Hooeey is an Indian Web 2.0 application whose stated objective is to help you locate information quickly from your previously browsed web pages. While it has overlapping features with a bunch of products/utilities- del.icio.us, your browser’s history, Google personal search and Google web history, possibly the best to understand it is this: del.icio.us + Google web history = hooeey. Hooeey works only on Windows machines (that have the .NET framework installed). To use the product, you need to install the Hooeey toolbar in your browser (IE/FF) and this records your browsing pattern in great granularity. The recorded URLs are first stored locally on the computer, where they can be tagged, rated, searched, commented etc. They can optionally be uploaded to the Hooeey website for online accees from any computer. Their is an innovative feature called the WebTour- this is a visualized album of links with screenshots of that particular website (see examples here & here). WebTours can be sent to friends who can easily flip through it without opening the websites in a separate browser window. You also get access to charts depicting your browsing behavior. Hooeey has been founded Rajeev Purnaiya, who founded CyberBazaar, India’s largest conferencing company, which was later acquired by WebEx.

I am somewhat confused by Hooeey’s use case. The explanation that is given in the “why we built Hooeey” section of their website makes sense, but the overlaps with other products (as explained in their FAQ) dilutes its exact utility. I feel the Hooeey team has a tough job at hand in explaining to users, why and how their product solves a common problem. Also, it is not easy to get users to download a 2.7 MB browser toolbar unless you are a Yahoo, Google or a Rediff- this factor by itself significantly raises the entry barriers to the product’s usage.

Chances are you previously have seen this video on the web; for this is the most popular Indian video on YouTube. Go to the site, type ‘India‘ in the search box and this is the top result you get (by relevance). I bumped into this video for the umpteenth time today and decided to share it here for the benefit of those who haven’t.

The video is a live depiction of a very familiar Indian urban scene- how traffic on the road moves on without the need for any traffic signals, traffic policemen etc. Its almost like a philosophical commentary on Indian society- people are so used to dysfunctional systems, that they often discount the need for procedures, managing things on their own, in a choreographed self-managed chaos. And as the video shows, often that works fine. I think every Indian should watch this video; for its sheer entertainment value, if not for anything else.

Just out of curiosity- any guesses which Indian city this is???….don’t know why but my guess is hyderabad