Google Pack, A Message from GMail and some Attitude

I really love people behind GMail. Here is a screenshot of a message from them. Amazingly cool attitude !

And I just got the link for Google Pack!. It has everything from a web browser to an antivirus to an image management tool to an instant messenger client to a popup blocker to anything else. Basically you install Google Pack on a newly formatted PC and you can do all the work in the world ! Infact the line on their homepage says "Free! Download the essentials to make your PC just work: Google Pack"

I am waiting for an application like Open Office to be included in the pack. My other favorite company is going to have a very tough time in the future. I guess all they need is an operating system and an office suite to lock horns with the Big M. Lets Us C !!!!

Dear Spam Sender ...

Got this in email. Found it funny and here it is.

Bug with GMail

I am very proud to announce that I have found a bug with Gmail. Yes ... a bug.

When two different people send an email to only you and the subject line is exactly the same, GMail treats it as same conversation and clubs them together.
This document on GMail Help says that "Gmail groups all replies with their original message, creating a conversation."

I think a conversatin is only identifiable with the recepiants and the subject line. The subject line can have standard modifications (such as Re:, FW: etc.) which are ignored by GMail when creating conversations. So if two entirely different people send in their mails to same group of recepiants with the same subject line, GMail would treat it as same conversation and club the two. The email contents could be different. In effect the entire point behind having a conversation is lost. We are not clubbing related information but clubbing unrelated information !

Time for some fixes... !

Jonathan Ive - My Hero !

After quite some time now I have had an oppurtunity to call someone My Hero! Jonathan Ive is the Senior Vice President of Industrial Design at Apple. Yes the company that can boast of names such as Steve Wozniak, Guy Kawasaki and Steve Jobs. I am sure there are more names to the list but I have heard of only these three people.

So what's so great about this Ive guy? To start with he is credited with the mind behind the designs like G4, G5, iPod, iMac. I mean wow. I always thought that these were cool looking boys toys and the company has put in a lot of money and mind and time to design these. I never thought that all the designs could have come from the team led by one person, one mind, Jonathan Ive.

So what do I know about Jonathan now? He is Sr.VP at Apple. He is said to be one of the key people in the entire history of Apple. His design on iMac in 1998 saved the company from ruts.

Most importanly, I firmly believe that design is as powerful medium of expression as is speech/words. Simplicity makes a lot of sense ...

what are words that mean love that start with the letter "O"?

I think when I type. I have'nt typed for quite some time now and I have'nt thought for quite some time now. There is no reason for not thinking/typing but here I am.

So I was idling on the internet and I was looking at the search engine queries that people use to find my blog and I came across this wonderful query. Someone actually typed a query "what are words that mean love that start with the letter "O"? including the quotes and the trailing question mark.

Coming to psychoanalysis, the guy/gal must have been a techie. I have reasons to believe this. One he used quotes et al and Second s/he used Dogpile.com. Considering the fact that only 0.8% of people use Dogpile to search the web, I can safely quote him/her as techie.

This link refers to the original query and results. My blog is listed at number 13.

Hats Off !!!!

The Most Beautiful Woman on Earth

My blog got even more beautiful ... :)

Simone Singh - the most beautiful woman on the planet.

Test

Test

--
Saurabh @ Septemberthe22nd@GMail.Com

F R U S T A T E D

I just realized that if you have your Yahoo Messenger status as "Frustated", all the friends who have'nt sent you a message in a decade would respond and talk to you.

I was online for an hour with no status message and no one was talking to me. I change it to frustated and suddenly I am flashed with 12 people. And as I am talking to these 12 people (yes its a feat), I am writing this ... :)

How to advertise women's magazine?

Case
Think (lol !!!) that you are a marketing executive for a women’s only magazine. Like every other magazine your company has advertised everywhere but no results.

The Problem
Try to find out new ways to reach your target segment in this internet age when ladies are more content on watching saas-bahu conspiracies and internet savvy.

The Answer
Place a rack full of your magazines in the waiting rooms at gynecologist (female specialists) and pediatrician (child specialist).

Why this post?
I went to a relative's clinic. She happens to be a gynecologist. She was busy with a lady and I was asked to wait and guess what do I see? A branded company rack full of a women's only magazine with all the issues lined up neatly. I went WOW then and there.

On asking more questions, I was told that they have placed that rack there for free (including 12 issues of the magazine). What more, to drive the sales, they placed a registration form and a drop box for completed forms. I was further told that the company reprentative would come once every two days to put the magazines in order and collect the forms. Everything that a marketing professor would teach. You reach the cusomter. You create a want. You provide a method to fulfill the want.

I also saw one of the numerous Prof. Sanjay Bakshi's mental models at work. The drop box for the filled up forms was transparent and a fairly large cube (2 feet per size) and it had some 15 forms in there. I asked the helper if ladies actually filled in those forms. I was told that yes ladies fill up the forms but all the forms in the box were not genuine. I was told that the company people filled some 20 forms at random and dropped in the box. Social Proofing at work. Other ladies would see these great magazines. They would further see that some women have went ahead and applied for subscription. Here is a product that they like and here is a list of people who also like the product. They are not incorrect in loving the magazine and they would also fill in the forms. Pretty Neat. Another mental model in application.

Links in this post
http://www.sanjbak.com
http://www.uncommon-knowledge.co.uk/social/social-proof.html

Million Dollar Home Page vs Crorepati Page

The concept is simple. You register a fancy domain name. Make a 1000 x 1000 grid. Put individual pixels for sale and you get a million. Cool and Easy.

A student [Alex Tew] in UK created the original Million Dollar Home Page and got famous. I have to salute him for the amazing amount of creativity and thought process behind the concept.

As always, since it is an easy way to get rich and famous at the same time, people were bound to copy it and here it is... An indian homemaker has copied it and hosted her own indian thought-about creative concept at Crorepati Page. Well done my friend. I am very tempted to put my very own million rupee page on the internet. I think I would do it on saurabhgarg.com ...

I copied this from the Crorepati Page ...

And lastly, who am I?

My name is Sunaina Bansal, and I am married to my loving husband, Karan. I am a homemaker. In addition, I am highly educated and like to think creatively, and be aware of the many milestones that man (and woman!) has achieved today. And it is this awareness and the accompanying confidence that helped me create my concept. I sincerely hope that this influences the online Internet community in India and contributes to the growth of Internet marketing. And that it also influences more women to try the Internet, which also adds to the online community and enormously benefits the companies that advertise on my website. I hope I gain your support."

And here are my honest uncalled for opinion on that ...
1. You do not get creative if you steal the idea. You have not created the concept. You have just copied it from the web. EDITED LATER: She has given due credits to the original Million Dollar Page and I accept my mistake.
2. Growth of internet marketing? I have serious doubts.
3. Benefits companies that advertise on your website? Yet again ... doubts !!!!

I wish people would start thinking originally and stop passing other people's idea as theirs. And if you have to copy it, how about giving the original ones some credit? EDITED LATER: Yet again, I am at mistake. :(

EDITED LATER
Unlike a lot of other people, here someone actually took an initive to reply to the email. My sincert apologies to Sunaina. I was at mistake by being rude.

Here is the reply I sent her ...

Hi Sunaina,

I dont know if this would reach you or not ... (hope this does)

Few things first...

The about us page on your website do NOT say anywhere that it was Alex Tew. Well, now it does (just checked) but the day I posted, it wasn't there. I am not saying that you have added it after I wrote about it but I might have missed it the first time. Hope this clarifies things and reason for my posting it.

I do not call gmail a imitation of hotmail because they do not take credit for being the original email service. They just say that it's yet another email service of course with a change.

Talking about your website and internet marketing, I seriously have my doubts on it. You can have testimonials but I REALLY REALLY think that websites like Alex's and your's do not contribute towards it. Well this is just a personal opinion. I am not convinced.

I agree to the fact that yes internet marketing is growing leaps and bounds; it is the next big thing. If you realized, internet marketing is getting more and more personalized with companies like Google (with their adsense program) targeting people for selected keywords. Your website is opposite. It is in effect is a potpourri of advertisers who think yours is a good website/idea. A website like yours, it's like a classified page on a newspaper (well worse than that - newspapers at least categorize information, your website doesn't even do that. You allocate space based on the preference). So for a person lets say searching for ipod, your website is a bad idea. He can see a list of 1000 advertisers and their services but he hardly can spot an ipod ad. Whereas a website that has a simple page on music is better.

Talking from advertiser's point of view, they would not give you money to place on your page. They would not get their target audience from your website. Please ask them the number of hits they get from google adsense or link exchange and compare with hits from your website. You would be surprised.

Further, I agree that they are getting more than 250 hit per day but once you get more people to advertise on your website, the number of hits is bound to reduce. I might be wrong but these are my personal opinions. I would be glad if you could prove me wrong. I would love to see more stats once your website get that millionth pixel sold.

If you get offended by it, please accept my apologies. I was just trying to say that, like everyone else, all you did was copied an idea and posted in online for reaping quick buck because I don't see it as the answer to cyber marketing.

As far as spreading the mantra is concerned, I am trying to ! I am connected with friends etc just through my blog that hardly attracts about 5 visitors per day. I wanted them to read about your website and I posted it.

I sincerely apologize for being very rude. Trust me it's not in my nature to be rude or negative. I appeared negative but I think you could have guessed the reason. I am real pissed off with a lot of people trying to pass off as genuine inventions. Your case is an exception. You have given Alex credit and I think that is more than enough for me.

In the end, thanks a lot for at least taking time off to reply. I have written to lots of other Indian ideas that are passed off as original without eliciting even acknowledgement for the email. I would edit my post and please accept my apologies yet again.

Regards,
Saurabh

P.S.: Do I get a spot on your website for free ;)?