media

Media Ads Introduced In Search Results: Destroying Sanctity Of Search?

by Paul Joseph December 27, 2011 Featured

Google India, in association with Star TV network has introduced Media Ads. or advertisements displayed prominently on top of your search results. Unlike other video formats Media Ads is an exclusive format designed to put video ads front and center. Recently, Google tested multiple ad platforms & chose this especially for  the rechristened Star One, now called as Life OK. A unique aspect is that Media Ads will be fully automated not like usual keyword search ads on google.com or google.co.in where advertiser are allowed to pick competing keywords, sometimes on Real time ad exchanges . Why Google India? We all know India is a very lucrative market for advertising. Many internet giants too feel so. Hence, why not leverage the attitudes of people to serve them ads? Our sentiments are echoed by Praveen Sharma, head, media sales, Google India, “ The media & entertainment category search volumes on Google search have shown phenomenal growth. In the last two years the query volumes have grown at over 125 per cent YoY ”. Further the automation of ads is a good thing not just for consumers but for advertisers as well since Media Ads isn’t targeted like typical AdWords ads on Google Search. With Media Ads, one doesn’t pick any keywords, the targeting is completely automated & charges are simple per-click. Thus a Media Ad campaign is easier to budget with precision trimmed cost analysis. The Media Ads, are primarily focused on movie/show/games/DVDs title, “ When someone enters a search on Google.com or Google.co.in that our algorithms determine is directly related to the movie/show/games/DVDs title (most commonly the title and variations on it), we automatically display the Media Ad at the top of the search results page ” revealed a Google India executive. So how does the advertisement work? Once someone searches for a prominent tile, a relevant video ad thumbnail is shown on top of the search results. When someone plays the video either by clicking the thumbnail or the “watch” link, the Lightbox player expands to the center of the screen and dims the rest of the page around it. The experience is meant to put the viewer’s full attention on the video and to create a much more theater-like experience. We feel it to be a non-intrusive way to advertise content. What do you feel? Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts How India Searched In 2011! India On Right Track Of Online Advertising Says Research & Markets Report Three Musketeers Band Together Against Facebook Facebook Drawing Marketing Money Away From Google And Foursquare? Britannica To Compete With Wikipedia In India?

Tagged as: advertising, advertisment, features, india, life ok, media, news, online advertisment, star tv, web

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Tata Sky Unveils Tata Sky Mobile Access

by Paul Joseph July 28, 2011 Featured

The journey has been quite a success. Starting from a unique range of interactive services, then the bi-lingual guide followed by the Personal Video Recorder , Tata Sky has roped in many customers, who are now happy with its offerings. And to add on to their happiness, the company has tied up with Ryz Media Inc. and launched Tata Sky Mobile Access . The app will enable its customers to access Tata Sky via Apple devices viz. iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. According to a report by Business Wire India, this app will help them used their Apple iDevices as a universal remote to control consumer electronic devices in their homes. It will also help them to access a 4-day program listings , read extended information for movies , search for programs by titles and set their favorite shows from their devices . And for those social savvy customers, this app can help them share what they are watching on TV via Facebook and Twitter. As of now, the app will work on iOS platform only, while the one for Android devices is in the pipeline. The best part of the app is that it is available at iTunes Store for free of cost . To avail the remote functionality, subscribers have to use the app along with a unique orb-shaped MP3 mobile accessory, which plugs into the audio jack of the Apple device. This enables them to control their set-top boxes, TVs, amplifiers and DVD players . As a promotional offer, the new orb-shaped MP3 accessory player is being given free of cost to the first 1000 subscribers. Subsequently, it will cost Rs 350, including postal and handling charges. This is first- of- its- kind service being offered by any Direct-To-Home (DTH) service provider in India. Tata Sky is aware of the fact that there is a high rate of proliferation of smart phones and tablets coupled with the craziness for social networking in India. It is of the opinion that the app is a natural integration of TV entertainment with these smart devices and will allow its subscribers not only control their TVs and set-top boxes, but also make their choices based on what their friends and family are viewing. Altogether, it is going to be a smart experience for Tata Sky subscribers. It is hoped that other players in the DTH space will also chip in to make such app in days ahead. Will Tata Sky be successful in its endeavor of creating a new social TV experience? What do you think?

Tagged as: apple iphone, business-wire, dth, india, ipod touch, media, opinion, ryz media inc., technology, video

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Customize Your Google Plus Profile With MyPlus.Name

by Paul Joseph July 25, 2011 Featured

After making lot of noise worldwide users embraced Google+ , and within one week it crossed 20 million users with it’s interesting feature of hangout , circles and sparks. Day by day customize platforms are introduced to make Plus more appealing. Google+ also had new features by third party developers through which users could update their Facebook and Twitter accounts . So what are your views on getting a customized URL for your profile which showcases who you are? MyPlus.Name is all set to assist users to customize URL for their profile which enables users to have a profile that matches their name letter by letter instead of generic of numbers. Customizing your Google+ profile: Login into your Google+ account Specify Google+ profile URL Pick the name you would like to have as your profile Interestingly, there are no character restriction and changes are updated immediately. Moreover, you can also register upto 5 different name for same profile so that you can showcase different aspect of your personality. Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts Facebook Is -1 While Google Makes A Jump By +1 Google+ A Challenge To Facebook Networking The Battle of Buttons Google Rolling Out Social Search Globally Facebook An Important Source Of Traffic For News Sites: Pew Internet

Tagged as: facebook, google-rolling, important, international, internet, leading-social, media, myplus.name, personality, profile-which, social-search, specify-google, traffic, url for profile

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Bigshoebazaar Raises Funding From Catamaran Ventures And Nexus Venture Partners

by Paul Joseph July 25, 2011 Featured

India based Bigshoebazaar , an apparel and shoe retailer have announced that it has raised funding of Rs. 40 crore from Catamaran Ventures and Nexus Venture Partners by reducing 20% of its assets. The funds raised will be used to increase its supply chain of infrastructure in tier- II cities. This online portal was started in the year 2009 and it is also online licensor of of E- commerce site like www.yebhi.com . The online portal is making use of its online presence in a smarter way by enabling it’s service via SMS. According to the report, Bigshoebazaar caters to 3,000 retailers and 100 brands. Bigshoebazaar supplies footwear from wholesalers to small retailers through this procedure the brand reach to newer and unexplored markets. It markets brand like Bata and Puma through its online platform www.bigshoebazaar.net . To build a robust E-commerce company Catamaran ventures and Nexus venture partners are working closely with the online portal. In past , Snapdeal.com, another daily deal site had raised funding of $12 million from Nexus Ventures Partner. The venture capital had also partnered with entrepreneurs and launched a seed stage program called ” Nexus Seed” to boost the entrepreneurs system in India. Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts Nexus Invests In Kaltura – Open Source Video Platform Provider Nexus Venture Partners To ‘Connect’ With Entrepreneurs Komli Media Raises $15 Million In Investment Round Led By Norwest Nexus Venture Partners Launches Seed Program – Nexus Seed Mahatma Online – Government To Launch Gandhi Heritage Sites Portal

Tagged as: catamaran ventures, daily, funding, government, heritage-sites, india, investment, komli-media, media, nexus venture partners, source, technology, web

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Zenrin Set To Pick Up 24% Stake In MapMyIndia

by Paul Joseph July 22, 2011 Featured

Japanese map publisher Zenrin is in the final steps to invest 30 million USD in India-based digital mapping solution MapMyIndia , reports Economic Times. If the deal goes through, it will give Zenrin 24% stake in the company. The deal values MapMyIndia at 125 million USD.

Tagged as: country, crowdsourcing, google india, google-maps, google-street, google-transit, india-adds, mapmyindia, media, navigation systems, online

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Samsung Launches The Its New Galaxy Tablet – A Challenge For Apple iPad

by Paul Joseph July 22, 2011 Featured

Last year, we blogged about Samsung GalaxyTab coming to India.  Now, another new version of thinner and lighter Galaxy tablet was launched by Samsung Electronic Co trying to hit the much hyped sales of Apple ‘s iPad. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 inch has been upgraded from the 7-inch version. It has been carefully priced at $500 in the US and is throwing greater challenges to all such similar tabs with Google Android OS . Today Samsung as well as Galaxy tabs are attracting the fancies of businesses from airlines to wedding planners. The tab market has crossed the portal of only being deemed as an entertainment gadget. Other players in this arena are Research In Motion’s Playbook and Motorola’s Xoom who have received accolades galore. Hewlett Packard’s TouchPad and Amazon.com Inc have also decided to join this bandwagon of gizmo revolution. Apple has been reported with a total selling quotient of 14 million iPads in the year’s first half and Galaxy tab stands with a statistics of 7.5 million over 2011 as put by the analysts. In the stock market scenario, Samsung hares closed at 3.5 percent enhancing Asian market capitalization and standing out as the most valuable company in the continent. Recently , Apple’s new S1 and S2 was introduced in India. Though Samsung is below Apple but it is ushering with hits cutting edge launches and is the closest rival in the picture. Samsung is slowly reducing the gap in the smartphone market with its access to chips and other tablet components. Others like HP , Microsoft , Acer , Amazon have also joined the tablet unit recently. Today Samsung is much beyond a hardware firm and has become abreast of the trends in technology fanfare as we see that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is bigger , brighter as compared to iPad2. One can have an access to more than 200,000 applications on the go. Another marketing strategy in this regard by Samsung was allowing the Korean version of the device an access to television as well as radio media. Samsung makes an anticipation with the hope of increasing the sales by five times this year. It is a tough race for Samsung to survive and prove its wit! What’s your take on this? Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Most Commented Posts Paypal India Block Leaves IT Guys High & Dry – Need For An Indian Paypal? Wish Us Happy Birthday And WIN Free Customized TShirts from Myntra.com – Domain & Hosting from LimeDomains Be a BIG part of the next BIG thing! Join WAT! Now Women Meow On FM Radio! WATBlog Wins The Best Indian Blog Award 2009! Thanks To Our Readers, Bloggers & Staff!

Tagged as: apple, happy-birthday, marketing, media, mobile, picture, research, samsung, social, trends

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Foreign Media Firms Entering India Through Online Route

by Paul Joseph July 22, 2011 Featured

According to a report in Mint, many multinational media firms are on the verge of launching India-specific editions of their websites soon. The media firms which are reported to take this move are The New York Times and Huffington Post The New York Times plans to launch an India-specific edition of its website in next couple of months, an executive of the company told Mint. The site will have a mix of both international as well as local news. For the uninitiated, The New York Times is one of the most renowned daily newspaper from USA. There is also a talk that the news and content aggregator Huffington Post will be launching its India specific edition in next few months. Huffington Post was bought by internet giant AOL for $315 million . Following this, UK and Canada editions of Huffington Post were launched. But, one thing that can go against Huffington Post in India is that it is still an unknown brand to the Indian masses as compared to NYT. Wall Street Journal had launched its online India edition way back in February 2009. The next to follow was Financial Times which started having India homepage on its website since March 2011. The reason these media firms are looking at online in India is that there are no restrictions in doing business in digital media. This is not the case in either print or broadcast where there is 26% restriction on FDI (Foreign Direct Investment). But, India is too large a market for multinational media firms to ignore. Hence, though there are meager returns on online news and current affairs business right now, these multinationals are setting their footprint in India in the hope that they will get rich dividends in not so distant future. Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts US Newspaper circulation dips as users move to Internet Are Twitter Trends Driven By Mainstream Media? NewsHunt Claims To Be Most Downloaded Indian Mobile News App ‘Gaming’ The Ephemeral Internet Google Tweaks Algorithm To Counter ‘Negative Promotion’

Tagged as: financial-times, huffington post, indian-mobile, internet, media, mobile, newspapers, social, street, web, web edition

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Calling Is Now More Fun With Gmail’s New Multiple Calling

by Paul Joseph July 21, 2011 Featured

Gmail has been spreading its wings ever since its first day. Communicating through Gmail has always been easy and comfortable, and Gmail has always looked into improving or reforming the old to give the best to its users. Earlier, when Gmail introduced its calling service over 1,000,000 calls were made from Gmail within one day. This time also Gmail went a step ahead to reform the calling system . There was a time when you could make or receive just one call but Gmail has introduced its new multiple calling system . Now, you are free to make or receive multiple calls. Although there isn’t a feature similar to conference, but you can now put a call on hold and answer another. Once you need to revert back to the previous call, there is the ‘resume’ option for you. Reverting back to the previous call doesn’t require to end the other call. You have the full liberty to switch between calls. You have the full leisure to choose to make a new call , ignore an unwanted call or do some important work while your call is on hold and get back to it once you are done with your work. Gmail has added this feature to all the calling types like voice, video and to phone. There is just one restriction- you can make only two outgoing calls at a time to physical phones. Skype which was acquired by Microsoft is another competitor of Gmail which grants calling services, lately it was added as video calling feature on Facebook and on Android devices. With Google+ ,  ZIP and RAR Support , SMS , updating Facebook and Twitter. This is a good add-on brought out by Google. It will be interesting to see if Skype establishes similar service or brings out something more refined. Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts Indian Youth Congress Moves To Google Apps Gmail People Widget: A Small Step Towards The Big Social Attempt Of Google Microsoft Unveils Windows Phone 7.1 Mango; Packs In 500 New Features Google Ramps Up Monetisation Strategy For Indian Market Customize Your Gmail Inbox With New Custom Background Images

Tagged as: communication, facebook, images, india, Indian, indian-market, media, phone, skype, sms, social, time, work, youth

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India Signs MOU With US On Cyber Security

by Paul Joseph July 20, 2011 Featured

We at WATBlog have been covering extensively on cyber and related crimes. Indeed, internet has become the breeding ground of unwanted crimes and activities. In India, it is so high that we now have a cyber crime investigation manual already. If you remember, it did rain cyber crimes in India in 2010. And the god of social networking, Facebook has many crimes related to it. Amid these lurking menaces, there seems to be a silver lining. And that is, India and US have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to ensure an increased collaboration in cyber security, reports the Economic Times . The MOU was signed by R. Chandrashekhar, secretary, India Department of Information Technology, and Jane Holl Lute, deputy secretary for the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Now the MOU will allow for a closer cooperation and the timely exchange of information on cyber security between the two countries. This agreement comes as a part of  the second India-US strategic dialogue, participated by the US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Indian External Minister SM Krishna , to expand counter- terrorism ties between the two countries. The Economic Times also mentions of a statement from US Embassy stating that this agreement helps fulfill the joint commitment of both nations to advancing global security and countering terrorism , one of the pillars of the US-India Strategic Dialogue launched on July 20, 2009. The two parties to be involved in the operation are the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) , Department of Information Technology, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, and DHS’ United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT ).  Altogether, this MOU is an outcome of the first comprehensive bilateral dialogue on homeland security issues between the US and India that was held in May this year. India has already been touted as the country most affected by cyber crime. You may have also heard about cyber attacks in India during festive seasons. You also prolly would not like to overlook numerous online lottery scams that have robbed many people of their hard earned money here. To counter all these, there have been many initiatives from the concerned authorities.  Last year too, the CBI and NASSCOM collaborated on beating the same. Indian Army too has a new strategy on cyber terrorism. There are exclusive cyber crimes police stations in Hyderabad . And many more. Do you think the MOU and all these initiatives will enable India to counter this big threat of our times? Let us know. Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts NASSCOM And CBI Collaborate To Beat Cyber Crimes Janrain Includes Support For Orkut To Help Brands Tap Indian Market India gets its first Cyber Crime Investigation Manual to strengthen cyber security Facebook Drawing Marketing Money Away From Google And Foursquare? Facebook Places Begins India Roll Out

Tagged as: agreement, country, cyber law, cyber-crime, emergency, india, marketing-money, media, mou, orkut, web

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Indian Students To Join The Internet Telescope Project By SPACE

by Paul Joseph July 20, 2011 Featured

We all have a deep fascination for the sky and The Internet Telescope Project , spearheaded by SPACE , is now in India, thanks to a collaboration with IASC (International Astronomy Search Collaboration), USA. A  Pilot test is being conducted through 16 participants this month. For this one-of-a-kind project, school students were hand picked. The students are to remotely monitor a 16″ Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes located at the Ironwood North Observatory, USA. Through this telescope, they can take pictures of comets , asteroids and galaxies .  The pilot is being conducted at the SPACE headquarters in India. 16 student volunteers will monitor the telescope. The students are from schools like Bal Bharati Public School, Pitampura; G.D. Goenka and Indraprastha World School. Here are some of the activities they learnt and were exposed to : For the asteroids and comets, images were taken 1-hour apart then blinked to see the moving object against the fixed background stars. For the deep sky objects there were three images of each taken one with the red filter, one with the green filter, and one with the blue filter. The three images were combined into a color image of the deep sky objects. These students clicked fascinating pictures of M8 (Nebula), M13 (Globular Cluster), M51 (Colliding Galaxies), M101 (Spiral Galaxies), M16 (Eagle Nebula), M11 (Wild Duck Cluster) and asteroid PROKNE which was imaged in time intervals and showed movement of the asteroid. Director of IASC, Patrick Miller remarked that Indian Students are very enthusiastic to take part in astronomy and pace science related activities. In April 2012 the project will be conducted with around 80 participants during the Global Astronomy Month by SPACE. We think it is great that the internet is helping Indian Students take an interest in literally reaching for the stars and hope that one of them goes on to become the next Kalpana Chawla and does our country proud!

Tagged as: astronomy, india, Indian, media, project, search, space, students astronomy, telescope, usa

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