As we all talk WEB 2.0 and the buzz, it is important to note it is the USER who is important and nothing else matters!

The ever increasing number of WEB 2.0 companies is really baffling sometimes. Everybody is out there building scalabe and so called WEB 2.0 applications… but how many have actually made an impact. Initially it was the ‘Social Networking’ fad and then moved up to things like mash-ups, API’s and integrated web services. Everthing so wonderfull it might sound but somethings were missing. How Usable were the things to the user? How Important were the services to the user?

Key Web 2.0 prospects

1. User Driven Content:

‘I am what I am!’ says the user.
Give them the framework and freedom.. you’ll witness them pouring in content thats exciting, content thats local, content that has 1000 perspectives, content thats purely original.. (I assume Plagarism does not exist!)

Best Examples: Digg.com Yelp.com YouTube.com Wikipedia.com

2. API’s and Marriages

People dating is out, web-app dating is in!
Rich interfaces, brilliant web application services, small & neat web apps are all the part of the mash-up emergence. The age of marrying one application with another has come, today we find multiple services, apps residing and sitting within one domain to give user the best of all!

API’s are like windows to the large castle which let you see and use important part of an application without actually visting the castle..
Allow different applications to talk to each other, date all web services, let user define his choices and bingo.. you’ll hit the iron while its hot!

Best Examples: Google Api’s NetVibes Api’s Twitter Api’s

3. Usability

Cannot be defined but felt!
One of the toughest thing a developer/designer has to face is the USABILITY issue of web. In simple terms it implies how easily a ‘novice’ web user can access the information/application the portal is driving. You might feel its a ‘No Big Deal’ thing but trust me it takes the hell out of any developer to actually stand in users shoe and develop anything.

Usability covers the navigation, the application design, the user interface, the colours, the help & support, data blocks and every other tiny thing that a user SEES!

Best Examples: CSS Beauty TradeDoubler Stikipad

These being corner stones of next generation web with WEB 3.0 (supposed to be web sematics) there are are a whole lot of intricate details to come in following posts. Also I have a huge bookmark lists of great tricks/blogs/css/libraries .. will be letting them out in phases.

The bottom line remains.. when developing anything for the web just keep in mind start from the USER, not from the REVENUE model! I know it will sound a little stupid to the VC’s but user is what drives everything.. including revenue generation.
Keep them kicking and your sure to hit some success!
Cheers!

Measuring the driving distance using asphalt roads, but sitting here trying to figure out if I can Take a walk from Jayanagar to J.P.Nagar , these tools were pretty useful.

Distance Measurement help you View route distances in Miles, Yards, Feet, Kilometers, or Meters

View latitude and longitude of points clicked on the earth, Create dynamic routes by clicking on the map

Im sure a lot of people are going to love figuring out this one!

it’s time we become Geeks, and not Doc,Excel managers?

it’s time we talk about ‘Next Practice‘ and not ‘Best Practice‘?

it’s time we start creating Engineers and not just $-hungry-IT professionals in need for Onsite trips?

it’s time leaders get their hands dirty [and stop talking racial]?

it’s time we take Indians out of their *Easy zone*?

it’s time we stop talking about job Outsource policies and Job Security?

it’s time we teach our kids to ‘leap through’ and not ‘baby steps’?

it’s time we shout ” If you only do what you know you can do- you never do very much.”

Courtesy : Ashish Sinha!

YTech stands for Yulop Tech Team.. What you see is what we write.. So ultimately the tech team is responsible for all the WOWs and GoofUps(Of Course it is our job to cover up these)..

So the Team is :

Sri : The person who has handled every single module and bit of code so far.. From Abhi’s words and my experience, he motivates and guides damn well.. Talks too much!

Abhi : The other new kid on the block.. Picked up where Sri left off in the development side and is taking the modules beyond where they were..

Jay : Fresh out of college and a character who gels with one and all.. (Aargh : I cant write about my self!)

Since Monday was officially the start of Operations, Ideas have been flowing in.

So we had our First-Firsts.

1. Our first ever meeting was held yesterday with 6 people

2. Our first idea was discussed with some obvious direction

3. Our first module/code was written today

As you can see, We also Smile!