Last year around this time, Seth Godin through his free eBook - Everyone is an Expert explained a concept which takes the help of everyone's expertise in providing more meaning to the end user in what they are searching or looking for. To provide more meaning to what people are searching or looking for, he introduced a concept called ‘Lens’. He applied this Lens concept through his project called Squidoo. People who get involved in providing meaning, do even have chance to get royalties for the work.
About 5 month ago, Google had released its new service called Google Co-op. Through this program, one can create her own Custom Search Engine based on her knowledge and interest. You can even make money (through AdSense) from the traffic generated out of the custom search engine. As always, Google has kept its high standards in it’s simplicity combined with amazing speed.
Now, there comes 2 questions:
1) Is the Google's Custom Search Engine a competition to Squidoo ? If the answer is yes, then what would happen to the Squidoo Lenses, which was originally started to provide meaning to the end users?
2) If the Google's Custom Search Engine were not competing with Squidoo, How would they compliment each other?
Monday, October 30, 2006
Sunday, October 29, 2006
A Warm Welcome!
My friend John lives 5 miles away from my house. We are close since our childhood. We used to spend more time together, until our school days. As we got settled in our careers, we had less time to spend together. However, we meet each other on every weekend (Sunday evenings), and keep ourselves updated on the current happenings. The meetings would normally last for a couple of hours, at the end, we used to feel that we had spent about a week together.
John is casual and friendly in nature. Just like me, John was also staying with a few of his associates. Every time I visit my friend's place, I receive a warm welcome from his associate(s). His associate(s) used to be bright and smiling, but never to talk to me. They rarely are inside the house. Mostly I've seen them outside the house, leaving us alone. The only exception is that during the rainy seasons, they would be found inside the house, but they left us undisturbed. I know that these associates give better comforts for John, even then he keeps them at check and changes them often.
For every 3 to 6 months, he keeps changing his associates. The associates whom I've seen 6 months ago were no longer seen. John says that it is quite normal and it is required for his better comfort. What comfort? I do not agree with him. I do not have many associates as John, and I never discard them as frequently as John does. Whenever I find that we (self & associate) are not going well, I would reduce the frequencies of our association. And that takes care of it.
Why does John fires his associates quite often? John and myself are almost similar in nature. It is only in the way we treat our associates we differ. I value my friend's opinion, so I do not debate on that. Once I started logically analysing, I found out, only one dissimilarity between us. I live in an apartment which is west facing, where as John's apartment is east facing. Having identified this reason, I thought what John does is right.
PS: Did'nt I say that associates refer to the inner garments?
John is casual and friendly in nature. Just like me, John was also staying with a few of his associates. Every time I visit my friend's place, I receive a warm welcome from his associate(s). His associate(s) used to be bright and smiling, but never to talk to me. They rarely are inside the house. Mostly I've seen them outside the house, leaving us alone. The only exception is that during the rainy seasons, they would be found inside the house, but they left us undisturbed. I know that these associates give better comforts for John, even then he keeps them at check and changes them often.
For every 3 to 6 months, he keeps changing his associates. The associates whom I've seen 6 months ago were no longer seen. John says that it is quite normal and it is required for his better comfort. What comfort? I do not agree with him. I do not have many associates as John, and I never discard them as frequently as John does. Whenever I find that we (self & associate) are not going well, I would reduce the frequencies of our association. And that takes care of it.
Why does John fires his associates quite often? John and myself are almost similar in nature. It is only in the way we treat our associates we differ. I value my friend's opinion, so I do not debate on that. Once I started logically analysing, I found out, only one dissimilarity between us. I live in an apartment which is west facing, where as John's apartment is east facing. Having identified this reason, I thought what John does is right.
PS: Did'nt I say that associates refer to the inner garments?
The Old Lady and the Fire
Long long ago, so long ago, nobody knew how long ago, there lived an Old Lady in a small village. The old lady was staying alone and was managing her work by herself. She used to get up early every morning, before anyone in the village could get up.
In those days there were no match boxes or lighters to create fire. Rubbing two firestones to create fire was the known way. Since the old lady gets up earlier, she used to be first person to create fire in the whole village. For the sake of convenience, the neighbours used to light their piece of wood from the old lady. But nobody would thank the old lady.
This was a cause of concern for the old lady. She thought about it for a long time. One day she thought that she would quietly vacate the village and move into a new village. She thought that since she is not there to create fire, the whole village would get affected and would understand her value. Also thought that nobody would cook their food. So, on one fine morning, the old lady moved out of the village.
After several months, the old lady came back to the village and was shocked. Much to her disappointment, the village was functioning normal. Everone in the village was as happy as they used to be. Every house prepared their food. The old lady felt bad about herself and returned back to the village and continued to stay there happily. And from the next day onwards her neighbours started lighting their fire from the old lady's house.
Moral:
In those days there were no match boxes or lighters to create fire. Rubbing two firestones to create fire was the known way. Since the old lady gets up earlier, she used to be first person to create fire in the whole village. For the sake of convenience, the neighbours used to light their piece of wood from the old lady. But nobody would thank the old lady.
This was a cause of concern for the old lady. She thought about it for a long time. One day she thought that she would quietly vacate the village and move into a new village. She thought that since she is not there to create fire, the whole village would get affected and would understand her value. Also thought that nobody would cook their food. So, on one fine morning, the old lady moved out of the village.
After several months, the old lady came back to the village and was shocked. Much to her disappointment, the village was functioning normal. Everone in the village was as happy as they used to be. Every house prepared their food. The old lady felt bad about herself and returned back to the village and continued to stay there happily. And from the next day onwards her neighbours started lighting their fire from the old lady's house.
Moral:
- Irespective of your presence, the world continues to function as is
- Thanks are not to be demanded but earned
- Lessons are not to be taught but to be learned
Acute Angle
When a disagreement between two people becomes a discussion, we call it an Argument. Over a period of time, we have accumulated lot of prejudices. It is these prejudices along with our logical thinking ability urges us to get involved into an argument. Argument is like a fire. If we keep feeding, it grows bigger and bigger. Rather, if you stop feeding, it would extinguish by itself. Why not argue? Why should I avoid it? I'm I not supposed to express my disagreement? How to avoid arguments?
You can never win an argument. Ideally there is nothing in this universe that is wrong or right. Everything is subject to the relativity of individual's perception. And perception is reality. A result of an argument is purely based on the net speaking ability of the individuals involved. When you lose in an argument, you lose. But when you win, still you lose. By winning an argument you lose the goodwill of the opponent. Each individual is unique, so also their ideas and thinking. So, it is not correct to prove something or someone wrong.
According to Buddha, 'Hatred is, indeed, never appeased by hatred in this world. It is appeased only by loving-kindness'. The only way to get the best out of an argument is to avoid it. To substantiate something right, it is not necessary to prove something or somebody is wrong. Everything has got its merits and demerits. Instead of working on the demerits of something, we can work on the merits. So, focus on the positives. Remember, arguments are short-lived than relationships. It is ok to lose an argument and retain the relationship for life time.
Each and everyone is free to express her disagreement. But when trying to arrive at conclusions, it leads to an argument. How to avoid arguments? Whenever there is a disagreement and even if you know for sure that you are right, save your opponent's face. Look out for the areas of agreement and highlight it. Honestly admit that you may also be wrong and tell the opponent 'let us examine'. If this method does not work, postpone the action, and this can do the trick.
If you want, you can avoid argument. Assume you are arguing with a person whom you consider to be more knowledgeable than you. Since the person know more than you, why not save her face. Proving you are right is not going to make you more knowledgeable. Assume you are arguing with a person whom you consider to be less knowledgeable than you. Since the person knows less than you, it is not logical to expect your opponent to appreciate and understand to your point. Proving you are right is not going to do good for you. What about the case, where you are arguing with someone who is as knowledgeable as you? Here again, you can avoid the argument. Since you agree that the person knows as much as you know, there exists 50% possibility of the other person being right. So why not save her face and stop arguing. It is only the time, which can concludes who is right and who is wrong. Still, for many cases, you might not know, whether it is right or wrong? These are called the indicibles. Hence it is prudent to leave a disagreement as a mere opinion without indulging in an argument.
You can never win an argument. Ideally there is nothing in this universe that is wrong or right. Everything is subject to the relativity of individual's perception. And perception is reality. A result of an argument is purely based on the net speaking ability of the individuals involved. When you lose in an argument, you lose. But when you win, still you lose. By winning an argument you lose the goodwill of the opponent. Each individual is unique, so also their ideas and thinking. So, it is not correct to prove something or someone wrong.
According to Buddha, 'Hatred is, indeed, never appeased by hatred in this world. It is appeased only by loving-kindness'. The only way to get the best out of an argument is to avoid it. To substantiate something right, it is not necessary to prove something or somebody is wrong. Everything has got its merits and demerits. Instead of working on the demerits of something, we can work on the merits. So, focus on the positives. Remember, arguments are short-lived than relationships. It is ok to lose an argument and retain the relationship for life time.
Each and everyone is free to express her disagreement. But when trying to arrive at conclusions, it leads to an argument. How to avoid arguments? Whenever there is a disagreement and even if you know for sure that you are right, save your opponent's face. Look out for the areas of agreement and highlight it. Honestly admit that you may also be wrong and tell the opponent 'let us examine'. If this method does not work, postpone the action, and this can do the trick.
If you want, you can avoid argument. Assume you are arguing with a person whom you consider to be more knowledgeable than you. Since the person know more than you, why not save her face. Proving you are right is not going to make you more knowledgeable. Assume you are arguing with a person whom you consider to be less knowledgeable than you. Since the person knows less than you, it is not logical to expect your opponent to appreciate and understand to your point. Proving you are right is not going to do good for you. What about the case, where you are arguing with someone who is as knowledgeable as you? Here again, you can avoid the argument. Since you agree that the person knows as much as you know, there exists 50% possibility of the other person being right. So why not save her face and stop arguing. It is only the time, which can concludes who is right and who is wrong. Still, for many cases, you might not know, whether it is right or wrong? These are called the indicibles. Hence it is prudent to leave a disagreement as a mere opinion without indulging in an argument.
Pureit - Marketing Ploys
HINDUSTAN Lever Ltd (HLL) has recently launched a water purifier named Pureit. It basically treats the water at different ways to get a pure water (free from germs, bacteria and chemicals) to drink. It costs about Rs. 1500.
Though the product is cool and cost effective, there is a hidden marketing ploy from HLL Marketing Team. All the parts used in the Pureit are mechanical parts.
Ploy 1 : Attached is the image of the front panel, where there are indications of some leds. Basically this gives a feel that there are electronical parts involved in the device. Which projects a better ROI for the money being invested
Ploy 2 : This is to support the above illusion created by the HLL marketing Team. All the brouchures and manual of the Pureit refers "Germ kill Battery Kit". From the name it sounds that there are some electronical parts involved. Actually in reality, all the parts involved in this Germ Kill Battery Kit are mechanical only.
Since Pureit is good and does what is intended, I'm happy with it's performance so far. Infact it cost effective too. But I did not like this Marketing ploy mentioned above. Even if this marketing ploy were not used, still the sales of Pureit would have been the same. But could not guess the reason for this?
Though the product is cool and cost effective, there is a hidden marketing ploy from HLL Marketing Team. All the parts used in the Pureit are mechanical parts.
Ploy 1 : Attached is the image of the front panel, where there are indications of some leds. Basically this gives a feel that there are electronical parts involved in the device. Which projects a better ROI for the money being invested
Ploy 2 : This is to support the above illusion created by the HLL marketing Team. All the brouchures and manual of the Pureit refers "Germ kill Battery Kit". From the name it sounds that there are some electronical parts involved. Actually in reality, all the parts involved in this Germ Kill Battery Kit are mechanical only.
Since Pureit is good and does what is intended, I'm happy with it's performance so far. Infact it cost effective too. But I did not like this Marketing ploy mentioned above. Even if this marketing ploy were not used, still the sales of Pureit would have been the same. But could not guess the reason for this?
The Sage and the small Boy
Once there lived a sage in a small village. Whatever the sage advices people followed. So, people from far of distance use to visit the sage with their naughty child, wife, husband, brother, sister to get advice from the sage.
Mary was living in the next village. She was worried about her son Mark's habbit of eating more sweets. She had warned Mark about this, but he does not seem to hear his mother's words. Through neighbours, Mary came to know about the sage and his power.
On one fine day, Mary took her son Mark to the sage. Mary complained about her son's habbit to the sage. The sage, after thinking about this for a couple of minutes asked Mary and Mark to visit him after 10 days.
Mary was waiting for the completion of 10 days. Exactly on the 11th day, she took her son to the sage. She reminded the sage about the complaint. The sage looked at Mark, with a confident voice, he said - "Son! stop eating sweets". Mark nodded. Both the mother and her son left the place.
To her surprise, Mary found that from that day onwards, Mark had completely stopped eating sweets. She was happy and wanted to thank the sage. So, the next week, she went and visited the sage and thanked him. When she was about to leave the place, she asked the sage, why he wanted them to come after 10 days. She wondered why not the sage told Mark the same words 10 days earlier.
Smiling at Mary's question, the sage replied that till she complained about Mark, he was eating more sweets. So, he wanted to control his habbit before advising Mark. And that was the reason for 10 days gap.
Moral of the Story :
Mary was living in the next village. She was worried about her son Mark's habbit of eating more sweets. She had warned Mark about this, but he does not seem to hear his mother's words. Through neighbours, Mary came to know about the sage and his power.
On one fine day, Mary took her son Mark to the sage. Mary complained about her son's habbit to the sage. The sage, after thinking about this for a couple of minutes asked Mary and Mark to visit him after 10 days.
Mary was waiting for the completion of 10 days. Exactly on the 11th day, she took her son to the sage. She reminded the sage about the complaint. The sage looked at Mark, with a confident voice, he said - "Son! stop eating sweets". Mark nodded. Both the mother and her son left the place.
To her surprise, Mary found that from that day onwards, Mark had completely stopped eating sweets. She was happy and wanted to thank the sage. So, the next week, she went and visited the sage and thanked him. When she was about to leave the place, she asked the sage, why he wanted them to come after 10 days. She wondered why not the sage told Mark the same words 10 days earlier.
Smiling at Mary's question, the sage replied that till she complained about Mark, he was eating more sweets. So, he wanted to control his habbit before advising Mark. And that was the reason for 10 days gap.
Moral of the Story :
- Great men teach or preach what they practice
- Chances of people hearing your words, if you practice it 100% yourself
- People do what you do than what you say
- Self-control is the first step towards control over many lives
Frog in the boiling water
'Cigarette smoking is injurious to health'. Everyone knows this, infact, it is printed in every cigarette packet. However it is shocking to know that a big mass (more than 25%) of our community has surrendered themselves to the cigarette smoking habit. Did you know? Researchers claim that the cigarette smokers increase their chances of lung cancer by five times. According to statistics, in US, every one person out of four, is a cigarette smoker. If you are a cigarette smoker and who do not believe these data, please avoid reading this post and save your time for smoking another couple of cigarettes!! **
I lost two of my close friends due to cigarette smoking habit. These real life tragedies impacted me a lot. How many more friends I'm going to lose to these cigarettes for the rest of my life !! I do not know the statistics of how many die / suffer everyday due to cigarette smoking habit. So, I decided to persuade to each and every smoker to quit smoking. I'm happy and proud that four of my friends stopped smoking. Though I had very small role to play, but the satisfaction I got out of it was tremendous.
Let us keep in mind that we are not a single entity. We have a loving family, passionate organization, emerging nation and a happy planet. Let us stay healthier for longer period to take care of our family, the organization, our nation and the planet. It is ok, if we do not improve our environment, but atleast let us not spoil them. Let us do our best possible to hand over a cleaner globe to our next generation. Today is the best time to stop smoking as well start preaching about the bad effects of smoking to the people around. Remember that when a person quits smoking, he reduces the risk of cancer and heart attacks to a great extent. He enjoys a better blood pressure. Along with him the people associated also get to inhale a pure air.
Ceaser was a pet dog of a wealthy family in a small town. Ceaser was taken utmost care that he was given the best food, best care, best treatment and so on. Ceaser was not exposed to the external world, so he wanted to run away from the house to enjoy the external world. One fine morning, as planned, Ceaser ran away from the house. He ran to the farthest of the town. In the evening Ceaser started feeling hungry. He had nobody to feed him. He had to find the food for himself. So he started searching for food. Unfortunately, for the next two days, Ceaser could not find any food. So, he was tired and weak. On the third day afternoon, in the hot sun, Ceaser managed to identify a bone in one of the streets. He was happy and caught hold of it in his mouth. Ceaser started biting the bone. As it was a brittle bone, Ceaser's mouth got hurt and blood started coming from his mouth. Poor Ceaser thought the blood was coming from the bone and started sucking the bone for more enjoyment. So more and more blood was coming from his own body to feed him. Ceaser did not realized it and eventually died.
According to Swami Sukhabodhananda, the people who have smoking habit are no better than the Ceaser mentioned in the above story. Cigarette smokers derive pleasure at the cost of their health and they pretend as though they do not know the fact that the cigarette smoking leads them to a quicker DEATH.
Remember cigarette smoking leads to addiction, where in, it would be very difficult for a person to control the smoking habit. One who cannot control his habits cannot control his destiny. People who do not have control over their destiny do not succeed. More over good health is one of the key ingredients for greater success. Hence the people who smoke cigarette are considered to be a failure, because they are short lived.
You have the option to be a responsive human or to be a frog in the boiling water. Finally, the option is yours.
Want to Succeed in Life? Stop smoking NOW and start Succeeding.
PS : ** 90% of the smokers would have read the full article, the first time. The other 10% of them would have bookmarked it to read it later for many times.
I lost two of my close friends due to cigarette smoking habit. These real life tragedies impacted me a lot. How many more friends I'm going to lose to these cigarettes for the rest of my life !! I do not know the statistics of how many die / suffer everyday due to cigarette smoking habit. So, I decided to persuade to each and every smoker to quit smoking. I'm happy and proud that four of my friends stopped smoking. Though I had very small role to play, but the satisfaction I got out of it was tremendous.
Let us keep in mind that we are not a single entity. We have a loving family, passionate organization, emerging nation and a happy planet. Let us stay healthier for longer period to take care of our family, the organization, our nation and the planet. It is ok, if we do not improve our environment, but atleast let us not spoil them. Let us do our best possible to hand over a cleaner globe to our next generation. Today is the best time to stop smoking as well start preaching about the bad effects of smoking to the people around. Remember that when a person quits smoking, he reduces the risk of cancer and heart attacks to a great extent. He enjoys a better blood pressure. Along with him the people associated also get to inhale a pure air.
Ceaser was a pet dog of a wealthy family in a small town. Ceaser was taken utmost care that he was given the best food, best care, best treatment and so on. Ceaser was not exposed to the external world, so he wanted to run away from the house to enjoy the external world. One fine morning, as planned, Ceaser ran away from the house. He ran to the farthest of the town. In the evening Ceaser started feeling hungry. He had nobody to feed him. He had to find the food for himself. So he started searching for food. Unfortunately, for the next two days, Ceaser could not find any food. So, he was tired and weak. On the third day afternoon, in the hot sun, Ceaser managed to identify a bone in one of the streets. He was happy and caught hold of it in his mouth. Ceaser started biting the bone. As it was a brittle bone, Ceaser's mouth got hurt and blood started coming from his mouth. Poor Ceaser thought the blood was coming from the bone and started sucking the bone for more enjoyment. So more and more blood was coming from his own body to feed him. Ceaser did not realized it and eventually died.
According to Swami Sukhabodhananda, the people who have smoking habit are no better than the Ceaser mentioned in the above story. Cigarette smokers derive pleasure at the cost of their health and they pretend as though they do not know the fact that the cigarette smoking leads them to a quicker DEATH.
Remember cigarette smoking leads to addiction, where in, it would be very difficult for a person to control the smoking habit. One who cannot control his habits cannot control his destiny. People who do not have control over their destiny do not succeed. More over good health is one of the key ingredients for greater success. Hence the people who smoke cigarette are considered to be a failure, because they are short lived.
You have the option to be a responsive human or to be a frog in the boiling water. Finally, the option is yours.
Want to Succeed in Life? Stop smoking NOW and start Succeeding.
PS : ** 90% of the smokers would have read the full article, the first time. The other 10% of them would have bookmarked it to read it later for many times.
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