Like.com

Riya 2.0 has been launched as like.com. And it aims to do pretty much what the site says. Find images like the one you upload.

Well it has been said for a while that its not enough to search text and that we need to peek into those images and understand what the image contains and be able to then search these images.

They are currently offering searches under the following categories : handbags, shoes, watches, jewelry and celebrities and are expecting to add many more every day.

Like.com will offer exciting options. We just cannot put everything we want to look for in words. If you like the pattern on a piece of clothing, its not something thats easy to describe or search for in words.

Revenue ought to come from ads and ofcourse lots of online shopping is expected to come this way. A lot will depend on how relevant the search results are ofcourse.

So we will have to wait and watch google is up to, having acquired Neven Vision, another image search company.

Meanwhile, Riya.com will continue to remain a face recognition tool and will be developed and improved in parallel.

Lot more exciting things to come im sure. lets wait and watch!!

Orkutalk!!

Finally, the social networking space has heated up enough to get google to finally do what was being expected for a long time now.

Gtalk has now been integrated with orkut. Gives all those users using orkut without a gmail id all the more incentive to get themselves a gmail account now.

i like the way google is merging all their apps. The day is not far when you have a single sign on where you can do your social networking, your emailing, your document collaboration, your chats, your voice calls, video conferences etc etc.

The Google Way

Its interesting to see what google is up to.

Put yourself in google's position. They dont have to compete against just one Microsoft or yahoo. Each of their little applications has to compete with thousands of site's, often startup's. Competion for example has been from youtube, writely, jotspot, bluedot, friendster, flickr etc etc etc...

Now there are a couple of ways in which you can handle competition.

a) Beat them at their own game. But when there are so many guys trying to out do one another that may not guarantee you success. Besides google's core still remains its search. Whether it is investing or should be investing the same amount of effort and resources on each of its other applications as it continues to spawn many more out everyday, is a question thats been debated in almost every forum and by every name worth a mention.

b) Simply acquire them. And there is no one to compete against really.

Going by recent events you would be tempted to say google's going the option (b) way.

And rightly so. Its the smartest thing to do.

Here's a few reasons why i think so.

a) Google's main area is search. And they should stick to it and not lose the advantage they have in this area right now.

b) Google stocks are worth a lot today. And going by history this may not be the case a few years down the line. What better to do with a stock that has a price to earnings ratio of more than 60? It is clear that maintaining such a high growth rate as the P/E demands is not very likely. So what better to do with an inflated stock than buy out all their competition?
Its simply brilliant. Google has little to lose, as its not buying out competition paying cash. Its using the current valuation of the stock, which hit its peak on 23rd Oct to buy out really good companies.

So yeah, if you can get yourself somewhere close to competing with google, you might just land yourself with lotsa google shares. And of course, if you do that, dont waste time cashing them out. :)

Mama Pendse : Everybody's new best friend

My cousin Satish recently introduced me to mama_pendse. And i must say it was well worth the "networking" exercise.

All you need to do is add mama_pendse as your friend on yahoo and he is always there for you.

Mama pendse is the latest craze on yahoo and orkut. Everyone wants to be his friend.

So who is this guy???

Well mama_pendse is the latest java BOT, that provides you with a host of services on Yahoo messenger. You just need to send him a message with the right command and yo uget a response back immediately with what you are looking for.

This is a wonderful idea considering the fact that almost all of us are always online and on some messenger at any point in time, especially with so many blackberries etc doing the rounds.

Here is a list of services mama_pense is capable of providing as of today :

Command Name tracknumber
Description This will tell you whose phone number is this( USA , pune , mumbai , bangalore ) )
Usage : tracknumber , tracknumberusa, tracknumbermumbai,tracknumberbangalore,tracknumberpune

Command Name rail
Description This will tell railway timetable ( only for India )
Usage : rail deccan OR rail shatabdi ;

Command Name horo
Description Horoscope
Usage : horo aries OR horo sagittarius

Command Name explain
Description This is a online Dictionary
Usage : explain beauty OR explain revenge
Command Name findinfo
Description Searches addresses and telephone number of person , Only in US
Usage : findinfo firstname surname

Command Name country
Description Gets Information of any country
Usage : country India

Command Name to_spanish
Description Translate into spanish
Usage : to_spanish Some text in english

Command Name to_french
Description Translate into french
Usage : to_french Some text in english

Command Name to_german
Description Translate into german
Usage : to_german Some text in english

Command Name to_italian
Description Translate into italian
Usage : to_italian Some text in english

Command Name from_spanish
Description Translate from spanish to english
Usage : from_spanish some text in spanish

Command Name from_french
Description Translate from french to english
Usage : from_french Some text in french

Command Name from_german
Description Translate from german to english
Usage : from_german Some text in german

Command Name from_italian
Description Translate from italian to english
Usage : from_italian Some text in italian

Command Name phonespell
Description Convert your phone number into easy to remember words?
Usage : phonespell 1-883-792-8791

Command Name distance
Description find distance between any two cities in the world
Usage : distance mumbai, orlando

Command Name time
Description Know time in any country
Usage : time usa

Command Name xrate
Description Gets Exchange rate between two countries
Usage : xrate usa India

Command Name google
Description Search the internet ,(Uses google (TM) api to get search results from internet)
Usage : google tajmahal

Command Name climate
Description Gives Climate information of any city in world
Usage : climate orlando , climate mumbai

Command Name quote
Description This will tell you Share Price
Usage : quote VRTS OR quote MSFT

Command Name traffic_usa
Description Know about traffic condition around your area, send me command traffic_usa zipcode
Usage : traffic_usa 10001,traffic_usa 32771

Command Name comment
Description Let me know how I am doing , please send me your comments about me
Usage : comment "your comment goes here"


So guys, no prizes for guess who's everyone's new best friend!!!

Whats interesting though is, how does mama_pendse make money? Certainly not through advertisements. I dont see any ads as yet. Its possibly an option going forward.