For those like me, who did not know what Green Beer Day was, its a rather silly reason to drink Green colored Beer all day and go drunk to class, started by Miami University Students and a tradition since 1952. Sometimes I feel students of Miami University just ran out of ideas and the juniors who were happy just copying the illogical habit.

Gmail Ad on Sohi Sandwich Club

How did I get there?
This SoHi $1 Sandwich ad on GMail got me curious and went to their Facebook Page. And the likes on this page suggested Green Beer Day 2011.

Likes of Green Beer Day 2011 on Sohi Sandwich Club FB Page

Curious to know why Green Beer Day was so popular I googled it.  And Viola! I find this Wiki article feeding my curiosity.  And after reading the tug between Miami University and Miami Student editorial board, I concluded, by practice, that arriving at class inebriated, would lead to disturbing the sanctity of the place of study. And this is certainly not a tolerable act.

Firstly, just adding color to the golden potion to make it green, seems so mediocre. Secondly, making it a big event, is lack of creativity. Thirdly, making it a ritual and rebelling against principles of a study place is sheer indifference. And beyond it all the display on http://greenbeerday.com/ shows Green Beer Day is March 3, 2011 and has a counter that has the countdown senselessly running even now. Also observed that the counter resets back to 30 mins 00 seconds, every time the counter expires.

Now that’s what I call Comedy of Errors  What say?

Green Beer Day dot com stupidity

Green Beer Day senseless Countdown

and like a curious networker, I went to sign up. I have the habit of checking the Terms, Conditions and Privacy detailed while accepting forms. And I was shocked to see that page blank.

Would this mean we are agreeing to anything that may be put there tomorrow?

And mailed them :

Hi Affluence Support,

The mail below introduced me to Affluence.org. And when I followed it to sign up, I checked the Terms and Condition (attached as  affluence_org_terms_and_conditions_blank_spotted_by_brandbull.png (220KB).

The Terms and Conditions page seems to be blank and for those who fail to go there, they are probably agreeing to whatever that may be put hence, which is a serious offence of misleading the public and threat to privacy; certainly not acceptable under any lenience or condition.

Kindly react to it fast and apologize with the users signed up such. I would be posting this on my blog by the same name at http://brandbull.wordpress.com, where you could render your public apologies.

How many of us check the TOS when we sign up for something? Isn’t not knowing a serious Privacy Threat?

While your enthusiasm is live and smiling, I would love to alert you, it ‘ain’t gonna be a cakewalk’. How do I know that? Thanks to Rubia and Kranthi of Metro Brava Films, who made “The Successor – Private & Confidential”, a MOCUMENTRY, as they call it. Or is it a Movement?

Using the opportunity Digital Technology has for everyone, they believe its as easy for anyone to pick up a camera, film something, edit it, create animations, visual effects, mix sound and market it instantly. And all this for a very low cost or nothing at all. And they did just that. From Hoardings all over the city to easy and economical marketing ways to even tying up with Inox, all this in just about 5 lakhs.

All started with the question “Who is Raj?”  And guess what, right from the star cricketer Sreesanth to our own fashion guru Prasad Bidappa, all seem to know Raj. And when I stepped in a bit late to the PR launch of the film to find out who Raj was, every seat said “Raj was here”. Damn, did I miss him?

However, what I saw today was interesting for all to know. We all know now that Public data shared on Facebook is cached by Google for its results.  Today I see that as I type “Facebook.com” on my Google Chrome, I am asked if I want to search “within” Facebook on the right top corner of the browser window.

While its a new concept to search within a website right from your search engine, Google has been reinventing itself and has a similar engagement with Flickr online. And yes the search within Offline (on Google Chrome) feature is available for Flickr, Youtube, WordPress, Yahoo and Bing too.  Ironically Blogspot or Blogger does not have the same enabled.

Now is this collaboration or the new Revenue Model of Google? Got to find out.

Do let me know if you know. Welcome your thoughts and observations in the Comments. Will be glad to discuss.

P.S> Did find this article which discusses the same - http://www.kabatology.com/09/06/hit-tab-to-search-within-google-chrome-address-bar-omnibox/ , however my google.com entry on chrome does not give me the ‘Press Tab to search..’ option. Does everyone one else get it?

Error 404–Not Found

At first I felt I reached a wrong website and then saw the URL had turned from www.aircel.com to http://www.aircel.com/AircelWar/appmanager/aircel/delhi?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pages_home and was defaulting to that everytime. Thanks to the favicon of Aircel, I did recognize the website as that of Aircel – the Telecom Operator (observe on the Google Chrome browser tab header in the picture).

“]
As a Brand Manager of Aircel, I would never tolerate my Web Presence being compromised. With most of my consumers being online today, my online identity’s importance is next to none. Pity I am not.

While Airtel is basking under the glory of a revised identity, though not too impressive, Aircel committed a grave mistake by carelessly letting their website sink.

Many many of my readers think, it was a blunder? May I hear you in the Comments?

“]

Flickr has Google Accounts login now [Source: www.flickr.com

“] 

Connecting the dots, I did understand that its a fantastic partnering, as Google not only connects to Yahoo’s Flickr, also it caches all of its public content. Content analysis and designing products around it being the prime focus of  Google, I was convinced that Google is the one that has the upper hand in this collaboration.

Am I right about the thought? Do you have a different opinion, reader? Let’s discuss the kudos and brickbats in the Comments.

Here is a man in armor, in the form of  BookBuzzr and its customer facing game site fReado. They call it “ fReado.com – World’s Biggest Free Book-Winning Site”. Quite like a Card Matching game, this one has Front Covers of Books and Novels which you have to find the pair of. Every game gives you points and every some points makes you eligible to get books. The books are dispatched around the world by Amazon.

This surely is a very innovative way to bring less known books right in the eyes of book lovers and players.

I felt if the game was more of a widget that could be placed in blogs and other websites, it would get more prominence and users. Another area I felt lacking is, the game does not have any Indian titles and is not focussed on the Indian Audience. With FREE being the attraction, I personally felt Indians would be more participative and pro-active.

What do you feel about the game and the concept? Do let me know in the Comments.

By now everyone would have noticed that the Desktop Computer in Personal Computing usage is slowly coming to an end. No more loose cables hanging under/behind the table; no more “Oh! Power snapped” excuses and no more “I left it back home” exempts. In less than a couple of years, there would be only two computing devices – ‘Wall Mounts’ and ‘Hand Helds’. And yes, I mean it.

Content will be in the Cloud, the OSes will be on your Displays and Palm Tops. The computer will be a huge thin display hung on the wall with just the input devices connecting to it wirelessly. The computer would be your Phone with your contacts and messages up in your server that can be downloaded onto any device you may connect to the Network with. The world would seemlessly integrate sans all the boundaries of dependability on numerous factors. And this is not an ideal future; its the tomorrow you are seeing outside your windows.

Do you need proof. Here it comes.

3G came into India and turned phones into Video Calling devices. The most used International calling software Skype is available on iPhone OS, for the Blackberry and even on the Android platform. Android is available for Handhelds be it Phones or Gaming Devices. Soon its going to be available for TVs too. Softwares and platforms are “on the cloud” today. Phone Contacts to Emails (thanks to Google) and now even TV shows and Movies (thanks to iTunes, Qriocity and Media Hub).  And all this just on Free Open Source platform. If and when the competition strikes havoc, imagine the world of options we would have.

While I would buy the fact that in Industrial applications and High End Media services, Desktops might still last a few more years, I would guess most of you would agree with my point of view on the future of Personal Computing.
If you think different, why dont we debate the same in the Comments down below?

1. Blog Service Providers / Blog Ware websites not having noticed the potential is very unlikely.
2. The Keywords being exorbitantly expensive also seems not so true. What when individual bloggers could afford it.
3. The Search Marketing teams / agencies would not wait to encash such a wonderful opportunity.

Its yet to convince me, if such a possibility remains that no Blogging Website would like to invest in buying Keywords.

What are your thoughts on this? Kindly Comment below.