BBC Free TV on the Web Available

BBC iplayer ( TV on the web) is up and running and you can catch-up on the last 7 days of BBC Television... on your computer
The site has tabs ranging from TV, Radio, Talk etc.

According to Reuters News,

Billed as the biggest change in the way viewers watch television in 40 years, the BBC launched an online service on Friday that allows people to download many programmes from the last week.

Viewers can choose from 400 hours of programmes, between 60 and 70 percent of the total TV output, including hit shows such as "EastEnders, "Doctor Who" and "Planet Earth".

The growth of the Internet, mobiles and hard-drive recorders that save hours of programmes, has destroyed the notion of fixed TV schedules delivered through a TV in the corner of the room.

The service, at www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer, is free, but people will not be allowed to save permanent copies to their computer.

BBC iPlayer Beta is in the final stages of testing and we're now opening it up to even more people around the UK.

Going a lot further to video on the web with some competition from YouTube, BBC's new Web TV is making everyone jump in and love their PC's.
The average time one spends on the internet is gonna increase which is a good sign for online marketers and search engine optimizers.

Microsoft replaces Google!!

Microsoft has finally succeeded in replacing google somewhere...

This time its the partnership with digg ( the social media marketing groups News site) to have the rights for contextual ads.

According to PCWorld.com,

In a deal that boosts Microsoft Corp.'s plan to increase revenue from online advertising, the company will be the exclusive provider of display and contextual advertising on the popular Digg Inc. news site.

Microsoft also said it will work with Digg to develop new campaigns that combine advertising and technology for the site, and will collaborate with Digg's current advertising partner, Federated Media Publishing, to bring new programs to the site's users and advertisers. The deal's duration will be three years, the companies said.

IncredibleIndia.org bought Business Dimension

In the first ever of its kind in Indian WWW Scenario, A website portal ( Gov. backed company) has bought another e-commerce platform utility provider.

According to DNAIndia.com,
The Tourism Ministry's Incredible India website on Wednesday acquired a business dimension with the launch of an e-commerce platform that will allow firms to conduct a host of travel-related activities

The platform, developed jointly by the Ministry along with EVIIVO, a tourism e-commerce company, is accessible on the main site www.incredibleindia.org and will facilitate small and medium industries to conduct a host of travel related business activities, mainly booking of accommodation at the destinations.

Microsoft Anti-piracy Moves in India

Bad news for Pirates of the softwares .....
Microsoft has started its anti-piracy initiatives for India.

According to Channeltimes.com
After taking up cudgels against resellers and solution providers for software piracy, Microsoft has cautioned its partners and customers in India against fake software floating in the market. The move follows raids on a global counterfeiting syndicate based in southern China.

The syndicate is allegedly responsible for manufacturing and distributing more than US $2 billion worth of counterfeit Microsoft software found in 27 countries and on 5 continents, the company said. India is one of the countries where this counterfeit software was being sold, making it important for customers to ensure that the software they are purchasing is original, the software giant said in a statement.

This may be a measure to improve the revenues drastically and increase the sales while competitors are yet to make a promising alternative.
This also can be a great opportunity for open source softwares to flourish.

Privacy policy redefined by Top 3 SE

After the latest buyouts by search giants ( Google, Yahoo, MSN) now comes the concerns about user data and privacy intrusions. Most of the users fear of losing there personal information to commercial benefits.

In view of those concerns the search engines are finally taking a step to tighten the privacy policies.

According to Washingtonpost.com,

Online search companies Google, Yahoo, Ask.com and Microsoft are tightening their privacy policies in the face of mounting public, congressional and regulatory agency concern about the vast amounts of personal data they gather and store.

Yesterday, Microsoft announced it would make all data on search queries anonymous after 18 months. This week, Yahoo is to outline plans to make a user's search history anonymous within 13 months. On Friday, Ask.com said users could ask the firm not to retain their Web searches ...

New Search Engine with Facial Recognition

Here is a news about a search engine who can identify facial expressions...

According to the latest info from Tech2.

Knowing how random the results are from the current image search engines, Swedish company Polar Rose has announced the launch of a visual search engine that should hopefully make image searching a lot more accurate.

Polar Rose uses facial recognition and 3D imaging software to provide a whole new method for web-based image searches. A beta of the software will be available for public use, by February next year.

Polar Rose is also working on a plugin for the Firefox and Internet Explorer, which pops up a small symbol when the browser opens a Web page containing a photo of a face. When a user clicks on the symbol, the Polar Rose service looks for matching photos in its database. Users also can tag existing photos in the database to help train Polar Rose's matching engine.

Guess whats coming on your way next?

European Union Sponsored Semantic Search & Internet

According to Marketwatch,

The so-called "semantic" Internet, or a Web smart enough to sift through information for users rather than leaving them to click through pages on their own, received a boost this week when the executive branch of the European Union approved a significant chunk of funding for a related research project.
On Thursday, the European Commission said the German government will be allowed to distribute 120 million euros ($166 million) among companies, including SAP AG and Siemens AG, to kick-start research on the Theseus project. The aim is to develop "new search technologies for the next generation Internet," including "semantic technologies which try to recognize the meaning of content and place it in its proper context."
The semantic Web has been considered the next evolution of the Internet at least since Tim Berners-Lee, widely considered a creator of the current version of the Internet, published an article describing it in 2001.

Top 20 IT-ITES employers in India for FY 06-07

NASSCOM, the chamber of commerce and “voice” of the IT software and services industry in India, today released the rankings of the top 20 IT-ITES employers in India for FY 06-07. The top 20 companies collectively employ over 500,000 people of the 1.6 million employed directly in the industry. The rankings are based on the India-based headcount of firms with IT-ITES operations in India, as reported to NASSCOM in its annual survey. As per the rankings, TCS is the leader followed by Infosys Technologies and Wipro Technologies.

Google new Free internal site search !!

Google's gift to small websites!!
Google is ready to offer internal site search solutions for small websites.
There is a slight difference between Google COOP and this new search engine.

According to Reuters.com,

"SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc., the world's top provider of Web search and online advertising, said on Monday it is offering small business Web sites a service that lets visitors search for information within their sites.

The Mountain View, California-based company said Google Custom Search Business Edition, as the new service is known, is a service hosted on Google computers that starts at $100 per year and does not require businesses to run Google ads.

"If you have a Web site, we already crawl your Web site," Nitin Mangtani, a product manager in Google's Enterprise division, said in a telephone interview. "Now we are saying you don't have to manage search within your site."

The new service marks a middle option between Google's existing Custom Search Engine, a free, ad-supported service, and Google Appliance, a hardware device selling for prices starting around $2,000 which customers manages on themselves.

The free, ad-supported service lets visitors search for information inside a particular Web site but cannot be customized."

What can Google Do with your Mobile Data?

Google using mobile data?

In what to be called as the next gen of ecommerce using consumer data for specific advertising and targetting consumers something in line with MOSOSO ( Mobile Social Software) , Mercury news reports a unique field which is being explored by Google recently:

Google is working on a service to let mobile-phone users find and buy items such as ring tones, the Wall Street Journal said, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter.

The technology will allow consumers to use Mountain View-based Google to obtain lists of companies that provide the content they're seeking and links to where the products can be purchased, the Journal said on its Web site Monday.

Google and competitors such as Yahoo are bolstering their mobile offerings with services including maps and calendars after handsets outsold personal computers by more than 4-to-1 last year, according to researcher Gartner. Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said in May that the company's biggest growth opportunity is in mobile phones.

For the new services, Google is working with entertainment companies and smaller mobile-media providers to index material and make it available through searches, the Journal said.

Yahoo! Search Suggest New ~

Just about in the lines of Google Suggest ( i'm not sure if it is!) Yahoo! has launched a new search tool named 'Search Suggest' to provide suggestions for the relative search querries.

According to Kevin Lee's Blog ( he is from Yahoo!) the suggestions are displayed when users start typing / in process to type the search word.

'Search Suggest' was already there Yahoo! Toolbar in Firefox but users need to select Yahoo! as there default search engine first.

Website for Fashion in Braille Tag

First came Text Only Websites.
Then followed by Text + Images Websites.
After that we saw Text + Images + Animation Websites.
After that we saw Text + Images + Animation + Sound Websites.
Then came Text + Images + Animation + Videos Embeded Websites.

Now the latest one is for those who cant see directly but can feel....
Yes Website for Fashion in Braille Tag.

According to Yahoo News,
Two American students are launching a new talking Web site that helps blind people pick and buy trendy clothing that is fitted with braille tags and then sent to their doorstep.
The sound-activated www.whitecanelabel.com Web site, due to go online in the fall, will ask users what their fashion likes and dislikes are and recommend clothes ranging from casual to evening wear based on those preferences.
A braille tag that includes the designer's name, type of clothing such as a "blouse" or a "t-shirt", size, colour and symbols to help in piecing together certain look like "business casual" is attached to the clothes ordered and then mailed out.

Tell me what you think is next to come?

Yahoo ! Numero Uno in Asia

Which is the most popular site or a group of sites in your country in terms of content?

Many will have guesses around the big 3 (Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft)
But some news here which will take your attention,
According to Comscore networks,

Yahoo Inc. claims to be the most popular group-sites in Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan, while Microsoft Corp. sites were the most popular in Australia, China, and New Zealand.

Its very important in terms of Search Engine Optimization specifically for those webmasters who are into content targetting and Online Brand Building.

Rediff Foreys Info Social Media Marketing

Google - Orkut and YouTube, MySpace, and now Rediff in the Social Share Networking Arena.

According to Economic Times,

Buoyed by the growing popularity of social networking and content sharing sites like Orkut and Youtube, Rediff.com today joined the bandwagon by launching a social content sharing platform --iShare--to publish and share videos, music and images.
iShare is a multimedia social content sharing platform for the users and would also enable the professional content owners to distribute their work.
"Multimedia growth is driving the internet in a big way and by bringing together audio, video and images through 'iShare' we are targeting maximum online users," Rediff.com Chairman and CEO Ajit Balakrishnan told the media.
Rediff.com, which currently claims 40 per cent of the internet users visiting its various verticals, is targeting over 50 per cent of people accessing internet in this country with the help of this new initiative and leverage form the multimedia boom.

Complete Story Here

Blogging and Sexual Violence acts

Many bloggers see non-related content on blogs. It seems the ethics are over and now blogs are just made to do something like spam, illegal and un-professional activities.

The article from CIO.com helps to let us know more:

Anyone who has participated in the blogosphere in the past two months knows the troubling story of Kathy Sierra, a prominent blogger who was the victim of online threats that included violent sexual acts and murder ("Death threats force woman to suspend blog, cancel talk at O'Reilly conference"). When the harassment spread beyond her own blog to two others that were affiliated with other prominent bloggers, Sierra became so terrified that she canceled an upcoming speaking engagement and took a hiatus from blogging.

Read the full story here

Google Buys Web-based security provider Postini

Google Latest Buy ? Its the Web-based security provider Postini for $625 million.
Strange thing is that I saw it on Yahoo! India news:

--------
Google Inc. said on Monday it has agreed to buy Web-based security provider Postini for $625 million, expanding its package of online applications to compete with Microsoft Corp.'s Office.

Postini provides security and encryption services, protecting instant messaging, e-mail and other communications, to more than 35,000 businesses and 10 million users worldwide.

Google said the deal would enable it provide organizations with more Web-based services similar to its Google Apps package, which includes its e-mail service Gmail, Calendar, and Talk, its messaging service.

Google has been expanding its range of services from Web search and advertising to include popular software applications for businesses, such as word processing, putting it in direct competition with Microsoft's Office package of applications.

Google said its Google Apps has been adopted by more than 100,000 businesses to date.

"With this transaction, we're reinforcing our commitment to delivering compelling hosted applications to businesses of all sizes," said Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt in a statement.

Google said Postini will become a wholly owned subsidiary. The deal is expected to close by the end of the third quarter.

Read the Complete Story Here

Google's Youtube on Mobile soon !!

For those who are still waiting for the videos to get on Mobile, here is a good news.

According to Gulfnews.com :

Video-sharing website YouTube will be accessible by mobile phones in many parts of the world by next year, the website's co-founder and chief technology officer Steve Chen said on Saturday.

Speaking at a forum on the internet in his home country of Taiwan, Chen said that websites should provide richer content and greater mobility, enabling users to access such sites from anywhere in the world.

He said commuters on subways or buses are likely to access videos of between 30 to 60 seconds each, while people travelling on longer train journeys would probably go for files of up to 10 minutes in length.

Next Best thing is .... Think about it !!

Full Story here

Get Exponential Promotion with YouTube for Free!

Youtube from Google is the next hot Viral Marketing funda. Many future thinking SEO's have already capitalized/accepted on the enormous power of advertising & promotion on the net and what better than YouTube. There is a saying 'A picture speaks a thousand words'. If that is taken true, what will you say about a video ?

Believe me, if you want to get noticed easily with enormous visitors and quaility referals, the next Mantra of online adversiting is Video at Youtube.

Videos I like for the Killer ideas and innovative concepts :

Here are the list of videos that I recently found interesting.
Mostly are the ads with innovative ideas on youtube.

Nissan 4x4 Naturally Capable: Animation at the best



US WeightLifting TV Commercial: Women on Top


Sinking !!! Language difference



Trust your wife : A social Message

Nokia's Mobile News Portal in 10 Indian Languages

Nokia got Mobile with News Portal :

Nokia has just launched its new "Mobile News Portal' which is a sort of epaper on the move. Malayam Manorama is the partner for the Mobile News Paper. Nokia also said to have tie-ups with regional level language news papers for providing news. Presently 10 Indian languages including Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, Oriya, Assamese, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada are supported.

You Need to have a GPRS enabled Nokia Hand set for that.
The Mobile Handsets which will support the Nokia's Mobile Newspaper include 2626, 6233, 6300, 6131, N72, N80, and N95.

Here is how to get it :

- Just send 'MM' as message to 5555.
- You will get a URL
- Clicking on the URL will download the news icon on the handset.

Are you ready to Optimize Mobile Websites now?
Mobile Site Optimization is the new funda of SEO...

Drop Shipping : Ecommerce Marketing Funda : Explained

What is Drop Shipping or drop shipment?
Drop shipping is a supply chain management technique in which the retailer does not keep goods in stock, but instead transfers customer orders and shipment details to wholesalers, who then ship the goods directly to the customer . The retailers make their profit on the difference between the wholesale and retail price.

Scams :
envelope stuffing, chain letters, pyramid schemes, multilevel marketing, etc.

Ecommerce and Drop Shipping :

Auctions:

Many sellers on online auction sites, such as eBay, also drop ship. Often, a seller will list an item as new and ship the item directly from the wholesaler to the highest bidder. The seller profits from the difference between the winning bid and the wholesale price, minus any selling and merchant fees from the auction site.

Guidelines to protect yourself from home business scams (http://www.michigan.gov/cybersecurity/0,1607,7-217-34396-108704--,00.html)

Don't pay money to get a job. Never pay money to any company which promises to employ you to work at home.

Don't believe in immediate big profits the easy way. Home-based business is just like any other business; it requires hard work, skill, advertising, good products or services, and time to make a profit.

Avoid responding to unsolicited emails promising work at home opportunities. Many unsolicited emails are fraudulent and promise easy money only to trap you.

Research and decide. Find out everything you need to know about work at home. Research on companies you will be dealing with and find out about their agreement. Take your own time to decide.

Ask other people who work at home. Ask them if the company kept its promises.

Know the refund policy. If you have to buy equipment or supplies, ask whether and under what circumstances you can return them for a refund.

Understand your legal requirements. Some types of work cannot be done at home under federal law. Look for the nearest U.S. Department of Labor in the government listings of your phone book and get information.

Too good to be true. If something appears to be too good to be true, then it probably is.

Top Keyword Searches on Google ( May) in India

Top Queries at Google ( May) in India

These are the top search words ( or keywords in terms of SEO professionals) people are searching for on the World #1 Search Engine Google. May Shows users interest in Gadgets, Bollywood personalities and Banking with Technology.

1. fedex
2. thailand
3. ford fiesta
4. andhra bank
5. nikon
6. john abrahim
7. NIIT
8. clear trip
9. indian navy
10. pepsi
11. 7th results
(7th grade exam results)
12. hdfc netbanking
13. 300 movie
14. marilyn monroe
15. netone

Source : Google Zeitgeist Press Center

Traditional Vs Online Marketing : India Stats

Forget Traditional Media, the new age is Online Marketing.
Atleast the report on IBNLive.com confirms the dynamic growth of online advertising and marketing with exponentially growing internet users in India.

" India is set to emerge as the fastest growing market in the global entertainment and media space in the next five years, says a latest market report. Also, developing on a mammoth scale is the Internet portals’ business and online advertising, the report adds.

With the advent of new web portals and rising Internet users, a major chunk of TV advertising and viewership has now passed on to Internet. However, there are little worries among traditional segments like radio, TV and films.

With a size of over Rs 1,00,000 crore market cap by 2011 the global E&M industry will grow at a compound annual rate of 6.4 per cent to $2 trillion over the next five-years, global consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers has said in its study.

"India will be the fastest growing (country) over the next five years at 18.5 per cent CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) while China will continue to record double-digit annual gains that will average 16.8 per cent CAGR," it said.

Internet advertising is expected to emerge as the fastest growing segment over the next five years, driven by the growing number of internet users, Kandhari said. "

Rest is Here

Build your own brand using Blog !!

Online Brand Building goes Web 2.0

Now anyone can build a brand online. All you have to do is generate content, build trust and keep consistency and enthusiasm. The internet will take care of the rest if you have anything unique.

Here is a news that supports the same funda,

When ITV announced the £20 million revamp of its website last month, the inclusion of user-generated content formed part of its plans. Even large media owners with access to huge amounts of content cannot, it seems, afford to overlook UGC in Web 2.0. The rapid rise of social networking and UGC sites such as YouTube, MySpace, Bebo, Facebook and Flickr has been discussed ad nauseum, but the speed with which they have built vast audiences and changed the internet landscape remains mind-boggling. YouTube was, after all, only formed in February 2005 and bought by Google 18 months later for $1.65 billion.

Blogs, mash-ups, online reviews, peer-to-peer Q&As, video clips, social networks, Second Life avatars ... in its many manifestations, UGC is proliferating. Small wonder, then, that Time magazine named ‘you’ as its person of the year for 2006, and the US-based Advertising Age anointed “the consumer” as agency of the year. Of course, despite the accolades, UGC is nothing new. What has changed is the ease with which it is possible to create and disseminate content. Widespread broadband penetration, camera phones, easy uploading of content, cheap digital editing software, a rapidly increasing choice of websites welcoming UGC, changing attitudes to social communication, blogs by the million: there are many factors driving the UGC explosion.

Detailed news here

Google Desktop for Linux

Google expands gadgets and releases Google Desktop for Linux

A pair of new launches by Google is making some developers and Linux desktop users cheer. Google Desktop for Linux (beta) was developed by Google's Beijing engineering team. It runs on Debian 4.0, Fedora Core 6, Ubuntu 6.10, SUSE 10.1, and Red Flag 5. Google also launched a new pilot initiative called Google Gadget Ventures aimed at bootstrapping an economic ecosystem around gadgets.
“Google Desktop hit the operating system trifecta today with the release of a version of Google Desktop for Linux. Now available on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows, the Google Desktop application allows users of every major operating system to search their desktop and the web as quickly, easily and comprehensively as they search the web with Google,” Google said, on Wednesday.
Google Desktop for Linux (beta) includes indexing allowing users the ability to search their computers content, including text, PDF, PS, source code, HTML files, email from Thunderbird, OpenOffice.org documents, Man and Info pages, folders, images, and music. Google Desktop for Linux also finds previous versions of files or recovers those that have been accidentally deleted.

See the full news here