Category: Software

MUMBAI: The US Commerce Association (USCA) has selected Proceed Innovative, a Chicago-based digital marketing company, to receive the Best of Schaumburg Award in the Internet Services category.

Along with this award will come the recognition for the hard work and the innovative digital marketing approach the agency uses for its clients.

The award is a reflection of the hard work of the team of the digital marketing company and many clients and business partners who have supported the business utilising their online marketing services and contributing to the subsequent success of their organisation.

One of the most successful projects for the company is
RestorationMasterFinder.com – the cost-effective online leads generation programme exclusive to restoration and cleaning service providers, developed for ServiceMaster Clean franchisees.

“Our work with Proceed Innovative has been very rewarding. Their experience and Internet knowledge allow us to focus on marketing programmes that bring results and directly affect our bottom line. We look forward to expanding our online marketing programs and gaining more local and national visibility via Google, Bing & Yahoo! and ultimately reach more potential clients for VVV Corporation,” ServiceMaster DSI president & CEO Steve VanDenBerg said.

Based in Schaumburg and Chicago Illinois, Proceed Innovative serves clients in Chicagoland as well as nationwide.

MUMBAI: Google Plus, the internet giant‘s social networking platform, which was launched in September, has touched 62 million users.

According to the Daily Mail report, by the end of 2012, the website will have more than 400 million users.

American analyst Paul Allen has said 625,000 members were signing up everyday and the number would rapidly increase because 700,000 android devices are being brought every day.

He said, “Based on the accelerated growth I‘m seeing and all the dials and levers Google can still utilise, and the developer ecosystem that will be developed, I predict that 2012 is going to be a breakout year for Google Plus and that it will end next year with more than 400 million users.”

Facebook, Google Plus‘ rival has 800 million users.

The daily said Allen‘s methodology was not based on actual figures and could be described as a guess.

Interestingly, the Global Web Index announced that Google Plus actually has 150 million active users, more than double of Allen‘s estimate.

MUMBAI: Bollywood music channel 9XM has joined forces with Hungama.com to offer unique concepts on the internet for its viewers.

The channel has launched an online Bollywood music store – ‘9XM.Hungama.com‘ and 9XM Radio – the on-the-move radio for Bollywood Songs, celebrity interviews, Bade Chote Bakwaas and Bollywood caller tunes giving its viewers an instant opportunity to set caller tunes of the latest songs aired on the channel. The services are available on web, WAP and IVR.

9XM.Hungama.com will provide music lovers an opportunity to sample, select and download their full length Bollywood music tracks and also movie trailers from a catalogue of over 100,000 songs across various genres. The site will also provide an opportunity to viewers to download 9XM‘s characters in the form of videos and wall papers on their mobile phones.

9X Media Group VP – digital Vibha Gosher said, “We are committed to provide world-class entertainment across platforms. 9XM viewers can now consume our content and enjoy the best Bollywood songs at their own convenience.”

The association with Hungama.com provides music enthusiasts an opportunity to also access exclusive branded content.

NEW DELHI: None of the six private direct-to-home operators are providing interoperable set top boxes, despite license conditions at Articles 7.1 and 7.2 of the Guidelines are clear that these should be based on open architecture (non-proprietory).

Information and Broadcasting Ministry sources said that the Guidelines wanted inter-operability to ensure technical compatibility and effective interoperability among different DTH service providers and conformity to the specifications as laid down by the Government from time to time.

The STBs were not interoperable because all the DTH operators were using different technologies and standards for signal compression and transmission.

The sources told indiantelevision.com the Guidelines were also clear that the licensee shall ensure the subscriber‘s interests through a Conditional Access System which is compatible with an open architecture STB.

In its ‘DTH Broadcasting Services (Standard of Quality of Service and Redressal of Grievances) Regulations, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India also mandated the DTH operators to offer the three options – outright purchase, hire purchase, or rental schemes – for their Customer Premise Equipments (CPE). These Guidelines also provide for exit options in case the subscriber intends to opt for the services of the other DTH operator.

All the six private DTH operators have informed Trai that they are offering all the three options to their subscribers.

NEW DELHI: Airtel Digital TV has added ESPN HD and Star Cricket HD to its Real HD portfolio, thus augmenting its Real HD channel count to 14.

The total channel count of the DTH operator went up to 275 that include 242 Standard Definition (SD) channels. The company said that the addition is consistent with Airtel digital TV‘s promise of enriching the experience of its customers across India with superior quality, audio-video experience.

Bharti Airtel CEO – DTH/Media Shashi Arora said, “Bharti Airtel has always taken the lead in continually bringing in richer content and a superior experience for its customers. Apart from having the most number of sports channels on Real HD, Airtel digital TV also packs in Real HD channels across other available genres – be it movies, wildlife, infotainment or entertainment. We believe the category will continue to be a key growth driver for us going forward and this latest addition to our channel bouquet will offer a compelling service proposition for DTH customers.”

The new channels ‘ESPN HD‘ and ‘Star Cricket HD‘ will be available to all the customers on channel No 220 and 221 respectively. ‘Ten HD‘ available at Channel No 223 will be a part of a-la- carte HD top up priced at Rs 34 inclusive tax each per month, whereas ‘ESPN HD‘ and ‘Star Cricket HD‘ will be available at Rs 40 each or at a combo pack of Rs 55 per month.

With the addition, Airtel digital TV now has three Real HD sports channels while other HD channels are – NGC, Discovery, Movies Now, Star Gold, Star Movies, Star Plus, Star World, UTV Stars HD, History TV 18 HD, Colors HD and CNBC TV 18 Prime HD.

MUMBAI: Shopping portal HomeShop18.com has partnered with Microsoft to bring its offers closer to its online customers.

As part of the deal, HomeShop18.com users can browse the website faster through a one click access system, using Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 9. All customers who upgrade to Internet Explorer 9 and pin HomeShop18.com to their IE9 browser will get a free gift voucher and easy access to the shopping portal from their desktop taskbar.

Additionally, users can simply right click the taskbar icon for quick access lists, also called Jumplists.

HomeShop18 founder and CEO Sundeep Malhotra said, “We feel proud to partner with Microsoft to offer easy access to our e-commerce portal HomeShop18.com. With this association, we wish to introduce further unique technological benefits in order to strengthen our customer interface. Keeping all the consumer needs in mind, we have announced the association with Microsoft.‘‘

Microsoft India director – product marketing Senthilkumar Sundaram said, “Through this association, we have made it simple and fun for Homeshop18.com subscribers to get one-click access to their favorite shopping site with Internet Explorer 9. We are confident that Indians will love this all new immersive browsing experience.”

Going forward, Microsoft and HomeShop18.com plan to collaboratively offer advanced applications and features like offering HTML5 based premium online shopping delight to the consumers.

MUMBAI: Consumer hunger for social media connectivity and demand for “anytime, anywhere” entertainment is driving the most dramatic industry convergence in the past 20 years and radically shifting the traditional TV viewing experience, according to a global study released today by Motorola Mobility.

Key trends from the 2011 Motorola Mobility Media Engagement Barometer are:

• Online engagement and social TV, mobile TV, personal cloud services, and home automation are redefining the home ecosystem


• Digital entertainment and social media enhance the traditional TV experience – consumers are hungry for content and connection


• New forms of entertainment and connected services create additional revenue streams and opportunities to strengthen customer relationship

Motorola Mobility‘s 2011 Media Engagement Barometer – an independent global study of video consumption habits among 9,000 consumers in 16 markets – shows several major themes redefining the home ecosystem and consumer entertainment experience. This year‘s study found that consumers expressed a deep hunger for mobile TV, social TV, connected home and personal cloud services. Individually, each of these categories offers service providers significant opportunities to expand value-added services, improve customer loyalty and tap into new revenue streams.

Motorola Mobility senior VP, GM converged experiences John Burke said, “Consumers are constantly connected – and they want ubiquitous access to their content and communities. They don‘t care about the technology to make all of this happen; they simply want it to work and expect it to fit into their daily routines. The convergence trend upon us is a tremendous opportunity for our customers to capitalise on delivering this simple, intuitive experience in the home.”

MUMBAI: Footwear and shoes brand, Alberto Torresi, is making foray into the online space with its tie-up with fashion online portals like fetise.com, brandmile.com, bigshoebazaar.com and jabong.com.

The purpose of entering into online space is to create awareness and platform to the niche audience for online shoppers.

Alberto Torresi director Ishaan Sachdeva said, “Keeping in mind the current trend we are entering into e-commerce and also believe that these channels have lot of potential and that‘s why these days more and more people are buying online stuffs.”

In these portals, Alberto Torresi will showcase their best collections from formal to casuals to winter boots, classics and many more at competitive prices.

MUMBAI: The Bharti Airtel services users in the western part of Maharashtra, including Mumbai, experienced major service outage due to a technical glitch in the telecom major‘s systems.

“A technical outage has affected our network in the western region, resulting in disruption of some services. We are working toward rectifying the outage at the earliest. We deeply regret the inconvenience caused to our customers,” Airtel spokesperson said.

Apart from the financial hub Mumbai, the adjoining areas including Pune were also affected. It has also been learnt that Blackberry and data services of the telecom service provider have been badly hit. Grievances from customers are pouring in on Bharti Airtel‘s Twitter account.

Bharti Airtel operates in 19 countries across Asia and Africa. According to data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), the country‘s largest private operator, Bharti Airtel, had a user base of 173.73 million at the end of October.

NEW DELHI: Yahoo! India has announced a deeper integration with Facebook with the launch of the Activity feature on Yahoo! News.

The new feature offers a deeply personalised, social news experience to over seven million unique users who visit Yahoo! India News every month, the internet giant said.

Yahoo! Activity lets users discover news articles their friends have read and automatically share what they are reading with their Facebook network, in a seamless manner. An opt-in experience, Yahoo! Activity gives complete control to the users over when and what they choose to share. Only if the user chooses to use the feature, will the articles they consume be flagged off to their Facebook network.

Globally, Activity is being launched across 26 Yahoo! sites worldwide.

The launch of Activity feature on Yahoo! News in India will bring in higher level of engagement for Yahoo! users and increase referrals from Facebook to Yahoo! News. It will also bring in the younger Internet audience to the online news destination in the country.

Since launching the Yahoo! News friends‘ activity feature in the US, more than 12 million people have opted in, increasing referrals from Facebook to Yahoo! News and bringing a younger (ages 18-24) audience of socially engaged people to it.

“As the world‘s most popular online news destination, Yahoo! News delivers the most compelling content on the web through a combination of local editors, advanced technologies, and now, your friends,” said Yahoo! chief product officer Blake Irving. “In just three months, we‘ve seen traffic from Facebook to Yahoo! News in the US increase by 300 per cent, so we‘re excited to extend this social activation to more of our worldwide content sites.”