Web has been evolving continuously over the years and seems to do that in an increased pace, recently. We saw many niches arising and many getting ditched, but there are some which still shines. Add to this, the niche of lists or compilations. This essentially means, writing out posts that will be like “X Hottest Y”, “The Best Z in the world” and so on. Though, it might seem easy, as the content isn’t to be uniquely created, truth be told, it’s challenging than that. Think of publishing a 15/25 item compilation every couple of days !!

The practice or ART of compilation has been around for sometime now, though. But, these were limited to tech items. Called as list-posts by bloggers, these have proved to be killer resources of traffic. Posts like these, easily climbs up social media rankings.
We saw a deviation from the regular tech-list-posts, when two of the world’s best compilers, Smashing Magazine and Hongkiat started showcasing/compiling frequent posts featuring great designs, free design downloads and design examples. The scintillating success of these and those like these, prompted the web to explore interesting-other categories and to present them as professional compilations for their readers.

With that said, let me talk about a promising and exciting new entry to this niche : Damn Good Lists by Keith Dsouza of Techie-Buzz. Damn Good Lists have been launched just this week, and have already proved to be an immense success (which was very well expected). DGL features posts like 15-weirdest-fear-factor-dares and hot and sensational stuff, too. Damn Good Lists will clearly get ahead of any competition. with it’s excellent selection of domain name. The domain in intself, is a much-searched-keyword, which will put it up in first page (98% chance of being the first result) in Search Results. That said and counting in the social media sites, Keith could be sure of another shining success with DGL, as he’ve done with Techie-Buzz. I suggest that you subscribe to their feed so as not to miss anything sweet and hot.

P.S. Saad Hamid of Sizlopedia.com have recently launched ListPhobia, a portal dedicated to cool & hot lists.

This Awesome Graphic is by Ben Jacob

Right from the successfull launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota on October 22, 2008, to the successfull crash of the Moon Impact Probe (MIP) on the Moon-Surface, Chandrayaan, India’s mission to Moon, have been proceeding with utmost precision with no glitches hindering it’s way.

Here we are, our joy resembling the innocent joy of a child on owning something precious, our minds filled with the awesomeness of the moment, we’ve just witnessed. Here we are, saluting the great minds that worked behind and the tough hands that took things aboard. Here we are, with our minds brimming with pride and passion.

I was overwhelmed when The New Indian Express (an Indian Daily), introduced excerpts from blogs in their print edition, daily. They grab excerpts usually from blogs hosted at free services, which posts about current events and world events.

But, nothing proves to be filling the need for insightful content in newspapers or print media, in general. It still shouts about what happened yesterday, rather than help you live today and prepare for tomorrow. The web is always buzzing with startups for today and ideas for tomorrow.

The print media influences the way people think of what have already happened, but, web influences how things will be like tomorrow, even the very next minute. So, if said as a verdict, web is extremely constructive, while the conventional media, though not destructive, isn’t constructive.

You might’ve noticed that my post-frequency has gone down for the past month. It’s nothing like I quit blogging (probability zero), but, it’s just that there’s something else that caused it.

I have the habit of relating web to the so-called real world and while thinking of the complimentary action on web, for what we do in real world by helping out others by donating them money or a job, I discovered the Bloggers’ way of helping out (monetary).

Think of a situation where a blogger needs some urgent money for something very important for him or is struck with a natural disaster, and is not getting the required money from his own blog, other bloggers could help him out. How ? Plain simple - just allow the one who needs, to run his/her AdSense code on your blog. So, every blogger, who is ranked inside an Alexa rank of 75K earns decent sum every month and each of them could act as a savior for many !!

So, won’t it be cool if Nirmal T.V. Of Life Rocks 2.0, Saad Hamid of Sizlopedia, Keith Dsouza of Techie-Buzz and the like, adopted this way ?!! Running the ad code for even a few hours could generate needed amount.

After all, blogs are lives, isn’t it ?

This thought came up when, one morning this week, I unsubscribed from some really nice ‘blog tips’ blogs. I subscribed to them when I started off blogging 6 months back without even knowing what actually it was. And now, without any offense, I silently unsubscribe from them and takes the liberty to state that:

“Blog-Tips niche is nearing it’s end”

That’s not an opinion that formed because of the saturation in the particular niche. Saturation (to a certain limit) does not hinder progress, rather boosts it. Here, I’ll list what lead me to this conclusion:

1. A blog in its basics, is NOT a big deal (in terms of guidance/assistance). Anyone could easily do that.
2. I’m not denying the fact that ‘having some tips and assistance helps’. But, this doesn’t need to to be considered as a whole another niche.
3. You read some FAQs and forums regarding your blogging platform, start off with it, gain some blogger friends, make contact with them, get assistance or guidance, increase the network as required and go on.. (That’s the easiest and the straight-forward way of doing it.)
4. The idea of ‘blog-tips’ blogs sounds to me like : “A system with vehicle-owners who comes to refuel their cars, as the audience, and giving out ‘ideas and tips’ like ‘how-to-open-the-refueling vent, where-to-insert-the-nozzle, how-to-pay-for-the-fuel-you-just-bought etc.
5. The big guys in this niche are indeed extremely knowledgeable and are real GURUs in their field. I respect them for being the pioneers in the field that they indulge. It’s not who-does-that that matters, but, why-do-that.
6. I strongly feel that, the existence of so many blog-tips niche blogs and blogging-guidance-blogs have gave the entire concept of blogging a fake profile that really hinders the progress of blogging.

I thank Sumesh Premraj, who with a reply to my tweet, affirmed this thought. I’ve kept this post short and to the point as I want to be sure that you’ve read atleast the 6 points. Now, let’s start interacting right here.

I’ve encouraged all to visit the labs once in a while and very recently, Google launched SMS Channels at their India Lab. This one seems seriously useful and amazing. Though there are established sites like SMSGupShup, which provide similar service, i.e. Alert your friends and patrons in real time on information that they care about through SMS, because of the very fact that this has got a Google label on it, it has got its place on the web and in minds. I’m not going for a review of Google SMS Channels which enables you to create your own FREE SMS Channels. But, I’m going to demonstrate how we’ve tapped the power of it.

Let me introduce to you all, INTweeter : The SMS Channel of Indian Tweeters

• If you are an Indian and if you tweet (and if you own a mobile phone!!), doubt nothing and subscribe to the INTweeter SMS Channel powered by Google SMS Channels BETA. It aims to keep us informed of Tweetups, Barcamps, Events or anything that’s worth sharing. Fear NO SPAM or rubbish messages.
• Since this channel is of the members, the subscribers can post to the channel and the message will be pushed to all the subscribers, thus making it easy to pass on something important or announcements like a quick meetup/tweetup.
  
• As a precaution against spam, the channel is kept “private”, i.e. “invite-only”. You may send your phone number as an email to me/as a DirectMessage over Twitter/as a Comment here. I will send you the invite.
  
• You can be 100% sure of your privacy.

The Tweets that lead to the formation of INTweeter:

Calling all Indian Tweeters : Interested in creating a INTweeter SMS Channel for us ? Suggestions pls

@mixdev @AravindJose How it will work?

@AravindJose @mixdev To be informed of Tweetups, Barcamps, Events or anything that’s worth sharing. Strictly, NO SPAM.

..and encouraging replies from @SathyaBhat @scorpion032, @abhishek, @krishanu_de @iChaitanya @karthiksn

It’s normal that you might’ve got something to ask or get clarified. Write ‘em in the comments. Honestly, I would like to know what you think of INTweeter (and the logo too !!).

Here’s a cheat sheet of the SMS Commands, taken from Google Labs.

SayTweet is a new Twitter Mashup, but bigger than just a mashup. It’s much more.
It’s an ultra-cool and entertaining way of displaying tweets, which, the creators say, was inspired by the guys at Textopoly.

It essentially, displays the tweets in speech bubbles near the Twitter users who are tagged in a particular image. It’s dynamic, i.e. the image gets updated with the your (and your friends’) latest tweets. It’s to be experienced rather than explained. You’ll get a better picture with the pics below.

daaku, sathyabhat, cruisemaniac, suksy, scorpion032

SayTweet is intended to be driven by Imagination. There’s no limits to what you can do with it. Among some simple ideas,

• Uploading a family photo and tagging each member serves to be a great way of keeping up with everyone.
• Upload that group photo of your school/college which you lovingly cherish and tag your friends. Now, you’ll never ever miss them.
• Remember, you can UPLOAD JUST ANY PICTURE. Be creative, start a twitter profile for your blog (powered by TwitterFeed), upload a pic of you hugging your computer and tag the computer with that username.

These are just some random thoughts about the cool ways in which SayTweet could be used in conjunction with Twitter. Possibilities are endless.  It seems that you’re struck with an idea. Say it loud in the comments.
(Thanks @SathyaBhat for introducing SayTweet.)