There was a time when people would refrain to give away any information about them online (for general users even their names were something not to be mentioned online). Introduction of Social Networks have totally revamped the way we use internet. Now its a very tightly coupled system shaped by our online behaviors. This deep integration with Social Media and Social Networks have completely changed how we search for people online. There is a big market for search of information but now we see another emerging market which is search for people.

Here is a search for “Yaser Awan” which gives following results in google.

My Blog (Bhonpoo) , Twitter Profile, Facebook Profile, Linkedin Profile, My Profiles on Isamaa, SeenReport and GeoDost and my urdu blog Buzm-e-bayadab. Thats pretty much sums up the first 2 pages and whatever i do online.

Its been a while i updated my blog (courtesy micro-blogging) but now is the right time to write about something that just came up.
Google Buzz is google’s recent initiative in social direction. Most probably all of you already know what it is so lets not go into that and lets try speculating whats it about. here are some random thoughts.

• Where Google seems to be not doing much on Social Networks its a fact that it hasn’t been sitting idle. Adding small social features in its services like Google Reader (sharing and friend subscription), Picasa (Name tagging), Phones (Android integration with google account) etc shows exactly in what direction Google wants to go from here. Google wants to be the ultimate social network without labeling itself as just a social network.
• Google Buzz also shows that what is google good at; it knows with whom you want to communicate and they have translated it good enough (using your email data). They seems to be doing a better job at finding people you know as compared to Facebook and Twitter.
• On the first go you will start using it like Twitter but you will soon notice all the conversations are happening similar to Facebook and with the same circle of people you communicate on Facebook.
• Above proves a points, a very big portion of internet users who have never been to Twitter and dont want to be there just to enjoy sending 140 character updates to strangers will definitely use Buzz.
• Sometimes Public Buzz seems like public emails which somehow makes me believe its google Wave but repackage into something that will be more acceptable.
• Google Buzz does integrate activities from your other social networks but there is no way to integrate your google buzz activities with other social networks which is a big question mark.
• Google seems to have solved the problem of notifications (that they faced in case of Wave) by integrating Buzz into inbox.
• At the time when corporates are looking to have fun on Web 2.0 , Google Buzz is the closet to corporate cultures as its closet to email so there is a big market for which Google Buzz will be most acceptable.
• Buzz has the coolest interface on mobile (have only tried it on Android) as compared to Twitter and Facebook.

Having said all these things there is still a long way to go for Google Buzz and its direction and potential User base might be different. Whats are your thoughts on it?

Today marks the birthday of Isaac Newton, thats the reason apples are falling on Google’s homepage. Clicking the logo does a search on Isaac Newton. In the search results Google is now showing Real Time tweets about Isaac Newton. Google in the recent part did a deal with Twitter to incorporate real time tweets into search results. Now you can actually see Real Time Search Results in action (highlighted in picture below).

We have seen the information flow transform from uni-directional to multi directional, we have seen the web transform from static to collaborative. This transitional period has seen many guest and grand appearances. One of them is Social Networks. Some of us might have a lot against them, some like wasting time on them and some have really good uses of this new technology. The overwhelming use of Social Networks has also sparked a debate that have these networks already hit the limit of their growth or they are about to? Are they here to stay or its just a temporary boom like Dot com era?
One thing is for sure that today’s Social Giants might not live for longer (in the form they currently are) but Social Networking is here to stay. The only question remains is in what form?
In the past few years we have not only seen an overwhelming information influx also we have observed a phenomenon with appearance of these Social Giants. The specific type of information started getting centralized at various HotSpots. These information Hotspots couldn’t live longer while being isolated  from rest of the web and have started to integrate themselves with other HotSpot. So there is considerable balance between  decentralization and  centralization.You end up doing something at a website and your friends across the netwroks see your feed. Which brings me to a conclusion that the Future Social Networks will just be aggregators. You do one action at a website and some other action at another and your friends across the web on different platforms get updated. There will be no Social Network in isolation there will only be aggregators that will help you converge information.

There are huge smoke clouds on the skies of Lahore. Its still unknown that is it a fire at some place or some terrorist activity or something else.
The fire seems to be somewhere around Multan road.

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This is something i spotted at a local audio cassette store. A folk singers new album having title song Kithay kereya phone sajna SIM badale aay (where should i call , my lover has changed her mobile number/sim).
Local folk punjabi songs always have this cultural touch, but recently modern developments have started to get into local songs, tappas etc. Lets see how far it goes and how entertaining it can be.

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Google has recently started advertising on its mobile website the localized search initiative. The local search is all about searching places like restaurant, shopping places, gas stations, atms etc. All you need to do is to goto local search page and type in the query or select a category from the provided list. Google will show you all the related places near you with all the available information (like contact details, addresses etc). When you click a specific place it shows it on Google Maps for you.
As Mapmaker's (mapmaker.google.com) data has been opened to API to some extent you can also find a lot of places in big cities (Lahore, Karachi etc) of Pakistan. For instance try finding chinese restaurants in Lahore and it will return you a reasonable list.

It was inevitable that Google will integrate maps data into search and Local Search is one interesting and uncluttered way of doing it.

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In my previous post about our first sale I highlighted the fact that there are 5 major stages a Startup has to go through to be called successful; Initial Hardships, Recognition, Sales (or devising a good enough business model), Raising Money (Angel investment or at later stages Venture Capital) and going public/getting acquired.

I am excited to announce another big news about SeenReport (pvt.) Limited. We have raised Series A VC funding from Al-Janabi Group (A prominent International Venture Capital Firm). With this step SeenReport joins a very small list of Pakistani Startups who have raised VC money. The capital injection takes overall worth of our startup to several million dollars.

It has been really tough throughout this time period, as in Pakistan there is absolutely no platform where one could raise Angel Investment let alone VC Funding. This really is a milestone for a Pakistani Startup and we believe that this will mark a new era taking Pakistan’s name to the next level where internationally people would start taking Pakistani Startups more seriously and may be more opportunities open up for Venture Capital injection. Pakistan would start to get even more attention for being a place where innovative work is being done. Hopefully this will also encourage many other young Entrepreneurs who are struggling to make an impression or thinking about starting their own business.

The series A investment will really help us in taking SeenReport’s platform to a new level where we would be able to make an even better impression on MainStream Media by promoting Life Streaming, Freedom of Expression, Citizen and Process Journalism and involving technology in bridging the gap between Internet, mobile users and common people across the globe.

Note: If you are a blogger, running your own portal, an influential person or a young Entrepreneur, we would appreciate if you take this Pakistani success story ( the Startup that started from zero and became a multi million dollar company), propagate it and tell Pakistani people that we can do it. We are not terrorists; we are the flag bearers of innovation. All you need is passion and you can go out and change the world. Spread the word

PS: The official Press Release (Click Here)

In our efforts to make you manage your Web Presence as easily as possible SeenReport Labs has rolled out integration with Wordpress. Now you can attach your Wordpress blog with your SeenReport account. All the reports you send in through MMS, Email or direct upload will be automatically pushed to your Blog. We are really excited about this new feature as it really helps those Users who still maintain their own presence along side their SeenReport profiles (like me ).
Now Making News, Being Heard and Bringing Change is not just limited to SeenReport but is also disseminated to multiple platforms you use. You wont really need to make your friends and reader migrate with you to your social space rather you can stay at as many social spaces as you want (without
terminating your central space) and take your life streaming experience to next level.

You can view this post on my blog (www.bhonpoo.com) as well which has been posted automatically via SeenReport

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During my recent trip to railway station of lahore to drop some relatives off I noticed a very strange change. Platform ticket was for the people (who were not there for traveling purpose) to visit platform mainly to pick and drop their relatives.
The ticket introduced a lot of ease as in Pakistan many senior citizens and common people dont know how to find the right platform, reach that platform (as its a big station) and board the train. As the station is huge so there are a lot stairs as well and many ladies eventhough not with too much luggage have trouble reaching platform. Keeping all this in mind its strange to see such stupid decision being made and implemented.

One could argue that it might have been done for security reasons and to stop unrelated people from reaching platform but then for what all those security gates are for? The platform ticket was also a profitable thing as many people would buy them (eventhough not everyone). May be it was done to stop ripping common people off but that seems highly unlikely because now you can’t enter the gates without having a proper ticket (buying that just to visit platform would be plain stupid). On inquiring from railway staff their behaviour was rude and they simply said “Nahi ja saktay bus”.

Trains are being stopped and stupid decisions are being made all in the name of making railway profitable.

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