
Britannica Gets a 2.0 Tag, Opts for a Wikipedia Like Model And Then Pulls Up Google
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There are 2 new posts in "WATBlog.com - Web, Advertising and Technology Blog in India"

Techtribe.com Quits (looks for buyer) While FirstNaukri Begins..

The online jobs space is showing signs of slowing down and this was clearly pointed out by Sanjeev Bikhchandani on WATShow. This would have impacted the existing players who were focusing on jobs as a revenue segment was well known. But now things have become bad enough for funded players to throw in the towel. Techtribe a startup funded by Canaan Partners which we have covered many times of WATBlog before and which we hinted was seeing tough times. Now VCcircle reports that techtribe is probably looking for a strategic partner/buyer and has clearly stated that their business model was ‘not working out’. Pluggd had reported some time back that Rohit Agarwal had already moved on to another startup focusing on education space called tenmarks.

techtribe

The Job refferal space has a few more players like Yellojobs, Reffster and even Brijj which is part of the naukri group and which also would explore jobs as a model given their background. This space is surely on weak turf right now given that jobs market is seeing a slowdown and it would last for sometime going by any indications that the market analysts are quoting from experts in business newspapers.

So while techtribe quit working things out Naukri has launched its fresher jobsite firstnaukri.com. When the announcement of Naukri looking to relaunch firstnaukri was announced we had done an analytical review of this freshers job market and outlined the challenges given my background with jobs4freshers.com.

One thing is for sure given the market scenario Firstnaukri would probably build the largest fresh database of freshers in no time at all. The challenge would be sales and monetization and redundancy of database. The redundancy would be taken care by shifting these same users to naukri but monetization may remain a big challenge for naukri given the current hiring scenario as well. Naukri would do well by building a community around firstnaukri and adding shiksha’s value added services around education which may plug in very well to the same as well. Lets see how if at all does first naukri ‘work out’.

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Britannica Gets a 2.0 Tag, Opts for a Wikipedia Like Model And Then Pulls Up Google

Encyclopedia Britannica announced yesterday a new version to its online presence which follows a Wiki like model. In a move that marks the end of the rigidity of the pre-web 2.0 era for the encyclopedia maker it is asking the masses to edit, enhance and contribute to its online version. New features enabling the inclusion of this user-generated content will be rolled out on the encyclopedia’s website over the next 24 hours, said Britannica’s president, Jorge Cauz.

While Wikipedia, Britannica’s prime competitor follows an unstructured manner of publishing with the community of users being the sole answer for accuracy and standards, Britannica has a more formal approach to UGC. In the sense that editing Britannica entries would have to be pre-approved by one of the company’s staff or freelance editors before the changes were reflected on the live site. Also, users and editors on the Britannica site will have to register using their real names and addresses to modify or adding entries, unlike Wikipedia.

Though one might find the above steps ‘restrictive’ and perhaps a hassle compared to the openness of Wikipedia, it can also give a projection of better information standards. And considering the history and standing of Britannica’s encyclopedia worldwide, they are in a position to pull in a lot of offline users.

The biggest hassle, which even Britannica seems to be well aware of is the mighty presence of Wikipedia when it comes to getting search traffic. Wiki almost always seems to be the top result on Google for generic information, and could most definitely be the largest source of their traffic. Taking a dig at Google with the motive to shake Wikipedia’s supremacy on the Search Engine, Cauz snipped, “If I were to be the CEO of Google or the founders of Google I would be very [displeased] that the best search engine in the world continues to provide as a first link, Wikipedia,” he said.”Is this the best they can do? Is this the best that [their] algorithm can do?”

In a way I can’t help but agree with Cauz, though my intention with that is not to see another Wikipedia like website instead of Wiki. Given the popularity of Wikipedia and the brand that it has built Wiki can actually compete with Google as a premier brand for information seekers. Given that fact Google can provide newer results than Wikipedia with the consideration that most web users also know about Wikipedia by now, it is after all amongst the 10 most popular sites online. Of course a call from an encyclopedia maker wouldn’t be the basis of Google to take any decision of course, but, if at all they do reduce the prominence of Wikipedia, then the competition would completely become brand based. On one hand the traditional base of Britannica and on the other the neo web base of Wiki and that would be one helluva virtual war to see.

What I would like to see someone trying to usurp Wikipedia would be to add some multimedia dimension along with the wordplay. If one has paid a visit to Britannica’s award winning blog, it sort of becomes easy to suggest that they are in fact best placed to do it. However, the neo web is the most democratic among opportunities and perhaps we will get to see a newer name in the list. Wikipedia meanwhile has recently upped its ante in terms of prominent donation requests and testing new mediums to reach to people.

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Thursday, January 22, 2009

WATBlog Update There are 4 new posts in "WATBlog.com - Web, Advertising and Technology Blog in India"

Here are the WATBlog email updates for watblogna@gmail.com

WATBlog Panel (Bangalore) Sold out! But You Can Still Attend.. Find Out How..
Another Mobile Ad Deal: This time its VuClip and mKhoj
16 Resources For the Advertising Folks to Flock
WATBlog Wednesday Pune - From Scare to Smashing Success! (Check Pics)
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There are 4 new posts in "WATBlog.com - Web, Advertising and Technology Blog in India"

WATBlog Panel (Bangalore) Sold out! But You Can Still Attend.. Find Out How..

We announced WATBlog Panel Bangalore on “Lessons Learnt from Failure for Startups” on 19th and come 21st and all the available 200 seats were booked! Some registration record that aint it with 200 registrations in 2 days!

Check the attendee list by clicking on the banner below:

Another Mobile Ad Deal: This time its VuClip and mKhoj

vuclip-mkhoj Mobile advertising is the in thing as we found out recently with the IAMAI event around the topic and a unanimous consensus among panelists that this would be a big advertising medium in the future. So after the NDTV and Affle partnership and the consequent clarification by mkhoj on their deal with NDTV active there is another mobile advertising deal this time involving mKhoj itself.

So Vuclip a mobile video search and delivery provider has tied up with mKhoj for a mobile advertising partnership. Under this tie up mKhoj will provide ads on Vuclip's mobile website and popularize Vuclip's mobile video search and delivery platform across mKhoj's mobile ad network. Its ironic given that at one point of time mKhoj itself was a mobile search player and t.hen redefinded and refocused its model to mobile ads and raised further funding.

Talking about what may this deal entail Amit Gupta, Co-Founder and VP Business Development, mKhoj said, "We will also assist Vuclip in expanding its network of online-to-mobile content publishers by introducing our own publisher clients to Vuclip's video API platform."
Sounding confident of mKhoj as a partner Ashwin Puri, VP of Business Development and Marketing at Vuclip said, " Our goal is to bring video content to mobile consumers around the world – whenever and wherever they want it. We believe that mKhoj will help us in that effort.

This space will soon have an aggressive international entrant in Admob (which has already been soft launced) and which claims to deliver hundreds of millions of mobile ad page views across the world. Its also important to note companies looking to tie up with mobile ad network specialists which are very different from the general online adnetworks. Again a hint towards the ever increasing value chain on the mobile end which was discussed at the recently concluded IAMAI conference. On the whole mobile advertising is exciting but if and only if one can aggegate enough publishers and bring credibility into the system with some performance measurement metrics. Also creative use of mobile phones as response devices may also bring better results.

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16 Resources For the Advertising Folks to Flock

While browsing through some creative campaigns I chanced up on a few blogs that speak about advertising both good and bad in general. There were some pretty interesting stuff to read about and came to know of a lot of campaign materials that I hadn’t seen previously. At WATBlog we have always put digital advertising content at the forefront, considering that’s the industry we cater to. However, advertising being advertising asks for a similar approach (albeit different execution) regardless of the medium, and hence digital or not we advertising beings are all the same breed really. So this one goes out to all our offline advertising friends, another small resource list from the WAT stable:

Ad Goodness - Advertising/Design Goodness started in May 2005 with the mission to showcase only the best advertising and design around the globe. But sometimes you have to show the very worst as well in order to know what great ads and designs are. This site is there to start a conversation, to inspire, to enjoy great work, or to just talk about what your views are.
Third Way Blog - The blog claims to be the place for Straight Talk from Client Side. The brand managers view on campaigns and advertising, on whether the money spent was worth it or wasted. Predominantly north American, but considering that’s where most ideas originate from we can do with it.
GapingVoid - I have been a big fan of Hugh Macleod since the time I read his popular E-Book - How to be Creative. Famous as the stable for his cartoons drawn on the back of business cards, Gapingvoid is an excellent place for the creativity seekers and marketers in general.
I Believe in Adv - is a resource full of smart creatives from around the world, and is one of the best places to find innovative and unique creative practices among advertisers.The blog caters to wide array of categories including Outdoors, photography and art, Television and movies and even digital media.
Sandeep Makam’s blog - Chanced up on this blog some while back, and found some interesting stuff on advertising. Sandeep runs an interactive full service agency in Chennai, and I really like his blog. Too bad there hasn’t been an update since over a year though, still the archives are worth a look.
Ads of the World - A straight, no bullshit ad repository.
Ad Freak and Brand Freak - Part of the Adweek network, these blogs feature some crazy ass advertising from all around the globe. They also feature some really good names in their contributors list.
Make the Logo Bigger - is Bill Green’s marketing blog. As an art director he gives his views on brands and advertising and campaigns.
Ernie Schenck’s Blog - Ernie is an ad veteran and has been in the field for nearly 3 decades. He has won quite a few awards and accolades for hsi work over the years and the blog is his repository of thoughts on advertising.
Fallon Planning - This is what the blog announces on arrival - “Share ideas that inspire. FALLON PLANNERS (and co-conspirators) are freely invited to post trends, commentary, obscure ephemera and insightful rants regarding the experience of branding.”
JaiWal/Creative in London - is a rather new creative blog by two young guys, and they call their blog Creative in London. I found some interesting stuff on their pad, and hence they make their way to this list. They also place their views and thoughts besides the regular creative snippets in the form of ads, which gives a different image than most other resources on this page.
Creativity-Online - Is another major resource place with loads of advertising related content and campaign information. They even put up some campaigns for readers to rate, giving a lot of ideas on how people perceive and act on creative stuff, which to my mind is vital for any ad creative guy to know.
Brand Autopsy - I landed up on the blog and read one article, then another, and then an entire series, it had me hooked. Amazing content and very readable. The blog focuses on branding, advertising and marketing giving some valuable advice.
Desi Creative - Indians needn’t be far behind and in Desi Creative we have our advertising and creative’s blog. They could do with a better template, but the content is mighty good regardless.
AdAge - It is unlikely that if you are into advertising, and have spent a fair bit of time online, that you don’t know about Advertising Age. It is by far the biggest and the best resource for advertisers online and is itself a bigger repository of resources for advertisers than this list.

There you go, hope you find these sites as useful as I did and help you learn a lot more about advertising. If you have any other sites you recommend please do add them in the comments.

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WATBlog Wednesday Pune - From Scare to Smashing Success! (Check Pics)

Well pune did give us (especially me) a scare. We registered 350 people and by 8pm only about 20 odd had turned up.. I was hoping this to be our largest WATBlog Wednesday in terms of turnout (as earlier ones have had 100 odd turn outs). But as time went by i started panicking.. But.. Hold on.. Soon my panic gave way to cheer and happiness as the crowd started flowing.. By the end of it we had a 160 people turnout by far the largest turnout for a WATBlog Wednesday! Thanks a ton Pune!

For those who dont believe us (given that we will obvouisly blow our trumpet) please check out the twitter conversations around the WATBlog event! Im still recovering from the excess beer but it seems my techie friends are on twitter tweeting their take on the event as well.

As far as our take is concerned well we shall let the pictures speak a 1000 words (after a night of beer thats the easiest way to write a 1000 word post ;))..

carlsberg beer

Carlsberg Beer arives at the venue (A tad late but stil a good 1 houre before the start .. First scare for us!)

Burrp’s Rajeev Sathe & WATShow Editor Gautam Bhatia do a tasting session before the event to make sure its Carlsberg! yea rite!

The banners are up on the gate.. Its show time folks!

We believe every hand deserves a Carlsberg!

The party is warming up!

Top view of the WATBlog Wednesday! Check out the networking!

Sharanya from Microsoft gives a short but very engaging talk on future development tools by Microsoft

The audience listens intently to sharanya!

Techies Follow sharanya to know more on MSDN and its initiatives.

Round table conferences over beer? Anyone?

Ohk now you know we really did have unlimited beer.. this is what it does..

For more pictures log on to our facebook fan page where the album is uploaded! We thank each of you for making it and making Pune the venue for the largest WATBlog Wednesday yet! I hope other venues start competing soon!

We also want to thank Our sponsors MSDN and Sharanya for coming over and adding a lot of value to the event. Burrp and Rajeev Sathe for being true event partners and Rohan from Social Webfactory for supporting us and making us connect with the pune tech junta! I also want to personally thank Gautam Bhatia our editor who played multiple roles without a crib and was a fantastic support at the event.

Ohk now that my oscar speech is over Ill remind our readers that this isn’t it.. We have a video as well and it will soon be out (as soon as gautam carlsberg blood turns into normal blood! ;)). And we shall keep you updated with that as well.

We look for feedback and also how we can make WATBlog Wednesday a regular affair across cities? Right now we do this once a month in one city in India! So november - mumbai, december - bangalore and now Jan - Pune is done.. WAT Say? Should be set up a WAT Volunteer group for events? Do send in comments/feedback/brickbats (But pls dont send beer for a week!).. See ya on another wednesday nite.. soon!

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