Tezaa was one of the first products that I profiled on Webyantra. I regard it as one of the best designed Indian Web2.0 applications that I am currently aware of. Shalin Jain has informed me about a new set of features that have been added to Tezaa just a couple of days back.

For starters, Tezaa has a new logo, a new navigation and a slicker look/feel. It will now allow anonymous votes (from unregistered users) but you can filter the results on the basis of votes cast by members. It also has added ‘related links ‘ to a poll. So apart from the answer to a polled question, it will also show links to related reviews or stories. I think this feature is quite useful, for it increases the overall value users derive out of the application. There is also something called open questions, where users can ask questions without signing up. I tried that out but the way it is supposed to work seemed a trifle confusing to me.

Tezaa seems to be growing quite steadily. When I had profiled it last (a month & a half back), the total opinions cast were app 8000. That figure has since gone up to 23000. I think the basic polling application is quite steady and solid by now. The next push for Tezaa should be directed at increasing its virality and getting more registered users. Some out of the box thinking is needed to increase its integration into blogs, emails, websites etc. There is also no indication as yet of the intended revenue model for the application. That’s where the next set of challenges lie for the Tezaa team.

India centric video sharing sites are gradually popping up now. I have been exposed to two such sites during the last week. I feel the entry barriers to creating and running a video site are far higher as compared to other Web2.0 applications. They entail very significant operational costs (on account of media storage & bandwidth); they are also far trickier to manage from a technical standpoint. And that probably explains why these sites are making a delayed appearance on the Indian Web2.0 landscape. Here are two video sites that have barely taken off their shrink wrappings-

Infeedia– This site has been launched by a bunch of friends living in US, India and UK. It is positioned as a South Asian video aggregator. In fact Infeedia is not just an aggregator, it is also a filter, for it has a Digg style voting mechanism to surface the popular videos on the home page. Infeedia does not host videos; it allows you to post India centric videos (by copying the JavaScript code) from other popular video sites. Arun (from Infeedia) informs me that they had initially planned to have hosting but gave up that idea. Partly because of bandwidth cost considerations, and partly because of the existence of scores of other video hosting sites. This factor (by itself) probably weakens Infeedia’s inherent appeal. However if the site’s creators think imaginatively, I think, they can negate this apparent disadvantage. They should try to leverage the fact that the site is not just an aggregator, it also filters content on the basis of popularity. Which will become a very useful attribute, as Indian video content on the web grows to disorienting proportions.

The site’s (content) layout and its categorization structure (which is very Indianized) seems quite well thought out; however its visual design needs LOTS of improvement. And I don’t think that designing Web2.0 sites for a native 800X600 display resolution, is a good idea. Even in India, that resolution is fast becoming history. I spent a few minutes browsing the site and found a cool bunch of India centric videos, which had been voted to the top on the home page. And that’s the reason why I think that the filtering ability offers inherent value to users. Its up to Infeedia’s creators to think out of the box and capitalize on this differentiator.

ApnaTube– As the name suggests, this is a YouTube clone to the hilt. The site allows hosting of videos, so that’s a definite advantage over Infeedia. While the visual design of the site is quite pleasing to the eye, it needs improvement in terms of its usability. It seems to have been around for just a few days, but you can already find Google ads on the homepage. That flies in the face of conventional Web2.0 wisdom. The site appears to be having teething problems (it wasn’t accessible, the last two times that I tried), but that’s to be expected for a video site that has just gone live. Probably it’s a little early as yet to assess this site !