The New Yahoo! - What do Y!ou think?

On 5^th October 2009, 4 major daily newspapers of the country – TheT imes of India, HT, Mint and DNA greeted us with a full page bright yellow jacket advertisement saying, ‘The Internet is under new management. Yours.’ Prime time slots on all major as well as niche television channels like Discovery, NatGeo played the Yahoo! Anthem – a minute long advertisement focused on the international spirit and interactivity of Yahoo!

Earlier this month, horizontal portal giant Yahoo! launched a global branding campaign ‘It’s Y!ou’ focusing on the user now being in charge of his internet experience through Yahoo! Personalization of homepage and other products are the ways in which Yahoo! wishes to offer superior web experience to its users. Costing them a little over $100 million, the campaign is seen as a long term transformation for Yahoo! who wishes to be at the centre of all internet-based activities for the users.

This brings out several interesting issues for discussion:

1. Conventional media – still alive and kickin’– It is interesting to see an Internet company leveraging conventional media – Print, television, radio to drive people to its website.

2. ‘Product innovation precedes the branding campaign’, so claims Yahoo! Yes, there have been several up gradations and add-ons, and the collaboration with Microsoft for the search engine Bing has been a huge step. The Homepage too has undergone a makeover, looking much sleeker, cleaner and appealing. The biggest feature that the Homepage now offers is the personalisation of content that one wishes to see on his/her homepage. There are also similar features in the other core products like mail, messenger and search (through choice of filters). But is personalization of content such a breakthrough innovation that it justifies a budget of $100 million? More so, can an entire branding strategy be based on this development in the product? In the past, iGoogle has offered similar options without so much as a ruffle.

3. Horizontal vs. Vertical portals – where are we heading?

In an age where digital immigrants are fast turning into digital natives, we all wish to become ‘specialists in information’ rather than being simply ‘well-informed’. Similarly, we tend to rely more on vertical portals for the depth and variety of content that they offer. For an avid internet user, a horizontal portal is increasingly being seen as a platform for the internet noobs to start off from. So the moot point is as the consumer preferences change as one becomes more adept with the internet, does a horizontal portal still offer us a reason to stick around? And more importantly can Yahoo! do that?

4. ‘Centre of peoples’ online lives’ is the positioning Yahoo! intends to achieve. But in current times where every digital native has 4 or more social networking ids (Orkut, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) not to mention multiple mail accounts and other personal favourite websites can one website become the centre of users’ online lives? Interestingly, even Google seems to be in the race for this coveted position. It would be exciting to watch if Yahoo! can match up to the expectations it has set for itself.

In recent times, Yahoo! has undergone a plethora of changes both in its management as well as product portfolio. Streamlining of products, identifying and communicating the role of Yahoo! in cyberspace are a few tasks carried out by the feisty CEO Carol Bartz after coming on board. Agreed, that the company has had its share of tumultuous phases and even more may come, but one would be foolish to discount Yahoo! as it gears up for the challenge of becoming the centre of people’s online lives. Not to mention, Yahoo! sites are after all, the third most visited websites on the planet!*

*Source: June 2009, comScore

To be or not to be - no, no nothing that dramatic!

Dichotomy. One moment I think about doing something I have never tried out in life and at the other the sheer amount of pending work exasperates me. How does one choose between the two? Between what needs to be done and what one wishes to do. The choice between responsibility and what pleases oneself.

For long I have postponed things that I really wanted to do. It started with simple stuff - blog posts, taking pictures, writing poems, reading a good book and it went on to form a habit, a really bad one. I postponed calling friends on their birthdays and talking to my parents for days at a stretch. On campus one tends to live in a world of bubble - a world visible to others yet so aloof that making a contact with the outsiders takes an effort. Efforts which I thought could be postponed.

How does one make a choice?? I want to make the right choice but how? There is so much going on acads-wise that I dont wish to fall behind. So much to read, to learn and so less time! But then there is this empty feeling that next months are going to be the last 6 months of my life when I will get to do what I really want to! 4 am walks around the campus, late night grub at Chota, watching movies all night and then heading for breakfast, playing badminton at absurd hours, writing silly poetry and living life my way!!

The whole 'balancing act' is sucha farce, I tell you. There is no such thing as the middle path and if there is one - then I am clearly miles away. Sigh!

Time for updates!
1. We (Siddhesh, KK and I) won the Arbit Presentations, an event at Prayaag '09, the annual B-fest of JBMIS. Yay!! The competition was tough with singing, dancing, acting and prancing around involved. (Dont ask!) Who would have thought those number-crunching Fin-majors of JB would be so good at cheeky one liners!

2. After an eventful vacation (one of the longest - almost deserves a new post) I am finally back on campus. The weather in Gujjuland is pleasantly cold. One can clearly make out the Mumbai junta with their sweatshirts and socks from the Delhi ones walking around in their shorts and skirts.

3. On the dissertation front - I managed to get the faculty I wanted as my internal and external guides. It wasn't an easy task with the moronic admin people FORGETTING to CHECK my mail and alloting guides to everyone else except me. I almost had a 'WTF!' moment but then diplomacy took over. It was good to know that politeness still works - especially when the other person is at fault! :P

Aah! So I finally manage to write one entire post without answering the question I started off with. I guess, the deadlines are hinting the answer not-so-subtly. Well, I did blog today and played baddy, hit the gym, watched a movie so now a little padhai wont do much harm.

Tada!!

Can cook to save life.

The grass is always greener on the other side, they say. But the other day my heart truly went out to my best friend from college, Avinash. MS in biotech jumbo-mumbo in some frozen county of New York is making life tough for the poor guy. Cooking was never his forte and now he is fending himself off on frozen foods. Adding to his woes, the proverbial ' golden ray of hope' (that would be me) is missing from his life. No wonder! He is in sucha dump! :P

Alright! May be things aren't that bad..but yes, the moron bought a microwave for 3$ at a garage sale and I bet he hasn't even warmed water in it yet.

So here it is - The recipe I promised you Avi. Try to stick to the basics and I assure you that it will be edible

Vegetable Pulav - Microwave-made

Total Time: 20 mins (including preparation time)

Ingredients:

1 cup of rice
1 cup of chopped carrots
1 cup of chopped cauliflower
1/2 cup chopped french beans
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 cup of chopped potatoes

Basically any veggies you can lay your hands on.
Spare the yucky brinjals and lady's fingers though!

1 tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon jeera
2-3 chopped green chillies
1/2 tablespoon chopped garlic
1-2 teaspoons red chilli powder
2 teaspoons garam masala
2 teaspoons dhaniya powder
Salt swadanusaar (Thus spake like a true chef!)

Method: Switch on the microwave. (Duh!) Now in a borosil/any microwave-friendly container, add the oil and warm it for 30 seconds (I use piHigh ie. Microwave mode). Now add the jeera, chopped chillies, garlic and let it microwave for one minute. To the pot, now add all the veggies, the masalas, salt, rice and around 3 cups of good old H2O. The best way to be sure if the water is enough or not, well, there should be a a nice 1 inch gap between level of rice + veggies and that of the water in the pot (Level of water > Level of rice).

Done! Now microwave this for 13-15 mins. Remove once when you are half-way through and stir well. You can also add a dash of lemon juice and sprinkling of coriander now (Never mind Avi! Move on) and then continue cooking till all the water is absorbed and the rice is well cooked and dry.

Serve hot with some Lijjat papads, pickle, raita and chhaas (Avi, you can skip this.)

Voila!! I told you..a good hot meal is only a few minutes away :)


P.S: No clue about US, but in India we wash the rice atleast 3-4 times to remove that white powder thats used to preserve it. Dont exactly know what it is - I guess some pesticide! Just thought I should remind you :P

Now do a favour on that microwave of yours and try this dish out. Oh! and take pics - put them on FB - that will send girls swooning after you :P

Love,
Rutuja

P.S : Pic is from the net. Outcome of the above experiment may not resemble the picture. Kindly excuse.

Information you can live without.

I hate this transitory phase. I am at home currently but would return to my b-school in a week's time. Half of my clothes lie in the laundry bag, a few in the cupboard - all neatly washed n ironed while a few peep out of suitcase. Half of my stuff is still back there in my other home - that lovely hostel room back in MICA...and in all this I feel halved..incomplete..somewhat hanging in between 2 places..neither here nor there. I mean..my post-its are there and important stuff to write about here! My silver earrings here and the matching bangles back there :( I wish I was all in one place..me and my belongings. I feel so incomplete without them..no, not just the clothes, books, jewellery and stationery..but my life! I am not liking this duality - I miss my mirror, my marker pens and my cupboard door full of post-its. I miss evening walks around the campus, the after-dinner walks and that liesurely breakfast full of news and gossips.

I am increasingly irked by my behaviour. I plan a lot, decide on a few but eventually end up doing almost nothing. What else can explain 85 unfinished drafts of blog-posts? Make that 86 - if I give up finishing this one too.

Mindless social networking. Those stupid stupid FB quizzes..going back to them after a few hours to see if any other equally lame homo sapien has bothered 'liking' or commenting. How shallow am I gonna get?

Its been ages since I wrote a poem. A long time since I read a good book..Ok, the last one was 2 weeks back. But 2 weeks of utter joblessness?? Adding the same set of people as friends on Orkut, Facebook, LinkedIn..followed by scraps of 'Wassup? How u doing?' to the same people I didnt even bother talking to back in school or college. Aargh! I seriously dont need this form of active social life.

Thankfully the offline social life is not that pathetic. But yeah, my parents have become increasingly intolerant of my erratic biolgical clock. I am my most active self when they are asleep and just vegetate around the house during the day. Cant blame them but then its too difficult to adopt normalcy now, that too for a few days.

Gastronomically speaking (no updates are complete without this) it has been a blessed holiday so far. Sabudana wadas, khichdi and other such holiday-items are ticked off in the list. The long lost love for cooking was rekindled and I realised once again why MBA was such a bad idea.

Here is the list of what I cooked this week:

1. Vegetable Pulav
2. Jeera rice
   
3. Baingan ka bharta
4. Chocolate brownie
5. Vegetable momos
6. Gobi ke pakode
   
7. Onion-Potato-Chilli Bhajji
8. Pasta in tomato sauce
9. Maggi (some 4 times in one week)
   
10. French toasts (had them after almost 2 years!)

Cooking is sucha stress-buster. So is cleaning the cupboard. De-cluttering is good. Clears the mind. Just what I need right now. But cant :(( Who cooks at 2 am? nd who will eat?? as for cleaning the cupboard...damn! the cupboard here is almost empty :( So here I go..back to my cribbing session. Missing good things in life..getting bored of boredom and lacking motivation to break this vicious cycle.

What a waste I am!