Times Of India - Male fertility and email

Following up on my interesting tidbits around the Internet thread, here's another TODO off my list :-)

The Times of India has an Ajaxified (ooh!) widget on the right side of its homepage. Clicking on the "Most emailed" tab comes up with very amusing results. Check out what I found:



I wonder how many men would be using it to sway it in their favour. "But darling, it is a scientific fact that if we don't do it now, we won't have that baby 3 years later!"

And no, you won't find that link there -- it's gone :-) Here it is, by the way.

Facebook - Interesting Screenshots

Every now and then I keep coming across interesting tidbits on the Internet (or Mumbai's streets) which I keep tagging as "must-blog" and stashing away in my mental archive. This post is about getting one of those items off my TODO list :-)

I'm not much of a fan of social networks, but for what it's worth, I've recently started Facebooking more than Orkutting. Specially because of the granularity you can assign to various "friends" on Facebook. I was sick of getting friend requests from random people on Orkut and having to choose between the slightly rude "acquaintance" and the slightly more-warm-that-I'd-like-it-to-be "friend". On the other hand, on Facebook, I can exactly specify how I know the person. So, someone I've interviewed is also on my contact list but with the complete context. And 6 months down the line if I get a scrap ("writing on the wall" in Facebook-speak) I can remind myself of how I know the person. (I know, a little rude to be saying this, but it happens to all of us -- especially me!)

But what simply takes the cake is the way they've phrased the options for the "We dated" section. Apt and to the point. I think it covers almost all the situations in a relationship. Especially the catch-all "It's complicated" bit :-) Take a look for yourself -- click for larger pics.

75% usability experts think that Cleartrip.com is the best!

From the Usability Professionals Association - Bangalore Chapter's Blog:

What is your favorite Indian website from a usability perspective? What aspect of it do you like?

• Sridhar Marri: I am yet to see a great Indian website on the Internet. However in the Intranet space, our Sparsh – the Infosys Intranet is my favorite. Its telescopic information architecture and flexible design for growth are two aspects that I like most. And it is full of life!


• Muthukumar: http://www.cleartrip.com/ I like it because the overall ticketing process is easy to use, defect free and fast.


• Param: www.cleartrip.com It is not cluttered. The user interface is simple. Implementation is slick and consistent (like immediate page refreshes, etc.).


• Amit Pande: The last one I liked was http://www.cleartrip.com – it made bookings easier by providing a lot of relevant information upfront, making trip price calculations easy, and keeping the credit card payment process straightforward. I also like some of the UI components used in the site, including the collapsible panes.

:-)

I guess the almost obsessive focus on user experience and the KISS principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid) is paying off. Recently, we had also been chosen as the best Indian travel website (and there are quite a few of them out there) by PC World.

Kudos to the entire design, tech, and product team at Cleartrip for consistently kicking ass!

PS: And I beat Hrush to this post :-)