The ultimate Twitter revenue model

Best ideas are born when chatting with friends.

Friend: A friend is planning on starting a website that is similar to smashing magazine... but for movies and music... you interested?

Me: I don’t have time to read or write now a days. Haven’t even opened Google Reader in a long time :-(

Friend: I have had 1000+ in my reader for a couple of months now..

Me: Yeah me too

Friend: been sleeping at 4am, 5am...

Me: Once I argued with some one who said blogging was a fad. Now I think its coming true.

Friend: lol... According to some, blogging is dead... it's become a commercial enterprise now... and blogging as you used to know it, no longer exists.

Me: Amateur blogging has come down like anything

Friend: Yeah... over 100 million abandoned blogs… according to Technorati

Me: It’s more like online magazines now. Blogs are a boon for sure. You search for any shit you get it on someone’s blog

Friend: According to some, micro blogging is the new blogging…

Me: Micro blogging is keeping me updated now a days

Friend: Now how to make money off it is the next phase

Me: hmm may be they will have sponsors

Friend: Likely

Me: Sponsors based on the number of followers. Sponsors need not work based on page views. They just need to be heard.

Friend: yeah, so that's authority and popularity... you need to be popular...

Me: So if you sponsor me, I will talk good things about you

Friend: Is that an offer?

Me: hehe may be I will do a matrimonial Twitter channel and…

Friend: huh? Why?

Me: …only girls are allowed to follow me. I broadcast trustworthy info about prospective boys

Friend: Hmm...

Me: The boys sponsor me.

Friend: Then I’ll definitely sponsor you...

Me: See...

Friend: hey, if they're sponsoring you, how can they be trustworthy?

Me: They need not be trustworthy. I'm trustworthy. Like say Techcrunch

Friend: How so?

Me: They ask me to review them by paying me. (I don’t know if Techcrunch takes money to review btw)

Friend: Oy, I'm not stripping, ok...

Me: hahaha

Friend: How will you review me?

Me: Like you pay for my friendship

Friend: :P

Me: I become your paid friend. I study you for a week or so and then I write about you. Millions of girls who follow me will read it and would want to meet you

Friend: You've got to get into action on that... but micro blogging is not enough to write about me... you need a large book.

Me: Well even Alukkas jewellery and Kalyan sarees can pay me coz of the target audience. So that I talk good about them too.

Friend: Hmm... Are you gonna act on that?

Me: How’s my idea?

Friend: I think its good... needs marketing... solid marketing...

Me: First I need to be a ladies man, make a solid girl friends circle and then make them fall for ahem sorry follow me… and then let the boys know that the girls listen to me... lot of work

Friend: You need to have a very sound reputation both on the net and off...

Me: yes

Friend: and you have hang out with the girls study them too

Me: Well that will be a free service. I will do special recommendation of those girls who allow me to hang out with them

Friend: I think you will need a team for that...

Me: No No its like Splitsvilla. Everyone makes me happy

Friend: what the heck is that...

Me: Oh that’s another reality show on MTV

Friend: hmm...

Me: Girls make the King happy and boys make the Queen happy

Friend: What the heck?

Me: In the end the king and queen pick their partners to win the show

Friend: This is some porn reality show?

Me: Hehe not porn but of course little more than Indian sensibilities. However I hope the girls’ parents have sold their TV before the season started.

:P

Happy Singh is King

Long back when I went to my friend's newly opened graphic design shop, I was suprised to see the unusual aquamarine colors he had painted on the walls. I asked him about it and he said that he wanted it to be a conversation starter. Like how I asked him about it, he expected others also to do the same and he can talk about the idea. Something to break the ice with his prospective clients. I found the idea interesting. Since then I have always tried to have something with me as a conversation starter whenever I go to meet people. For some time it was my thick framed glasses (which was not very popular then), mypsychedelic shirts, 'fuel inside' sticker (which looked like the 'intel inside' logo) on my bike's petrol tank, bright red canvas shoes, the apple sticker on my hp laptop etc. I also have a gaping void cartoon on the back of my business card which acts as a great conversation starter when I go to geek camps. Now a days people find iPhones as a great conversation starter. And the list goes on.

Last month on my brief visit to Bombay, I was taken to this restaurant called 'Happy Singh'. I was expecting a typical punjabi dhaba atmosphere when I went there but as soon I entered the place I thought the place looked like an American/Mexican eatery. You know the ones like TGIF, Ruby Tuesday, Indy Joe etc. The interiors were all bright red and green with colorful light shades and graffiti on the wall. The atmosphere was so lively with something or the other happening all the time, happening bollywood bhangra numbers in the air, the servers all ready to help you out.

We were welcomed by a drink and then asked for the order. There were lots of fun stuff for us to look at on our table. The menu card was funny with every creatively named section having the restaurant mascot Mr happy singh in different avatars. There were cards on the table with jumbled up phrases for us to crack. The table also had a number displayed and a note saying if we were unhappy about anything about the place we could complain it to the authorities along with the table number.

When the food came, my aunt commented that it was quick. But the reality was that we were so engrossed in cracking Happy's jumbled phrases, talking about the unique ambiance, commenting on the different funny avatars of Happy Singh which adorned the walls, that we didn't even realize how much time we waited for the food to come. It seemed so very quick. The food too didn't disappoint, it was all beyond expectations. We had a fun time over there beyond the point that we went there to have lunch, till the ceremonial kitchen close bell rang. We were more than happy to give creative feedback (to match up to the ambiance) to them on their suggestion cards, which are usually avoided or typically filled for a formality in other places.

Happy Singh is King

We gushed in sheer excitement as we came out of the place.


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Search using a pic. Can I?

The other day @sampad posted a fun challenge on Twitter to guess the person on the pic he posted on twitpic. I looked at the pic but didnt know who he was. The first thing I wanted to do was to ask Google by giving the picture as the search query which unfortunately was not possible. However I kinda guessed that he was some online personality and searched Google images with terms facebook, twitter etc. Ultimately the guy turned out to be Chris Hughes, the co founder of Facebook, but it was found only after a lot of googling based on the hints given out by @sampad.

The incident made me think; once again... :P

What if Google had a feature in 'Image Search' where I could upload a pic for Google to find content on the pic and give me results based on that? It would be fantastic. I'm sure that Google can do it, coz it already has Similar Images Search in the labs, which shows other images that look like the one which showed up as a result of an image search using keywords. Similarly Google has to just accept my pic via upload and then do a search in their database to find similar images which are appropriately tagged to know who/what the person/object is on the picture. Then it can show me results on the person/object it found out; not only image results but also other web results like a normal Google search. In Chris's case it would give me this page as a result of my "fundoo image search".

I know this is not far away. Oh btw it would not only work for famous personalities or landmarks, but also for your lesser known friends and relatives; remember all those image tagging you did in Picasa web albums? Google knows them all.