So... it finally launches...
Nearly, a year after I quit Indiatimes, the social networking (the specs of which was one of the things (along with Indiatimes Mail) on my plate) platform has finally gone live. It took a year of work on the PeopleAggregator platform to finally reach an acceptable state of launch, and as is fashionable these days, it is in Beta.
Is it too little too late?
In a world dominated by Facebook, Myspace and Orkut (dominating different geographies), this is the most obvious question... After all sites like Rediff Iland did not gain much traction either, and lets not forget numerous sites like yaari.com, which have fallen by the wayside... Another catch all Social Network, hohum.
The answer. Depends. Depends on whether, the product will remain a social network in the mould of Facebook or will evolve to something more. The potential exists to do much more, ofcourse... The direction it will take totally depends on the team handling the product. No one from the original team is now (or will not be in the next few weeks) on the project, so I don't know, if the initial objectives and thought processes are even captured anywhere.
A Bit about the Domain...
The domain itimes.com was held by a company in the States. No amount of searching the web, gives me a hint as to what was it before... Though there is a mention of this domain on the University of California Irvine's Anthropology course...
The domain acquisition saga is a content for another post altogether. The internal contradictions and desires that were the initial motivation for makingthe purchase were completely different from what it was used for eventually.
Read this story on NYMag. We (atleast I) had quite a laugh... (Though we pocketed the domain a little after this story came out)
Will Apple co-opt itimes, like they did the iphone, they seem to claim everything i... Only time will tell.
And the cost...
It would suffice to say, it was expensive...
Commentary on itimes.com
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