The story of Orkut

A guy lost his girlfriend in a train accident....

but the gal's name nowhere appeared in the dead list. This guy

grew up n became IT technical architect in his late 20?s, achievement in itself!!.

He hired developers from the whole globe and plan to make a

software where he could search for his gf through the web..

Things went as planned...

n he found her, after losing millions of dollars and 3 long years!!

It was time to shut down the search operation, when the CEO of Google had a

word with this guy n took over this application,

This Software made a whopping 1 billion dollars profit in its first year,

which we today know as ORKUT ..


The guy's name is ORKUT BUYUKKOTEN .. Yes its named after him only. Today he
is paid a hefty sum by Google for the things we do like scrapping. He is expected to become richest person by 2009


ORKUT BUYUKKOTEN today has 13 assistants to monitor his scrapbook & 8 to

monitor his friends-list. He gets around 20,000 friend-requests a day &

about 85,000 scraps!!!
Some Other Cool Facts About this Guy !!!!!!!!!

* He gets $12 from Google when every person registers to this website.


* He also gets $10 when you add somebody as a friend.


* He gets $8 when your friend's friend adds you as a friend & gets $6 if


anybody adds you as friend in the resulting chain.


* He gets $5 when you scrap somebody & $4 when somebody scraps you.


* He also gets $200 for each photograph you upload on Orkut.

* He gets $2.5 when you add your friend in the crush-list or in the hot-list.


* He gets $2 when you become somebody's fan.


* He gets $1.5 when somebody else becomes your fan.


* He even gets $1 every time you logout of Orkut.


* He gets $0.5 every time you just change your profile-photograph.


* He also gets $0.5 every time you read your friend's scrap-book & $0.5 every time you view your friend's friend-list.


"Moral of the story"?
LOSE U R GIRLFRIEND AND MAKE BILLIONS !!!!

Excuse ME

A funny thing happened in the morning today, thought I'll share it with you.

This happened when I got into the office lift. It was crowded with people, and the indication on the bar showed that it was full. I was standing at the extreme back. The lift guy pressed the button for the sixth floor. There was complete silence. After a quarter of a second, it was me who uttered two words- "Excuse Me". The people standing in front of me started to move on either ends. Gosh, they were trying to make way for me. A very sweet gesture I must say, but the only problem was that the words had followed a sneeze and the lift was still in motion.

Thoughts for an Innovative IA

Work Related Innovation:

Idea 1: Expansion in India for content as well as research. As we all know about the India Shining story which is still intact for the coming years, we can leverage from the need for management consulting services which is definitely going to be on the rise.

Strategy: Target specific industry viz. Retail which is growing at an unprecedented rate. {As the competition is fierce in this industry and with a dearth of knowledge workers, the industry will increasingly want to outsource consulting tasks like business research and content specific to their business. E.g. preparing training materials and operation manuals could be an area to focus. There is immense opportunity in other industries and areas as well}. We can begin by studying the Indian market and identifying the needs specific to Indian business. We can very well position our self as a leading provider since there are not many such providers in India. Also, we can have a separate team to look at the Indian business. We can also begin with referrals from family and friends associated with big names.

Challenge: An initial challenge would be in cultivating the idea of outsourcing in the Indian context. This would require very strong marketing. However, our target should be only big names. We can schedule presentations and meeting with them. This would be difficult, but possible.

Idea 2: Expansion in other countries. Well, this is already happening though not aggressively. Another thing that comes to my mind after reading the “Financial KPO” article is that since India is facing talent crunch for knowledge-intensive jobs, the ball is set to roll in countries like Australia, Singapore, and Ireland etc. How about having a branch office of InfoAnalytica in Australia? So this could also mean captive outsourcing of our services both ways.

At this point of time, I cannot comment anything on the strategy. But I am sure I have put across my message.

Idea 3: Expanding the range of services. In research our focus is on business analytics. Financial analytics is on its way. How about Market Research which requires primary data collection?

Strategy: We can again start this with the domestic market since primary research would be feasible here.

Non-Work Related Innovation:

Idea 1: Installing a Music System with small speakers across the office. When in a light mood or during breaks, listening to soothing music will help in refreshing. As of now we have covered enough of non-work related activities that are lined up for implementation. More ideas will pour in once we are short of it.

Idea 2: We can have a Telivision in our Pantry or Meeting room to catch up with market and other news during the day.

Dhoni bik gaya, Bhajji bik gaya, sab bik gaye...par idea chalega kya?

No offence meant with the title. Dhoni and Bhajji are very good players and so are the others on the Indian team (I can say that since Agarkar is not on the team). But what prompted that title is the insane amount of money being shelled out as part of the IPL bidding. Let me clarify that I have absolutely nothing against the millions being traded. After all, it's the free market principle at work here.

What I am worried about here is the future of IPL. Let's cast our minds to the time when an ambitious Subhash Chandra roped in Kapil Dev and formed the rebel ICL. Saying that ICC was shaken out of its slumber is an understatement. BCCI acted quickly to distance itself from the league and ICC, for once, backed BCCI with all its might. But the question arises, why didn't Subhash Chandra think of setting up a power plant? Why didn't he produce a film with Shahrukh Khan and Preity Zinta in the lead? Why cricket? A simple one-line answer is 'because of ICC and BCCI'.

The story goes that way back in 2000, ICC conducted a botched up telecast rights bid, which Zee lost to WSG-Nimbus. One losing a bid and the other winning a bid is perfectly understandable. That is, when you ignore the fact that WSG-Nimbus actually bid $75 million LESS than Zee!! And it didn't end there. In 2004, BCCI sold off its television rights to ESPN-Star even when Zee had placed an equal bid. The reason, or lack of reason, was that Zee had no 'experience' in sports production. Somebody should ask BCCI why Zee was invited at all. Or for that matter, why were Shahrukh and Preity invited to bid for IPL franchises? I forget, Shahrukh has coached a women's hockey team, isn't it? Ohh no, it was in a film, nevermind.

An unjustly done Subhash Chandra went ahead and did the inevitable. And thus ICL was born. The rest is history and I fear that soon, it will be history revisited. BCCI created the lucrative IPL, organized player auctions, got the best names around and now we are sitting and waiting for the first ball to be bowled. It should have been a victory for BCCI but is it? Not yet at least. For one, the economics of IPL are a little unnerving. Additionally, BCCI's face saving act has every making of an ICC party pooper. Malcolm Speed, ICC's Chief Executive, first ruled out a 'window' for IPL. What that means is there is no way any international tour would be rescheduled to allow the auctioned players to participate in the IPL. So, that rules out a good chunk of the auctioned players. Later, ICC softened its stand on the matter by saying that it could allow a window if seven ICC members voted in favour of the move. Easier said than done, considering the international commitments countries have and the contractual obligations with sponsors that may prevent players from participating.

So, everything depends on what stance the ICC takes on this issue. The BCCI is undisputably the most powerful board in world cricket today. But will it be able to arm twist the ICC into bowing to its wishes, as it has successfully done in the past? There are no clear answers but there sure is a nagging fear that we may head into another BCCI-ICC standoff.

Clarification: I have nothing against the IPL. I am looking forward to it just as most cricket lovers around the world are. I just wish the choice of captain were left to the coach or a cricket body. I am not a huge fan of icon players. Other than that, I like the idea. My beef is with the BCCI for the way it functions.

Due credits to Rahul Bhatia's insightful post on the ICL issue. Do read the entire post here. Credits to Cricinfo.com, my favourite cricket portal.

Puzzle

You have a file attachment which is password protected.
Derive the password from the following.
There is a bus with 7 girls.Each girl has 7 bags.In each bag, there are 7 big catsEach big cat has 7 little cats.Each cat has 4 legs.Question: How many legs are present in bus?Number of legs is password to open attached file.

Warning: Stupid Content

So, you like stupid content huh? Check this out!

It all started when the queen of England was having a stroll in her garden. Some jerk (fortunately nobody could detect who he was) threw a banana peel that landed straight on the queen's head. She watched a butler rushing towards her. In order to avoid embarrassment, she told the butler that she was following the latest fashion... होना क्या था... butler भइया ने बात पकड ली। He couldn't keep himself from following the latest trend so he placed a banana peel on his head too. Soon other butlers and maids caught up as well.

Other people who lived nearby found the trend cool and joined in. The cult spread across the U.K. People were seen all around with banana skins of all sizes and colors on their heads. Ladies preferred pink and multi colored banana skins while boys were crazy about blue ones. Youngsters began wearing black banana skin with spikes. From small children to oldies everybody was going bananas after bananas. The banana skin fashion spread to the U.S. and from the U.S., across the world. Hollywood actors started wearing diamond studded banana skins which was copied later on by bollywood film stars. Top names from the fashion world started organizing fashion shows on banana peels. (Imagine models wearing banana skins all over...sheeshhh some dirty thought)

Banana production became a billion dollar industry. Banana prices attained an all time high. Huge MNCs started investing in banana plantations. Firms started predicting the future of the banana industry and its effects on a country's overall economy. The competition tightened. Mergers and acquisitions intensified. Even India couldn't remain out of the loop. Our company pioneered the bananalysis of the banana industry and was renamed as 'Bananalytica'!!!

Don't blame me. I warned you the content was stupid!

Hello

Hi Guys,
I am the latest entry in this organization, needless to say I am feeling accepted, comfortable and am looking for to some great times out here. I just thought of an alias for myself 'The Bohemian". Personally I am a simple person and a bit laid back too. I have varied interests like business, economy, shares and stocks on one end to music(predominantly hindi), movies(again hindi) and cricket on the other. Reading is a passion. Gandhi vs Gandhi and Kane & Abel were last read books. My first task in IA is to connect all names with corresponding faces of all my colleagues by start of next week. I am making my promise public and unlike the politicians I am not going to forget it nor going to leave it unfulfilled.