A little more conversation

Anurag Gaggar 29, Male, India with interests in technology, internet, economics, marketing, reading and travel. Work as Product Manager at MakeMyTrip.com in Gurgaon.

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Feature Requests for Music Streaming Sites/Apps

Music streaming sites/apps like gaana.com and saavn.com have done a great job in getting a lot of (legal) content on their sites. With internet speeds improving across India, these sites/apps now become a great way to discover and consume new music. I have a couple of feature requests for these apps to make them even more useful.

1. While listening to or having zoomed in to a song, find/show playlists which include that particular song..This can help discovery of similar songs that a user may or may not have heard of. They could also scan through those playlists to identify common songs across multiple playlists and create a Apple Genius like playlist.  

2. The other feature is to be able to search for a song without knowing its title, by using a phrase or a line from anywhere in the song. There are times when a particular line of a song stays with you but you do not know or cannot recollect its title. Right now, the way out is to do a separate search on the lyrics of the song, find out the title and then search it on the music streaming site. Of course, this feature would require the sites to store and use the lyrics of the songs for search, but can be really useful in acquiring more users as well (even the users who are just searching for the song lyrics).

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The label that reveals too much

Levi's Jeans is undoubtedly one of the most popular brands of denim jeans across the world. But, the label on its back has always struck me as a little weird. It displays the user's waist size quite prominently. Wearing a belt hides the Levi Strauss & Co branding but not the waist size. I would tend to think that not everyone would want to display their waist sizes to others and I wonder if they lose a few customers because of this design! 

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Ad for Crossword Audio Books. Done by O&M India

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The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads. That sucks.

Jeff Hammerbacher

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It didn't matter where we slept off in our childhood, on the sofa, on the floor or anywhere else, we always woke up on the bed.

Unknown

[jmak]

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Awesome photo tribute to Steve Jobs. 

Courtesy: jmak

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Terms and Conditions (courtesy: Doghouse Diaries)

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Already using Google+? Follow Mashable News for the latest about the platform's new features, tips and tricks as well as our top social media and technology updates. The Social Analyst is a column by Mashable Editor-at-Large Ben Parr, where he digs into social media trends and how they are aff...

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In a race between a prey and a predator, the prey generally ends on the winning side. That happens because while the predator is running for its food, the prey is running for its life.

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An interactive web campaign by Magnum (Uniliver) that takes you across the web in the hunt for bonbons - very neatly done!

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Roadside Humour

Not sure who is the intended audience for the "Gurjar Boy's" message on this 'Ladies Only' auto in Gurgaon, but think it is not going to charm many amongst his target customers :)

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The Art of Timing

It is inspiring to see one man take up a tough stand against the government for a larger cause and get the entire nation behind him - yes, I am talking about Anna Hazare and the Lokpal Bill movement. In the war against corruption, a battle has been won. 

However, I can't help but think what would have happened if Anna Hazare would have decided to go on a fast a week before April 5, the day he actually commenced his fast. A cricket crazy nation was engrossed in the Cricket World Cup 2011, which the Indian team eventually won. India beat Pakistan on March 30 in the semi-finals and Sri Lanka on April 2 in the finals. For a few days, there was barely any other news item on television. From the build up to the matches to the festivities that followed, everything was covered to the minutest detail. Could this movement have been as successful just a week before? Would people have given away a chance to watch the knock out matches or to celebrate India's victory to join a protest march? Probably not, and something that doesn't give me a great feeling.

Probably, Anna and his supporters who started it all did their homework well. The date of starting the fast was announced on February 26, but they managed to time it to perfection. Even if it was a coincidence, thank goodness for it! 

Anna should remind us of the tremendous impact each individual can bring on the society. Ending it with this old African proverb:

"If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito."

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(via Vodafone Phone Insurance: Well-meant Thieves | Ads of the World™) - How far is too far?

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continuations:

Google +1 constitutes a crucial departure for the kind of data that Google will use in its rankings and that comes with an important challenge. To date (almost) all of the data Google uses is from implicit signals. Someone links to another site and thus bestows some authority on that site. Or...

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No man ever won a war by dying for his country. Wars are won by making the enemy die for his.

George S. Patton (U.S. General during World War II)

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The Book of General Ignorance

I recently picked up this book titled - 'The Book of General Ignorance'. It lists down and details a bunch of misconceptions in a snippet style writing with a humorous tone, which makes it quite easy to read, especially for bed time reading.

Here are some of the ones that struck a chord with my ignorant self: 

The tallest mountain in the world is not Mt. Everest, but Mauna Kea. Mt. Everest is the highest mountain in the world. Hint: Highest refers to height above sea level while tallest refers to the height between the base and the highest point of the mountain.

Chameleons don't change color to match the background, but they do so as a result of different emotional states. 

The Great Wall of China is not visible from the moon

Humans have at least 9 senses (and not 5). Four more commonly agreed senses are: Thermoception (the sense of heat on our skin), Equilibrioception (sense of balance), Nociception (perception of pain from the skin, joints and body organs) and Proprioception (the unconscious knowledge of where our body parts are without being able to see or feel them). 

If you like reading about such stuff, you can get a copy from any of the stores listed here. 

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How NOT to reward the participants of a voting contest?

There are several weekly musical countdown shows that run across radio stations and television channels in India on the following pattern:

They play the top 10 or 20 songs for the week, ranks decided by votes received from listeners/viewers. 

Anyone can vote for their favorite song and the songs that get more votes get to the top of the ranking. The song with the maximum number of votes is #1 for the week

To encourage people to vote, they generally run a contest giving out some freebies to one or more participants. The winners are chosen on a random basis amongst people who voted for the same song that was the top song for the week.   

I am not sure how much of an incentive these prizes are for the people who chose to vote, but if they indeed drive some people to vote, the incentive is not correctly structured. If a participant wants to win this contest, he/she is more likely to vote for the song that he/she thinks is likely to win rather than his/her favourite song. While personal current favourites may change very rapidly, they do not change as rapidly for a large group of people - so, a song that has just entered the countdown at #18 position may become a favourite for a few people but is not likely to reach the top position in a hurry. Someone looking to win the prize may rather vote for what is more likely to be at the top position rather than help a low ranked personal favourite rise up the rankings. This would skew the results, if only slightly and make the rankings less dynamic across weeks. 

So, what is a better way out - simple, just do the random selection out of all the people who voted and not just people who voted for the top ranked song!