From the category archives:

Internet

Save Our Munkies

by AR Hemant on February 26, 2010 · 2 comments

in Announcements, Internet, The Worn-acular Collection

Sorry.  I couldn’t resist that one. I love monkeys. Even my website is called UrbanMunky.

Speaking of UrbanMunky, our other site JobsMedia.in is doing really well this month.

I had started JobsMedia as a blogspot in 2007. My wife Pragyan runs it full-time now.

It’s been an uphill climb, but with Pragyan working hard on it, the site has taken off.

Traffic has tripled. Post frequency has gone up. People are saying nice things about us, too.

So if you seek a media/communication job, or are an employer looking to recruit talented people, head over to JobsMedia!

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Google Buzz: Inescapable. But what else?

by AR Hemant on February 10, 2010 · 5 comments

in Internet, Reviews — Technology

I just discovered Google Buzz in my Gmail. Here are some thoughts after my first use.

Up front, I think Buzz would thrive on one’s compulsive need to check for new messages. Let me explain.

Google Buzz

Google Buzz in Gmail

Buzz is integrated into Gmail. One can’t live without Gmail. Like the Inbox label, the Buzz label displays the unread message count.

So when it says “Buzz (3)”, can you resist the urge to check these new messages? Probably not. This makes Buzz inescapable.

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You can post text updates and photos. You can also set up your Buzz stream up to pull new items from your Twitter, Flickr, Picasa and your blog.

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The lightbulb effect on Buzz’s photo viewer is nice. But I don’t see a single new exciting feature here.

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Is this a Facebook killer? On the face of it, no. It’s more Twitter minus the character limit plus photo/link share.

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Let’s glean over  some user stats. Facebook: 400+ million. Gmail: 146+ million. Twitter: 58+ million. Gmail doesn’t have the userbase to tame Facebook.

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So can Buzz take on Twitter? With its un-social nature, I doubt it. Hyper-secured inside Gmail, Buzz doesn’t have Twitter’s openness.

You’re probably not going to gather 142,000 followers in a day, ever, because your Buzz list may be made up of your Gmail/Talk contacts.

Update: I just discovered that Buzz can be used much like a Facebook fanpage if you combine it with Google profiles. Check out Mashable’s profile which has 8,500 followers now.

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How can you turn Buzz off? Head to Gmail Settings > Labels > Buzz > Hide.

How To Turn Google Buzz Off

How To Turn Google Buzz Off: Gmail Settings > Labels > Buzz > Hide

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Final word: I’m not impressed with Buzz’s current web form. It solves none of my problems. I hope Buzz is a work in progress, not a finished product.

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A Tshirt For FarmVille Fans

by AR Hemant on November 5, 2009 · 12 comments

in Crazy Things I Did In 2009, Internet, The Worn-acular Collection

farmville-tshirt

After about six weeks of playing FarmVille night after night, I’ve reached Level 29. Needless to say it pisses off the wife.

I crossed 41,000 XP points tonight, and my interest in the game is on the wane. I might stop playing soon.

Here’s what my farm looks like.

my_farm_farmville

Have you noticed how ridiculously phallic the grain silos look? I buy one everyday and I’m fast running out of space to store them.

One thing I’d like FarmVille’s developers to do is make these decorations and buildings useful to farming. Sure, they get you XP points for buying them, but they just sit there and do nothing to make farming easy.

So what level are you on?

{ 12 comments }

By popular demand…

by AR Hemant on August 9, 2009 · 0 comments

in Crazy Things I Did In 2009, Internet

Gautam of the brilliant satire site Noise of India said he’d enjoyed my screenshots of Google’s suggested searches.

Here’s one more:

google-wife

I really need to learn how to wrap up my work quickly and get off my computer before I do sillier shit and land in serious trouble.

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What People Search For On Google

by AR Hemant on May 23, 2009 · 6 comments

in Internet, Observations, People

Google.com’s suggested search presents some interesting insights into people’s minds and what they search for.

google5

Some might consider this racist.

google5

Katrina Kaif appears in this list because she was Google’s most searched person last year.

google5

I wonder what media perspective on Barack Obama prompted people to search for these.

google5

Quite amazing.

google5

Also seen: Is Sachin Tendulkar a brahmin?

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Facebook Ads Go From Bad To Worse To Downright Scary

by AR Hemant on December 24, 2008 · 0 comments

in Internet

The Gray Lady said Facebook advertising isn’t doing too well.

Seriously, you needed the NYT to tell you that?

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First look at Google Chrome

by AR Hemant on September 2, 2008 · 4 comments

in Internet

Houston, Mountain View, we have a problem.

Make that ‘problems’.

My point here is, these websites are working perfectly well on my other browser.

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"I don’t want to write you a testi"

by AR Hemant on September 14, 2006 · 1 comment

in Blogs, Internet

Old pal Lean Dude is pissed.

First, an explosion of blogs. And now, Orkut.

From a fairly old post, I quote him verbatim:

No!! I dont wan to make friendship with you. I dont have the silky hairs. I dont want to be on the ship that never sinks and I dont know if orkut is a name. I dont want to scrap you, I dont want to give you my number, I dont want to write you a testi (that sounds like a body part) and I dont know if orkut is a name.

[...]

Im not against orkut and I think the concept of getting in touch with old, long lost friends is simply awesome. But people shouldnt be so addicted to this stuff. And thats why people, who dont have anything better to do, than just go through profiles and leave a scrap as dumb as this one. Hi, your profile picture is sexy and so are you? No clue why there is a question at the end of it all.

I have to confess that I’m an Orkut addict too. But what I’m absolutely vexed to see is the mushrooming of several other websites offering the exact same services. It dilutes the fun.

When Orkut came up, the invitees-only idea was a refreshing one. And if I’m calling it right, Orkut’s popularity is on the rise, especially in India. Therefore, a blooming business idea must necessarily give birth to several other competitors. In this case, it could be hi5 or Yahoo 360 — services, which don’t have anything imaginatively new to offer and work on quite the same model as the Real McCoys.

Such was the case with blogs: you had two or three blogging services doing well sometime back, when a 100 others portals jumped in, thereby diluting the fun, and — at the expense of sounding snobbish — the then undiluted exclusivity of owning a blog and reading those few bloggers whose writings you appreciated. But, as the cliche goes, things have changed.

I started blogging in 2003, quit in 2005 and restarted again this week. Having been away for an year, the blogosphere now reminds me of Mumbai -– cluttered like its suburbs, heavily cramped for space like a western line local, and only those who are distinctively different will ever be noticed here.

Arvind also asks in the end:

But I sure as hell do have one question.

Orkut. Is that a name?

I think so, if this link is to be believed.

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