Happy New Year – 2010 January 2, 2010
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Hello Everyone,
Thanks & Regards,
Sumit Mattey
ASTADIA INC. | 107 Udyog Vihar, Phase – IV,
Gurgaon – 122016, INDIA.
US : 781-577-0190 | UK: +44 (0) 203-371-9915 | India : +91-124-4387500
Cell: + 91-965-418-2340 | E Mail: smattey@astadia.com
The # 1 Cloud Computing and Integration Company
http://www.astadia.com/
Gmail upstages Yahoo ! Mail in India October 18, 2009
Posted by smattey in Gmail & Yahoo.Tags: email war, Gmail, hotmail, vizisense, website, Yahoo
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Gmail upstage Yahoo! Mail in INDIA –
THE email war is warning up in INDIA, and Google seems to be winning it. At least that is what September figures released by online measurement company Vizisense suggest.
Yahoo Mail, the world’s most – preferred email service with close to 300 million users, has faced a minor setbacks in INDIA – Its unique fell in September to 16.8 million compared to August figure of 18.2 million. At the same time, Google mail, better known as GMAIL, went up from 17.7 million unique users to 18.2 million.
Now, this is not a reflection on the total user base, in which case Yahoo ! is still ahead; worldwide, Gmail has 146 million users, only around half of Yahoo!. It could well be that Yahoo! Mail will bounce back in October given its new design, but Gmail ain’t no pushover either. And just in case you wonder where Hotmail (Windows Live Mail) is, well, it recorded just 4.11 million unique users in September.
Website Details –
(please see the below mentioned screenshot for you reference)
(** source taken from http://www.vizisense.com )
Twitter to ease users list pain October 18, 2009
Posted by smattey in Twitter.Tags: Facebook, Facebook Id, internet, Seesmic, seesmic desktop, seesmic web, tweetdeck seesmic, Twitter, what is twitter
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Twitter to ease users list pain –
The problem with Twitter’s web interface is that it is so minimalistic it is impossible to find anything easily. For instance, if you want to delete a spam message on the web account, there is no button on the “HOME” page. For that, you have to go to the “Profile” page.
Similarly, how do you organize tweets that fall into the same category ? Twitter has been so miserly with basic functions on its site even two years after its launch that third party applications such as “Seesmic” and “TweetDeck” have stolen a march over it and created desktop applications that do everything you wanted to do on Twitter with just one click. You can even create Groups based on interest or names that get categorized into columns.
But finally, Twitter seems to be waking up. It is testing a new feature that allows users to categories tweets using Lists. They are nothing but heads under which you categories messages. They could be anything from Sports to Technology to Marketing to Weather to Films.
The List will feature on the Profile page and will e public, although, Twitter says, you can make it private too. But that kind of defeats the purpose of Twitter because it is meant to be a public forum in the first place.
What’s Google Wave All About ? October 4, 2009
Posted by smattey in Google Wave, Social Media 2.0.Tags: download google wave, Google Wave Application, google wave release, sandbox google wave, wave google, What is Google Wave
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So GOOGLE WAVE had a limited release on September, 30 (only a lakh invites went out), making it one of the most significant days in software history.
To be honest, we don’t really know if WAVE is going to change the way we communicate (that’s what google claim, not we), and going by the history of such claims made by various companies (most famously, perhaps, by innovator Dean Kamen who said the the Segway mobility devices will change the way we travel; but then outside of a few cities of the US and Europe, no one’s even heard of it), we will need to treat carefully with WAVE.
Yet, for sheer functionality, we cannot admire the real time communication tool. Wave developed by Jeans and Lars Rasmussen, has email, instant messaging and web chat, social networking, instant file sharing, all rolled into one. Translation ? All that stuff that you do online with friends and co workers, can be done just on one platform. And yes, it’s free.
The toruble with great pieces of software is that we often take it for granted. For instance, how many times have you clicked on your browser and said “WoW, that man Tim Berners – Lee, he was a genius”. Or, how many time have you sent a email or a chat message to a friend and said a silent thanks to the online gods that invented the whole thing ? For that matter, do we really marbel at cell phones these days ?
My acid test for a great piece of softwae of for that software’s real success is when people stop talking about it. If Wave is a success, it could well become a part of our lives, and it will be difficult to live with out it, just as it is tough to live live without Email / SMS / or WEB Chat.
User will decide that, but before we do it, it would be a good idea to figure out what WAVE is actually all about . First some features –
§ It’s real time to such an extent that – in some features, if you enable it – you see what your friend on the other side of the WAVE is typing.
§ You want to convert your wave into a usable link ? You could do that to share it with whoever you want.
§ You want to replay in your head what your really long conversation was with your friend ? Don’t do that. All you gotta do is paly the WAVE like you’d play
a movie.
§ As the conversation develops – with either one person or serveral friends – you can edit what people have written. For instance, if you know that one friend’s information about, say, the movie, New York is incorrect, you can edit that after he or she posts the conversation and share it real – time withanyone.
§ For email or instant messageing, you don’t have to attach files so that everyone gets it separetely. Just drag and drop the file to the conversation for single click access to it.
§ Google says it will let people develop their own Wage Gadets, just as Apple allows users to develop iPhone Apps, a policy that has led to almost 2 billion Apple Apps Store downlaods worldwide ? Twave, for instance, is a Google Wave gadget for Twitter is already up and running.
§ Similar to Wave Gadets are WAVE extensions (if you use FIREFOX as your browser, you already know what Extensions are). Use of third party pieces of software could greatly enhace, WAVE, as the possibiloty are limitless. The Apple iPhone, for instance, has more than 85000 downloadable enhancements available.
That’s revolutionary in itself, but Google WAVE is capable of doing much more, far much more than what we have a preview of. For instance, a multi city office conference on Google Wave using real time chat as well as real – time tools may be developed in the future.
On the Web, news sites can use Google Wave to create real time chat’s with editors or celebrities, or perhaps even between readers themselves. Or as the popular social media site Mashable suggests, it could be used by the hundreds of customer support companies worldwide – and those that provide outsourcing services from India – to convert WAVE into a client company relationship tools.
It also adds that Wave can be used for school learning. For instance, teachers have always dreamed of an interactive way of learning with their students. Wave provides – from collaborating with students, is very much in the realm of possi bility.
Just reading bout Google Wave excites me. I am hoping to get an invite soon, but like it did with GMAIL, Google will obly gradually make WAVE universal like GMAIL and Gtalk, I expect a lot of noise initially, but it is also likely that Google’s new killer app is the one we are most quiet on.
For more reference please see the Google Wave Developer Preview at Google I/O 2009 –
Write in to me at:
§ sumit_mattey@hotmail.com
§ Mattey.mattey@gmail.com
Unreliable Nature of Cloud Computing - September 28, 2009
Posted by smattey in Cloud Computing.Tags: Browser, Cloud Computing, cloud computing google, corporate accounts, Email, Email Clients, Gmail, Google, google cloud, IMAP, Moblile Browers, Outlook, Outlook Express, protocol, Sync, the cloud
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Why did Gmail Stumble ??
Google’s email service GMAIL seems to have stumbled again within weeks. As reported earlier, this time it happened on Thursday, September 24, a little more than three weeks after Google’s email product went down for hours – stranding businesses individuals who rely on its service.
Experts said this outage once again brought to fourth the unreliable nature of cloud computing. This is especially scary for corporate accounts which are starting to reply more and more on cloud computing for their core business needs. One wonders in such cases, if we are really ready for the cloud yet ?
Thursday’s problems began when users stopped being able to access their contacts, blocking them from their contact manager, the chat application and auto – filling of email addresses.
Gmail was unavailable on some mobile browsers, and some folders would not open. Those who bypass Gmail’s web interface by using IMAP protocol to sync with external mail clients such as Outlook were unaffected (this was the case earlier).
So Should a Business Be On Twitter ? September 27, 2009
Posted by smattey in Facebook, Social Media 2.0, Twitter.Tags: Customers, Facebook, LinkedIn, LinkedIn.com, MySpace, Social Media, Social Media Spaces, Tweet, Twitter, Twitter Business, what is twitter
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So Should a Business Be On Twitter ?
This is a question I have been asked numerous times. My answers have almost all the same. I simply ask 2 easy questions:
§ What are you trying to accomplish ?
§ Are your Customers on Twitter ?
Before deciding to venture into social media, it is important to understand your own audience, where they may be located and have clearly defined goals. I have been involved in numerous social media spaces. Our goal has been 2 fold –
§ Meet the Customer where they already are
§ Try to assist when we can
I have always found Twitter to be a great space. The reason for this is we know our Customers are there and Twitter has a strong search ability that is also timely. When we look at spaces we do look at the search ability and how quickly we can obtain the information from our Customers. For this we can easily use Twitter Search. There are 2 other benefits to Twitter that can be used for any business. First and foremost is the ability to build relationships. Nothing is more powerful than the relationships with Customers, or prospective Customers. I have built relationships in this space and now also work with the companies involved. Now that is because they had a good product, but I will say it is great knowing that they are there if I need them. The other benefit to Twitter is when people are responding to the question “What are you doing?” many times they are saying how they use a product or interact with a business. That is useful intelligence.
It does seem more and more people are turning to social networking, such as Facebook or Twitter. According to a recent Pew Research Report, as of December, 2008 11% of “online” American adults have said they use a service like Twitter. Now as @criticalmass asked me “if I would walk up to 100 people on the street, would I expect 11 to have heard of Twitter,” I would not expect that. But I think if you were to ask a broader question involving other social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or MySpace I think you would find the numbers even higher. The other aspect is not so much the number but the actual trend. In May, 2008 Pew found 6% were participating on spaces like Twitter and in November, 2008 that number was at 9%. That is a very fast climb.
Another interesting piece to the study was the breakdown of the age ranges. Unlike other social media spaces, Twitter has an older crowd, with a median age of 31 compared to 27 for MySpace, 26 for Facebook and 40 for LinkedIn.
Beyond these stats the report talks about how Twitter users are more connected via electronic devices. This is not shocking given the amount of early adopters in the space. The other discussion in the report is how Twitter users gain their news information. Not surprisingly it is via electronic means.
As we have seen, more and more people are joining spaces like Twitter. I know in Facebook I have been meeting more and more people, many of whom I never expected to be in an electronic space. As social media continues to become more mainstream, it will be important for companies to view this as another channel to communicate with their Customers. Where are your Customers?
