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Net Gains (Apr 07, 98) |
Net Gains regularly gives its readers a chance to learn more
about the favourite sites of people in the Internet limelight,
whose day to day activities revolve around the Internet. Today,
Net Gains takes a peek into the bookmark file of Mr. Ajit Balakrishnan
- Chairman and CEO of Rediff on the NeT, an Internet services
business. Barely six months after the Internet was publicly accessible
in India, Rediff on the Net started offering India's first web-only
ezine (electronic magazine) that had no print counterpart, but
yet had editorial staff to exclusively publish this webzine daily.
Rediff on the Net has since built websites for some of the biggest
Indian brand names - Citibank, Reliance, Asian Paints, and J &
J being a few. Like over 80% of users online, the primary reason
Mr. Balakrishnan uses the Internet is gathering news and information.
The first bookmark is Upside.com (http://www.upside.com)
- a business information site catering to the information needs
of technology-savvy executives. Upside.com is an online version
of the print version Upside, but also has exclusive Net-only sections.
Mr. Balakrishnan frequents this site because it analyses technology
strategies deeply.
Brandweek (http://www.brandweek.com) is a site that provides
comprehensive information to advertising, marketing and media
professionals. While they have a bit of news, features, and classifieds
available for everyone, only subscribers have complete access
to detailed current news, articles and databases.
Boardwatch (http://www.boardwatch.com) started off in
1987 as a list of bulletin boards, but today is also a site covering
the Internet, World Wide Web, BBSs for people involved in developing
and providing online services. Though Boardwatch is available
for free on the Net, the developers urge readers to subscribe
to the print version of their magazine, their final plea being
: "You still can't take our website to the bathroom with
you!"
FreeEdgar (http://www.freeedgar.com) is a must-have bookmark
for those with business interest in the US of A. The site is home
to an extensive database of corporate information, allowing surfers
to access, organize, and interpret financial data of US companies.
You can easily access company descriptions, company information,
income statements, balance sheets, the works! I tried it for Yahoo!
and realised that I should have paid more attention to all those
lectures in Financial Management in college…
Then there's News.com (http://www.news.com), already
covered a few times in this column, and a must-visit resource
for technology news on the Internet. And for mainstream news,
CNN.com gets Mr. Balakrishnan's hits on a daily basis.
Wirednews.com (http://www.wirednews.com) is a cult magazine
for Mr. Balakrishnan, who likes it for it's tongue-in-cheek style
of presentation. At wirednews.com, you can look forward to getting
the latest business, culture, technology, politics, and international
news.
Webmonkey (http://www.webmonkey.com), a how-to guide
to building Web sites, lives upto its name - this site monkeys
about, but has its serious side too. The best way to describe
it would be equating it to JAM magazine with a techy angle to
it.
All these sites mainly showcase and track the excitement in
the Internet world that, as of today, mainly revolves around the
US. Often makes you wonder just how long it will be before we
see similar action here. Other countries are already doing their
bit to promote the Internet. The news section has one good example
…
Net/News
On March 20 and 21, France held a national
Internet celebration known as Net Days. The event aimed to raise
public awareness of the Internet and was organized by the French
government to promote IT in the country. The French Internet community
organized a major "christening party" for the Net in
Paris, at which people could get hands on access to the Web and
try the various Internet service providers' services free of charge.
Will India ever have a fete like that ? Time will tell ……
Remember to log on next week, when Net Gains will put a song
to your lips and a smile on your face.