Author Archives: Amit

Tagg… group SMS messaging solution

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tagg.jpgTagg is a free web & mobile based mass messaging platform that you can use for any of your purposes. This could be for (seemingly) noble causes like group SMS, micro-blogging etc, or for less noble ones like spamming users with unsolicited SMS (by users, not by Tagg).

The way it works is fairly simple. You can start a group (called Taggivity) which others can subscribe to. You can send out updates that will get forwarded to all the subscribers. This can be done from the web interface or from the mobile usings SMS. Their revenue model is based on advertising – text/banners ad on the website and a short ad that is appended to SMS’s being sent out.

Group SMS is actually a valuable service. I can imagine lots of people wanting to use this – organisations, schools, teachers, salesmen etc. The ability to send our free SMS to all subscribers (who could be students, employees, friends, family members etc) is fairly useful. Specially when its free. And SMS is a proven winner…. no GPRS, EDGE, 3G hangovers there.

SMSgupshup is a similar service and I believe, it has a fair bit of traction as well. So how is Tagg any different from SMSgupshup? Well the Tagg team insists that they are more focused on user experience- as a result they have a normal number 9980199801 as opposed to a shortcode, which also means its cheaper for user to post through their service. Not entirely convincing, I would say!

The web application could do with better layout & design, specially on the landing page for an individual group.

Webupvan… showcase of the best designed Indian Web 2.0 sites

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Webupvan is a web gallery for the best designed Indian websites. Built on the line of the international design watering holes like CssGalleries, CssVault, CssElite, CssHeaven etc, WebUpvan aims to showcase and promote websites that can serve as an example to other Indian web developers. In a country that can safely be described as “design challenged“, surely this is a laudable effort. Webupvan is the initiative of Amit Mandaliya, a web designer and flash developer.

Web Upvan.jpg

You can use this form to get your website featured on Webupvan. The requirements are fairly simple – it has to be built by Indian web developers, it must be CSS (xhtml/css based table-less layout) or Flash based and if its an application, it has to be Web 2.0 (thats subjective though). And oh yes! – it must measure up to Amit’s exacting standards for design aesthetics and efficacy.

The gallery is categorized into these sections – Application, CSS, Flash, Art, Blog, Bollywood, Business, NGO, NRI, Portfolio, Resources & Web Design Company.

Webupvan is not necessarily meant to be a money spinner, though it has some slots for google text/banner ads.

Whats missing from Webupvan is a voting mechanism for the gallery exhibits, so as to surface the most popular ones.