Avashya May 1, 2008
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Blogs, Technology , add a commentAvashya is a site tracking news and analysis of web 2.0 happenings in India. Besides web 2.0 tech type content, they veer into bollywood and cricket too (which is a bit puzzling for me to see in a site with a web 2.0 tagline). Regardless, their tech section is somewhat useful since they aggregate posts from well-read sources. Site may not be the most good-looking but is functional and easy to navigate. One of these days I’m going to make a blogroll for eIndia, and stick Avashya in there.
Pluggd.in March 12, 2008
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Blogs, Individual, Technology , add a commentPluggd.in is Ashish Sinha’s blog where he reviews Indian tech startups. It has an excellent inventory of upcoming startups, and useful resources like interviews with Indian entrepreneurs, VC insights, jobs, forum etc. It’s a regularly updated site (unlike eIndiaEmoticon Grin) and I found lots of cool links there.
It’d be nice to have a index or categorization of some sort, though. I wanted to see healthcare related startups and didnt find keyword search efficient from that perspective. Nevertheless, a very useful site if you want to keep a pulse on the Indian startup scene.
Indiblogger.in December 6, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Blogs, Technology , 5commentsIt may now be time to start a list around Indian blog directories. Indiblogger.in is another addition to that group of directories specifically listing blogs of Indian origin.
It’s hard to set your site apart in a growing commodity-like space, but Indiblogger does a good job of being distinct. Apart from the hip language ( ‘no dogs were injured in making of this website’, ‘Indified by..’, terse FAQ page), they offer some niceties like badges (multiple flavors of graphics that bloggers can display on their blog), wordpress theme and Google-powered custom search for Indian blogs. All of these are good ideas that can make bloggers look at Indiblogger favorably.
Although I couldn’t find details on who actually is behind Indiblogger, the fact that they have a relevant, concise and lucid blog gives me an impression that the founders are passionate and serious about it. According to their blog, they recently added a social networking feature that will enable users to build a network of blogs they read. I couldn’t figure out the details of that feature (guess I’d have to register for that insight). Like I’ve said in the past, it’s always a good idea to put a ‘How it works’ or ‘Features’ type link from homepage so potential registrants can understand the benefits before they go through the effort.
That being said, eIndia and Indiblogger.in have one thing in common: no apparent business model 
(except the ubiquitous model of advertising, of course!). PS: Indiblogger does claim to be non-profit enterprise.
Update: On Jan 28th, Indiblogger team launched Indiboogle.in, a google custom search powered search engine for Indian blogs. I haven’t had time to play with it enough to review it’s performance yet, but if you did, leave a comment below.
BlogAdda October 16, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Blogs, Technology , add a commentBlogAdda was started on Aug. 15, 2007 by Nettalk as a one-stop resource for Indian blogs. Bloggers can list their blogs here and prospective readers can discover them based on tags, read the latest posts and rate them.
Indian blogs may eventually need a content-aggregators like BlogAdda, but I’m not sure if the compelling need exists today. The vast majority of Indian blogs are individual efforts, with no regular updates and minimal reader-base (yeah, I know…eIndia falls into the same category). I’m unclear as to how BlogAdda would make money while the market matures in terms of demand. BlogAdda claims more than 600 users and 200 blogs listed as of September 2007.
The site is good-looking, and has a prudent “Beta” sign up. The content is not much at present, compared to the other alternative Indian-blog/blogger directories like Labnol’s India Blogs 1.0, BlogStreet, Indian Blogger List, DesiBlogs or Technorati’s India Blogs.
Sunsuna January 13, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Blogs, Technology , add a commentSunsuna lists all india related and indian-author blogs in blogosphere. A great listing, by all means. Hopefully they will add a digg-like ranking/voting feature in the future.
Edit (Jan 2008): Seems like Sunsuna is no longer around. Probably the lack of revenue got to it. Just like it will get to the rest of us one day too. Rest in peace, Sunsuna.
GigaOM-India, Inc. January 11, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Blogs, News, Technology , add a commentI first read Om Malik’s work in the print magazine Business 2.0. He is a veteran IT guy. He runs his own online publishing network called ‘GigaOm’ (go figure). Anyways, the India section is pretty useful - they have unique posts and helpful insights into the indian technology market. Definately worth subscribing to.
BlogStreet January 11, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Blogs, Technology , add a commentBlogstreet is a indian blogs directory and RSS search engine. The site is pretty professional looking, and has a decent collection of blogs. Certainly one of the most comprehensive listings I’ve seen.