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Net Gains (Dec 11, 98) |
Most of us Internet users are getting addicted to the medium -
in fact, a survey in the US of over a thousand people found that
two thirds of Internet users would rather give up their phone
and TV access than Internet access.
The survey, conducted by Roper Starch Worldwide (http://www.roper.inter.net/),
found that three quarters of Internet users log on regularly to
make decisions on various purchases. 70 percent said they go online
to get additional information on a given product while 90 percent
said they used the Net primarily to communicate with family and
friends. The majority said they found it easier to express themselves
online than via traditional media.
When asked what was the most important invention of the 20th century,
80 percent said the computer, 11 percent said the telephone and
7 percent said television. Of those who own laptops, nearly 50
percent take them on vacation with them, and 25 percent download
email throughout vacation. (Those of us without laptops rush in
search for the nearest cybercafe. I remember my vacation in Goa
earlier this year - within 24 hours of landing there, I found
a cybercafe!)
Convenience and speed are two big advantages that the Internet
offers us compared to the traditional way of doing things. Take
email for instance - in a matter of minutes, a message can go
all the way across the world at a minuscule fraction of the cost
of sending it via snail mail. And many services have sprung up
to harness these advantages, and adapt them to our country where
Internet connections are still scarce.
HomeIndia.com started off offering a free online post service
for NRIs to communicate with their friends and relatives in India
without email access. The email is printed out, and mailed to
the recipient in India. Pacemail (http://pacemail.indiasite.com)
is a service that started a few months ago by a 14 year old school
kid - Mohit Sureka. While that was a similar concept to that of
HomeIndia.com, Mohit soon started offering a free email-fax service
where email from NRIs would be faxed to anyone in India. LetterIndia.com
(currently shut down for re-construction) had a unique offering
- they enabled two way communication by also scanning letters
from people in India and emailing them abroad. The only problem
with these services is that they are held to ransom when the chappies
running our postal system decide to go on strike. "Message"
is the latest entrant into these hybrid online-offline communication
services that went the paid route. For a price, email can be delivered
and picked up from your doorstep. And since Message uses intercity
courier services, it bypasses the fancies of the postal system.
Since there's no webpage given for more details, you'll just
have to use the telephone and contact 4924740.
Luckily for us who are connected, on the Internet, you don't have
to worry about your email not reaching the recipient because of
some silly strike or bandh along the way. None of us need to be
reminded about how postal strikes can hold so many things to ransom.
Those application forms from colleges abroad that you've been
waiting for. That resume you sent may not meet the 10 day deadline.
Or maybe that letter to Santa Claus asking him for that bike (with
the blonde on the pillion)… For those of you not yet connected
a few words of advice: "Get an online life buddy!"
Tired of that boring, long, tongue twister that you know as your
VSNL email address? Here's your chance to get a shorter, sweeter
email address, and if you're quick enough, you'll even get a username
of your choice. To make the changes, log on to http://mail.vsnl.com/
and in a matter of seconds you will get your new email address
([email protected]). Since usernames are unique and assigned on
a first-come-first-serve basis, grab yours before someone else
from VSNL's 1.5 lakh subscribers choose it! Don't even try getting
[email protected] - no prizes for guessing who got it!