Google+ Pulls In 20 Million in 3 Weeks

When Google Inc. launched its Google+ social-networking site three weeks ago, executives handed out sailor hats to the hundreds of employees working on the project, symbolizing their year-long journey to that point.
So far, the sailing has been mostly smooth. On Wednesday, Web-traffic watcher comScore Inc. estimated Google+ has had 20 million unique visitors since its launch, including five million visitors from the U.S. A Google spokeswoman declined comment.

ComScore, whose estimates are based on a "global measurement panel" of two million Internet users, similar to the approach Nielsen uses to measure television ratings,doesn't have data on the number of minutes people spent on Google+.

Still, the growth of Google+ has impressed observers because access to it is by invitation only, meaning people can join only if a current member invites them. And the company hasn't yet marketed the service to the more than one billion monthly visitors who use its search engine, Gmail and other services.

Google+ lets people share comments, articles, photos and videos with various "circles" of friends or contacts, or they can share content publicly with any userwho wants to view their posts. Eventually, Google plans to incorporate features of Google+ in its other services, such as its YouTube video site.

"I've never seen anything grow this quickly," said Andrew Lipsman, vice president of industry analysis at comScore. The only other site that has accumulated as many new visitors in a short period of time is Twitter in 2009, he said, "but that happened over several months."

The new data follow comments by Google CEO Larry Page last week that Google+ had more than 10 million users.Mr. Page said Google+'s traction was evidence that there are "more opportunities for Google today than ever before."

Of course, Google has a long way to go to reach the scale of Facebook Inc., which has more than 750 million users, and Twitter Inc., which has more than 200 million registered accounts.

With Google+, Google is aiming to match rivals like Facebook, which used personal information posted by its members to create a multibillion-dollar advertising business that lets marketers target specific demographic groups or people with certain interests. Google also hopes the service can become a home for brands and celebrities.

The data Google obtains about people's interests could also help it change the way its Web-search engine works. Sites in its search results could potentially be ranked based on what users and their friends like or find useful, Google engineers have said.
 In addition to adding numerous features over time, Google will eventually allow software developers to create "social" games and other applications that would run on top of Google+, similar to Facebook's successful "platform" for applications, people familiar with the matter have said.

Google+ also has unique technology, such as a "hangouts" feature, that lets people do "video chats" using their computer webcams, speaking to numerous friends simultaneously. The company plans to include Google+ in its suite of online software for businesses.

In an email to investors Tuesday, Barclays Capital equity researchers said that "given positive initial traction from users we believe Google is now better positioned to compete and integrate social cues across its products than before, which could drive increased relevancy in search going forward."

Even some privacy advocates who lambasted Buzz, Google's prior social-networking effort, have lauded Google+. "The product has been designed to make it easier to share with one group of your friends while retaining some measure of privacy with respect to your family, coworkers or other groups of friends," said Peter Eckersley, a senior technologist at privacy-advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation, in an email.

But Mr. Eckersley added: "Google+ won't be as good for protecting your privacy against Google or against governments or lawyers with the power to compel Google to turn over your information."

Ben Hopper, a 29-year-old photographer in London who joined Google+ just after it launched, said "it feels a little empty right now" compared with Facebook, where he has more than 4,000 "friends." But he said that he "needs to be everywhere to show my photography," and if Google+ becomes integrated with Gmail, Google's email service, "for me it will have the upper hand."

The Poor Rich India.

India is the 4th richest country in terms of GDP
India has 55 billionaires and is 4th in the number of billionaires in a country
India is 3rd in the number of internet users and 5th in number of facebookers
India has 10th most number of airports
India has 2nd most mobile phones
India has the 1st most richest cricket board

PS-Indians are rich but India is poor, where is all the money going?

LARGEST BAT!!

With a height of around 5"5' and wing span of about 6"0', the FLYING FOX BAT is the largest bat ever!! Don't worry it won't run after your blood, it eats fruit!!

100% needed for B.Com at SRCC

If Sri Ram College of Commerce is your dream college and you are not a commerce student, 100% is what you need to make that dream come true. At the nearby Hindu College you will need 99% marks and if you settle for the south campus, Lady Sri Ram College has a first list cut-off at 97%.

"This is crazy even the second rung colleges are out of reach, even in colleges like Khalsa, the cut offs have gone upto 92-93% " a student Keshav said.

Despite the exceptionally high cut offs this year, there are some who have managed to qualify but the number of such students are not many.

"I have got 97%. They are doing it to keep the non commerce students out" a student Dheer said.

Unlike 2010, in 2011 the university decided to do away with centralised application forms and asked colleges to come out with cut offs on their own based on this years Class XII results and previous cut off trends.

The rider is that every student who makes the cut has to be given admission that is one reason the colleges are playing it safe, at least the first cut off list.

But the HRD ministry Kapil Sibbal and the Vice Chancellor of Delhi University Dinesh Singh are not happy.

"I request VC and college to take note of it and I want to tell the parents that they should not worry we will take care of this irrationality," Sibbal said.

Vice Chancellor of Delhi University said, "High cut offs because of very high percentages students have received in their boards. in the first list colleges are always cautious, cut offs will come down in second and third lists. We are looking to reform our processes."

With around 2000 students across the country securing above 95 per cent, 800 of which are from Delhi alone, the principal of SRCC Dr PC Jain says this kind of a cut off list was not unexpected.

"Performance of students has been extraordinary this year, that's why, the cut off is so high... There is nothing unfortunate. Infact, its very fortunate that students in this country are performing so well. The criteria are an old practice that has been followed so nothing like that it has been done deliberately to keep the non-commerce students out of SRCC," said Jain.

Even as the first cut off list has brought more shock than hope among students, college authorities say there is hope that the second cut off list is likely to be more realistic.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, whose two sons study in a Delhi school, is also worried over the high cut-offs. Omar tweeted saying, "Worry? I'm terrified for my sons because in five years, when Zamir (Omar's son) moves to college, the cut-offs will be even more insane."

Omar said he was happy that he finished college 20 years ago as the present cut-offs were "scary".

"With these kinds of cut-off marks, I'd have been doing a correspondence course because I wouldn't have even gotten a 'pass course' admission," he said.

Another Delhi University college Daulat Ram College has hiked its cut-off for chemistry honours by as much as 13%, while Gargi has increased the cut-off marks for chemistry honours by 12%. For English Honours, the cut-off is 88% at Gargi, Hans Raj and Ramjas.

Meanwhile, St Stephen's has done away with the Class 10 component from its eligibility requirements and is giving 85% weightage to the Class 12 marks and remaining 15% to interview.

Are Malls Our New Temples?

Festivals are a time for shopping. Well and good. But I think those of us who live in large cities would be kidding ourselves if we pretended that this is the only time we engage in rampant consumerism. No, from Bangkok to Singapore, Mumbai to Manila, shopping—particularly shopping in large malls—is a year-round priority.

Shopping centres are good. They are a sign of dizzying economic growth, and a demonstration of how far Asians have come, in such a short time. For many of the older generation who can remember a time when everyone lived in villages and there was no running water, the multi-level, air-conditioned mall represents comfort, choice, luxury and better times.
But many Asian metropolises with burgeoning middle classes now have such a proliferation of malls—all teeming with outlets of Marks & Spencer, Gap, Starbucks, Bulgari, Cartier, Mont Blanc—that they appear to have long crossed saturation point. Nowadays, it seems our default venue for every activity is the mall—it’s where we shop, eat, watch movies, bowl, arrange to meet our friends, have a romantic date or just generally lounge around.
Not only that, we have come to regard malls as important landmarks or tourist attractions. “When you come to visit us, you must see our new shopping centre, it’s massive and has an Egyptian pyramid at the entrance”—sentences such as these are quite usual. Whole generations of Asians are growing up to think that, aside from home and school, the shopping complex is the most natural place to be. Many young people shop for clothes at the mall so that they can look good when they meet their friends—at the mall. 
My main contention with shopping centres is not that they are often massive concrete blocks that don’t take into account the architectural nuances or cultural backdrop of a city, or that they promote ultra-consumerism at a time when our planet can ill afford it. My main gripe with the plethora of malls is that they don’t seem to make us happy. Oh, the large advertisements outside the stores could persuade us to think that if we only had this pair of jeans, or if we hung out at this café, then we could feel more fulfilled. But once we buy something, we only want to buy something more.

Shopping malls, even though they try to look as glitzy and as welcoming as possible, can be 
harsh places. The very concept of the mega-mall plays on human feelings of inadequacy and competitiveness. To make us buy, it must make us feel that we lack something, or that everyone else has something we do not yet own. We must consume to surpass others or, at the very least, to keep up. We purchase to fit in. How can this constant undercurrent of competitiveness, of us always trying to be “cool,” bring us true joy?
The saddest thing is that the modern mall, basically an American import, has made us put aside a whole array of beautiful, worthwhile —and yes, cheaper—activities, many of them intrinsic to our own cultures or region. We have no one to blame but ourselves. Instead of shopping, we could be cooking, visiting a nearby waterfall, beach or temple, reading a novel, writing poetry, starting a blog, making music, taking a long walk, playing a game, learning a dance or—here’s a radical idea—visiting a friend.
Every time there’s a spare piece of land, all we can think of building on it is yet another mall. This way, 
we show not only our affluent status but also demonstrate our poverty in terms of imagination, adventure and passion. Perhaps instead, we should be building libraries, or theatres, art galleries, museums, sports halls, public swimming pools, parks, animal sanctuaries—the list is endless. 
We might even consider leaving that plot of land alone, to flourish as it will.
And this is something that the mall may have caused us to forget; In order to be happy, we must create as well as consume.

Flying Car -- Becomes Reality

Mumbai office mkt sixth most expensive globally

Mumbai has been ranked as the sixth-most expensive office market in the world, according to a global survey by property services firm Cushman & Wakefield.

With office rentals in its main business district averaging $114 a square foot per year, Mumbai ranks behind Hong Kong , London, Tokyo, Rio de Janiero and New York, the report said.

Rentals for Class A space at the Nariman Point area in south Mumbai typically range between 300 to 400 rupees per square foot per month. Mumbai had been ranked No. 5 last year in a similar survey.

Cushman & Wakefield said lack of new supply and limited demand for office space is likely to keep office rentals stagnant in Mumbai.

Property prices in Mumbai and Delhi have more than doubled over the past 18 months, spurred by rising incomes and a firm stock market, but sales volumes are down by a third from a year ago as high prices and rising borrowing costs deter buyers.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has raised interest rates seven times since March 2010 to curb stubbornly high inflation, further hurting demand.

India's top seven cities hold total office space of 280 million square feet, and this is expected to rise by another 50 million square feet in 2011.

KBC-4 gives its first 'crorepati'

Rahat Tasneem, the maiden contestant to win the prize money of Rs one crore in the fourth season of popular show 'Kaun Banega Crorepati' (KBC) is confidence personified, a trait which was even lauded by the show's host megastar Amitabh Bacchan. Coming from a small town of Giridih in Jharkhand, the 37-year-old says she played well utilising the options of 'phone a friend', 'double dip', 'expert advice' and 'audience poll' effectively.

Rahat said that she was confused initially and had to use the lifelines. "But, from the stage of Rs 3.20 lakh to Rs 50 lakh, I knew my answers and did not require lifelines."

"When Big B asked me where did I get my confidence from, I replied it stemmed from self-belief and the fact that I knew it all," she said.

Rahat won the crore sum by opting for 'double dip' to a question about which state did the first woman president of an African nation, belong.

"I was confused so I used my last lifeline (double dip)," she said adding she quit the game as she did not know the answer of the jackpot query of Rs 5 crore on the first heart transplant. "I did not have any lifelines left."

The lucky housewife had only Rs three in her mobile phone as balance when it began all, with a question on Hindu mythology on October 16. "I decided to take a chance and send the SMS," Rahat said.

World's Biggest Rangoli.........Happy Diwali-2010

A total of 120 girls, boys and women worked for hours to make what the organisers said was the world's largest rangoli at the SRK college ground in this Uttar Pradesh town.


The huge rangoli at SRK college ground in Uttar Pradesh's Firozabad
town made using 13 quintals of colour. (IANS Photo)

Praveeen Agarwal, secretary of the Indian Career Welfare Society which organised the show, said the rangoli was made on 12,000 sq feet of ground, using 13 quintals of red, yellow, green and black gulal.

"We also used white marble powder," Agarwal told IANS. The rangoli was opened for public viewing later.

Participants were trained for a week. Computer aided diagram and sketches helped the artists to work on 17 different blocks simultaneously. The figure was of a human face.

The next step, the organisers said, was to get a Guinness certificate.

Top 10 mistakes of Bill Gates

Bill Gates is considered as a great man. Many people look up to him. And a lot of people are inspired by his life. But then again like any other human being he also has his own mistakes. Here are the top 10 mistakes of Bill Gates.

The man created a software monopoly and in return he got so many lawsuits for it.Bill Gates is still fighting with lawsuits.The source on wikipedia clearly stated that
United States v. Microsoft was a set of consolidated civil actions filed against Microsoft Corporation on May 18, 1998 by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and 20 U.S. states. Joel I. Klein was the lead prosecutor.The trial started on May 18, 1998 with the U.S. Justice Department and the Attorneys General of twenty U.S. states suing Microsoft for illegally thwarting competition in order to protect and extend its software monopoly.

Bill Gates did not consider opensource. His business strategies always counter opensource principles and paradigm.You may be interested in his open-source debate In a Fortune magazine he clearly says that
It’s easier for our software to compete with Linux when there’s piracy than when there’s not.


The Windows OS made Mr. Gates the richest man in the world. But its latest iteration is bombarded with lots of negative criticisms.
He allowed Windows Mobile to happen. Did he run out of innovative ideas so he settled for a miniature Windows OS for mobile phone. He could have put up a team to design the OS from ground up.
He let DOS die. It was a promising OS and a very stable one.
Bill Gates did not think of cloud computing probably because of his proprietary Windows OS. But this is definitely one of his biggest mistakes.
He allowed Windows Millennium edition to be released. The OS was definitely a reflection of the lack of talents from Microsoft. It failed the expectation of the people. It was premature.
He ignored search. Look what happened to Google now. Bill Gates already made some moves about search in the end of the 90s and it was definitely a mistake to trash it.Scobleizer once revealed in his post that
Look at my last post. Now read this one over on LiveSide. It’s a short report that Microsoft executives are bragging to MVPs that “we’re in it to win.”

I don’t think Microsoft is. The words are empty. Microsoft’s Internet execution sucks (on whole). Its search sucks. Its advertising sucks (look at that last post again). If that’s “in it to win” then I don’t get it. I saw a bunch of posts similar to the one on LiveSide coming out of the MVP Summit. I didn’t post any of them to my link blog for a reason: All were air, no real demonstrations of how Microsoft is going to lead.

The Microsoft Zune is a mistake. A lot of money poured into its development but yet it did not yield enough profit.John Biggs from Crunchgear had a poetic post on “Who killed Microsoft?”.Some of the extract are as follows:
Who killed Microsoft? Why did all those jobs get lost?

“Not I,” said the Zune fanboy, “I got Zune, I’m no iToy Sure it didn’t do too much and too bad my girlfriend bought a Touch now we’re iTunes all the way what else do I have to say?”

The Xbox on the other hand is too pricey for a gaming console and because of this; people go for other brands- the cheaper ones.This is only reason why Xbox price set to drop in war with Sony’s PS3 and Nintendo’s top-selling Wii. Those are the top 10 mistakes of Bill Gates. These might be some of the negative side of the guy but these will never take away his greatness.