This looks like, probably, the most innovative feature that Rediff has ever launched. And I’m still trying to grapple with the possibilities. In the feature that looks more like in a testing phase, currently, Rediff has enabled users to add mini-feed updates from their Orkut and Facebook profiles and view it directly off their Rediffmail accounts.

Now, this is a huge change from the earlier Media Portal mentality where free outgoing links were a strict no-no unless they added to the bottom line with ad revenue! In this case, the feature allows users to add their Orkut/Facebook feeds by submitting their user names and passwords (Maybe some privacy issues here user account details are required because neither Orkut nor Facebook are parent companies of Rediff or vice-versa. Moreover, there needs to be a way to distinguish an user.) and access their friends’ updates via Rediffmail. It’s almost like a FriendFeed feature within Rediffmail.

Check the screen shot (Click on it to enlarge) of this cool feature below:

Rediffmail is one of the largest Indian email service providers with a huge registered, active & loyal user base. However, with Gmail being very quick and thoughtful with its innovations, combined with an easily navigable interface and the conversation format, Rediff was soon losing the email battle, at least in India. Now, with this feature on board, it seems the, more than a decade old, media company is finally embracing the fact that users can’t only be on their platform and hence aggregating an user’s favorite applications on one platform might increase loyalty.

The question that comes to mind is why didn’t Gmail think of this feature, first? After all, most Orkut users are Gmail users! Sometimes, a company becomes too large to spot obvious micro-product opportunities.

The other question is what could be next? Twitter? Linked in updates? Also, will we see a follow up on this strategy by other players like Yahoo & Gmail too?

Thanks to Rahul & Shayon for the tip off. Do you want to tip us off on anything new/exciting/exclusive? Shoot us an email on info(at)watblog.com

Rupesh Adds : This feature still does not show your scrapbook updates in the feed (even after taking your user/password). Also, if you remember, previously we had blogged on getting notifications of orkut scraps and community disscusion updates via RSS feeds (without submitting user/password).  Due to heavy usage, that service is no longer available free and the script is for sale.

However, we now have OrkutFeeds, an alternative where you can view Orkut scrapbook/community updates via RSS feeds and soon, we will be able to search for keywords and get the results via RSS feeds without logging into Orkut (You can take it as another breaking news).  So, it will be like - what summize.com is for Twitter.

So, the bigger question is - How will Google react now?

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