Opinion Desi startups

Fieldi can be called the Facebook of publishing. “Fieldi is a digital interactive Social Media Publishing Platform which allows free publication and free reading of books and other publications worldwide in a format that is easy to read,with facility for unlimited interaction – authors with authors,authors with readers and readers with readers,” explains the website.

Once logged in,users can browse through the hundreds of books,periodicals,text books and thesis submitted by others,with the content appearing in a user-friendly Flash or Java enabled format. They can add books they like to a virtual library of their own and share it with contacts.

“Each author who releases a publication through Fieldi platform has a profile page with photo,bio-data,other publications of the same author,a short description of the particular book,etc. The author can send free SMS from this platform to the potential readers and can interact with them. Readers can access the books of their choice on their computer and interact with other readers,the authors and/or publishers.  They also will have their profile pages where they can air their views and comments,” says Biju Thomas,CEO of JB Multimedia which runs the site.

However,currently there is not much fiction available on the site,which has the potential to emerge as a great tool for research purposes.

Phonecurry

Finally,here is a website that lets you zero-in on the ideal phone model for you. On Phonecurry,users can select the price range,phone type and features needed and the website will list the best options. From the list,users can compare various models feature for feature before coming to a final decision. The website lists all available brands and does not it anyway try to project specific names,so you can be assured that your final decision will be an informed one.

The website also provides links to reviews on each phone and also multiple online sellers,listing the price differences on each website. “It has become very difficult to decide which phone to buy because of the overwhelming choice — over 500 phones were launched in India by just the major brands in the last two years. I believe PhoneCurry addresses this basic problem,” explains Sahil Bajaj,Founder & CEO,PhoneCurry. “We do not stock or sell phones,but provide ‘buy now’ links to nine top e-retailers. Because we get price feeds from all these retail partners we are also able to identify the ‘best price’ for every phone,” says Bajaj,explaining that his revenue model revolves around ad tie-ups with mobile manufacturers and retailers.

3gsimplified

Once you have decided on a phone,the chances are you will be confused about which plan to go for. 3gsimplified tells you which data card or mobile phone plans are the best for you according to your usage parameters. The website is very easy to use and also tells you which service provider is more cost effective. You can even narrow down the search by omitting service providers or stipulating the price range. The searches are customised for all states in India and are hence very specific. The website also have a great blog which tends to clear common doubts on 3G services,wi-fi hotspots and so on.

“We had moved back from the US and were confronted by our first problem when we went out to get a mobile plan. Getting a mobile phone and a connection was really simple. However choosing the right plan was befuddling. There is the problem of many operators,But even if you decide on just one operator say Airtel – the number of plans,rate cutters,top-ups is confusing. Plus the pricing is complex – a simple phone call can be charged at 6 different rates based on who you call and when… We thus built an engine which can compare mobile plans and other telecom services,” explain founders Ankit Chhajer and Jigar Doshi of Chennai-based Cheeni Labs.

“We have also built a prototype mobile application for the Android platform. The app looks at your call log and SMS log and using that makes accurate plan recommendations. The app automatically calculates the number of calls you made and whether the call is local /STD etc,” they said in an e-mail reply. “Our site currently operates nationally and helps in choosing the right mobile plan and datacard. For now we only concentrate on operators providing 3G services and 3G plans. We plan on covering all operators and all plans including 2G services soon.”