Don’t Vote. Select….Mumbaivotes.com… Be Informed

Mumbai is gearing up for the forthcoming 2009 elections with each political party announcing their candidates for the respective seats amidst intense political confusions and fighting, so where does the average voter stand whose precious vote is the most important factor in electing the representative.

Is he well informed???

Does he know about the person he is going to vote for???

Historically voters have been voting for the parties they follow but this is changing now as voters are becoming responsible enough to choose the perfect person to represent them.

Mumbaivotes.com a non-profit, independent info-bank comes as immense help for the average voter to make the choice simpler.

Mumbaivotes.com is currently tracking 927 MPs, MLAs and Corporators who are already representing or aspiring to represent their respective areas. It does a phenomenal job in tracking news articles related to them since 1^st January 2004 from all major dailies in multiple languages, video interviews etc to project a real image for an aspirant.

Now Mumbaikars have a means to track their representative’s performance through different parameters such as Attendance Analysis, Committee Membership Analysis, Fund Spending Analysis, Criminal Record Analysis, Election Manifesto, etc. This is an excellent way to track what your elected person have promised before elections and what they have achieved so far.

The website is as easy to use as it can get with all the information categorized neatly with an option to use Mumbai map to get to your constituency quickly. The site gives detailed information about each and every candidate or the currently elected person in great depth right from the contact details to the election manifestos, various performance analytics, various records such as criminal records, legislative records, articles and much more that will help voters to identify the deserving and the most appropriate candidate for their constituency. The portal also gives voters a chance to be informed about their representative’s promises and performance through a sign up option.

So visit Mumbaivotes.com and Be Informed. Don’t Vote. Select.

Indian Politics in the Web

From the Title you might be thinking that I am talking about the Indian Politicians who are always looking for a chance to spin a web around their opponents and tracking each others every move to make a Political benefit out of it.

Let me make one thing very clear, I am not talking about that Web. I am talking about the World Wide Web or the Internet.

“Indian Politics” and “WWW” don’t you think the combination is little weird. India has so many illiterate politicians and those are literate enough don’t seem to be Tech Savvy. Upto now political parties never had substantial online presence.

But all of this is changing… And this might be inspired by Mr. Barack Obama who ran the successful campaign for recently held Presidential Elections using Technology as a backbone for campaigning.

Indian Political Parties have recognized the power of Internet and its growing reach in India. And some of them are already using it to reach masses. Take for instance the case Mr. L. K. Advani who is running a CPC (Cost Per Click) campaign on Google and its Content Network sites. CPC Campaign model charges the advertiser when a user clicks on the ads that are hosted on the search result pages and on websites that host Google Ads.

Have u lately searched for anything related to Indian politicians or political parties on Google??? If you have done that you might have noticed that besides standard organic results it shows Sponsored Listing where these ads are shown. It takes a substantial amount time and effort to come on Top of the organic results where Google charges nothing for the traffic it generates to site. But if you have money to spend Sponsored Listings are easier way to generate traffic from the Worlds Leading Search Engine.

Other politicians and parties like Dr. Kirit Somaiya, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, Congress and many other parties have their respective website in place but none of them are using CPC Campaigns as of now. So why is BJP spending these extra bucks???

Well unlike traditional methods of mass communication like TV ads, SMS or Pamplate distribution for communicating Party’s Electoral Agenda, Google’s search advertising gives a targeted audience. When using traditional method you don’t really know whether the recipients are interested in your content or not but in CPC case the user is already searching for information related to the content you have and thereby giving better chances of effective distribution of information. CPC is also cost effective as the ads are triggered only when related keyword is searched and you got to pay Google only when someone clicks on those ads.

Indian Political Parties are exploring new ways to reach their voters and promote their Agenda. Use of this kind of promotion for Political purpose is a new territory for India and let’s see how BJP fares it.

Microsoft Silverlight-Throw Light on the Web

Microsoft has released the latest version of their cross-platform, cross-browser and cross-device plug in for delivering the next generation next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for Web the Silverlight 2.

Silverlight aims at making web surfer’s interaction with the web as smooth and as enjoyable as it can get. The average user has to Install the Silverlight plug in just once and enjoy the enhanced usability and the interactivity of the Silverlight based Web 2.0 applications. The real challenge lies in front of the designers and developers for delivering the goods.

Microsoft has released Silverlight Tools add on for Visual Studio 2008 that will allow developers and designers to create Silverlight based applications. Silverlight 2 has host of new features such as full .Net support, powerful Built-in controls, advanced styling support and much more…Microsoft has also launched free Express version of Visual Basic 2008 with Silverlight support allowing enthusiasts and students to develop basic apps for free.

Top beneficiaries of this technology would be Businesses and Media & Advertising Houses. It will enable businesses to promote their products in more qualitative ways and engage customers into their brand and content, thereby getting quality leads for their businesses. Media & Advertising Houses can unleash the full creativity of their designers allowing them to create state-of-the-art and pleasing visual treats for the customers.

Silverlight makes both ends meet with Users getting quality applications and enjoyment of surfing and on the other hand allowing businesses to improve productivity with providing users with easy to use interface thereby improving brand loyalty creating a total Win-Win situation for both Users as well as Businesses.

For more info on Silverlight Click Here…

OpenId-Do you have it???

How many times have you just come back from a site without any information because the information you need is locked behind a username and password. And you don’t want to waste time registering with the site and having to manage another username and password. What if you change your contact information like address and phone numbers and have to make the changes to all the sites that you frequently use. Isn’t it frustrating and time consuming????

Imagine… What if you had a single username and password combination that you can use for all the sites….

Well actually you don’t need to be dreaming about it.

OpenId is here….

You can have a single OpenId username and password that works with all the sites that support OpenId platform. You just have to signup once with an OpenId provider and you are done. When you need to sign in into any site, you provide them with OpenId provider name and the user interface will take you to the provider authentication module where you put in your account details and provider will do the validation and redirect you to the site you wanted to surf. You will have all the controls that a normal user will have in that site. There are many OpenId providers available and even bigger number of sites that support it.

Impressed with OpenId??? Want to have one of your own???

There are great chances that you already have one. If you have a Yahoo Id or if you are on Blogger you already have OpenId. Yahoo users just need two clicks on openid.yahoo.com to get an OpenId and Bloggers can use there Blogger URL as their OpenId username. There are other organizations like IBM and Microsoft that support OpenId as both provider and relying party and other organizations that provide OpenId exclusively.

So get an OpenId and enjoy uninterrupted access to all the sites that support OpenId.

Get a complete list of sites that support OpenId here…

For more information on OpenId Click here..

Tubaah- The new Tube from NDTV

Did you miss the review of the car you want to buy on “Car & Bike Show” or heard about a fantastic gadget that guys at “Gadget Guru” reviewed last week or missed the “Big Interview” that you wanted to take notes from….????

Gone are the days when you would have to wait for the repeat telecast of the show. NDTV has launched a new service “tubaah” on the lines of “YouTube” by which you can watch your favorite show as and when you want on the internet.

NDTV has more than 50,000 News Clips, Programmes and Shows at one place for its viewers across the world. All the videos are neatly tucked in different categories like Business, Cooks, Entertainment, Environment, Fashion, News, Exclusive, etc. and on the basis of their popularity they are grouped into Top Rated, Most Viewed, Most Discussed, and Most Tubed. You can easily find the show you want to view by looking through the Channel on which it is aired or through the Shows tab. Finding the desired video on the “tubaah” is hassle free thanks to the detailed management. If you are on the move and don’t have access to television you can watch live feeds from “NDTV 24 x 7” and “NDTV India” on the fly.

You can personalize your stay at “tubaah” with creating your own tube with tubaah for free and upload your own creations and share with the world. You can also follow your friends and watch what they are watching and comment and rate the videos.

There is small catch though, sometimes the videos start with the advertisements that you have to watch as there are no controls to skip them and that can be quiet frustrating as they go on for at least 30 seconds using precious bandwidth that you don’t want to waste. Apart from that “tubaah” is as nice as you can get and will surely be Hit amongst NDTV viewers across the world.

www.tubaah.com

Google Maps reach a new Altitude with the New Latitude

Are you a mother concerned about whereabouts of your child all the time??? Or a spouse wanting to know about your partner ??? Then “Google Latitude” might provide solution to you!!!

Hey!!! Let me make one thing clear for you…. “Google Latitude is not Spying Technology” (But can be used as one)

Google recently released new version of their mapping technology "Google Maps V 3.0" which has a new beta function “My Location”.

My Location pinpoints your location on the map and if you want can “Share” it with the people you want to. The possibilities are endless… You can use it to Socialize or on the flip side to Spy. But the spying part can be taken care by the user by choosing with whom to share your locations with. Even if you have shared your location you can personalize what others view with “Privacy Control” options like allowing google to update the location automatically or setting the location manually, hiding the location or even turning Latitude off.

Latitude currently works on Android powered devices and most BlackBerry, Windows Mobile 5.0 and Symbian S60 devices and is coming soon for iPhone, iPod touch and many Sony Ericsson devices. Latitude doesn’t need GPS compulsorily. If you have GPS enabled device it will pinpoint your location accurately but if you don’t have it, Google Maps will approximate your position based on the location of the tower you use to communicate with Google Maps via GPRS. Using GPRS to approximate your location can be a costly affaire as it is Data Heavy communication and will bite into your monthly MBs more than you think. Google itself recommends an Unlimited data plan to use Maps.

Google Latitude can be used on PC as well by adding it to your iGoogle page. You can set the location manually or allow Google to update it automatically based on the IP address or hotspot you are using.

Google Latitude is still in its Beta version and will be under improvement for time to come. Till then use it and Enjoy!!!

For more info visit
google.com/latitude

View these Videos:

• Google Latitude

• Google Maps for Mobile With My Location(Beta)

Can’t find a knife, well Sony OLED Television might do the work for you…

Sony has come up with this new fabulous OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) Television XEL-1 that boasts a 3 millimeter thin panel and picture quality that is out of this world.

The advantage of OLED technology is that it can completely turn off the pixels when reproducing blacks and hence XEL-1 can deliver an outstanding contrast ratio of 1,000,000 : 1, counting zeros???? Late me make it easy for you its a million is to one. It is not behind in any other performance factors as well with outstanding brightness, color reproduction and super fast response time. XEL-1 uses Proprietary color filters and a special micro-cavity structure to enhance color purity to reproduce as much as 105% of the NTSC color space. Its full 1080p high definition compatible set and not left behind in Audio division as well with Auto SAP, Digital Amplifier, Dolby® Digital, MTS Stereo Decoder, Sony Original Surround, Sound Booster, SteadySound® Automatic Volume Control. To simply put all this “Technical Stuff” we can be rest assured that this TV can give you realistic picture experience.

The whole world is talking about Going GREEN and Sony is one of the leaders in promoting the cause. Under normal viewing conditions, the Sony 11 inch diagonal OLED TV can result in reduced power consumption of up to 40% per panel square inch compared to conventional 20-inch LCD panels. Sony is able to achieve this because Light-emitting OLED technology eliminates the need for a backlight and achieves a high level of energy efficiency.

Looks of the set are Killer keeping the Sony tradition alive. The stunning lines of the XEL-1 are designed to be Envy of. Looking at the form factor you may think that Sony must have compromised on the features but you are wrong, just look at the feature set and you will come to know.

So how much this beauty costs???

Well you can get hold of one for $2499.99

Costly Huh!!!!!

Well they say “Best Things in Life Don’t Come Cheap….”

For now feast your eyes on this chic “The Sony OLED Television XEL-1”

For more info on Sony OLED Television XEL-1 visit:

www.sonystyle.com

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