atOnePlace January 17, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Real Estate , 3commentsatOnePlace is an online real-estate market place, still in beta. The content is not rich at the moment (they have scattered listings from delhi, ahmedabad, kolkata etc but not many overall) and the site design is not the best.
One of my readers did post a comment saying she found their service very satisfactory. Lets get more input on that… feel free to leave a comment.
Update (Oct’07): Nimisha from atOnePlace invited us back again to look at the site once more (risky move, Nimisha 
). The site has more content now, for sure. More cities are included along with some useful features. As far as user interface goes, there is still some room for improvement. I’ll be my usual acerbic self and critique them here. First, the blinking (however slow) graphics need to go- no UI guideline advocates snatching user attention in that loud way. Second, make sure the basic navigation menu stands out and is easy to find- the ‘buy’ ’sell’ post..’ menu is one of the most feeble looking text on the current homepage. Third, homepage is an entry point, no need to have content for everything on there (developer gallery, disclosure text etc can easily be a part of a separate page…only a tiny link is needed on the homepage). Currently the homepage looks like a overload of information. Fourth and last, make sure the formatting is consistent! Nothing makes a site look more immature than uneven formatting. Everyone of us has done it when we were tech newbies. But when you see it on the web somewhere, it triggers a sub-conscious judgment of immature, newcomer presentation. For example, the “Find a Property” blue box is an unsightly medley of various fonts and uneven spacing. I could point out a few more, but then I’d have to charge atOnePlace for the service 
.
I know, I know… I’m a criticizing idiot, cranky Mr.know-it-all, etc, etc… Call me what you want, but you know that there is some truth to what I’m saying.
Cleartrip January 17, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Travel , add a commentAllright, keep counting. Here is another travel portal - Cleartrip. It’s probably the youngest of the bunch; they launched beta in July 2006. The site actually looks very clean- a different look from its peers.
Apparently they got $3 million in funding early 2006 from Kleiner Perkins and Google backer Ram Shriram. Seems like VC’s are placing multiple bets in this promising area to see which one takes off.
TravelMartIndia January 17, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Travel , add a commentTravelMartIndia is another addition to our eIndia travel websites list. One of our helpful readers pointed it out. I dont have any experience with it, but digging on the web brought up the fact that it was probably the first operational portal for India (started around March 2000).
Fabmall (IndiaPlaza.in) January 17, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Shopping , 1 comment so farFabmall is an online shopping site - run by IndiaPlaza (India) Pvt. Ltd. They claim to be functional since 1999 and have expanded into physical grocery chain (only in bangalore) business too.
I’ve never used it, so can’t comment much. It may not be slick, but the site doesnt look amateur effort (Although minor inconsistencies exist - I landed on fabmall.com page and it had links titled ‘New to IndiaPlaza.in?’. Dont ignore the little details, people!)
Barcamp Bangalore January 17, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Organizations, Technology , add a commentUnconferences are a rage nowadays and Barcamp Bangalore (held in decemebr 2006) is the indian extension of the popular Barcamps. to find out more about them try this article on wikipedia.
There are plenty of barcamps happening in India now- Banglore isn’t the only location. Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai… check them out on the Barcamp website.
CCPL Soft January 17, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Healthcare, Technology , add a commentHealthcare IT -I figure this is going to be a major sub-category in future at eIndia. I have personal and professional interest in that space, and it’s interesting to post about small/medium players in this nascent, upcoming market.
I found about CCPL from the IAMI (Indian Medical Informatics Association) egroup message board. It’s a software development effort by an established Othrodontist. They only have Dentistry-related products right now (although judging by the list of empty product categories, they have bigger plans in future).
I’ve not seen a screenshot/demo to be able to review the product any further. But the claimed multi-lingual support and patient-counselling animations look impressive for a startup.
I’ve been in the US Healthcare-IT domain for more than six years now, and it’s good to see Dental Informatics takign shape in India finally. If you are intrigued by Dental Informatics, wikipedia has a small but good page about it here.
Jeevansaathi January 17, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Matrimony , add a commentI have no experience with the matrimonial sites, so this review is going to be pretty shallow. Jeevansaathi looks okay, and seems like they have plenty of content (with more than a billion people in the country, that shouldn’t be hard.. 
)
By the way, this site is the third venture of Info Edge (India) Pvt. Ltd., which is growing to be one of the leading web companies in India. I’ve written about their other two ventures here and here.
BrahminsMatrimony January 15, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Matrimony , 2commentsAs if it wasn’t enough for us to be segregated by illogical and archaic caste-system in real life, here comes a website promoting it in the virtual world.
BrahminsMatrimony is a ‘portal for brahmins’ aimed at creating an online community and facilitating match-making. The intentions behind the site may be well, but I am irked by it - why do brahmins (or any caste for that matter) need their “own” site? It’s rude and self-promoting in my view.
Whatever. The site has a neat, non-obtrusive interface; much like all other AmTek Systems Inc. (it’s parent company) ventures. The counter on the site reads close to 1200 listings and thier FAQ says its 9.99$ to join for a year (plus a 7-day free trial).
Geez, I can’t write positive about the site anymore. The whole concept is ridiculous. What makes it even more irritating is that there are 1200 caste-system believers out there who would showcase themselves on the site. Goodluck to all of them - I guess they are better off getting married to each other and sparing others from thier non-secular beliefs.
Footnote: I’ve written about the other two AmTek ventures here and here. The online info about AmTek is little, all I could find is that they are based out of Delaware (the startup haven).
BharathAutomobiles January 15, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Automobiles , add a commentAllright, here is the second startup site from AmTek Systems Inc. BharathAutomobiles is an auto portal for consumers in India to buy/sell second hand cars, motor cycles, scooters… even trucks and buses (!).
First, the positive review:
- It has a clean design.
- Posting ads is offered free to consumers. Good move.
- It claims to have some intelligent features: private messaging, online help, buyer/seller feedback and auto email notifications.
- Content was surprisingly rich - when I checked it out, they had over 8000 listings (incuding ‘wanted’ ads). Most listings were from south India, although you could see a delhi/pune here and there.
Now the negative:
- The site is neat, but I liked BharathRentals look-and-feel better. No big issue though.
- Business Model: They currently offer an ebay-ish premium listing, which is how I think they expect to make money. My issue is that I doubt it’ll be enough to sustain them in the long run. For a high-cost transaction business like automobiles, it makes more sense to get a cut of the final deal price. Maybe they dismissed that model because of the expected friction from the traditional auto buy/sell workflow in India (everyone will make underhand moves to take Bharathautomobiles out of the financial deal, once it’s finalized).
- There are no images in most of the ads. Another clue to the lazy way traditonal market works in India.
Overall, I think these guys are attempting to enter a complex market burdened with rigid traditional workflow and high-risk, high-cost transactions. But I’m in awe of thier attempt - it’s heartening to know that there are people who would push India to the digitized business model. Keep it up guys.
Footnotes:
- I wrote about AmTek’s other ventures: BharatRentals here and BrahminsMatrimony here.
- What’s up with the “bharath” spelling? That tells me that the founders are probably from southern India. Guys, it’ll be prudent to buy the ‘bharat..’ versions of domain names, and point them to the main site. Some of us north Indians dont spell names the way you do
BharathRentals January 15, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Real Estate , add a commentIf you are looking for rentals (flat, paying guest, office, room mate etc) in major metro cities (Delhi/Mumbai/Hyderbad/Banglore are on the list) then BharathRentals is worth checking out.
The site design is clean- which is refreshing for a indian website. I remain a bit pessimistic about online real-estate sites for indian market, but the content here was better than expected. When I checked them out, they had around 2500 postings in all, which is not bad at all. Each lisiting has neat icons below it (about things like parking, amenities etc) and are readable (some even have pictures).
All in all, it has the signs of a good, usable site. Hope it catches on.
Update: As I researched it more, the parent company behind BharathRentals (AmTek Systems Inc., based out of Delaware - I couldnt find a website) has produced few other startups: BharatAutomobiles and BrahminsMatrimony. I’ve written about them here and here.