Chandamama April 21, 2008
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Uncategorized , add a commentChandamama is the new-age incarnation of the classic Indian kids magazine that has focused on stories of Indian mythology, history, culture & tradition for decades. The site has the unpretentious feel of the print magazine (at least from what I remember it as) and has it’s usual kid-friendly content like jokes, stories, quizzes etc.
Besides the typical folk tales in online format, the other interesting offerings include a collectors edition ($24.99) and downloads of scanned ChandaMama print magazines from yesteryears (Aug 1, 1955- I kid you not!). It’s good to find the old business model of print giving way (at least partly) to new ones, although it’s a bit strange to digg/furl a ‘Robinhood of Kerala’ story. Maybe I’m not hip enough to make the transition 
but I like the site anyway.
An interesting related factoid: Chandamama was recently bought by Geodesic, a publicly traded indian instant-messaging platform company behind the IM client Mundu. Wonder what an IM company plans to do with a web property like Chandamama. Interesting.
Shadilagn April 8, 2008
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Uncategorized , add a commentI should stop being surprised by the number of matrimonial sites for India. Somehow I have the mental image that Indian marriages are either arranged or love marriages that are painstakingly executed in a face-to-face mode. Not any more, I guess. Shadilagn is based out of Indore (M.P.). It was launched in early 2003 and seems to have done well over the years. They have a family of eight matrimonial websites as a part of the Shadilagn group: AgrawalLagn, BrahminLagn, JainLagn, KayasthLagn, KshatriyaLagn, PunjabiLagn, SindhiLagn and VaishLagn. I’m pretty sure that more are on their way… keep counting.
Users can search profiles for free but need to pay up for posting one. I find that interesting since this model is often employed in reverse (pay for searching, but post for free). Being happily married, I’ve not utilized their services, so can’t give more insight. Folks behind Shadilagn seem like a serious bunch with adequate funding. They’ve launched a print supplement (newspaper) for Shadilagn, which is a good idea- should give them a wider, more robust coverage. Users can also receive SMS from profile viewers without disclosing their mobile numbers (although that is a bit too fast-serve for my image of matrimonial market, it goes to show how pervasive is the SMS as a communication mode in India).
They have some unconventional claims like ISO 9001 certification (for quality management, not the brides or grooms :-)) and creating 2000 jobs thorough their services, etc. There are few grammar slip-ups and occasional boastful comments but regardless, the website has a good layout and design.
DesiVesi February 4, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Uncategorized , 4commentsWhat can you write about a site when it’s ‘About’ page has nothing but the phrase ‘Dummy Text’ repeated multiple times.
DesiVesi is a portal for NRI’s. It’s look-and-feel is a bit cheesy with sardarji cartoons everywhere. Content is pretty low, judging by my acid-test: click on ‘Classifieds’, choose california state and hit search. No match.
My theory is that if you can’t get anyone from California to post in your ‘Classifieds’ section, you haven’t reached the minimum threshold for content viability. By the way, none of the other states pulled up any classifieds either.
Other than classifieds, there are some scanty movie reviews, odd recipes and mysterious matrimonial ads.
Sulekha February 4, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Uncategorized , 4commentsI remember Sulekha from 2001: It was a Indian-community page- great place to find local events in New York or classifieds. Although I stopped using it after a short while, the content breadth seems to have gone north for sulekha since then.
Sulekha has blogs, groups, classifieds, yellow pages, networking, movies, travel, cricket, news, tickets, event info, and what-not for the 25 cities they cover (6 in India, 16 in US, plus Dubai, London, Singapore). They claim 95% of their content is user-generated.
The user-interface is nothing great. You’ll find the pages overloaded with content almost everywhere. My biggest problem with Sulekha is that I’m overwhlemed by information on every page and don’t know where to start.
Inspite of the below-average usability, Sulekha wins with the usual Indian advantage- numbers. It has a big user-base, which makes it amongst the most useful Indian portal for NRI’s who aspire to socialize or find local Indian events/classifieds.
NRILinks January 19, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Uncategorized , add a commentThis can be a potential sub-category in itself: Ad-infested, overcrowded, tiny text, everything-from-bollywood-to-matrimony type websites that focus on the niche rich-cum-apparently-tasteless non-resident Indians.
NRILinks is a good example. You stare at the homepage and wonder “where should I start reading?” There are so many things stuffed on that page. Anyway, they offer the standard fare- news, reviews, classifieds, ecards, shopping et al. Even a mysterious link ‘USA‘ that takes you to a general information page about America (even the national anthem). Now you know what their target user population is.