StudentIndia was launched as an individual effort in December 2004 to catalog the career and education options present in India. The site has grown in terms of content since- the founder claims a database of 16,000 course details (like institution address, hostel etc) across 300 universities. There was a navigation choice for almost everything related to education- from GRE/GMAT counseling to Educational Loans, Visa Guidance, Scholarship info and whatnot.

StudentIndia won the 2006 Manthan Award in the education category. Contrary to my expectations, compete snapshot usage data doesn’t show much activity (only around 600 hits per month- although they are rough estimates at best). The site serves a useful purpose, but it doesn’t look like there is business model in place. It seems like a good acquisition target for one of the Indian horizontal portals (timesofindia, rediff and others) trying to get a foothold in the student-profile user base.

The nascent Indian online-businesses space has been growing like cancerous tissue- with no particular direction, an undifferentiated intense growth that has (almost) no cure. Local Indian content search is yet another niche in that growth.

Byindia found limelight when it was bought in October 2006 by Web2Corp, a U.S.-based technology company, with an intent of doing what Baidu did for Chinese people. The big additions planned are social networking, auction, classifieds, video and syndicated advertising elements. Great. That’s what we need- another horizontal portal. Why can’t these ambitious technology companies hunting in developing countries understand the stickiness of Google- it offers simple, reliable search without diluting it with superfluous additions. Heck, even Baidu does that. Focus! People, Focus! It’s not just about the search algorithms.

Anyway, there is no doubt that for Internet to get ubiquitous in India, people need local content; and users seeking that local content, need a focused search tool. There is significant leverage to be found in being a first-mover for local search, because all the big boys of search (Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask..) are ultimately going to fight for domination outside US too. That would be a sweet time to flip over a successful local search engine for a truckload of money.

My ByIndia search with ‘car rental Delhi’ bought back a terse “did not match any documents” result. Same keywords in Google retrieved multiple websites of actual rental companies in Delhi. So Google won. What a surprise.

It 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.

It was inevitable. Sooner or later, the big boys were going to enter the Indian online movie rental space. Reliance ADA-Group made its foray with Bigflicks this past August.

There are two parts to Bigflicks - media download and rental. Download cost between $4.49-$19.99 (worldwide; and yes, they are DRM‘ed and need a proprietary media manager to access downloaded content) and the rental service is currently in Chandigarh, Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore only. Predictably enough, they are well placed content-wise: movies in most languages, TV series, plays and games. Even a handful of adult titles.

Even if you ignore the bad grammar (’How we work?’, ‘Ask your Query’) , the download site overall is unimpressive, specially given the deep pockets behind it. I hate the fact that it autmatically starts playing the trailers when you open it.

The rental section is okay to navigate, but the real deal there is going to be execution in the physical world. I’m sure the plans starting at Rs.250 are competitively priced, but it remains to be seen if it gets good response from the users.

Another real-estate site for Indians. Makaan is owned by People Interactive (India) Pvt Ltd, which owns several web portals like Fropper, Mauj, Astrolife and Shaadi.

Apart from the very relevant domain name, I’m not impressed one bit. It’s another run-of-the-mill property website, with a very mundane user interface. They have more content than the rest of crowd, but that probably has more to do with the big backing of People Group than actual user participation. Their business model is online advertising (surprise!), posting and searching is free for registered users.

This is probably the reason why traditional in-person Indian industries like real-estate wont be revolutionized by internet, yet. Connecting buyers and sellers is just one piece of the puzzle- the real value proposition is in simplifying the whole experience, which would mean taking part in the actual transaction in some way. Startups like Zillow and Redfin are doing this by providing price estimates, closing the deal etc. Of course to enable that, we’d need a industry body like NAR running a common repository like MLS in an impartial way. Till that happens, modernization of real-estate industry in India is just smoke and mirrors.

Yawn. Another day, another amateur Indian media streaming website. BestOfMalyalam was suggested by a eIndia reader, and I thought I might as well add them to the list.

They offer packaged channels related to malayalam content, for a monthly subscription fee. In fact, they claim “We are the sole authorized distributors of Asianet channels over the web”. Wonder why then they don’t have a mention or ad on the official Asianet website. Anyways, I’ll refrain from any judgment since I’ve not tried them personally (I’m not their target audience either).

MagicBricks is the online real-estate portal of Indiatimes, which is run by one of the largest media and entertainment conglomerate in India, The Times Group.

So it’s got some heavy backing- which probably explains plenty of content, television advertising and some nifty functionality like GPS based mobile application that allow users to search for real estate listings on the move. But for all that money, it’s got a very average looking website and a pathetic logo. The whole interface is a mix of different fonts, member company logos, and awfully crowded text.

Nevertheless, in a market with billions of potential users I guess content is king, not presentation. At least for now. Overall, if you need to get some rich content for Indian real-estate, take two aspirins and head to MagicBricks.

Another matrimonial site claiming the “Number 1.” crown in an immodest way. This one may actually be right about it, though. SecondShaadi is a matrimonial portal for people trying their luck for the second time. Since I’ve not yet found another company advertising in this niche, I think the tagline “No. 1 Re-Marriage site for Indians” can be sustained.  (Clap Clap Clap)

SecondShaadi was started by Vivek Pahwa and Ankur Warikoo, graduates from the Indian School of Business. The design is above-average for an Indian site- they had my vote as soon as I saw a ‘How it works’ link on the homepage. Basic membership is free, as usual, and they charge premium membership for sending private messages and offer one-on-one counseling. Heck, with divorce rate rising consistently just like inflation, these guys may actually have a shot at a sustainable business model.

An interesting twist to the overcrowded group online-matrimonial sites for Indians. PositiveSaathi is a matrimonial portal dedicated to HIV+ people. The site has more than just matrimonial functionality- there are HIV related educational material and information about NGO and government initiatives.

Latest numbers estimate 2.5 million HIV+ people living in India. I think its a great way to connect people with similar profiles, and make a difference in their lives. Much better than Kayastha2Kayastha type attempts, for sure.

Social activism gets technology backing with IDontWantDowry. Its a matrimonial website run by NGKOnline as a forum for wannabe brides and grooms who are against taking/giving dowry.

The site design is below-average, but I’m not going to take it apart. I like the concept- its a far more noble commercial use of internet’s power of connecting people. There is free registration with a paid membership (Rs.500 for 6 months).I couldn’t find what exactly was the benefit of a paid membership, though (again, folks- remember to make a “How it works” page!). Content-wise there are a surprising number of brides and grooms registered, with a heavy influence from southern India.

Here is another list-it-in-one-post-cuz-there-are-too-many-out-there type review. Just like the Youtube copycats post that is an ongoing list of all Indian video sharing half-baked startups, this post is about collecting Digg copycats.

I feel like one of the weirdos who like to collect AOL mail CD’s, but must admit that its fun to see this list grow. Its yet another proof of the rising, rash entrepreneurship spirit in Indian online market today. Lots of money floating around, no time to sit and think, just copy the next western web 2.0 concept and roll out a desi version. ‘Copycats’ focused posts like these are going to be a trend at eIndia, I can foresee that.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Indians are continuing to give compliments to Kevin Rose, thanks to open-source software like pligg. So here is the list of Indian websites that have been shaped after Digg, with almost mind-numbing similarity:

• Xoomly
• Rambhai
• BestofIndya
• IndianPad
• Newscola
• PutVote
• Ekjut
• Jigg.in
• Desipitara
• IndianBytes
• My22Yards (Neat.. focuses on cricket)
• Readster.in
• Humsurfer
• GyanIn
• Kify India Stocks (focused on Indian stock related news)
• HotSamachar
• MinkIt (creatively named as DiggIndiaNews when it started)
• DolBajao
• IndiaRooster
• NewsMirchi (almost defunct)

Needless to say, I’ve spent zero time browsing each site in detail. So if you are a founder/fan of any of the sites above and think that there is a brilliant business model that differentiates it from Digg, let me know. Additions to the list are welcome, as always.

BlogAdda 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.

The website of Quality Council of India (QCI) may not mean much to most of the folks reading eIndia, but I simply couldn’t resist writing about it.

If you ever needed an example of what-not-to-do when designing a website, look at theirs. The homepage is a horrendous collection of scrolling/blinking/pulsating images everywhere. If you stare at it for more than few seconds, it feels like watching a swarm of bugs in frenzy. Even the top navigation bar is blinking!! Geez.

In case you are curious, QCI is an independent organization that guides and operates accreditation activities through some executive committees. Needless to say, I didnt have a heart to explore the site beyond its homepage. I was afraid to click anything on the site really.

Here is a thought: I think there are more people trying to start a video-sharing website than the people actually submitting videos. And where better to achieve this glorious distinction than our own motherland, brimming with starry-eyed internet entrepreneurs.

Now that you can purchase an off-the-shelf script to jump start a YouTube-clone website for only 10$ (If you think I’m kidding, check out vShare.in), there is a rapidly growing pile of indistinguishable Indian video-sharing sites. Being a fearless internet-warrior, I thought I’ll review all of them (how many could there be?) but was soon overwhelmed by the stampede of half-baked sites. Some of them are going down (and then coming back up again) so fast that I don’t think its useful to waste any reviews on them yet. Hence I thought of another solution- I’ll maintain a list of them here, and assume by default that every site on this list is not going to survive. If time says otherwise, I’ll move them off the list and give them a new, independent review.

In general, all these sites have unoriginal content (hacked movie clips, serials etc). The user interface is almost identical (thanks to 10$ scripts from vShare.in), user base is insignificant and there is no business model except site advertising. A word of caution- some of these sites are replete with adult content haphazardly thrown here and there. So don’t explore if you cant handle it!

• Infeeindia
• Merovideo (Nepali videos!)
• Meravideo
• Tubedesi
• Chatpatavideo
• YouClipIt.net
• Apnaspace
• Crictube
• Connectfilms
• Aapkavideo
• Apnavideos
• Apnatube
• Canaravideo
• Bollywoodtube
• Mastitube
• DesiSexTube (Warning:Disgusting adult content)
• IndianReunited

Of course, there may be a chance that I’ve thrown the baby out with the bathwater here. So if you think any of these sites deserves a better treatment, let me know. Feel free to send in additions to this list too.

Note: Some well-deserving websites have been purposely omitted in the list above because I had already spent precious time giving them independent reviews before getting overwhelmed. Check them out on the eIndia ‘Lists’ page (’Video Sharing Sites’ subsection).

26thJanuary is another video sharing site for Indians online. It started somewhere in July 2007, according to techtalk blog. Although it manages to steer away from adult content submissions for the most part, there are bunch of family-unfriendly videos here and there. Overall, it has decent censorship and mostly Indian content when compared with other similar sites. With nobody making money enough to break even through advertising model, I’m wondering how such sites keep paying the bandwidth bill.