I am very proud to announce you that we have developed a whole lot of new features in MyJugaad.in. Some of them are the following:

• The Search Zone. Now you can search the web, blogs, images and videos from MyJugaad.in and watch results as a slideshows. The feature uses Yahoo, Google, Flickr and Youtube for powering the search.
• Instant Creation of Slideshow. On the main page, just enter the feed URL and a slideshow is generated. No need to register!
• Sleeker Navigation Bar. If you haven’t checked the new slideshow interface, you are surely missing an experience. The navigation bar of the slideshow is sleeker and cooler than ever.
• The Best New Feature: Embed Slideshows on your Blog/Website. Just grab embed code from the desired slideshow and paste it in your blog. Check below to see how the embedded slideshow looks like.

  
  
  

By the way, MyJugaad.in has had excellent reviews from numerous websites. Some of them are KillerStartups, DesiStartups and Anti Social Development. If you too can help us by spreading the word, nothing like it!

Do check out the new features and let us know how you find them. Your feedback is sincerely appreciated.

I have released Precimark as an open source stripe ad network. The code is based on CakePHP and MooTools. I would be happy if people come forward to maintain and develop the project further.

Click here to download the source code.

Today, I am releasing PyPond which I made as my final year project. PyPond is a digital life simulator in Python inspired from Nanopond

Download: Normal version or With graphics version (requires PyGame library)

Following is straight from the Kindo team:

“We had been working hard on the release for quite sometime and we’re quite excited with this Hindi launch. We believe that the service would provide tremendous value to the Indian families across the globe. Especially ‘Indian students and engineers’ now living in the US, UK and Australia can easily create a network of all of their family members. Hindi is one of the most popular languages and is amongst the top 3 widely spoken languages.

For more information about Kindo’s Hindi version please visit http://kindo.com/index.php/?lang=hi-utf-8.and select ‘Hindi’ from the language category.”

I personally feel it is a good initiative but wonder how many people would actually want to use a Hindi social network. The point with local languages is that either the entire internet experience should be in the said local language or there should be none at all. Won’t users find it hard to switch their frame of mind when they shift from one website to another (which is in a different language)?

Perhaps, the Kindo team can shed some light on the philosophy and the current number of registered users for Hindi language.

Do you think there is a need for Hindi language social network? What is your take?

Bad time to have a server error.

PS: Also have a look at my earlier post on the same subject, titled “My (chinese) LITTLE POLY-COLOURED FLUORESCENT“

A quick review of Mnemonic Dictionary:

• Concept: Interesting. When I prepared for GRE, I used mnemonics extensively. So, thumbs up to the team for actualizing this concept of creating and sharing mnemonics for difficult words.
• Team: Seems to be dedicated to me. While I must admit that initially I thought that the website is a hobbyist venture, now I feel that it is on a solid footing.
• Revenue Model: It seems that their primary source of revenue is through advertisements. But it is interesting to note that they offer one-to-one sessions for GRE preparation. I wonder who is the tutor on the other end. Founders themselves?
• Target Audience: Clearly Indian students preparing for GRE, GMAT or CAT. Most of the mnemonics include Indian connotations.
• Suggestions: Rely on advertisements for revenue to a minimal level. Offline version of mnemonic dictionary. A better looking website. A section for mnemonics which are universal in nature (that is, the ones which are not just for Indians).

Any comments on Mnemonic Dictionary? By the way, what is your strategy for remembering difficult words?

I just read this story where they talk about how they built a web app in 4 days for $10,000. Voila! It struck me that I have been equally competitive (if not better) in terms of building a web app. So, here I share my story of building a web app.

I recently built MyJugaad.in, which lets anybody create a slideshow from a set of webpages or RSS feeds. Following is the time line and the money involved during making this web app.

• Day 1: Conceived the idea. Explored the idea space. Refined it. Drew user interface for the slideshow on a paper.
• Day 2: Realized that Javascript is the way to go forward. Researched on Javascript Toolkits. Found JQuery to be the best. Learnt Jquery. Started programming Slideshow front-end using JQuery.
• Day 3: Wasted a ton of time on sorting cross-browser incompatibilities. Done some more programming. Working prototype ready by evening.
• Day 4: Wanted to make a system for user authentication and management, slideshow creation and management. Confused between Django, CodeIgniter or CakePhP. Chose CodeIgniter. Started Learning and programming the web app. (Used SimplePie for RSS feed fetching and parsing.)
• Day 5: Finished Programming. Discovered that NYTimes.com was breaking the slideshow due to their iframe breaking script. Had a hell of a time trying fixing that.
• Day 6: Looked for interesting free designs on the web. Chose this. Implemented and integrated the design with the web app. Wrote a basic ‘about’, ‘faq’, ‘contact’ page. Uploaded the web app on a shared hosting account free of cost (courtesy: my friend). Used a domain already purchased: myjugaad.in (cost Rs. 350). Seeded the app with a few initial users and data. Announced the web app on my homepage and status message on GTalk.

What’s missing?

• Market Research: I should have done initial market research. Instead, I simply jumped into programming the web app. If I had done some market research, I would have discovered a product with almost the same feature set as mine’s. Nevertheless, I learnt a lot during my six day journay. So, I don’t regret making this app.
• Testing: I just did some initial testing. But should have done a little bit more testing.
• Users: I didn’t do any marketing for my web app. That’s bad and I am going to fix it soon.

Hope this post helps you write and launch your own web app in record time.
Any thoughts?

PS: By the way, I think you shouldn’t be making web apps at all.