A roundup of new Indian sites unleashed during the last month, and new features in some of the older sites
www.srkworld.com
With
this site, ace actor Shah Rukh Khan steps into a new role -- that
of a Web entrepreneur. The rather wholesome entertainment site is
chock full with interesting features. There is the 24/7 Shop
where you can buy stuff endorsed by your favourite stars. The
Stardome hosts the official domains of some top film stars where
you can check out their careers and doings. The Third Eye is an e-zine
for filmy news and happenings. Then, you can view video clippings
of Indian cinema in the M Files section, play games by entering
Touch Down or just get a few laughs out of The Funnies which
include spoofs with ShahRock & Co.
From one of the more successful financial
Website creators (mutualfundsindia.com) comes this new portal to
provide information on various aspects of investments and loans.
Here you can check out info on company and bank fixed deposits,
live market quotes and indices, happenings in various segments of
the capital market, home loans, post office savings, mutual funds,
equity initial public offerings and get a review of economic
events by guest columnists. However, if the site is to succeed,
it must keep all its info up-to-date and not just BSE and NSE
indices. For example, we found that in the post office savings,
the interest rate is still shown as 12%, when it has now been
reduced to 11%.
Mobile phones have become very much part of the
international scenario and India now has a large quantum of
mobile talkers. One of the recent enhancements for mobility is
wireless application protocol or WAP. Wap-hop.com is a site
specially set up for providing WAP-enabled service. The site
offers both Web and wireless interface. From this site you can
avail of instant messaging, e-mail access or a virtual Wap-phone
(emulator) all through any WAP-compliant mobile phone, or a
personal data device, from anywhere in the world.
A big step forward in getting multimedia
programmes to stream live onto your desktop has been taken by the
UTV Group in partnership with Sharkstream.com. The catchword here
is 'broadband,' which downloads content at a very high rate. The
catch is that you got to be a member of a content provider who is
geared to providing you a cable connection to your computer. In
Mumbai, at present, you must own a Wincable connection to view
the video on this site. Besides, PC users need the Windows Media
Player plugin. Mac users, at least for the nonce, please excuse.
There are ten channels which, between them, offer 50 hours of
programming.
These three sites are promoted by Trikon
Electronics Pvt Ltd. Ownpages is a service for establishing a Net
presence and provides your basic requirements for free. These
include domain registration, domain name control, a Website, e-commerce
tools and extranet application. Of course, if you want to upgrade,
you pay. Ownmail offers e-mail tools for all categories of users
right from an individual user to large businesses. Here too, the
basic services are free, while upgrades cost. Aqualogistics
provides export-related services. Of particular value to users is
the provision of freight rates to any destination in the world.
And once you get the right rates, you can book your cargo right
online. Further, you can track the movement of your shipment,
check demurrage costs and find out schedules of vessels.
This site, promoted by ICICI has been
around for some time, offering bargains, discounts and special
deals to its members. It has now launched a 'Value Cart.' This is
a physical entity, the size of a credit card, through which you
can avail of discounts at various outlets in selected cities. The
card is actually an offline extension of the e-coupons facility,
whereby members can download and print e-coupons of their choice
and redeem them for discounts at stores affiliated with
Khuljasimsim.com. And when you pick a bargain, you also help a
noble cause, for 1% of the price you pay for any product till 1
January 2001 will be given to the Spastics Society.
This site for working editors, reporters
and accredited news organisations was started a few months ago.
It provides, for free, a personalised news delivery to the target
users based on their own professional interests. A recent
addition to the site is Ejourno Connnect, an interactive tool for
keeping journalists, PR agencies and news organisations connected
at all times. The features include e-mail, chat, a bulletin board
and a 'Media Community Track' which helps journalists search for
members from their community. Another new feature is due to the
site's tie-up with IIS Infotech whereby all ejournos will receive
gift vouchers worth Rs 1,000 each which can be used as credit for
any of the courses on offer from IIS Websity. The courses include
Internet awareness for beginners; Web designing, administration
and development; and e-commerce.
Nazara.com has made an enviable name for
itself in the field of entertainment since it was launched on 1
January this year. Its clutch of portals include those for gaming,
contests, discounts, Web radio and chat. The site has now
extended its reach through content-sharing tie-ups with other
dotcoms in the field of games and entertainment, and also with
dotcom advertising agencies for ad revenues. The organisations
involved are Zeenext, Indiandukaan, roltanet, Pacfusion,
Mediaturf, Webshashtra and Media2india.net.Contact: Manuel Fernandes
Updated 26/November/2000