Author Archives: Amit

Bit.ly -Beyond just Link shortening-Usability on for a toss!

On March 29th, Bit.Ly came up with an update and redesign of its link shortening service which in turn for many of its users de-emphasized the core features of the Product.

Bit.ly was used to be about copy and pasting a link and now you need to go a few extra step to reach out to your small short and sweet URL.

For me Bit.ly has always been the “tool you cannot live without”, even when the thing you use has a built in shortener like Hootsuite…

I am wondering the mindset behind this, and when faced with irks and complaints from majority of its users this is what its CEO has to say, ”

“It’s the response from the vocal minority who are quick to complain about any change.”…Ouch!

This hurts…and yes I am part of this vocal minority…had it been an add-on, an additional feature by keeping the core feature alive, I would have been ga-ga over this but this…a no-brainer…

You should listen to your users even the nagging ones…some of my best ideas have come from whining, nagging users..

When the entire core feature of product was to shorten the url in one click…why would you take that away…and for other features like bookmarking why wouldn’t I go to Delicious or some other site…

For now I refer http://goo.gl/ as an alternative for https://bitly.com/

P.S: As of this writing we do now have a special URL which says “Just want to shorten a link?”, and hence retains the main core feature…somehow common sense prevailed…

UX Principles – Top 4 for my products

While talking about UX principles, I in my product always would go for the following:

Fast : My product should response to any input that has been given by user in sub-300 millisecs

Assistive: You should always give user something to react to, don’t force them to generate their own content

Clear and concise messaging : Always, make sure you’re guiding your users to respective paths on a regular basis. People don’t want to stay on and stray around!

Simplicity: A 1% PM knows how to get 80% of the value out of any feature or project with 20% of the effort. They do so repeatedly, launching more and achieving compounding effects for the product or business.

Share your Books – a revolution waiting to happen

Its our responsibility to make sure that we return something to the society…and what best by contributing towards the education…and you can do this via the initiative taken by ‘Share Your Books.’

The way this works is very simple:

1. You got to find out your old books which are there lying in your stores, under the cover

2. Post the list of books on this page, with your info, and the page owners will contact you to make sure the books reach out to the needful students of the society.

3. Their plan is also to contact NGOs, and schools to make sure that they reach out to kids at a mass level

Lets join them and make a difference…

Is there any way to reset my Facebook personal upload email address?

To find Your Secret Facebook Upload Email Address

  • Open Facebook Mobile.
  • Click Send my upload email to me now under Upload via Email.
  • Pick an email address you access from the device you want to use to upload under Email Address:.
  • Click Send email.
  • Now click OK.
  • Open the email from "Facebook " with the Subject "Facebook Upload Email".
  • Copy the email address from the message text.
  • Save it to your address book under "Facebook Upload", for example.
  • You may also be able to add the address to your contacts using the attached vCard file.

To Reset the address

  • Open Facebook Mobile
  • Select Find out more under Upload via Email.
  • Now follow the refresh your upload email link under Tip.
  • Click Reset.
  • Now click Okay. You're done 🙂

Is there any way to reset my Facebook personal upload email address?

Why did LinkedIn acquire Slideshare?

Social Media is gaining momentum in the business space and this is indeed a very strategic acquisition for LinkedIn simply because it has always been a professional networking platform.

SlideShare has been an app available through the LinkedIn interface for quite some time. Bringing the service in-house is only going to strengthen the alliance.

In a world of social CRM, where professionals in any department inside an organization are mining social networks for signals, content and messages from their clients, prospects, partners, and employees, a repository of content and a socialized inbox (Rapportive, a Gmail plugin, which LinkedIn acquired in February), clearly point to the future.

Why did LinkedIn acquire Slideshare?

Aamir’s Satyamev Jayate!

Was there anything new in what Aamir Khan spoke about in his show?. All of us, the so called responsible citizens of a quasi-developed country, are aware of every iota of it. Female foeticide is not at all a new concept, and the torture of women is nothing astounding either. What left me shocked is the encounter with the the very starkness of the truth.

We live in a society where women are murdered even before they begin to breathe, and somehow if they are able to evade death in the womb, they are raised and brought up to fight with a plethora of evils throughout their lives. The harsh statistics leaves us with no choice but to hang our heads in despair and helplessness. Truth, they said, was stranger than fiction. What they did not say, however, is that it is potent enough to kill. Or to resurrect. That part of ourselves called conscience.

Out of the 914 girls who survive against every 1000 guys, scores of them are raped, a considerable percentage killed for dowry, many more tortured for speaking out against the wrongs done to them. Sons are born to smiling faces, and daughters are wiped off from the face of the earth – and sighs of relief are heaved once the ‘job’ is done. Aamir Khan’s ‘Satyamev Jayate’ has jolted the consciousness of many human beings awake. The million dollar question now remains – will we be able to continue the crusade against the wrongs done to women, or will this too, leave us like a passing tide, with only the residues of emotions in our hearts?

Google Drive Launched Today – Review

Highly anticipated…thought to be a game changer…Google Drive…is launched today!

You can try Google Drive now at drive.google.com.

GoogleDrive

The app is now available for download and I did install it, it created a folder on my computer that acts as shared synced folder for me. All of my Google Docs appeared as “icons” in the folder.

Though from ‘Usage’ perspective..yes Google Drive is +1, but from usability perspective ‘iDislike’.

I personally review any new products under three categories:

Usability, Usability, and Usability. Nothing beyond this, nothing less than this! And exactly this is where GoogleDrive fails!

1. Poor installation flow

This is not at all what I expected form Google. Just doesn’t fit the bill! And this is exactly where Dropbox scores way above. The entire procedure with GoogleDrive is just not seamless.

2. UI : Pretty novice – Not the Google We know off!

Does not look like English has been given importance in GDrive. The sentences just not make you feel at ease! Another thing was the placement of labels and check boxes…its just that it does not make sense…may be because Google doesn’t have expertise in making a desktop app!

3. Enable Offline view : Takes you to Google products page -> What to do from there?

This was massive issue : You click on Enable Offline View, and you eventually end up on Google Products page 😦

4. Win 7 got hanged…while it started Syncing docs!

After installation, during the Sync…the system just stopped responding, there was no communication from GoogleDrive as to what was happening with my system…no status on whether sync was over or not!

Now these are the points from Usability perspective. On the functionality side it is definitely a +1

You can have free accounts of 5GB space and can upgrade to 25GB for $2.49 a month. One hundred gigabytes of storage can be acquired for $4.99 a month, and 1TB will set you back $49.99 monthly. Upgrading to a paid account will also boost the available storage space on your GMail account to 25GB.

Here is the Comparison of popular Cloud storage providers- Courtesy- TechCrunch

And as a bonus: Click here

Posted by Nicholas Behrens, Software Engineer (Courtesy http://gmailblog.blogspot.in/2012/04/gmail-now-with-10-gb-of-storage-and.html)Today, we’re happy to announce that we’re increasing everyone’s free storage in Gmail from 7.5 GB to 10 GB (and counting) to celebrate today’s launch of Google Drive. The increase will take effect over the next 24 hours. We hope you all enjoy the little bump!
In all a perfect a good attempt from Google, but a lot needs to be thought through!