magnifier in maps

so the problem with maps and a slow connection is that it takes ages to Pan or Zoom, and search really doesn't work that well, well atleast not at present time, because unless every spot on the map is tagged by someone, its not searchable. and we are not there yet.

So the Pattern of Usage that I have seen is that people mostly search for the name of the area and then Pan / Zoom, looking for the exact spot they want. Well thats where a magnifier would help.

If there were a magnifier glass which appears, and you can move that around on the map, you wouldn't have to Zoom out in a map, and wouldn't have to Pan out either. That would make looking around for things simpler.

I am not sure if from a performance point of view it would be better or not, since i guess the entire zoomed version of the map will have to be loaded for this to work, still worth a look.

the business of AOL...

Art of Living that is...

well i am not cynical, but i did notice some nice marketing funda's built into the Art of Living course, whether by design (by which i mean whether they were intended to be marketing fundas) or just part of the course, i can't decide.

anyways here goes...

so the main breathing exercise, Sudarshan Kriya, has a short and long cycle. The short cycle can be done at home, but the main Kriya is the long cycle, which needs to be done at the center, and on a weekly basis. They provide the facilities free of charge, but the point is, that since you keep on coming back every weekend, a connection is made, and the AOL community keeps on growing. Thats building brand loyalty.
During the course a lot of cross selling is done. We have these other courses, you should do this, and that, et al.
the money that they take, they take as a 'Donation', it makes you feel good and i am sure there are tax implications to it for AOL.

Cynical as i may sound, i really liked the way they pushed their idea and business. and frankly, if you have an idea, it needs to be marketed. There are a hundred ideas which died off because of lack of marketing.

making URL's memory friendly...

So have been thinking of a very long time of how can we make web page addresses more memory friendly. Bit.ly is one way, but then that basically shorten the URL for clickability, but doen’t necessarily make it more memorable, easier to remember. Actually it makes it more difficult.

So why, well internet is the place to get if you need any information about a product, a company. It’s also become an interactive platform, so if you wanna complain about Subway, then you would ideally end up at Subway site and complaints / user feedback section.

Also now a days companies put these URL everywhere, so when you see the Oscars, u see Visit www.oscar.com. Well that is fine, its easy to remember, but what Enfiled wants to advertise its Enfield Classic 500 microsite. What does it say, goto Enfiled/Classic500.com. Would it be better, if could have said, goto ‘Classic500’. That’s more memorable, and even intuitive.

Well you can always go to Google.com and search for Enfield Classic 500, if the search engine is as good as google, it should be the ‘I am feeling lucky’ link. But what about obscure products, or things you might want to do, like ‘Subway Complaint’ doesn’t return the complaints page as the top link on google.

more then anything, if i had a product, lets say 'a deo which also acts as an insect repellent' to advertise, i would just want to say a big 'GOTO RepelloDeo', thats it. instead of 'Search for RepelloDeo'. and people who might want to, can just go to a browser and type 'URL: RepelloDeo' and thats it.

So here’s the idea.

In US, car numbers / telephone numbers are changed to words. So have the same for web sites. This is known as Vanity numbers. well thats what i am suggesting, have a redirection service which basically converts 'terms' to 'numbers' and then 'numbers' back to actual URL's.

So RepelloDeo = 7373556 = http://LifeUtil/Products/RepelloDeo.aspx. how it helps is that people can store these names like simple numbers on their phones, in a scratch pad.

well yea i know, i can myself poke a thousand holes in the idea. why convert into numbers in the first place, well easier to store, and also easier to enter on mobiles.

This would have to be a centralized service, or at least the register needs to be mentioned centrally, and maybe the redirection service as well. Also their will have to be an expiry date to every such redirection.

So i know this is the answer to the problem stated, but believe me if you can get a good answer to this problem, u would make ur million.

take care

ank

Or maybe dial a website.