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Special M-Coupons for Mumbaikars

[ X-post from The Zook blog yet again. Am getting lazy.... ]

Our coupons and deals partners, Open2Save, have gotten some special deals in Mumbai. These will not be available through search, but you can subscribe for the same for delivery every month through SMS.

How ? SMS “O2S mum” to 57575665

You’ll get a the current deals in your Inbox (and we’ll keep sending fresh ones once in a while) - if any specific one catches your fancy, just SMS the keyword for that deal to us, and we’ll send you the coupon you need to show the store/restaurant before you order/buy stuff.

Happy shopping!

[ Tip: for the readers of this blog - 984-551-9665 - thats 984-551-zook on your phone-keypad - will work as well for now. If we see more usage on the long code - we'll move to one for good. Its a Karnataka number so in other circles you'll need to prefix a +91 or 0 - +91-984-551-9665 ]

"Q" it to Know it

Good bisibele in Bangalore ? Distance to Goa ? How does one get to Chikmaglur ? When’s the next exam for this board or that ? Whats CERN ? How many moons does Jupiter have ? Meanings of words ?

We've launched a shortcut to answers from the community : SMS “Q ” to 57575665 (in India) to get a relevant, way more reliable answer to just ANY question you may have - directly from the community.

You can also help others with what you know at http://42.zook.in/. Can’t really beat real peoples’ knowledge for correctness, relevance, after all. You always know best.

In a G Spot ?

Google advertised its SMS search today.

This kinda news always shakes things up for a small outfit like ours :) Its also a nice catalyst for a bunch of plans and certain points of views in stuff debated internally.

Most of all, they may help expand the pull-services-on-SMS market which may help us a great deal, indirectly. Out in the hinterland (where an amazing %age of our usage is from), "Google" and "cool" aren't factors.

But then its big-G, and you gotta watch out!

So far, we're ahead on the breadth of data we've got covered (tho they have some nice features pre-configured), and the community is an invaluable tool to leave the bother of figuring out the answer you need, rather than a generic "result", and always so! But then, G can always catch up on this, that and everything else - I mean it just takes money and developers with brains, plus some time, and they have bigger advertising moolah (actually, just plain old moolah) than we do.

This is exactly what makes doing startups so much fun :D Spotting a future challenge/opportunity and donning the thinking cap on for the battles.

Its an even field, and we have a head start. The huge question is - how does a startup with a very limited marketing/publicity budget stay ahead? Of course its for us to figure out, and sure we'll be stretching our grey matter as best as we can, but if someone has a great idea or two, the coffee on us while we discuss it :)

BTW, we have a decent TT table in office if you'd rather play a game, instead. Drop by....

Sad (YHOO)

I've already been so proud of the good stuff I did there, and have a soft corner for Y!
Oh well, I hope the above is proven wrong...

Economic Cycles

VeloWala.org > What is Velocommerce?

While I've seen all of this, never thought of it in terms of a "last mile" delivery channel. Great insight, and advertising opportunity ?

Other ways of doing business : Toyota and the recession

American automakers are facing tough times, yet Toyota has so far avoided the usual reactions.

My gut feel is that Eastern businesses will evolve new mechanisms and ways of doing business, in how they acquire and retain employees, deal with customers, handle bad times, and conduct mergers and acquisitions. The "more recent" business truths (in the context of centuries old business philosophies) that gained foothold in the West primarily since WWII will be stressed, challenged - and we're already seeing some of that.

Zook for Cars, Jobs, Matrimonials. Tons more classifieds!

[ Another x-post from the Zook blog. ]

Its a bad economy - the dazzling new model will probably need to wait - get a bargain instead.

We’ve also added a bunch of jobs, real estate listings, services, even matrimonials.

One more reason to use Zook. And please keep watching this space for alerts on these soon.

These are courtesy our data partners Click.in, and OLX.

Taking Stock

[x-posting from the Zook blog]

Added Stock search on Zook - updated regularly with a small delay.

Check out how the Reliance Stocks are doing ? Its a pretty nervous market, and at least I’m watching a lot many of these and keeping my fingers crossed!

We’ll be adding Stock Alerts on Zook soon….