MamunAhmed.com

Site review: FunnyJunk.com -where the junks are funny. The pioneer of the social picture sharing

Mamun Ahmed — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 14:33:28 +0000

FunnyJunk is an image and video sharing website where people post funny pictures, animated gifs and funny videos. After posting other users can vote if it is funny or junk and comment on the pictures. According to its statistics page, everyday it gets on average 600/700 new sign ups, 20m page views and 90k comments. Given the fact that this site has never done any marketing or PR the statistics figures are pretty good.

Registering and uploading something on the site process is pretty simple. From users aspect simplicity strikes a chord. I signed up on the site within few minutes and started voting by clicking on funny or junk options.

The FunnyJunk.com also known as fj among the users. It has a very close knit community. In my first visit to the site, I came across to some really funny images. Most of the images reflect the real life stories of the users. Here is one I found quite funny.

The site has been floating around on the web for quite awhile. The whois information is showing the site was first registered more than 10 years ago on 2001. I am guessing the site had its own thumbs up and thumbs down time over the last 10 years. But it also seemed it had a viral effect after launching on the users.

Sharing things socially has been a big thing for last 5/6 years. We have seen the growth of Hot or Not, YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr etc sites all were built on the idea of getting the users to fill up the site and sharing with other users.

FunnyJunk also made me think- if it was the pioneer of social image/video sharing, which has been a catalyst of the aforementioned sites, which were based on social sharing model.

The number of people comment and vote on each image are astonishing. I am pondering of Tumblr actually got the idea from FunnyJunk when they first started.

If you are bored and want to see some really funny jokes, comics and videos you can visit FunnyJunk by clicking this link.

Let me know if you ever visited FunnyJunk and what do you think about it by commenting below.

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Bloombla – where Twitter meets what have you done

Mamun Ahmed — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 18:56:39 +0000

UK based Bloombla combines Twitter style updates with past tense story telling in a short format, for a service I can honestly say I’ve never seen anything quite like before.

The core premise of Bloombla is a statement starting with “I’ve.” Users enter what they’ve done before, for example I’ve been to the United States, or I’ve eaten a Wagyu steak. Interestingly (or perhaps strangely), the service forces the structure of your story, with the first two words after I’ve having to come from their list (it auto prompts possibles as you type), with only the end statement free for input. You also can’t change the I’ve, so you can’t say I’m, as I found out when my first entry on Bloombla ended up reading “I’ve annoyed at having to match words in Bloombla.”

There is some reasoning around the forced entries, besides wanting to annoy users. Each entry is matched against existing entries, and common entries get a cumulative vote, for example 15 people on the site currently have posted “I’ve been to Italy.” Like Twitter, there’s also a social aspect to the site, complete with feeds from friends, so you can track what your friends have done previously as well.

I get the niche. Users like sharing what they’ve done before, and you see these sorts of statements on blogs, social networking sites, and even services such as FriendFeed. I get that they are trying to make a centralized destination for these sorts of statements, and certainly I can see some novelty value in using it. What I don’t get though is the business case: how many times are people going to want to share “I’ve done xyz” or “I’ve drunk a bottle of Vodka today” in past tense on an ongoing basis on the one site, when they can easily share the same things on regular services that don’t force a restriction on what they say.

Source: inquisitr.com

Defining Social Commerce: A Tale of Three Conversations

Mamun Ahmed — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 09:35:39 +0000

Everyone, especially Wall Street, is standing up to salute social commerce. Look at the IPO pipeline – LinkedIn, Groupon, Zynga, Living Social. But despite all this attention, the definition of social commerce is fuzzy at best. How do we know if these companies will win, if we can’t even agree on what it is?

When defining something social, it’s helpful to characterize it by the conversations that make up the experience. I’ve observed three elemental commerce-related conversations currently taking place: shopping, marketing and trading.

Social Shopping

When I’m thinking about buying something – especially something expensive or something that I simply care about a lot – I talk to people I trust. Social media makes this much easier to do. It lowers the barriers of effort and social appropriateness around having this conversation. Six months ago, I was looking for a camcorder (the video function on my phone just wasn’t cutting it for filming the school plays).

While I would never have taken the time to email all my friends to ask which camcorders they liked (that would just be weird), I felt totally comfortable soliciting their thoughts on Facebook. This open conversation introduced two new elements into the commerce equation: impulse and serendipity. As people chimed in and the conversation took shape, a few friends who hadn’t really been looking for camcorders became interested in and purchased the same model I bought.

Social shopping is rooted in the overall shift we’re seeing – consumers engaging in the social discovery of everything. Rather than just searching for information, consumers are increasingly turning to Facebook and Twitter to get trusted recommendations.

We already see this significantly affecting the way they’re discovering and consuming news. Moving forward, sharing trusted recommendations will only continue to grow as a huge factor in how people discover what to buy. Last year, Facebook commissioned a study by Nielsen which confirmed the obvious: trusted recommendations have a huge impact on the decision-making process. People were four times more likely to buy something when it was recommended by a friend.

It definitely worked in my case.

Social Marketing

Businesses need to talk with their customers. For millennia, this conversation occurred face-to-face in markets or in storefronts. Unfortunately, this dialogue has devolved into what is now primarily a one-way conversation: “marketing.”

Social media introduces a less-intrusive, more organic way to converse with customers rather than blasting them with emails or direct mail pieces. When done well, it reintroduces a two-way conversation between the business and its customers.

These conversations, because they occur openly, have the opportunity to fuel word-of-mouth awareness. They also have a self-correcting feedback loop. If a business fails to engage me by sending me too much stuff or stuff I ignore, messages from that business start disappearing from my Facebook newsfeed. Similarly on Twitter, great content is retweeted; noisy accounts are easily unfollowed.

This style of two-way, conversational marketing through social media (beyond just customer support) will likely take off first with small businesses. They’ve always valued the business-growing power of marketing through their existing customers for building loyalty and fueling word-of-mouth referrals. It’s why they prioritize customer service and cultivate their reputation in the local community. It’s why they join the Rotary and sponsor Little League teams.

Social media just removes a ton of friction from this process.

source: readwriteweb.com

Locanto Classifieds Canada introduced the French version

Mamun Ahmed — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 09:19:25 +0000

Locanto Classifieds now offers a French version of its local classifieds sites in 38 major cities across Canada to cater to the needs of the large Francophone community.

The English version of Locanto Canada (www.locanto.ca) has been offering the Anglophone community a free classifieds platform for all their local needs since November 2006. Given the increased number of ads written in French, it was time for a French site to accommodate to the more than six million Francophones in Canada. The French site can be reached at www.fr.locanto.ca.

Although the Internet has made the world smaller and more connected, most of life still takes place local. In the search for a new home, a babysitter, or a car, nearby offers in a language that the users are most comfortable with are the best solution. Within the site, users are able to switch between the English and the French site by clicking on “EN” or “FR” at the top right corner of the Locanto sites. The French Locanto Canada site with its over 400 categories offers a well structured site that meets these everyday local needs.

The Francophone community of Canada represents more than six million people and has its own identity. With the French Locanto Canada site, we aim to meet the local conditions and culture of the Francophone communities in Canada and be as authentic as possible”, says Klaus Gapp, CEO and founder of Yalwa, the company behind Locanto.

Besides Canada, Locanto Classifieds is available in five more French speaking countries (France, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Belgium, and Morocco). A French blog and a dedicated French customer support team that devoted to help the Francophone Locanto community with answers to all of their questions regarding the website complete the French service offered by Locanto.

About Yalwa: The local Internet company Yalwa, a start-up based in Germany, develops and operates Internet platforms that are free, helpful, and most of all: local. Yalwa, a free business directory, a skalo, a location based Q&A community, and Locanto, a free classifieds site are all offered in 40 countries worldwide, covering five different languages (Dutch, English, French, German, and Spanish).

Source: press ralease

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Site review: Bonsoni.com – Your online marketplace

Mamun Ahmed — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 21:24:18 +0000

Intriguing site – convenient to use and provided that you are keeping an eye you can get yourself some great bargains as well as giveaways. Already I found a free desktop computer from there. In their own word-

“Bonsoni.com is an online marketplace for buying and selling items, properties, finding a flat share, jobs, local services, free to collect items and many other categories.

Our aim is to provide a simple, safe, friendly but nimble platform for people to connect with each other, and trade goods and services”

Bosnoni.com successfully avoided Gumtree and Craigslist issues with spam and scam stuff, the aforementioned websites can learn a lot from this new promising start-up.

One of the things I really liked of this site was, when users post an ad they don’t need to fill up page after pages of information. The site allows you to post an ad in single page with just few clicks. After posting the ad users can easily manage them from their account, which is really useful.

The design and usability of Bonsoni.com is 10/10, very easy on eye. Space planning as well as the categories are up to the scratch.

Replying to an ad also very easy on Bonsoni.com, as long as an user is signed in, no need to fill up captcha. They don’t charge to post any ads not even on the services or Jobs section.

Whethers its getting a used TV or searching for accommodation hunting for a job or trying to find a free of charge haircut then Bonsoni.com an excellent site to look at.

You can visit Bonsoni.com by clicking here

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Google Testing Display Ads In Gmail

Mamun Ahmed — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 19:51:27 +0000

Google seems to be testing display ads in Gmail. I’ve not spoken to anyone but found the following image ad in my personal Gmail account this morning.

Image ads have created their way into paid search on Google.com and numerous other properties on Google. But this was truly jarring for me to encounter. It is the only such ad I saw (subsequent to an e-mail from a clothing retailer in my inbox) following purposely searching for other people.

I’m certain it is a test to determine how users react and what the response rates are. Gmail is formally a component of the “Google Display Network“:

Your text, image, wealthy media, and video ads can seem across YouTube, Google properties like Google Finance, Gmail, Google Maps, Blogger, also as more than one million Internet, video, gaming, and mobile display partners.

I’m not certain how lengthy this test has been running; it is the initial time I’ve observed it and I use Gmail as my main e-mail address.

Postscript: A Google spokesperson supplied the following comment:

We’re usually attempting out new ad formats and placements in Gmail, and we lately began experimenting with image ads on messages with heavy image content.

They also stated the ads started running final Friday.

Source: searchengineland.com

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Speed camera fines – How to pay Spanish speeding or driving fine from the UK?

Mamun Ahmed — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 17:14:20 +0000

After coming back from a holiday in Spain, I received a letter from Spanish authority (written in Spanish) informing me that I received a speed camera fine for speeding.

There was some instruction that I may pay the fine using http://www.dgt.es/ . After spending more than half an hour on the DGT site with my credit card in hand, I was unable to pay the fine online.

To cut a long story short– after considering various methods (one was to send money to my former flatmate’s mom (who is living in France but near to Spanish border and who I never met in my life) then she will drive to Spain just to pay the fine.

I spent hours searching for further information online, trawl through various posts on Spain Expats forum but nobody could tell me the procedure of how to pay Spanish driving fine from UK.

Then I contacted the Spanish Tourist Office in London. I spoke to a really lovely lady Called Nuria Riutord Lleonart, she took my email address and told me she is going to send the instructions by email. It seemed they are quite used to with similar types of inquiry.

The instruction email contained with the following information –

In order to pay the traffic notice that you have received the following steps may be followed. The traffic authorities are reachable on the telephone number at the bottom of one of the traffic notice: 0034 902 508 686

1) You may ring this number and after you hear the recorded message in Spanish (do not take any options) wait to the finish and then you will get an operator.

2) Speak in English and then the operator will pass you to someone who speaks English.

3) Please, have ready your Passport number, The Num of Expediente (case number) of the fine (at the top right of the sheet ); also the date of the fine.

4) Please bear in mind that if you pay before 30 days have elapsed since the receipt of the fine, you only have to pay €70.

5) When on the phone they will provide you with the traffic office bank account details. eg. Iban and Swift number, for its use to pay the fine in a bank.

6) After the telecom the office will send you a copy of the fine to your home address, in your own language: English/Spanish and again it will say how to pay.

If you have further queries or want more clarification, we will be pleased to provide it.

Yours sincerely,

Information Dept. of the Spanish Tourist Office.

I rang to the Spanish traffic authority straight away as I was running out of time to save 30 Euro. I spoke to another lady from the DGT (I asked for someone who speaks English in English), she told me she was going to send me an English version of the letter with the Traffic Authority’s International Banking Code so I could do bank transfer.

After couple of weeks I received another letter (English version) from them containing their bank details and further instruction. I transferred the money using online banking, that’s how I paid the Spanish driving fine from UK. Also, I had to post a copy of the bank receipt to them (as instructed on the English version of the letter)

And oh I must mention that – after receiving the very first letter, I contacted the car hire company in Spain to make sure if I really got the fine for speeding and if they have supplied my details to the traffic authority. I heard there is a similar kind of scam targeting British tourists. You better check that before jumping on to pay the fine.

Are you in the similar situation?

Have you paid the fine successfully?

Feel free to share your experience by commenting below

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Slumdog Millionaire

Mamun Ahmed — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 01:44:07 +0000

I went to the cinema to watch Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire” after reading few good reviews and Amitabh Bachchan’s criticism about the film. I came out with a mixture of sad and sweet feeling. It is not often you hear criticism and praise about a film in the same time, so I was rather curious. I was expecting to experience something from two different perspectives. I was prepared to watch one of the best films of 2008 which already won 26 Awards including 4 Golden Globes and nominated for another 35 Awards as well as which has depicted India “A third world dirty underbelly developing nation”.

Slumdog Millionaire Official Poster

The film only reminded me the harsh reality I have experienced in South Asia. Whatever country you go in that region, the reality is same. Since I have spent a significant time of my life in Bangladesh, I know how the life is like. I have seen hundreds of “Jamals” begging in the streets, sleeping in the train stations, picking up recyclable materials from the skips, got beaten by public after unsuccessful pick pocket attempt. Most of them don’t know their identity, don’t know where their parents are.

Little Jamal watches Amitabh Bachchan fly over him in a Helicopter

Way before the film has been made, I have described the South Asian homeless children’s life to one of my friends (who never been to India/Bangladesh but would love to go for a “holiday”, while we were talking about the imbalance of wealth in different parts of the world.

After finishing the film while the audience were taking cautious steps to downstairs, I was trying to over heard what other fellow cinema goers were commenting about the film. Everyone was mesmerized.

But still I am struggling to comprehend why Mr. Bachchan has been difficult towards the plot of the film ?

Is it because “Slumdog Millionaire” does not represent a bunch of spoilt poofs wearing disturbingly colourful clothes and dancing around the globe with another bunch of half naked wannabes ?

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International Calling Cards – A Hidden Gem for the UK Telecom Industry

Mamun Ahmed — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:17:16 +0000

A quick Google research on how much the International prepaid calling cards in UK market worth did not bring any results, if it were bringing any results at all that would be a surprise. However, it brought some information about North American domestic and international calling card market, that combined are $2.75 billion in 2008. In 1995 the same market was worth merely $750 million.

The increasing amounts of the immigrants bolstering the sales of the International calling cards in both side of the Atlantic. UK mobile operators are more often offering plenty of “free minutes” with the mobile phone packages, but visibly failed to attract the customers with the need of international calls.

Hopefully the mobile phone industry would not repeat the British Airways fiasco, by not counting the “budget customers”. Vodafone already sensed that hidden market, which prompted them to offer a package with free roaming in EU.

Most of the news agents have a long list of calling cards on display to show the availability. The cards are very easy to use, anyone can use the cards. Also it gives a great amount of mobility, if someone has free minutes on the mobile and a calling card on the pocket; it gives them licence to ring any parts of the world from anywhere. Leisure and business travelers are quite frequent in UK. Keeping contact with home and family is one of the biggest challenges for travelers. These cards allow them to ring anywhere using payphone’s free 0800 number.

All of the cards are pre-paid so the companies do not need to chase people up for the incurred bills, even sometimes the frequent travelers do not spend all of the available minutes before leaving the country. From that unused numbers calling card companies also making money.

The biggest challenge of this industry is to maintain the quality of the calls. Most of the companies always make some money at the beginning but after that most of them become greedy and lower the quality of the service. Customer care service virtually not existed in this industry. Therefore the customers are looking forward to a reliable company they can trust.

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Time for Self Service Postal Machines for Royal Mail?

Mamun Ahmed — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 07:17:27 +0000

I wonder what people do when they have a Mon-Fri hectic jobs, but need to post something recorded or next day delivery items. Posting something which needs customised pricing is a night mare, if you have hardly anytime in your hand during the week. It leaves only option of Saturday posting. But only specialised post office branches are open on Saturday for few hours.

In the era of technology and Do It Yourself services, Post office do not offer self service posting facilities yet, it sounds a bit odd. You can do banking, shopping , buying train tickets and many other things using self services but you can’t post recorded delivery letters.

According to The National Federation of SubPostmasters, services designed to boost incomes are failing to deliver. They also called on the Government to introduce “tangible new work” for post offices.

There are plenty of people out there those who are avoiding to use the Royal Mail services just for it has a time consuming method of working. Just to post a letter using the counter service you need to wait average 15 minutes. People do not have that amount of time in their hands anymore. Well, Royal Mail do have a service where people are able to print off the stamps off the net, but if anyone wants to have a next day delivery or recorded, still you need to queue up on a post office.

I wonder why the Royal Mail not introducing 24/7 self service postal machines? If Royal Mail been compared with other services, it seems it is so old fashioned.