Unforgiving Social Media

More than anything else, there is one thing more important for companies is to maintain their social status.

No matter what the cause of the dissatisfaction or lack of service. If they do it right on the Social Media Platform. They can be sure that they are safe. One would not know the flaws or the shortcomings of a company without using it. Existing customer's testimony is about 80 percent exaggeration. So that doesn't count but for a potential customer base, it may damage their perception forever.

Now, coming to my case. I ported a number from the ever pathetic Reliance to Airtel. I am an iphone user for which I need a MicroSIM instead of the regular SIM for the old phones.

Since, the SIM card I got from the dealer gave me the normal SIM card. I decided to be the engineer and chopped it fit into the SIM card cabin. All well, not quite though. As soon as I restarted my phone. It said INVALID SIM. I tried again and again but with no results. Then I decided to go to the nearest Airtel office. To add to my despair. They asked me to go to the another branch office and get a new SIM for myself. The one good thing that they did was helping me activate my number.

Went to the other store and gave them the docs along with the SIM replacement fee. I was told that it would be done in about 4 hours. The next morning has arrived but there are no signals. It was just like the Big American Dream which almost ends in heartbreak for most of the immigrants.

Coming to social media, I am actively participating on twitter and I tweeted Airtel about it and there was a response within 10 minutes asking me to send a direct message to them with an alternate number. Impressive. I sent the message and got another reply within 10 mins.

Well my time was not over. Nothing happened after another tweet and a plausible auto reply of getting back at me.

I had to go to the same store back again and come back with a resolution.

It doesn't matter that I had to go to the store for a resolution. I am totally fine with it. My concern is why AirTel would promise on a resolution and back out again and again on Social Media. Was it just to show that they are active and working hard to resolve the customer's issues. Plainly, they aren't.

Not the kind of service that I hoped for but you gotta live with it. Airtel left me disappointed.

Register 100 .BERLIN domains for free

For the very first time in the history of Internet. Domain names are being offered for free. The guys at .Berlin domains, a newly launched gtld have set their eyes to be the number one domain in the brand gtld business.

To be pretty honest with you, I also took the advantage of this offer and registered the top limit of 100 domains per person. There are some extremly good ones and then there are some domain which makes sense. Whatever, be the reason. Get your free 100 .BERLIN  domains and make a site or post it to parking pages(upto you).

It is the best thing that has happened to the Internet community that some individuals who have limited skills will be able to register a domain, get hosting and template website. All for free. This is a great change in this ever changing Internet.

Got the smiling picture. Now, it's time for the real deal. If this promotion is a success. Be ready to shell out about $50 for the renewals. If you are smart enough. You will find a free hosting service and a free website creation tool as well but the domain has to be renewed which comes with a price tag.

This marketing strategy will surely propell the .BERLIN registry to the top of new gtld domains in terms of numbers but for a brief period of time. What happens after 1 year will actually define the future of .BERLIN.

Finally .TH domain can be registered.

Everyone in the ccTLD world has once desired the registration of a .TH domain to own a catchy domain hack. The wait is over now. For the very first time, .TH domains are coming out on sale. THNIC has announced that the domain are offered for registration for a very limited time(till 30th June). Since, they are launched for such a short period of time. The extension will not have a General Availability phase. Yes, they are not sure that there will be a General Availability for these domains.

There are certain requirements though:
Applicant must have local presence in Thailand and able to present legitimate proof of organization registration/establishment or Thai identification card upon submission of the application.

The category of Applications are divided into three categories as follows:
Category 1: .th domain names already registered as traditional domain names prior to 1 June 2014, excluding of all names under in.th category.
Category 2: copyright holders of trademarks registered with department of intellectual property, ministry of commerce of Thailand.
Category 3: other names: 
3.1 names of organizations, corporations, companies, educational institutions, government with registration certificate issued by relevant local authority of Thailand
3.2 individual names, first name or family name of Thai citizen. 
3.3 names of events or projects hosted by private organizations or governmental organizations. A confirmation letter of the event/project with its brief detail certified by top management of the organization is required.

Every .TH will also include a complementary ไทย (dot thai) domain name at no additional charge for 1 year. The .ไทย shall refer to English domain name registered under .TH. If the domain name applied for registration has already been occupied by another domain holder in .ไทย, the applicant shall select another domain name.

Now, coming to the business end. There is a premium price for this special domains.

Registration starts at $6,000 per year with a non-refundable signup fee of $599 or a lifetime registration fee of $50,000. 

The price is on the higher side. A realistic number as I would forecast is under 500 for this ccTLD.

Curious case of .UK domains.

Ever since the Nominet announced the release of .UK domain for public use. There was an unprecedented rush to claim these domains. Some were trying to protect their existing brand name and the others were trying to lay hand on anything and everything they can register.

The biggest problem though is that no one really knows how the registration works for this ccTLD. Domains were expected to be released on 10th June 2014. However, alot of the domains are still waiting to be registered. There is another catch. Domain owners who have already registered a .co.uk, .org.uk, .me.uk, .net.uk, .ltd.uk or .plc.uk. They have the right to claim the equivalent .UK domain by 10th June ..... 2019. Yes, that's correct. It is 2019.

There is one more thing. If a domain is registered by a company and later they fail to renew it. The domain can be registered by anyone. I don't understand why would Nominet keep the domain from being registered for 5 years and allow the domain to be publicly available if there is an unsuccessful renewal.

Don't really understand the point of all that.

Fake Everything - CHINA, Creator of Best Replicas in the world.

They are one of the most underpaid workers in the world and yet, they are right on top. With substandard conditions to work and about 1/7th of the world's population they have managed to scale the big economies of the world and went ahead. Such is the class of China's work force that they are at the very top of the world economy. In fact, it has helped many to become millionaires. Ruslan Kogan is one man who would vouch for it.

Pick up anything in the consumer electronics world and chances are it has got a stamp of Made in China. Check on the back of an Apple iphone. It says Designed by Apple in California, assembled in China. Each cargo ship that goes to Chinese Harbors carry empty, Yes, empty containers and take with them loaded shipments to cater the needs of the world. All Good.

We have a saying "if it works, you can reach the moon else it's won't even survive the evening." I am talking about the Chinese market. Which has perfected the art of creating replicas which are sometimes may fool the eyes of the manufacturers.

You will see beautiful watches from Rolex, Omega, Cartier and what not. Last year, there were stories of  fake apple store which even fooled the employees. This time around there is an exact copy of Ferrari's LaFerrari(limited to 499, all sold).

This is something over which they have started to lose a bit of credibility. There is no innovation but cheap imitations of famous brands.

At this rate, there would be a day when there would be replicas sold by the company owners and the real ones will be offered by black marketers and hoarders. It is already a big problem in the world of trademarks and Intellectual Property rights and the stubbornness of Chinese authorities is making it more difficult of companies to claim what is rightfully theirs.

Internet's new .COMs are here. Will the real .COM Die?

I was born in the year when the first domain or the website name as we say was registered. Ever since, more than anything else, I would put a .com in the end to find out something on the internet. That was a time when Google was still in a crib and Yahoo was the big daddy. It has always been the .COM domains in my search.

There was an occasional odd one out though a .NET, .IN, .ORG would creep in from somewhere but it was always the .COMs.

Moving  forward.  It’s  now time for the Internet to reincarnate. Launch of the new gTLD domains changed the world of website names overnight. It literally challenged the very existence of the beloved .COM domains. Since, the inception of new gTLD domains like .Web,  .SEXY, .LOVE, CATHOLIC,  .SURGERY etc. They have been eating up the number that once belonged to a simple .COM domain. Several have been released for public and several others will be releasing shortly replacing .COM with something more meaningful.

Realistically, It’s a great move and it gives the end user an ability to see ahead. To know what would be the content in a site without having to check is an achievement in itself. Thanks to the investors. Parents would now be able to get a headsUp on what they would be opening in front of their kids and save themselves from the embarrassment of opening up a sleazy site.

For now, all looks good. The one question that one may have is the likability to these domains. Will our generation embrace this change who is so much into selling the keyword domains at an obnoxious price. Will the .COM domains have a way around the corner or will it submit itself into defeat against these young guns.

Pinyin - The Chinese and their love affair with numbers.

Ever wondered about the Chinese and their love for numbers. This is not a coincidence that majority of the Chinese population uses emails or register websites or create accounts with Numbers or Roman style of counting rather than using a name or a recognizable phrase.
It is the reason of the culture they are in, the way they have been introduced into education and the only way they are comfortable with and finally the only way they can remember to the best of their abilities.

Pinyin, the language is used to help children associate characters with words that they already know. It is also used by a large group of illiterates in this country for self study.

This language is based on numbers and with use of number from early childhood. The C
hinese develop a habbit of remembering numbers better than phrases, names. The best examples of found can be found by checking the websites or the email addresses that use. Most of them are created using inscrutable numbers, something which is hard for the rest of the cyber humanity to comprehend.

It now becomes increasingly interesting to see if the same applies to the new gTLD .WANG. Are they going for to suit the comprehension ability of the rest of the world or would go on to make the others as smart as they are ;).

The answers would come soon and we would see if the Red Dragon bends down or create another wall similar to the one that is already there.