Every day, millions of dollars are paid to news, entertainment and social networking websites and blogs to advertise goods and services. All based on what the websites and blogs claim their traffic is. But it is an open secret among the website administrators and techies that no one is quite sure how many people actually visit their site. More...

Indian company Ideacts specializes in advertising in the tens of thousands of Cyber Cafés in the country.  By all accounts, Ideacts is a professional outfit with the business acumen of identifying such a niche but valuable market. Nielsen does all kinds of surveys around the world. Ideacts hired Nielsen to survey the men and women who frequent Indian Cyber Cafes. More...

President Obama’s appointment of 34-year old Indian-born technocrat, Vivek Kundra, to the position of Federal CIO of the US Government, was reported extensively in India. The Federal CIO has a say in every important decision regarding technology used by the US Govt.  Vivek is on leave after a corruption racket was unearthed at his previous Office as CTO for Washington DC. More...

Social network websites like Orkut, Facebook and MySpace have hundreds of millions of members and have changed the way we live, learn and love.  Specialized networking websites like LinkedIn are pitched to senior managers and businessmen and those who aspire to become like them. Indian doctors have now launched a site for fellow medicos and warned all others to stay away. More...

Tech giant Microsoft and its proprietary operating systems are being increasingly challenged as more Governments and businesses opt for the cost and flexibility of open source.  Indian State Governments like Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal have taken a number of steps to ensure they are not locked into proprietary software and its associated restrictions and costs. More...

US-based Brown and Wilson Group offer themselves as experts in the outsourcing business.  Every year, Brown and Wilson release a Black Book which gives readers an up to date snapshot of the outsourcing world.  Separately to the Black Book, they have now produced a downstream risk metric for offshore outsourcing decision makers to identify and prioritize outsourcing hubs. More...

Pune-based Ravi Ghate runs a local SMS Community Newsletter service and his motto is ‘From Zero for Zeros.’ In 2006, he won the National Youth Award, Government of India’s highest award given to Youth Social Workers in India for his contribution in “Computer Literacy Mission” & “Technology for the Masses.” In 2007, he received the prestigious Manthan Award. More...

Wait! Before you call your lawyer to sue me for libel; I am not talking about your er…character or qualities! Nor am I making war on the inhabitants of Mallu Pradesh! ‘Fraud Mallu’ for your information is an Orkut community of Mallus, for Mallus and by Mallus, only you need to be a pardesi mallu or Marunadan mallu as they say in Malayalam. More...

The Kerala Police has arrested the CEO of an unauthorised Call Centre in Kochi last week on the basis of a complaint from BSNL authorities regarding unpaid telephone bills. According to the complaint lodged with the police, Mohammed Ali of Kozhikode took a connection from BSNL under the super mega scheme for his firm Malabar Infoway in Kochi, but refused to pay for it. More...