Clicks for success

Source:Economictimes.com

Indians are going places; everyday, every hour, every second and the world is coming to us at the same velocity. The world has shrunk to a "global village" but have you ever thought who is responsible for all this? International business innovations like Google, YouTube, Flickr, and Snapfish have revolutionised our worlds and we, at the click of a button, can connect to people sitting thousands of miles away. But how much relevance do these global innovations hold for us Indians?

This is exactly what these following people spared a thought for, came up with businesses to suit the Indian masses. After all, we are at the centre of all the action. Anurag Dod and gaurav Mishra developed Guruji.com, the search engine modelled on Google.com, specially for Indians loaded with host of innovative features; Kartik Jain and manish Agrawal, the two Snapfish.com inspired IIT graduates who created picsquare.com, the website where people can print pictures on mugs, t-shirts, calenders, etc., and send it anywhere in India and finally, Alankar Jain, who went a step ahead of the current buzz-word on the internet, YouTube.com, and created the website, thebig.tv.

"The idea came to us in June 2005. We witnessed the success of Google in the US and also noted that its success rates did not complement its growth in the US market. Local players were doing far better than Google! And that's how the idea of Guruji.com struck us," recollects Gaurav Mishra, COO and co-founder, Guruji.com.

Prior to starting Guruji.com, Anurag Dod, Ceo and co-founder, worked with wisenet for ten years and was the key contributor in developing the Wisenet search engine and Mishra back then was with Hotmail for almost nine years. "We had the relevant work experience and began with a market research," says Mishra. They saw a clear gap in quality of results delivered in the Indian market as compared to the US. So, they felt that the global product wasn't giving the desired quality results in India.

"We had seen the growth of Google in the US. During the initiation stages of the website, we realized that there were several technical gaps that need to be filled. But we also knew that in order to reach out to a wider audience in India, we have to localise the content," says Mishra.

There are some striking similarities between Guruji.com and Google.com. Both are basically search engines delivering value to the internet users. So are there any factors that distinguish Guruji.com from Google.com? "We have gone ahead and created a first "city product" in the search engines market. We allow the user to do a vernacular search. We are focused and identify what global players are yet to do in Indian context," says Dod.

"The search engine market in India is catching up and the opportuniyies are plenty. I look at it as we co-exist with Google. We deliver better search value and are in the process of creating a search market in India and growing it. Our focus is search and we are emphatic about that," adds Dod.