Yahoo offers Driving directions in India

Its cool that Yahoo beat Google in offering driving directions in India. I wasn in India in July. Who drives their own car anyway when visiting. After nearly 10 years in the US I am scared to drive.

Still Yahoo's step is a cool thing that will give Yahoo an edge. Yahoo has a bigger presence in India than Google according to Fortune. I tried out a route that I had gone many times in July and the directions seemed quite accurate. I will give good marks to Yahoo.

Driving from Hyderabad to Warangal

Amazing 400 Million in India

I was reading Fortune's article on the issue Oct 29th (Online version) and was amazed that India has a 400 million workforce. Extraordinary Human capital.

Some other amazing numbers:

Internet ad business = $53 million
Puny compared to the $16 Billion US spending- so there is a huge potential here. Google realuzes that and has a huge India presence
Internet Users= 25 million
Cell Phone users = 200 million ( The government expects to have .5 Billion by 2010)

With the dollar value weakening Indian powerhouses are seeking to buy companies. A few months ago Tata motors was mentioned as a possible suitor for Chrysler. Now its going after Landrover and Jaguar from Ford.

Growing up in India I remeber the brands like Imapala were owned by filmstars and it would a couols of months if not years for new music releases to make it to India. Now Indian internet users are probably buying music online.

Thank you Globalization.

Two excellent books on globalization:

The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century is a best-selling book by Thomas L. Friedman

The Elephant and the Dragon: The Rise of India and China and What It Means for All of Us (Hardcover)by Robyn Meredith

My Son in Daycare

My Son in Daycare, originally uploaded by sbell1508.

Among the various uses of the Internet. I like this. My son's daycare sends me pictures now and then and its so nice to stop and look at the pictures. :)

Most significant sources of innovative ideas for corporations

My friend Tastybit posted this on Twitter and its a great blog post here - http://giussani.typepad.com

Top sources of innovative ideas

Interesting graph from this week's Economist report on innovation, showing the most significant sources of innovative ideas for corporations, based on a survey of CEOs and and business leaders done by IBM last year (so, a strong focus on technological innovation here). Notice the big role of customers (which would look even bigger if combined with the internal sales units), the small role of R&D, and the fact that hiring consultants roughly equals attending conferences and trade shows:

A different kind of Blue Ocean

http://www.blueocean.org/seafood/ .

They send cell phone-based service to send you text messages with the information you need to make smart seafood choices.

Great guide to seafood: http://www.fishphone.org/seafoodguide.pdf

Mobile device: The group also is launching FishPhone (http://fishphone.org), a Web site formatted for Web-enabled cell phones and PDAs.

I wish they had the fishphone.mobi domain.

Question: What country is losing paid Internet subscribers, but adding users?

Answer: India, with the unusual distinction of being possibly the only country in the world losing Internet accounts, as in the second quarter of 2007 the number of tertiary users fell by 50,000. Yet, more Indians than ever report going onto the 'Net to surf or check email. How is this possible? Because, Net users are now accessing through their cell phones.

Source: http://www.ibls.com/

Blog Action Day, October 15, 2007 Environment

I am really amazed at school students being so aware at what their parent generation has done to damage the environment. Google adwords team just sent a nice post on http://veggiewheels.com/ ( Nice website)
Extract:
Why vegetable oil is the perfect ingredient to reduce climate change:

• Sulfur, which causes acid rain, is eliminated
• Co2 emissions, a major contributor to global warming, are nearly eliminated because vegetable oil is a renewable fuel
• Emissions of others pollutants like HydroCarbons and Carbon-monoxide are reduced by about 30% - 50%
• Black soot (particulate) is significantly reduced by 50-70%

On Sunday in the Parade magazine I liked the one common sense suggestion from a Doctor to practice hygiene. Leave your shoes at the door.

Bob Dylan singing for me

Washignton DC Metro VA, MD - Residents/Bloggers

Check out the Washington-area blog directory on washingtonpost.com:

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/local-blog-directory/

See what your neighbors in DC, Maryland and Virginia are writing in their blogs

Washingtonian needs "how we met" stories

Here is what Marissa Conrad posted on Facebook :

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"I'm writing a few "how we met" stories for Washingtonian's annual wedding guide, so I need to find engaged or married couples in the Washington area who have cute/funny/otherwise entertaining stories on how they met, fell in love, got engaged...

It will be a fun interview for a couple to do--who doesn't like talking about how they fell in love?

If you're interested or know anyone who might be, please e-mail me at mconrad@washingtonian.com. Thanks!"

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I am looking forward to a very interesting article

Whats up with Sun's Java stock?

In the tech business JAVA is pretty important for a lot of Web Based applications. WHy is ti them the stock of Sun Microsystems (JAVA) trading at $5.76 (52 Week Range $4.50 - 6.78)I guess thier giving away of the software is not making the stock the favorite of Wall Street.

Journalists seek leads on Facebook

Just saw a post on Facebook from Marissa Conrad ( Freelance Journlaist)reproduced below. Really amazing and I am sure she will get a lot of leads. Social networks are the way for future communications.I have seen several Washington Post journalists on Facebook and Exchanged some plesantries with DOn Graham the head honcho of Washington Post. The very fact that he replied tells me that they take Facebook seriously and are organized to respond.

Marissa Conrad's Post :
I'm writing a few "how we met" stories for Washingtonian's annual wedding guide, so I need to find engaged or married couples in the Washington area who have cute/funny/otherwise entertaining stories on how they met, fell in love, got engaged...

It will be a fun interview for a couple to do--who doesn't like talking about how they fell in love?

If you're interested or know anyone who might be, please e-mail me (Marissa) at mconrad@washingtonian.com. Thanks!

Network Solutions participating in the EcomXpo with $2,800 value giveaway !

From Oct. 9-11, 2007, Network Solutions® is participating in the EcomXpo, a virtual tradeshow for e-commerce marketers. As part of this event, we’re giving away a Top 10 Search Results package that provides expert search engine optimization (SEO) to get your web site ranked on the first page of search results. This is a $2,800 value! To enter for your chance to win, simply register for the expo (it’s free) at www.ecomxpo.com and visit the Network Solutions virtual booth.