Friends2Support.org May 31, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Faves, Non-Profit , 2commentsFriends2Support is a NGO based in Hyderabad that focuses on blood donation. It started a couple of years ago as a modest effort as a community of about 200 donors, and currently has over 15,000 donors registered in different Indian states.
It’s an interesting concept- anyone can log on or call the hot-line to find out the list of donors in their geographical area. I’d imagine that this really facilitates blood donation and provides a useful ‘donor database’ for those in need. They also provide other services like education, request-for-blood postings, event coordination and escort.
Another useful application of the web for a greater cause. Check it out and if possible, register with them if you are in India.
MeTubes May 18, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Video Sharing , 1 comment so farThe link to MeTubes was sent in by a kind reader (thank you, Monica Patel!) who praised its good interface and easy movie selection.
The concept is similar to BollyClips- MeTubes aggregates the links to media hosted by other sites in one place. They have a big disclaimer regarding this at the bottom of each page, along with a FAQ page polite tip on copyright violations and take-down policy.
But MeTubes is not just about Bollywood, it’s categories range from TV sitcoms and movies to Math, Food and Autos. So you can watch a Bollywood movie or Simpsons show and then a clip on how to jumpstart your car, all in one place now. The video quality is what you would expect elsewhere- its flash based, so doesn’t look good full screen. But its free
, so I’m not complaining.
So there you go, another site pooling together the infinite videos and clips on the internet. No business model except placeholders for ads, so not sure how long they are willing to foot the bandwidth bills.
By the way, I couldn’t understand the text on thier ‘About’ page. Was something about ‘connecting back to family and nurture relationships’, but I’m lost on the connection with the media collection/playback. Enlighten me, if you figure it out.
MouthShut May 3, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Business , 1 comment so farMouthShut is an review website focused on Indian consumer. It was started by Faisal Farooqui, a returning NRI, in 2000. The site claims around 80K members today (need to confirm this, I read it somewhere but can’t locate the source now) and is privately held, with some angel funding. Their compete stats confirm unique visitors to be consistently above 60K per month, which is pretty significant.
Let me start by saying that we need something like MouthShut. The average Indian consumer has practically no other way than word-of-mouth to research before shopping for products or services.
On the flip side, I’m disappointed with their user interface. Surf to the homepage and the first few seconds are spent absorbing the fragmented look-and-feel: inconsistent fonts, blinking graphics, numerous sub-sections, overloaded info.. the usual (see my post about hallmarks of an Indian website). I realize it’s hard to make a horizontal portal that has good navigation because there is simply too many categories and subcategories, but one can counter it by professional design. After 7 years of existence, the need for professional web design shows in various places at MouthShut. Maybe they need some good venture backing to go full throttle now. Content is spotty… good in some places (like website, cellphone reviews) where you would expect indulgence from net-savvy consumers, and not-so-good in others (like hospitals).
For sites that are horizontal in nature and go across the infinite sea of categories, I think the crux of usability is to know when to stop categorizing and consolidate. After one point, you tend to loose reader interest simply because it becomes a pain to navigate. For example, the main navigation bar at MouthShut (right below their banner) starts with the very logical categories of ‘Airlines’, ‘Appliances’, ‘Books’… but goes on to include ‘Microwave Ovens’ and ‘TV Commercials’ (!!).
Don’t get me wrong, I like MouthShut overall. It surprises me how much can one establish in the growing Indian internet space, even with a service that is not highly usable. In MouthShut’s case, maybe the key was to survive the initial four/five odd years and build up user base in a startup mode. We’ve got more than a billion people after all, even a fraction of that amounts to a lot 