“Get personal with your town”. This punch line of www.ilaaka.com is very striking. I was thinking of matching this with a similar one for my title, but this I thought, describes them the best. ilaaka.com is a group site that connects you better with your town. You can know what’s happening around your town, like sales, events, movies etc. There are classifieds listings, people, local news and much more that you want to know about your town. The site even has a community aspect, where you can connect to your friends and exchange news and views about what’s happening around your town.

Coffee clubs at ilaaka.com is similar to any of the groups. Once you register as a member of coffee club, you can invite your friends to join it; it could be people who are from the same community or people who are like-minded. With the Maps option, you can zoom in and out of your virtual city.

‘Reccos’ is another interesting option. You can recommend things about your town, like good plumbers , electricians, or even good restaurants. This is a form of word of mouth marketing. There is also a provision for voting; you can rate the services in a scale of 1-10.

The conceptof illaka.com is very interesting and the design is also good. I was very impressed  with the usage of the colors, especially on their home page. Overall the site is very impressive and it looks like they have a good amount of traffic and quite a lot happening over there. The site claims they have 60,000 registered members in 2 years; that’s a very impressive figure. All is well with ilaaka.com

When I first heard the name 90DI, I little guessed that it’s a travel search portal. The first thing I wanted to check was why is 90DI. This is what they said in their FAQs:

“90DI (pronounced Ninety D I ) stands for Ninety Degree Internet. It is the nick name of our longish company name Ninety Degree Internet Software Private Limited!”

90DI.com is a travel search portal with many interesting features woven around it. If you want to travel from Bangalore to Chennai, 90DI throws up various options as to how you can travel between Bangalore and Chennai. Well, the options available are only that of trains and flight. You could choose between various flight and train options listed.

I found one feature very interesting. If I want to travel from Bangalore to Chennai on 10th November then I just type “Bangalore to Chennai on 10th November” and click on search option. This free hand search is very interesting. It saves us from clicking on numerous button options. There is also form based search option and multiple trip search option. The multiple trip search option is designed very conveniently.

With 90DI, you could search for trains and flight for your route, view the route on the map, see the various scheduled stops in between and even book your tickets. However ticket booking link takes you to IRCTC website. They also give you a list of travel agents near your place.

The service idea is very good. The fact that you could view trains and flight options in one site is very innovative. One thing they could improve upon is the presentation aspect. The site looks very drab with lot of text in it.

http://www.gaadi.comis a one stop shop for all the information that you would require before getting a car. What makes gaadi.com different is it community aspect. You could register and discuss about cars.

You could research about Indian or foreign cars. The options that Gaadi.com gives the users are so enormous for the users to get instantly engrossed in it. The information ranges from research about cars and they have recently added bikes too; to information about insurance, dealers near by, on road prices in your city and the list is end less.

The portal is neat, with lot of dynamic features. I particularly liked the home page design which is very dynamic. From News to views http://www.gaadi.comhas everything about cars and bikes.

This is what Vivek Pahwa, CEO; Gaadi.com had to say about his venture.

Gaadi.com. what do want to achieve through this site?

We want to give it as a complete solution for buying a car. We are looking at providing lot of syndicated content about cars. We want to provide user experience. It’s the user who ultimately decide if the product is a success or failure, their experience, we view, is very important. Professional content is also one area. Reviews by professionals, automobile editors of car magazines are very critical. So Gaadi,com is where you find information about cars, finance and insurance for cars, dealers, deals….everything about cars, inside them and outside.

Whats your USP?

Our USP is the community aspect. Ours is a B2C site, so user experience is very important. We strive to give the users the best. A community is where the users stick on to and identify themselves with. User experience is of great significance. You understand what you audience wants and give it to them.

It’s very easy for your competitors to copy this community aspect. What are you planning to do about it?

In any space you will have 3-4 competitors, who may have common features. Where you can make a great difference is, by creating a good design, good feature, as I said before great user experience. The name of the site is also very critical here. When someone copies a feature it just cannot become his USP. It’s still yours. You can make it strong by giving innovative online and offline support. If you build a great user experience, the space is all yours. Your background research and information is the most important thing.

How do you go about managing this? Tell us more about your team.

We give the user lot of information, precise information. We see to that the site is up to date, be it insurance details, finance details, dealer details, all information are the latest. Our team is passionate about this. The 16 member teams are our biggest strength giving the most critical offline and online support. What actually differentiates you is the research that goes behind the site. And our team is doing their best in this regard.

What is the most challenging thing?

The biggest challenge is to drive traffic and retain users. Maintaining a good database, updating latest information, retrieving significant information are some challenges we face.

How has it been so far?

We have had about 15,000 visitors so far. We are expecting to do better this year.

What are your marketing plans?

We are focusing more on marketing over the internet. Ad words and stuff.

What’s your revenue model?

Primarily advertisements. We will probably look at new car launches, used car selling, finance through insurance etc.

Will you be looking at selling cars through your site in the future?

Second hand cars, yes, we have plans, probably will be launching this by year end. New cars, as you know are not a good idea.

Raj took his car out of the office basement. Sriya had called him and sounded very serious. She had demanded a meeting with him in next 15 mins. What could be wrong? Raj couldn’t drive in peace. Everything was a fairy tale in their love story, what could have made her so angry? Raj’s head swirled. Then suddenly it occurred to him, it was Sriya’s birthday today and he had forgotten to wish her. How could he? He blamed it on his tight deadlines. There was absolutely no time for the blame games. He had to do something fast. Plan a surprise for her.

Introducing to you Ubona.com, an instant telephonic service that would fetch you a table in any of Bangalore’s restaurant. All you need to do is dial 91 80 407 00000, follow the prompt, and say the name of the restaurant you are looking for and lo! There you are connected to the restaurant. Raj spoke to the manager, briefed him about Sriya’s birthday and the preparation he expected and the fairy tale continued.

I am not trying to draft a advertising campaign for www.ubona.com but trying to explain this is what Ubona is all about and this is what it could do to your fairy tale. You would certainly ask me what if Raj is from Mumbai?

Brilliant question. First let’s know who is behind Ubona.com. Ubona is this very recent startup from Bangalore. It’s more like a telephonic directory service, but certainly with a huge difference. There is no call center executive answering your call, but speech recognition software that understands what you want. If you are looking for McDonalds in Bangalore, then you just need to call this number 080 407 00000 and say McDonalds. Then Ubona connects you to McD directly. Isn’t that cool! You also have an option of noting down the phone number or getting it SMSed to your cell phone. This brilliant service is available only to the foodies of Bangalore at present and it will be extended towards other areas and will include other services too.

Ubona is very unique. They have a great speech recognition software. Out of 5 times I tried the service, 4 was successful. Only once the software couldn’t comprehend what I was speaking. That’s not a bad hit. Ubona is very clear in its mission. “Comprehend what people say” is their statement and they have certainly lived up to the expectation. However they have a long way to go, do lot of things about extending their services.

It began with a simple telephonic conversation between Siddarth and Gulshan during a mundane office day. One of them had volunteered for a good cause and was discussing about the same to the other. They searched for the terms-’volunteering’, ‘helping’, and ‘assistance’ over the internet and found a lot of results leading to complex websites and the 2 of them wondered, why in this day and age of a cyber-powered world, there wasn’t a simple portal to serve the cause. It was then, that they decided to take it upon themselves to start a website. The Karmic wheel was set in motion.

Are you that good soul, always in look out for opportunities to help others? Or are you an organization searching for volunteers to help your good cause. Then EarnKarma.org can connect you both. Voluntary organizations, NGOs or any other needy people can post their requirements on EarnKarma.org. People interested in volunteering for social cause can choose from the numerous options available and contribute accordingly. EarnKarma is for the needy and the helpers.

The site is very neat and simple. You could search for opportunities in your city and also search for a category that you are interested in. Categories include stuff like animal care, community development, disability, education etc. The idea is very unique. Siddarth Dudheria talks about his new idea.

Why the name Earn Karma?

Everybody is in the rush to earn money, to earn fame but not in the rush to help somebody. We want everybody to Earn Karma. For us Karma means good and what better thing in life to earn than goodness. We registered the domain name – EarnKarma.org

Who are the people behind this venture?

Siddarth, Sriram, Gulshan and Ganesh

Whom are you targeting?

Our target markets are the organizations and individuals that require any assistance. They can range from NGO’s to a normal individual who needs to be helped. The other side of the market is the entire population that would like to assist the above mentioned two categories

Do you have any competitors in India?

There is one-ivolunteer.org.in

What is your revenue model?

Right now, we are focused not on the financial side but on the awareness and the marketing side. We are running this from our own pockets.

How has the going been so far? And what are your goals for the next 2 years?

The going has been good. We have been featured in two dailies in Chennai and have also been nominated for the TATA-NEN hottest startup award. As of this day; we have close to 180 members, 58 requests for assistance and a 50% success rate.

What challenges do you see for your growth?

Creating awareness and spreading the message through nontraditional means is one of the biggest challenges that we face.

How do you plan to promote this?

We are using social networks, posters at public places, presentations in colleges and offices to promote the same. As said earlier, marketing is a challenge for us.

Is anyone funding your site?

We are self funded.