Our Address:
RED Magic Media Pvt Ltd.,
160 D1, Second Floor,
Avarampalayam Road,
(Off Avinashi Road)
Peelamedu,

Coimbatore 641 004.

Call us at : 0422 - 4397 587

Working of a wave:

When you start a communication with a person in wave, it begins a wave and then to include a third friend, all you have to do is drag and drop his avatar into the wave. Similarly, you can drag and drop documents, images, videos and blogs into the wave. The real time editing feature of waves and then spell check with grammar and semantics is a revelation.

The wave functions as an email feature when offline and as an instant messenger when online. In a wave even before you could complete uploading, the files appear in your friend’s wave. Users can rewind the waves and play back from the instance they would like to view from and edit wherever necessary. The applications that would facilitate real time conferencing, wikis on web pages and many more can function as a value add to enhance the richness of the experience.

Google wave is a product, a platform and a protocol at the same time. The wave has made it debut as a ‘product preview’ supporting real time collaboration. The wave as a platform can integrate thousands of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). The federation protocol on which Google wave is based is completely open source. This means Google will give away the protocol and even competitors can use the federation protocol and compete with wave. For Google, what’s the fun without little competition?

100,000 Google wave invites have been already sent to the subscribers. The developer community amidst users is still fine tuning Google wave, which is now only a preview, of what is expected in the future.

Making of Google wave:

The name was inspired by the firefly TV series in which a wave was an electronic communication mode.

The developers of the famed Google Earth from Google Australia, the two brothers Lars and Jens Rasmussen are the brain behind Google wave. Google wave is built with open source codes and its web tool kit leveraging on Google web supremacy.

Google wave redefines communication and takes it to the next level. Even if its initial hype slows down Google wave is here to stay. The advantage of Google wave is access to multiple web applications in the same platform, which makes it highly convenient for the users. This is the major premise which will make it a success and the future of communication. For a company with resources such as Google, building wave further will not be a difficult task, and then not to forget the help it is going to get from the developer community who have always welcomed open source protocols.

Except for the few who received invitations, the rest are in a queue. Can you imagine, some person even auctioned the invite in e-bay for $200, to be banned later by e-bay. Google Wave holds a lot of promises, but still being made accessible only to the elite, will it fulfill the dream of the masses?

Gone are the days when you would tediously scout for information on a search engine using your mobile. Now is the beginning of the AR era, the mantra of the mobile world and an amrit for users of high technology. The concept of augmented reality has its roots in Astrophysics which evolved into virtual reality and now with a merger with real time experience is augmented reality of the current day.

It is real time experience enhanced by the virtual world. A simple day to day example of AR is the boundary line used in American football. This boundary line looks like a ray of light, which is actually a computer generated line which aids decisions on fouls and penalties, with its statistics and info on every movement across the line. This has become an inherent part of football that Fans can’t do away with.

AR has become more active in the mobile sphere because mobility is the essence of augmented reality. The recent past has seen three applications of augmented reality available with the Apple i-phone 3GS.The Applications available in the i-tunes store are the London bus application and Paris subway application. In both these API’s when you point your video cam in the direction of a building, say at its roof top restaurant, for instance. It would display details and specifications that the building was built by a czar in the 1930’s and the restaurant serves Mediterranean food. If we point it across a street say, then it would display the directions and the nearby shopping malls and restaurants and so on.
Click here to watch the youtube video for AR

The built in compass, Global positioning system and video cam make it possible for augmented reality along with the Wikis and real-time social media. The cost free API for Apple Iphone 3GS is a surprise Easter egg to users. It was found that shaking the phone thrice would reveal a Yelp’s monocle and Abracadabra; this leads you to the augmented reality application. This API is also similar to the other two except that you got to hold the camera very still to get the real experience.

We have spoken so much on iphone now lets explore as to what Google and Nokia are upto in the AR market. Nokia’s research centre is all boastful of their MARA, the mobile augmented reality application. When all that iphone would do is show the specifications of the restaurant but Nokia will be able to give the reservation and vacancy status of the restaurant.

Google’s Android is not far behind, they are ready with the Wikitude AR travel guide developed by Mobilizy with location based Wikipedia and Qype content. This comes in handy while planning a trip as it can recall 3, 50,000 world points with a list view, map view and augmented reality view.

Layar, the augmented reality browser could be very intrusive, because the same GPS, cam, web and compass would be able to locate you and provide information on your environment. A recent news article read that the same technology has annoyed none other than Hollywood celebrity Brad Pitt, when he was spied on his whereabouts.

The ongoing debate in the future of mobile technology is whether the content for augmented reality should be user driven or developer driven. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. User driven content will fall short in accuracy while developer driven content will fall short in interactivity, fun and thus popularity.

AR could tackle either routes, but as predicted by some technology experts it should take the user route along with content filters. Whatever the future of AR, we in India have to wait for 3G, hoping we don’t get outdated. With 3G on its way and M-Governance being discussed, augmented reality will reach only the elite few whilst the Nation is struggling to get good bandwidth for internet connections and a good mobile connectivity range for its mobile phones.

The reader can read 20 pages of the book and then watch the 3 minute footage functioning as a connection between the content called cyber bridges and then resume reading. Readers complain that too much effort goes into first reading the prescribed pages, use the code given and then access your internet to watch the movie clip. Two of the videos which were previewed hopefully should stand testimony to the rest of the movie clips. The trailer was slickly presented in the CSI style.

watch the trailer here
Even if you own an e-reader like Amazon’s Kindle, a PC is inevitable; probably the proposed Apple Tablet would prove a panacea as it will support multimedia as well.
Now interactive contests are posted in the website like photo story telling by the readers which will turn out into a 500 word story by Zuicker himself. They have even promised live discussions with a serial killer. This is sensationalizing level 26 to the next level.

Interestingly level 26 indicates a complex psychopath with high IQ committing murders given with shocking explicitness in the trailer.

With so much hype and hoopla level 26: Dark Origins is the first in the series of the printed word, transitioned because of being pushed beyond its conservative limitations.

This initiative sparks the debate amidst readers, if attention spans demand more choices as Zuicker says, then information consumption has to be made less tedious. Jumping from one medium to another doesn’t excite the reader in anyway. The tablet for this only ailment of the cross platform reading experience is that single device solution.

The term ‘Web 2.0’ was officially coined in 2004 by Dale Dougherty, a vice-president of O’Reilly Media. The Dot-com bubble had just burst. Companies that survived had something in common. It was brainstormed whether the common something could be web 2.0. The year 2006, Time magazine person of the year was ‘You’ and a picture of a PC in the cover of the magazine with the tag line reading
Yes You, You control the information age. Welcome to your world.

Web 2.0, the global web phenomenon is the buzz word in India now. Everyone is trying to squeeze into the band wagon and there is plenty of space to occupy all. Let’s explore why it is that all are falling for web 2.0, be it an entrepreneur to start up a company or a small time user. The rich user experience one gets on using the web 2.0 social spaces like the blogosphere or the Wikis or Del.icio.us or even Orkut is totally interactive when compared to yahoo for instance. Yahoo is a typical example of Web1.0, where very few publishers generate the content on the web for the entire set of users.
Web 2.0 is also termed as the read - write web where users can also write the content and voice their opinions. Web 2.0 utilizes the standards built and practiced by Web 1.0 users, which forms the basic platform.

The advantages of using web 2.0 from the user perspective are listed below

• The content is generated by the user. Blogs let us comment. Photo sharing social sites facilitate sharing of images. Social networking sites let us share profiles. It’s all about getting noticed and grabbing attention.
• The power of the crowd as a collective force can do wonders. Crowd sourcing is one such trend where talent from the crowd is leveraged, voted on and then used for developing applications or software. E.g. Cambrian house.

• Tagging of photos, articles, links and websites which can be retrieved later is the essence of Web 2.0. This is termed as folksonomy and Del.icio.us, the popular book marking site is based on this concept.
• Web 2.0 develops mash ups. Oft-quoted example HousingMaps.com combined Google Maps with the USA-based CraigsList of flats available for rent to give you a view of the flats on the net, which can be located on the map.
• These kinds of mash-ups are facilitated by what are known as ‘open APIs’–Application Programming Interfaces. This is because of opening up the application for use by the developer for building variety of applications using it.

The Web 2.0 technology
The technology behind web 2.0 is cloud computing. This is a system architecture which is very economical and cost effective. The server is shared amidst users and is based on the pay per use model.
Ajax which comprises of XML and asynchronous java script is the language used to get the rich web 2.0 experience. Alternatively Macromedia flash is also used in place of Ajax.

Features of Web 2.0
Web 2.0 is very user friendly. The user need not even have to be internet Savvy to use web 2.0. Web 2.0 is feature rich and very colorful. The colors predominantly used are black, red and white. There is a lot of focus on good content, than images.
Web 2.0 is a convergence of business and information technology which makes the web flexible, collaborative and open to every one. This makes Web 2.0 an attractive business avenue which holds many promises to investors who are willing to take risks.

Some of the very novel innovations of Web 2.0 applications are

•Zopa : Taking money lending to the masses
•Zimbra : Messaging and collaboration
•Toggl :Online time tracking
•World66 : A wiki on Travel
•NetworthIQ : Track your networth online
•openID : Single identity across all applications
•Foldershare : Keep your files online

There is a lot of frenzy to innovate and a lot of money to back it with. There is a gold rush to start up web 2.0 sites. People have not seen return on investments yet. It might be a beginning of a bubble that is yet to burst. That’s why Venture capitalists are averse of Web 2.0 technologies. Meanwhile the world of Web 3.0 has emerged. Watch this space for a journey into the semantic web.

Now there is a mutual agreement between Microsoft and Yahoo, the two biggies are on a strategic pact to control the search empire. Now the searches conducted in Yahoo are powered by Bing and the marketing for Microsoft is done by Yahoo. Bing has had a good start supported by its ads targeted against Google. Some of the ads depicted that Google provides us with irrelevant results and has made us Seo machines, churning out keywords by the minute.

Google Caffeine gives the most relevant results optimized to the right number leaving out false links. Google has to prove that the accusations posted by Microsoft are untrue. The drop in market share of 1.3% for google eroded to its top two rivals is a worrisome factor. This didn’t undeter Google; it came back with a challenging upgrade to google termed Caffeine. Will this work out for Google or backfire?

Google has come up with an interesting marketing strategy, which is very interactive and which involves the end users. Now the link to caffeine is posted in the google Blog and if a person visits Caffeine and finds something useful that can be added. There is a section to provide feedback at the bottom of the page. Google encourages high level feedback from the developers community. This would definitely work as it solves two purposes. One-creates good Word of Mouth, two-helps improve the site.

Caffeine is all about speed. The display on the page is very quick, on the click of search; the results are displayed immediately.

There is a complaint that Caffeine’s focus on real time results has given too much way forward to the social media. I typed my name in Caffeine and found that my Facebook profile and Twitter account were given the most importance and displayed as the first few in the search listing.

Caffeine has a new iteration in place which is more advanced than google. This helps in increased accuracy of search and indexing of results. This time around Google has focused on size, accuracy and speed. All this they say is because of google’s superior storage system for Caffeine and a new file system on which it runs. This is similar to Microsoft word running on Windows. The new file system powers the new architecture and is termed as GFS II.

Is this a stitch in time saves nine sort of an experiment? When analyzed it looks so on the exterior, but is a camouflaged google strategy. Caffeine has been in the making for almost two years now. It is actually a google strategy to bring out Caffeine at this opportune moment to break the rhythm of both its rivals. How else will the world know of Google’s leadership in search technology, where as Microsoft is just catching up.

We users are on the look out for real time changes to Caffeine as the search screen looks like the usual google screen. External user experience hasn’t been changed. Waiting for Caffeine to have a full fledged launch. Caffeine is here to get us addicted.

Then how does one sell on the Web?

The word Social media Marketing crops up. Again a result of information explosion.

The Description of Social media marketing in Wikipedia reads:

“Social Media is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into content publishers. It is the shift from a broadcast mechanism to a many-to-many model, rooted in conversations between authors, people, and peers.

Social media uses the “wisdom of crowds” to connect information in a collaborative manner. Social media can take many different forms, including Internet forums, message boards, weblogs, wikis, podcasts, pictures, and video.”

We have said goodbye to monologues and it’s a time for engaging, multidimensional communication platforms. With the introduction of a free web, Web 2.0 to be precise, the ‘jadoo’ lies in a series of ideas exchanged and shared, because everything goes viral here.

If you scrap in Orkut, “I have got a new job”

‘Congratulations’ pour in from friends in Twitter, Face book, and from all Social networking media that you are a subscriber to. That’s how fast information spreads through Social media. You tell your friends, they tell their friends and the network widens, and everything by a click. Quoting a Web Designer from Chennai, He says Del.icio.us is a cool book marking tool. He uses it to keep track of his favorite web pages. He adds that, he also likes the features of Stumble Upon, but since he had started book marking with Delicious, he has stayed with it.” This implies that loyalty is also existent in Social media, based on first mover advantage or features.

So it is important to know People’s preferences.

There’s a general perception that the applications of Facebook like Games and polls are better in it than Orkut. The current face of Social media is exchange of existing applications and also developing them for the global community. Orkut has to catch up in this arena says the Facebook addict. For some regular Social Media users life becomes a standstill without any webbing activity. This has been identified by the brands and leveraged. Some social media marketers are into Twitter because that’s the trend.

Pictures can be shared via Flickr and even Facebook or Orkut. Usually memories are frozen and shared because of these sites. For instance a bride-to-be I know eagerly posted her engagement photographs on Flickr. Sometimes Social media has an emotional tinge to it. If we touch the right chord in people’s hearts and are really trying to improve their lives, a Social media marketing campaign succeeds. Think Dell for instance or Ford that has made changes in the lives of people with Social media marketing.

It’s an inherent marketing activity, but that doesn’t mean you have to bombard the Social media sites with links to your business to start with. It works out better, if we understand each Social media tool in-depth for some time to see what’s happening around and join in the conversation in tune with other users who will turn friends later for sure. Some interesting statistics as to why Social media is important:

These conversations are going to occur whether you like it or not…do you want to be part of that or not? My argument is you absolutely do. You can learn from that. You can improve your reaction time. And you can be a better company by listening and being involved in that conversation.–Michael Dell

This is very true for a small and medium enterprise, when it plans to enter Social media. Social media marketing steps are listed below:

· Understand Social media tools and sites

· Listen & Listen carefully

· Choose the Social media viable, based on your consumer preferences

· Strategize within available resources

· Engage the users by getting feedback

· Respond positively

· Create awareness with a purpose - to make lives better

Let’s find out how these steps are executed with examples in the up coming blog article. To know what’s behind a click, watch this space.

The sun rose as a partial Eclipse over the horizon. The day - July 22nd 2009. The longest solar eclipse of the century has come over Asia. We at Chennai had to be contented with a 60% partially eclipsed Sun. Today it seemed as though it took longer for daylight to join up our daily routine. Most of the pious Hindus amidst Chennaites are supposed to be in a ‘viradham’, a fast for the day. I gobbled my coffee early in the morning to break the fast before it even started. Sun started blazing down on us and I have to include myself in the list of people who were gazing at the Sun with Unprotected eyes. The learning came very late that the right way to watch the Eclipse is to see the reflection on a white paper when projected by a telescope.

I realized I was way behind today’s standards of awareness and started on the Quest to Eclipse - education. The umbra of the moon is the inner shadow which is cast on the earth when the moon comes between the sun and the earth at a certain angle on a new moon day. The eclipse was part of Saros series136. The next event from this series will be on August 2, 2027. The exceptional duration was a result of the moon being near the earth with the apparent diameter of the Moon 8% larger than the Sun (magnitude1.080), where the Sun appeared slightly smaller.

A group of children in my neighborhood gave every one a hand out, which read that no harm will come out of eating while there is a solar eclipse. It also added that a solar eclipse has not been proved harmful even to child bearing mothers. The traffic was immense near the Birla Planetarium as people were gathering to know the scientific truth behind a solar eclipse.

It strengthened the belief that a solar Eclipse cannot be harmful for a person. The day turned out be boiling hot. The news came that people were killed in Varanasi because of a stampede on their eclipse pilgrimage; the reason again could have been because of poor organizing set up and crowd management.
As a contrast, It was heartening to know that Indian Astrophysicts aboard the Indian Air force flight followed the umbra and filmed the solar eclipse with the help of Doordarshan. Let’s hope, it could lead to path breaking discoveries. Tourist traffic to India and especially to Gujarat was high, to witness the totality- Solar eclipse. The day had affected our lives in more than one ways. It’s a natural celestial phenomenon to be accepted with awe and admiration. I shuddered to hear that prolonged exposure to ultraviolet rays could penetrate and cause harm to the eyes. The Sun staring act flashed across.

Complete Your Profile:

Include your real name, make sure your time zone and location are both accurate and fill out your bio with things that are interesting and relevant to you. The bio will have 120 characters in which you describe about yourself. This will ensure that when people search for users to follow your account will show up. Don’t hide yourself by excessive protection as twitter is all about networking. Once a tweeter comes to appreciate you tweet and visits your profile it is imperative that you have a photograph for your avatar. Don’t change your image too often as other people are aware of the image before the name, and you can get lost if you change your image too frequently.

Follow with Prudence:

Pick people from your contact list of your e-mail. Check out external trackers and directories like Twittercounter and Twellow. Also checkout whom your friends are following and if your ideology is met follow them too. When somebody follows you, check out their profile and if they seem at all interesting, follow them back. It’s courteous and encourages socialization. Make sure that only legitimate tweeters are followed.

Stop self-centered content

Don’t take Twitter’s ‘What are you doing?’ question too literally. If it’s only about you, it might look self centered. So find and share content. Be interesting. Check out TwitterLocal.net and follow roughly 20 interesting Twitter users that live in your area. As they follow you back, it might be a good idea to check out their blogs and see what they’re about. This would be a good time to try out your @reply skills to comment on how amazing their blogs are or simply the fact that you are from the same area. Find some like minded Tweeps. Twitter Search can be used to find other Twitter users who share the same interests. It’s also a great way to check up on who is talking about my blog posts or my company

Ask Questions:

Ask questions, both one-to-one and open to your entire network. Twitter is a great way to get solutions to things that require experience or an opinion. And if somebody answers your query or solves your problem, be thankful.

Answer Questions:

If you know the answer to a posted question, answer it. If you know some of the answer, reply back. Don’t wait for or assume somebody else will do this. Take the initiative. Use Twitter’s search facility to find common problems and solve them with your expertise.

Build a Positive Reputation:

This can be accomplished easily by following the steps above. Remember your etiquette A-B-C: Always Be Crediting, so re-tweet. Thank people when they re-tweet you. Use hashtags but do so sparingly and with good reason. Keep it less than 120 characters to be sure there is enough room for people to add RT @username before your Tweet.

Make Sure Your Link Works:

Bad links are the worst enemies of Tweeting, with many a follower being lost out on this account.

· You posted the wrong URL

· You posted an incomplete URL

· You added an extra character to your URL

· The URL shortening service you are using is down (Twurl)

Re-tweet for loyalty

Check out what is trending on sites like Retweetist to learn what is working for other people. This is a great way to learn how to structure your Titles as well as what other people are finding interesting. Don’t re-tweet often as how will a person know if all you do on twitter is re tweet. Remember to share other people’s work as well as your own. If you are successfully forming relationships on Twitter then there will be a group of people willing to share your Tweet.

Its upto you to decide whether to ask users to re-tweet your tweet. It’s all about honesty, integrity and belief that somebody follows you on Twitter, which holds social media up -straight.

Type in the address twitter.com and then join click for free. If your friends should recognize you join up with your original name. If you select protect your updates checkbox then it will restrict people from reading your tweets. You can experience twitter completely only if you left the box unchecked. My advice is that you can leave the box unchecked unless you have a terrorist attack planned on you. Every Twitter user has a page for themselves with Twitter.com\username. If you are really desperate for followers, there is nothing wrong in letting your friends know that you exist in twitter and they are doomed to follow you by sending in the link to your twitter page or announce your username.

From the desktop enter a message in the entry window at the top of your page. Your Tweet will be displayed to all your followers on their own Twitter pages. To add a friend click the “add” link in the action bar after you log on to the account. If your friend has set the public views option then his or her tweets will be visible, if set for private, a friend request has to be given to see your friend’s tweet updates on your page.

If you want to expand your network and bring the friends of friends into your follower list. Hover your mouse pointer over the pics of friends in the side bar of your friend’s page. If you click on the pic you can add him/her to the list.

You can view tweets of any persons friends by clicking on the ‘with friends’ tab above their message window. You can switch off views by the ‘previous tag’

The important numbers on the window are the list of followers and the list of friends whom you follow. If you want person to person tweeting. Enter @username when you tweet to the person though others will be able to see the tweet as well. We have to make sure that the person is your follower; otherwise the tweet will not reach the person.

Hook up your mobile phone and Instant Messaging account:

Once you have registered in Twitter on the web, you can connect up your mobile phone and IM account .Go to settings then phone and IM and activate the account. It is completely legal to view tweets on your devices, since twitter encourages mobility. You can set up twitter to send updates to the mobile phone or IM every time a follower tweets. In order to avoid a frenzy of clutter select direct message, you will be alerted only on receiving a direct tweet from your friend. SMS to 40404 to send tweets and since your caller id is attached to twitter, it will allow it after authentication.

Now you would have grasped the twitter basics. If you want to become a pro in tweeting, trace these steps and get into tweeting action and don’t forget to connect up your mobile and IM too.

Check out the Twitter user guide on YouTube