Check Out Google Checkout

Google is at it again with Google Checkout



Google has come up with another innovative but disruptive concept that is going to impact how we pay for our online purchases. Initially, available only in US, Google Checkout service will allow users to make online purchases with the information they store with Google. To incent the eCommerce sites to use its service, Google is providing discounts on advertising and transaction fees for those who use its checkout service.

To be sure, Microsoft, Yahoo and Paypal had similar or pieces of this service for a while. Paypal seems to be only survivor with its unique link to Banks. But, Google's service looks to be a comprehensive one. With Google Checkout, once a customer is ready to checkout, they can simply click the Google Checkout button and use the payment and shipping details stored with Google. This eliminates the need to enter financial and shipping information at several places. I played around with this service today (didn't buy anything though) and observed several innovations:

• Combining shipping & payment details: This seems to be only service that helps you manage shipping and payment details in one place. Also, it maintains a history of all purchases done by in place.
  
• Incentive for vendors to use the service: By providing discounts to eCommerce vendors for their advertisements and transactions, there is strong financial motivation for the vendors to use this service besides the Google brand.
  
• Promoting companies that do Google Checkout: Google is also planning to promote the users of Google Checkout out putting a unique icon in their advertisements. This is bound to generate more traffic to the site.

What do you think? You check out Google Checkout and let me know..

Scoop on Sujatha

Thennavan & I met Sujatha at the request of Narayanan and the Blogswara team in his office today. Our main objective for the visit was to give the first album produced by the Blogswara virtual team. Even though he was rather busy, he set aside over 30 minutes and chatted with us freely.

In a free ranging discussion, we talked about blogs, recording technology and all the stuff in between. His take on blogs was that, its a great tool for anyone to publish stuff and is a great leveler, but at the same time, just by the nature of the medium, it creates lot of mediocre content, so sifting is important. Similarly recording technologies, he talked about the advancements that have made virtual music teams possible. Here also, technology can level the playing field but content is the ultimate king and that is where the individual talent comes in to play.

Thennavan with Sujatha

So, wondering what the scoop is?
Sujatha might start his wildly popular Katradhum Petradhum again in Vikatan this fall after Sylvia. Katradhum Petradhum is in a way Sujatha's blog where he writes about any topic that is of interest. I am big fan of his earlier volumes and is looking forward to this one too.

Lessons Learnt

From my first podcast interview

I did my first podcast interview with Kiruba Shankar yesterday. It was a great learning experience for me and enjoyed the whole process thoroughly. Looking back, there are several things I could have done better and differently. Here is my list, appreciate your thoughts as well:

1. Have the Questions handy and readable: I had a set of questions printed and available, but couldn't find good way to refer to that during the interview. The font size was too small and I just couldn't glance at it and get to the question. So, my questions were more from what I remembered and were kind of ad-hoc.
2. prioritize the Questions: I had a bunch of questions I wanted to ask but didn't prioritize them. Hence the result was that I missed out on several questions which I thought were important and asked a few questions that weren't even on the list.
3. Become familiar with the recording tool: I used audacity to record our chat but wasn't too familiar with it. I should have played with it some more before the actual session.
4. Get better Mics: Sujatha emphasized it in her chat with Kiruba, but I just didn't realize the impact of it till I did my first full fledged recording.
   
5. Make the conversation casual: When I listened to the podcast today, I realized that I was perhaps stiff in some places. Need to learn to relax and get the interviewee relaxed as well and make the conversation as casual as possible. That's when the best conversations happen.
   
6. Put more focus on the intro: I struggled with this one quite a bit. I tried to do it impromptu and tried several times. I should finalized the intro in the paper form first and record after that.
   
7. Plan the closing remarks as well: I was completely unprepared for the closing and when the moment came, I just winged it and it shows.
   
8. Have watch on the Watch: I wanted to limit the interview to 15 - 20 minutes, but went over by 3 minutes. I should plan to have some visual cues that can alert me as I reach the end.
   
9. Ask crisp questions: I should have planned a little more so that my questions were crisp and to the point. In a few places, my questions were rambling.
   
10. Anything that you can think off?: Would very much appreciate your feedback as well on making my future podcasts better, slimmer and tighter. Also, if you have any suggestions on interviewees, drop a line as well.
    

Podcast: Chat with Kiruba Shankar

Here is my Podcast chat with Kiruba Shankar..


MP3 File

I spoke to Kiruba about Blogs in general and its power, where does he see it going and how does he do it all.. Please give it a listen and let me know what you think.

This is my maiden attempt in this medium. I have already noted a few areas that needs improvement. But, as always, I appreciate your feedback...

Thanks to Narayanan for helping me with publishing this chat.

Lower Deck ?

Heard of Upper deck, But Lower deck ?

Yes, that's what I found in a Lufthansa Airbus A340-600 plane.

I have seen Boeing 747-400 megatops with its upper deck passenger cabin. But, experienced the lower deck for the first time in a Lufthansa plane. This Airbus A340-600 had the Toilets / Lavatories in the lower deck. One had to walk down a flight of stairs to get to the facilities. The good thing with this setup was that there were more facilities than usual, but it did cause mild traffic jam due to the concentration of facilities at one place.



Lower deck facilities in the middle of the plane



Did some looking around on Airbus site and found that, there are only 59 of A340-600 are with 5 airlines globally. Lufthansa has 10 of these planes and none with any Indian Airlines.

Giving It All Away

Warren E. Buffet is giving it all away, to Charities

Warren E. Buffet is known for his legendry investment skills and his Berkshire Hathaway. He made is billions by his ability to invest wisely and in the process became one of the richest individuals in the world worth over USD 40 billion. Now he is giving it all away.

Warren Buffet plans to give away 85% of personal wealth (over USD 37.1 billion) to charities with a sizeable chunk of about USD 31 billion going to Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Even in this, he stands apart because, he didn't give it all to the charity bearing his name but to Gates Foundation in which Mr. Buffet will join as a trustee.

This singular contribution more than doubles Gates Foundation assets. It granted over USD 1.06 billion last year and now they can do even more to the Global health and education with over USD 70 billion assets.

Mr. Buffet, I salute you for this BIG generosity which is quite unparalleled in the world...

"Poor must be helped but quota is not the way"

Arun Shourie talks to Karan Thapar in CNN-IBN's Devil Advocate about reservations. I find Karan Thapar getting unnecessarily argumentative and doesn't let the opponent present their views. Karan Thapar can be aggressive in questioning but should learn to listen first.

Arun Shourie makes a case as to why caste based reservations are not good and only divides India. He vehemently argues for helping the poor but not through quota system which only perpetuates caste. His four point formula for helping the poor are:

Social Reforms: Like the ones that happened in many part of Tamil Nadu.


Economic Growth and Modernization

Individual Attention: Provide nutrition, free meals etc.,

Build an eco-system: Build dormitories, free books, training and education.

Have a Question for Kiruba ?

Do you have a question for the #1 Indian blogger?

Kiruba, one of the early adopters of the this blog concept and has been blogging from 2002. He has been truly trailblazing in the blogosphere and has been exploring new areas. In fact, he is my inspiration to try my hand on podcast interview.

So, If you have a question for Kiruba, leave it in the comment.. I am hoping to talk to him sometime this week..

PS: Raj.. Thanks for your suggestion..



Photo courtesy: www.kiruba.com

The Road to Guantánamo

The Road to Guantanamo by Michael Winterbottom

Looking forward to seeing this movie soon.. I am not if or when this movie would to India.. But I sure would like watch it sometime soon..

The Road to Guantanamo chronicles the journey of 3 British Muslims from Tripton, UK to the most dreaded prison on earth at Guantanamo run by US Military and how they were ultimately released without any charge.

Initial reviews have been good with NYTimes labeling it as grim..

The facts on which "The Road to Guantánamo" is based are horrifying, and in its most effective moments it provokes strong feelings of helplessness and dread. But by far the scariest thing about this movie is that, for too many people in this country and elsewhere, it may already have lost the power to shock.

How To Get Back Stolen Mobile Phone ?

Through Public Shaming

At least it worked for Ivanna. The story goes like this...

Ivanna lost her sidekick mobile phone worth around USD 350 in a NYC Taxi. She got a replacement SIM card and when she started using that in her new sidekick and she found out who has her old device. To her surprise, the 'new' owner has been merrily taking photos and sending SMS. All those got downloaded to Ivanna's new device and thus she was able to exactly tell who has her stolen device.

Here is where the story gets interesting..

Ivanna with the help of a friend Evan asked Sasha Gomez to return the phone but Sasha refused. They approached NYPD but that wasn't off much help till Evan launched a website. Evan published a simple page with the details of the incident along with Sasha's photo and things started happening. He started getting hundreds of emails along with new information about Sasha and even her mysapce.com information.

To cut the story short, this incident took a life of its own, thanks to Internet and NYPD finally got involved and resolved the issue. They arrested the teenager Sasha for possessing a stolen article and recovered the mobile device. Evan is hoping that Ivanna would get her sidekick back soon.

I am not sure if this would work in India or for that matter in other cases. Ivanna got lucky because the 'new' user left digital footprint all through and it was easy trace. Regardless, the power of Internet is being harnessed in novel ways and it is only the beginning.

Related Links
Tale of a lost cell phone..
Beware of .. Digital Trail
How NOT to steal..
Digg.com

Five Elements of Success

From the man who knows a thing are two, NR Narayanamurthy of Infosys.

Five elements of success:

• Openness to learn: Openness to subordinate your ego to take ideas from others.
• Second, meritocracy: The best ideas are adopted and implemented using data to arrive at the best decision.
• Third, speed: Assuring you do things faster compared to yesterday and last quarter.
• Fourth, imagination: You continually bring better ideas and better innovation to the table.
• And finally, excellence in execution: That is implementation of these great ideas with a higher level of excellence today than yesterday.

Mr. Narayanamurthy is touring US now before he retires from active work at Infosys in a couple of months. He spoke to Business Week recently about globalization and its impact on India and US. His interview makes an interesting reading, particularly his spin on how globalization has affected domestic brands in India.

But the effect of globalization in India has been much larger. For instance, we had our own auto industry. The cars were not very good. But, still, they were being made in India. Today, we have GM, Toyota, everybody and his brother in India assembling lots of cars. Many of these companies import parts from other countries. As a result, the opportunity for job creation has not been as much as if the parts were made in India.

Similarly, we had our own computer industry. They were not the best. But our people were producing them. When the famous computer companies came to India, we lost a lot of jobs. The same happened with the global soft drink companies.

Probably 2 million or 3 million Indians have lost their jobs. So, do you keep all the multinationals out of India. Or, because 250 million middle-class Indians have benefited, do you embrace it? My view is we should embrace these global corporations, we should accept globalization, because it has benefited the large majority.

Rude Awakening

For Mumbai

Mumbai is the only city that figures in this Readers Digest survey on politeness and guess where it landed? At the bottom.

Yes, Mumbai is the rudest of the 35 cities spread across that many countries. Another surprise in that list who the city that occupies the top slot, New York City. My experience in NYC wouldn't go along with this finding, but Mumbai has more to retrospect than NYC at this time... So Mumbai.. Buckle up and be courteous.

New York	USA			80%
	Zurich	Switzerland			77
	Toronto	Canada			70
	Berlin	Germany			68
	São Paulo	Brazil			68
	Zagreb	Croatia			68
	Auckland	New Zealand			67
	Warsaw	Poland			67
	Mexico City	Mexico			65
	Stockholm	Sweden			63
	Budapest	Hungary			60
	Madrid	Spain			60
	Prague	Czech Republic			60
	Vienna	Austria			60
	Buenos Aires	Argentina			57
	Johannesburg	South Africa			57
	Lisbon	Portugal			57
	London	United Kingdom			57
	Paris	France			57
	Amsterdam	Netherlands			52
	Helsinki	Finland			48
	Manila	Philippines			48
	Milan	Italy			47
	Sydney	Australia			47
	Bangkok	Thailand			45
	Hong Kong				45
	Ljubljana	Slovenia			45
	Jakarta	Indonesia			43
	Taipei	Taiwan			43
	Moscow	Russia			42
	Singapore				42
	Seoul	South Korea			40
	Kuala Lumpur	Malaysia			37
	Bucharest	Romania			35
	Mumbai	India			32

courtesy: rd.com

I wish they had done this survey in three cities I like - Palo Alto, Columbus & Chennai. I am positive they would have come on top..!!!!