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What is your Search quotient or your WPI (Web Presence Index)?

About few weeks back, my distant cousin called me up to express his astonishment, that upon his friend’s suggestion he googled my name and found many results where my name was mentioned, and mostly on the sites other than my own. His astonishment or surprise wasnt any less than seeing me on television or on newspaper or a magazine.

Needless to say, my cousin isnt from the technology or web field and still restricts internet access only to accessing emails or checking some known websites. But to be frank i was quite elated on his astonishment more than the fact that i was searchable which i knew anyways.

This definitely made me think how gradually ones popularity or status index is being measured just by googling his/her name. Even i personally do this whenever i am meeting someone new or if i get an itch to find more about someone. Though google results dont really tell the true picture as, one might really not be a celebrity on web but still be popular enough in real life. However i dont think that will be the case in years to come. Ones web Index or search quotient will continue to gain more importance. Already it is a dominant parameter when it comes to Web savvy professionals. HR professionals and consultants are already using this index when it comes to head hunting senior profiles.

With Individuals starting to spend more time on internet, blogs and various other social networks, it is eating away one’s “real-life time”. As the society’s critical mass becomes online enough, it will become a common human endeavor to improve and enhance his virtual status just like people do in real life societies they live in. I am sure we might develop more such indices to measure individual’s virtual social status, eg., a page on wikipedia?? or your Friends list and its cumulative weight?? or Testimonials??

With this in foresight, its not very difficult to guess where Web analytics and SEO goes from here. I can easily see SEO services offered for Individuals. The way PR agencies work for personal brands and ways to retain their celebritydom in real life, it will be seen mimicked in virtual life as well. Roles of PR agencies being taken by SEO Consultants or PR Agents converting or adding SEO Skills. In any case, i see SEO gaining a lot more importance and also its scope getting a lot more complex, since it wouldnt be just the Search engine that will need to be worked with but rather a plethora of web platforms and networks which will contribute to the image of one’s status on web. I am itching to term this next generation SEO as WPO (Web Presence Optimization) .

Though it is a basic principle of life that , Do the right thing and your status image and everything related will be taken care of automatically, taking examples from real life, one tends to look at peripheral and exceptional cases where individuals not being rewarded for their efforts or people getting plain lucky in some cases. so inspite of Life principles, there will be tendencies to get ahead as fast as possible and with minimal efforts or short cuts. Whatever be the case, one will have to be atleast aware of this and work with the nuances of the media/ platform.

23andme and the entire human race

I think the last week launch of 23andme was one one of the milestone events in the history of us Humans and Genetics after the much talked about “Dolly the Sheep”. I can lay my bets on how crucial this will turn out and what events it will result in. Nobody can really predict on what will be the fate of 23andme as a business, but surely it has taken the Genetics Technology and its availability to the masses to the next stage. For those who are new to this, 23andme is a firm started by Anne Wojcicki wife of Google’s Co-founder Sergey Brin. Thanks to this, Gnome was already starting to lose its original dictionary meaning to its Linux identity. It provides a complete DNA/ Gnome Analysis service, where you are required to Spit in their Kit (Literally) and send them for the analysis. You would be able to discover your Genetic composition, your Genetic History, Ancestral traits, etc. Sounds interesting isnt it? but then so is the cost, $999 a pop. I am sure there would be celebrity enthusiasts to queue up and it is quite easy to guess that it is not being targeted at the middle and lower spectrum of the masses.

Apart from the slightly entertaining information (much like the astrological horoscope) , this service doesnt do much at the moment. However the simple service can go well beyond this and applied on much serious areas, Security, surveillance, Crime detection, etc being some of them. While these techniques have already been used in developed countries for Security, Anti-terrorism, etc, With this publicly available service, it is now possible to get the DNA level information of any individual you know. As you might say, DNA information is now just a “Spit Away” .

Also, who knows, After Fingerprint recognition  and Iris Detection, we would now have Spit activated Access control systems.

The Video interview of its Founders can be found here on wired

Do Social Networks generate new Social Patterns – 1

It would be hard to imagine of someone not having a social presence in the present day. I actually have 4, though active only on 1. i am not sure what really is the prevailing average. After a lot of buzz around the social networks from Investors, promoters and all the stakeholders, we did actually witness that this paradigm was there to stay. People have adopted this new culture and perhaps find it very supplementary to their otherwise busy lives to connect with others. From my own experiences and those of the people close to me, i did discover some trends and patterns out of the subset. My personal thought was that these virtual systems on the whole would exhibit the patterns similar to the real life, which they did but havent restricted itself only to those. There were some newer behavioral patterns existing.

While i was researching on this subject, I came across this wonderful report on Facebook by Asi Sharabi and i have to say that its a wonderful read and throws light on this subject like nothing else. I have added his blog to my blogroll already

This report can be found here http://no-mans-blog.com/2007/11/facebook-applications-trends-report-1/

Though this report considers only Facebook, i think it does form a very handsome subset of other Non-Visually-immersive Social Networking systems.

I will let this topic as a series and continue it as and when i come across new findings and thoughts.

Kindle or Rekindle

I know, I know, enough has been said and talked about Amazon’s new Specie so far by many of the Industry experts, gurus, watchers, watchdogs, controllers, etc. However this post is not about agreement or disagreement with any of them. Frankly i haven’t even seen this Kindle yet. But what struck me and still does is that there have been tons of ebook readers for more than half a decade, i cannot say i can judeg even most of those, as the most i have done with any ebook reader is probably just given a try in some of the exhibitions or retails shops for a few minutes. So that doesnt even make me eligible for even commenting on whether current generation ebook readers are great replacement for print media, leave alone the comparison amongst them.

We all know, that with Kindle, Amazon hasn’t done anything earth shattering in terms of technology or interface but perhaps just tried reviving the dull sub-industry of electronic ebook readers which was suffering from the timing and cultural habits issues. Juggernaut, Jeff Bezos definitely knows a thing or two when it comes to changing people’s habits so one will have to eagerly wait and watch the outcome of this Hype (at least for now). I think the word “Kindle” might be on its way to be the most searched term on google, with all websites, blogs, forums ensuring that they don’t miss this search attack on the web. I would hate to accept it but i dont have any other strong argument either.

The outcome of all this is that people are starting to know what ebook readers are and for many, they are discovering that such a thing exists. This is the best time for all the other manufacturers like Sony to make their presence felt. In other words ride the hype. This atleast creates or rekindles the existing dull market and if for some reason, kindle doesn’t make it, others stand a strong chance to lead the pack. Even if kindle strikes gold, it would be hard to believe that it can have a monopolistic stance, which means a room for atleast 2-3 other strong players.

In any case, I surely intend to get my hands on atleast one ebook reader and train myself for the probable future

Starting Again

Its a funny sort of feeling when you are starting to express your views in any medium, but i believe thats only in the beginning. For me its not exactly the start, this probably might be my nth attempt in as many years and in all these years i have failed to continue it. One thing i realized after a few starts was that you cant just make it one of your many hobbies. This has to be professional or atleast the next best to it.

Anyways, I have kept trying and this time i intend to sustain it and for some reason, if i dont, i will start again. I hope i can carry King Bruce’s Legend. All the rapid advancements happening in the 21sy century can be considered as the metaphorical spiders which inspire me.

Anyways,  I intend to keep posting my views on the latest happenings in Technology, and would try to focus on innovation, present and future. Also what interests me is the sociological and economic impact that these innovations have on us and I will try to express my views on the subject and would encourage an open discussion with the readers. The later being one of the key objectives to start this blog.

Shalom!!