How to “AndRead”…
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I was browsing through my favorite feed on my mobile, when I came across a
piece of information. It goes like “*the information available today will
get ...
17 hours ago
13 July, 2009
06 April, 2009
Conquering the world of Mobile Advertisement
In the present era we have a deep presence of mobile & internet in our life. People are driven by socio-emotional need to get connected with their friends, families, information and entertainment. As per the latest research, people are using their mobile to access internet as much as they use traditional web. Apart from all this, we would have hardly noticed but mobile phones are intensely personal devices which we carry with us almost everywhere. As a result, it is hard-to-resist medium for advertisers and proves to be the most intrusive form of marketing.
Mobile Services typically involve two big players: Carrier & End User. Carriers generally weigh different strategies to approach the market and look for different user segments. But we are witnessing the third player coming into picture: Advertiser.
If we try understanding the entire situation, it is carrier which is interfacing both user & advertiser and they have to do the balancing act between the two. The biggest risk taken by a carrier is that there is a high potential for turning off prospective customers. Though there is a significant challenge involved in creating awareness among the advertisers about the mobile domain, there are also some benefits which carriers could offer to them.
Customer Analysis has been and will be one of the prime challenges for the advertising. Carriers have the advantage that they know who the subscribers are. They can track which web pages the customers land on. A little bit of data mining on the user and their mobile communication usage can result in a good data which could be very useful for the advertisers. One of the biggest advantages of mobile devices is that they allow instant reach which in turn gives mobile advertisement its effectiveness. It also helps in increasing awareness and allows user to send a quick response by messaging, calling or downloading.
The general perception of a user about ads is that they are irrelevant, unwanted, uncontrolled and above all spam. However a carrier can prove that the mobile advertising is pretty different from the above.
Carriers can allow users to take control and opt themselves for ads. It should be left at their choice what ads they want to receive in addition to the kind of ads. This empowers user and at the same time encourage them to mobile advertising service.
Carriers can provide a self service portal to user where in they can fill in their personal interest and details. This will help carrier to ensure that the mobile ads and promotions are catered to a section a user based on their choices and are more relevant.
In the entire business of mobile advertisement, carrier plays a major role of bridging the gap between the user and the advertiser. They make advertisements more valuable, measurable and targeted.
Post to Del.icio.us
Mobile Services typically involve two big players: Carrier & End User. Carriers generally weigh different strategies to approach the market and look for different user segments. But we are witnessing the third player coming into picture: Advertiser.
If we try understanding the entire situation, it is carrier which is interfacing both user & advertiser and they have to do the balancing act between the two. The biggest risk taken by a carrier is that there is a high potential for turning off prospective customers. Though there is a significant challenge involved in creating awareness among the advertisers about the mobile domain, there are also some benefits which carriers could offer to them.
Customer Analysis has been and will be one of the prime challenges for the advertising. Carriers have the advantage that they know who the subscribers are. They can track which web pages the customers land on. A little bit of data mining on the user and their mobile communication usage can result in a good data which could be very useful for the advertisers. One of the biggest advantages of mobile devices is that they allow instant reach which in turn gives mobile advertisement its effectiveness. It also helps in increasing awareness and allows user to send a quick response by messaging, calling or downloading.
The general perception of a user about ads is that they are irrelevant, unwanted, uncontrolled and above all spam. However a carrier can prove that the mobile advertising is pretty different from the above.
Carriers can allow users to take control and opt themselves for ads. It should be left at their choice what ads they want to receive in addition to the kind of ads. This empowers user and at the same time encourage them to mobile advertising service.
Carriers can provide a self service portal to user where in they can fill in their personal interest and details. This will help carrier to ensure that the mobile ads and promotions are catered to a section a user based on their choices and are more relevant.
In the entire business of mobile advertisement, carrier plays a major role of bridging the gap between the user and the advertiser. They make advertisements more valuable, measurable and targeted.
Post to Del.icio.us
09 March, 2009
Scheduling Google Search
Scheduling Google Search and getting the results on your Mobile.
I was reading an article on Tech Crunch about Google and I got an idea. If it is Google it has to be Search. If I see the web site I see it perfect. There is nothing a person would want ; a simple User Interface with text box and button. But what if I don’t have access to internet tomorrow just in case if I am traveling or not at my laptop or not having access to internet in but I know that I will need it to search something. For example when I am in Mysore Road (Let's say Wonder La) and I might be looking for some information on the good restaurants around. And I saw myself imagining the Google page with a “Schedule” button which allows me scheduling the search in future (may be 2-3 days in future) and not only this but also delivering the top 10 or 15 search result onto my cell phone. This sounds cool I suppose.
Now this feature will really be good and handy but I also think how many users will be like me needing Google Search at a real weird time? :)
I was reading an article on Tech Crunch about Google and I got an idea. If it is Google it has to be Search. If I see the web site I see it perfect. There is nothing a person would want ; a simple User Interface with text box and button. But what if I don’t have access to internet tomorrow just in case if I am traveling or not at my laptop or not having access to internet in but I know that I will need it to search something. For example when I am in Mysore Road (Let's say Wonder La) and I might be looking for some information on the good restaurants around. And I saw myself imagining the Google page with a “Schedule” button which allows me scheduling the search in future (may be 2-3 days in future) and not only this but also delivering the top 10 or 15 search result onto my cell phone. This sounds cool I suppose.
Now this feature will really be good and handy but I also think how many users will be like me needing Google Search at a real weird time? :)
27 January, 2009
Looks like it’s going to rain!
Title may sound weird to many of you but I could not get any suitable title than this. This line is one among the many dialogues which Spartan king speaks in movie 300. I watch this movie on almost every weekend (I have this movie stored on my laptop HD). Well this blog is no where related to 300.
This blog is about cloud computing. What is cloud computing? Why cloud computing will make it real big?
What is cloud computing? Cloud refers to the internet and computing refers to IT related services. When computing services are available on cloud, same is referred as cloud computing. In IT layman’s word it is like availability of virtual servers for internet. In academics we learn about many concepts like Grid computing, Cluster computing etc… but let’s not confuse those concepts with cloud computing. Cloud computing is not at all grid computing or cluster computing.
Why cloud computing will make it real big? Let’s discuss few reasons why cloud computing will make it real big.
1. Cutting down fixed cost investment: Generally for building any large scale system we need to invest a huge amount in real estate, machine hardware and operational support. But due to the advent of cloud computing there is no fixed cost.
2. Just-in-time Scalability: We heard of just-in-time compilers but now we will witness just-in-time infrastructures where in your system scales as your application grows. This happens by deploying the applications in cloud which allows dynamic capacity management and you need not worry for scaling of your application.
3. Efficient Infrastructure utilization: Cloud computing also allows the best infrastructure utilization. Cloud architectures manager resources more effectively and efficiently because application request and relinquish resources based on what they need (that is on demand supply).
4. Speed up Processing time: It also provides a way to speed up your application processing because parallelization is one of the underlying ideas of cloud computing. To complete a job which is submitted to server, it would be possible to spawn 500 instances to process the same job in a much lesser time.
There are many more reasons which we can find on internet why cloud computing will make it real big. One article which really impressed me to write this blog was “Cloud Architectures” by Amazon Web Services. I wish someday I will be doing web service testing for those guys… :)
This blog is about cloud computing. What is cloud computing? Why cloud computing will make it real big?
What is cloud computing? Cloud refers to the internet and computing refers to IT related services. When computing services are available on cloud, same is referred as cloud computing. In IT layman’s word it is like availability of virtual servers for internet. In academics we learn about many concepts like Grid computing, Cluster computing etc… but let’s not confuse those concepts with cloud computing. Cloud computing is not at all grid computing or cluster computing.
Why cloud computing will make it real big? Let’s discuss few reasons why cloud computing will make it real big.
1. Cutting down fixed cost investment: Generally for building any large scale system we need to invest a huge amount in real estate, machine hardware and operational support. But due to the advent of cloud computing there is no fixed cost.
2. Just-in-time Scalability: We heard of just-in-time compilers but now we will witness just-in-time infrastructures where in your system scales as your application grows. This happens by deploying the applications in cloud which allows dynamic capacity management and you need not worry for scaling of your application.
3. Efficient Infrastructure utilization: Cloud computing also allows the best infrastructure utilization. Cloud architectures manager resources more effectively and efficiently because application request and relinquish resources based on what they need (that is on demand supply).
4. Speed up Processing time: It also provides a way to speed up your application processing because parallelization is one of the underlying ideas of cloud computing. To complete a job which is submitted to server, it would be possible to spawn 500 instances to process the same job in a much lesser time.
There are many more reasons which we can find on internet why cloud computing will make it real big. One article which really impressed me to write this blog was “Cloud Architectures” by Amazon Web Services. I wish someday I will be doing web service testing for those guys… :)
24 December, 2008
Narrowing down Usability Testing
Today we are witnessing a flood of mobile devices and applications which are customized to be displayed on these hand held devices. So in this situation device testing is critical to your business.
Let’s analyze the reason for this:
•Sharp increase in the count of people accessing Internet from Mobile
•Platform used to access site is less predictable when using mobile phones. Computers differ in terms of OS and browser where as the difference between mobile phones and PDAs is wide.
•People have less experience using mobile to go online than computers.
The next big hurdle is how we narrow down our choices for mobile phones and PDA when we have hundreds of them around us. Some of the prominent ways in which mobile devices differs are:
•Screen Size (Large Vs. Small)
•Screen Layout (Landscape Vs. Portrait)
•Pointer or Input Devices Used (Stylus / Numeric Keypad / QWERTY Keypad)
Ideally testing should be done with maximum number of devices so as to include a wide range. But testing with every device is not possible. So we can narrow down the choices of devices based on some factors:
•Popular Mobile Phones in that Geography
•Audience of the site. Certain age group of audience tends to prefer particular types of phones e.g. phones with large screens to support easy online access.
•Targeting Phone families that offer similar UX
So this basically addresses questions like why we need to do Usability Testing and narrowing it down to how do we pick the devices for the same.
Let’s analyze the reason for this:
•Sharp increase in the count of people accessing Internet from Mobile
•Platform used to access site is less predictable when using mobile phones. Computers differ in terms of OS and browser where as the difference between mobile phones and PDAs is wide.
•People have less experience using mobile to go online than computers.
The next big hurdle is how we narrow down our choices for mobile phones and PDA when we have hundreds of them around us. Some of the prominent ways in which mobile devices differs are:
•Screen Size (Large Vs. Small)
•Screen Layout (Landscape Vs. Portrait)
•Pointer or Input Devices Used (Stylus / Numeric Keypad / QWERTY Keypad)
Ideally testing should be done with maximum number of devices so as to include a wide range. But testing with every device is not possible. So we can narrow down the choices of devices based on some factors:
•Popular Mobile Phones in that Geography
•Audience of the site. Certain age group of audience tends to prefer particular types of phones e.g. phones with large screens to support easy online access.
•Targeting Phone families that offer similar UX
So this basically addresses questions like why we need to do Usability Testing and narrowing it down to how do we pick the devices for the same.
14 November, 2008
Social Network? Are we seeing too much of it???
I was just going through some feeds in Google Reader where I saw the heading "Sweeping Changes At Live.com: It’s A Social Network!". Finally Microsoft ventured into Social Networking. I am not a very good researcher on Internet but yes a vivid reader for sure. I have 1 question:
1.Are we seeing too much of Social Networking Site?
My point on the first question, yes I think we are seeing a too much of it. To name a few market owners Facebook, LinkedIn, Friendster, hi5, MySpace, Orkut, Tagged and the list goes on… Too much right! Yeah at least I would say that. I remember I had an account in hi5 which I stopped using, probably account would have got deleted by now. Then I created an account in Orkut, was tired at some point of time and deleted that account and then again I created one as most of the friends are there :). Recently I created an account in LinkedIn found it’s good and very professional unlike Orkut. Then heard of MySpace and created there too. Now the problem which surfaced was how frequently I should check all these account, mapping between friends and these networks and finally remembering the id and password of each of them :). It was too tiring. So I gave up MySpace and focused only on Orkut and LinkedIn.
Now an idea which is coming in my mind is how about creating a web site to control all of my account. Something like Google Reader where in I add those sites and I will get all the updates from my friends, all the scraps from my friends etc… This idea sounds good. But since I am from a testing background I am not sure if this is technically feasible??? But may be in future when the web moves from 2.0 to 3.0 or 4.0 or say X.0 we may get to see this type of an application.
One more thing, I think this idea will be very popular among people in west than here in India just a prediction of mine. But first let’s hope some startup get this idea and our tech gods (Venture Capitalists) fund it.
1.Are we seeing too much of Social Networking Site?
My point on the first question, yes I think we are seeing a too much of it. To name a few market owners Facebook, LinkedIn, Friendster, hi5, MySpace, Orkut, Tagged and the list goes on… Too much right! Yeah at least I would say that. I remember I had an account in hi5 which I stopped using, probably account would have got deleted by now. Then I created an account in Orkut, was tired at some point of time and deleted that account and then again I created one as most of the friends are there :). Recently I created an account in LinkedIn found it’s good and very professional unlike Orkut. Then heard of MySpace and created there too. Now the problem which surfaced was how frequently I should check all these account, mapping between friends and these networks and finally remembering the id and password of each of them :). It was too tiring. So I gave up MySpace and focused only on Orkut and LinkedIn.
Now an idea which is coming in my mind is how about creating a web site to control all of my account. Something like Google Reader where in I add those sites and I will get all the updates from my friends, all the scraps from my friends etc… This idea sounds good. But since I am from a testing background I am not sure if this is technically feasible??? But may be in future when the web moves from 2.0 to 3.0 or 4.0 or say X.0 we may get to see this type of an application.
One more thing, I think this idea will be very popular among people in west than here in India just a prediction of mine. But first let’s hope some startup get this idea and our tech gods (Venture Capitalists) fund it.
29 October, 2008
Orkut, Facebook, Myspace all on one web page...
Social networking Sites – All in one site
Yesterday when I was checking my Orkut account and then my Face book account (Fortunately I am not using Myspace or Linked In), a thought came to my mind; what if a web site which allows me a single sign in to all my account (Orkut & Face book here) and launch the 2 web site side by side. This will give me the facility to have single web page and will minimize my efforts like opening a new tab, typing in my id and password etc.... If you have used blogger, then it will make sense to understand my concept. The web page should be similar to blogger where in you can re-arrange the frames (Which will contain Orkut, Facebook etc...)them as per your wish. We can have some features like if you write some scrap in one scrap book then you get by default the same scrap in other scrap book. Also the host web page may offer you something like finding friends who are there in Orkut and not in Face book or vice versa.
I don’t know if technically it is feasible or not :) , but I think that in future we may get to see a web page like this because almost all of us have more than 1 account in social networking site and with the popularity of these sites we often get drifted to create a new one and try them. So probably it will be very difficult to visit each of them daily and which may push some of our developer bros to create it... I would love to test it being a tester or could suggest some ideas to make it more rich ... :)
Yesterday when I was checking my Orkut account and then my Face book account (Fortunately I am not using Myspace or Linked In), a thought came to my mind; what if a web site which allows me a single sign in to all my account (Orkut & Face book here) and launch the 2 web site side by side. This will give me the facility to have single web page and will minimize my efforts like opening a new tab, typing in my id and password etc.... If you have used blogger, then it will make sense to understand my concept. The web page should be similar to blogger where in you can re-arrange the frames (Which will contain Orkut, Facebook etc...)them as per your wish. We can have some features like if you write some scrap in one scrap book then you get by default the same scrap in other scrap book. Also the host web page may offer you something like finding friends who are there in Orkut and not in Face book or vice versa.
I don’t know if technically it is feasible or not :) , but I think that in future we may get to see a web page like this because almost all of us have more than 1 account in social networking site and with the popularity of these sites we often get drifted to create a new one and try them. So probably it will be very difficult to visit each of them daily and which may push some of our developer bros to create it... I would love to test it being a tester or could suggest some ideas to make it more rich ... :)
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