http://www.watblog.com The Refreshing Blog on Web, Advertising and Technology in India! Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:58:40 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Facebook connect seems to be doing really well in terms of growth and adaptation. Facebook connect's success marks the ambitious expansion plans of Facebook to capture new waters in terms of future Ad network and as a potential payment gateway. Effectiveness of Facebook connect as disclosed to SAI : Publishers using Facebook ... http://www.watblog.com/2009/07/03/facebook-connect-gaining-wide-acceptance-doing-wonders-for-publishers/ The Bing v/s Google Battle has been raging on for quite some time now. Companies are giving Twitter a lot of attention, and it's not rivals like Facebook , but software giant Microsoft who has also entered the Twitter arena to grab as much attention as possible. In a recent ... http://www.watblog.com/2009/07/03/bing-includes-twitter-in-results-real-time-search-not-quite/ The recent tiff between producers and multiplexes had prevented the release of several movies for the last few months. Now, to offset the delay, several movies are releasing at the same time with promoters doing everything they can to catch the limelight. Today much awaited movie “Kambakkht Ishq” will release. ... http://www.watblog.com/2009/07/03/%e2%80%9ckambakkht-ishq%e2%80%9d-starts-digital-movie-promotion-with-hungama-digital-pvt-ltd/ Ajit Balakrishnan  - Chairman of Rediff.com gave the keynote at the IAMAI Digital Marketing Conference held at Delhi yesterday. Personally I felt it was one of the best keynotes that Ive heard at any event. Ajit traced the growth of internet right from 1995 to this day and also pointed ... http://www.watblog.com/2009/07/03/ajit-balakrishnan-on-what-is-wrong-with-the-digital-space-what-it-needs-what-lies-ahead/ It seems that every Indian is trying to grab a mobile phone leading to a humongous requirement of new mobile numbers. Mobile numbers starting with 9 have come to an end and DoT has given permission to telecom companies to allocate new numbers starting with 8. According to TRAI, India ... http://www.watblog.com/2009/07/03/mobile-numbers-to-start-with-8-and-have-11-digits-soon/ Music and entertainment have been the most prolific VAS in use in India amongst the many available. In a bid to make the most of the scenario, Idea has launched Idea Madhur. It is a music driven value add that focusses on forgotten artists and folk/grass roots music. The focus of ... http://www.watblog.com/2009/07/02/idea-to-launch-idea-madhur-will-grass-roots-music-tap-in-at-the-grass-roots/ by Pranav Agarwal Facebook vs Orkut. Which one of these do you have an account in? Chances are, both. Orkut was an early entrant into the Indian Social Networking Scenario. Facebook, which arrived much later, however seems to grabbed quite some attention. Though both were launched at the same time, Facebook was ... http://www.watblog.com/2009/07/02/facebook-takes-on-orkut-in-india/ By Pranav Agarwal There have been several startups in the past 3-4 years and it has become difficult for them as well as for the concerned industry to connect to them and to understand their innovative products. We have been following companies that help promote new technologies since we started. Among ... http://www.watblog.com/2009/07/02/event-update-protoin-pune-25th-july/ Mouthshut, a pioneer in user generated content is set to change the social media scenario in India as it would soon be doling out free accounts to corporate and brand owners for brand reputation management. Mouthshut initiatives holds weight as it is one of the largest user ... http://www.watblog.com/2009/07/02/mouthshut-set-to-propel-social-media-interaction-to-give-free-accounts-to-brand-owners/ It seems TRAI wants to leave no stone unturned for smooth implementation of Mobile Number Portability in India. It has therefore issued a draft legislation to clear the uncertainty surrounding the introduction of mobile number portability. The draft guidelines describes the rights, obligations and duties of both the ... http://www.watblog.com/2009/07/02/trai-issues-draft-guidelines-for-mobile-number-portability/ Today after coming to office, I opened my gmail account first and got a new window informing me about new drag and drop feature of gmail labels. Using the new features, I managed to add labels, manage them and organise my inbox easily and effectively. Gmail is constantly adding new features ... http://www.watblog.com/2009/07/02/gmail-introduces-drag-n-drop-mail-feature/ Bindass, the youth centric TV channel from the UTV Group has launched Bindass.com - a community platform for the youth. Just like MTVIndia’s connected they seem to have integrated it with facebook connect platform to reach out to the youth on facebook. Bindass already had a platform in Bindass.tv which ... http://www.watblog.com/2009/07/01/bindass-tv-channel-launches-bindasscom-an-online-platform-for-buddies/ It looks like payment gateways has become a main attraction for financial services giants as Citibank India, consumer banking arm of Citigroup, has tied-up with Vodafone Essar Ltd and Nokia India to launch a pilot project testing its Mobi-payment solution in India. The pilot project is said to be one of ... http://www.watblog.com/2009/07/01/citibank-to-launch-a-trial-project-for-mobi-payment-with-vodafone-and-nokia/ MTV India has always been very active with its social media activities and we have tracked the same here at WATBlog be it  for MTV roadies or Battleground 2. Now MTV has chosen to integrate facebook in the launch of its new show Connected. This show is about how connected ... http://www.watblog.com/2009/07/01/mtv-promotes-new-show-via-facebook-app-celebrity-connect/ Now when I say traffic games they aren't quite the kind of games that YouTube publishers started building recently. It rather works on the metaphor of playing tricks using features that weren't made for such tricks. The games however can now happen because of what YouTube plans with an update to ... http://www.watblog.com/2009/06/30/youtube-will-now-let-you-link-off-site-expect-traffic-games-on-videos/ Randall Rothenberg, CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, has called for a "creative renaissance" on the Internet, which he said has been "an unthinking hostage to a direct-marketing culture and tradition that devalues creativity and its long-term effect on brands." (Adage) Impressiveness never goes unnoticed, and we have seen that time ... http://www.watblog.com/2009/06/30/the-call-for-a-creative-renaissance-in-online-advertising/ We probably hear a lot about awareness drive by government regarding various human and social illnesses but its first time that the Hyderabad police has launched a campaign named ‘Delete’ on the similar lines to drive awareness regarding Cyber crimes in India. Hyderabad Police has launched an awareness drive comprising of ... http://www.watblog.com/2009/06/30/%e2%80%98delete%e2%80%99-new-way-to-tackle-cyber-crime-in-india/ Webchutney - The Digital Marketing Agency has released the first edition of its annual report which looks at the future prospects of the Digital Media Industry in India. This report analyzes the digital medium by analyzing the ad-spends of the Top 500 marketers who control two thirds of all advertising ... http://www.watblog.com/2009/06/30/growth-predictions-online-at-44-mobile-at-600-in-fy-09-10-digital-media-outlook-report/ Mobile apps have taken the world by storm be it Apples iphone apps or growing number of Anrdoid apps or Palm pre apps. Apple has already seen one billion mobile app downloads, Palm pre app catalog hit 1M downloads in less than three weeks of it's release and Piper Jaffray ... http://www.watblog.com/2009/06/30/native-mobile-apps-vs-web-based-mobile-apps-an-analysis/ Last week, I wrote a very detailed post on the Iran controversy and the importance of social media communications; on how Twitter and the new online media has emerged as the hero in Iran by helping us get the news from the very heart of chaotic Iran. The current Iran ... http://www.watblog.com/2009/06/30/the-other-side-of-iran%e2%80%99s-supposed-%e2%80%98twitter-revolution%e2%80%99/