Five Useful But Relatively Unknown Websites:
- Brinkster.com
This is a web-hosting service that gives you 30 MB of free space, NO ADS whatsoever, ASP support and ASP.NET support to host your personal webpages. The well known Geocities or Angelfire do not even come close to what this site offers.
However this is only for the computer and Internet professionals. You need a certain degree of proficiency in Software to get your homepage hosted on Brinkster. I have my personal website on this site and I am totally satisfied with it.
Access Speed:Excellent
PopUp Ads:None. Not even on your homepage.
Support:Good.
User-Friendly:Not suited for non-techies.
- Localfiles.com
This is a great source of information for Indians in the US. Sure there are hundred thousand sites out there which boast of all these services(Like event information, movies info etc) but most of them have out-dated information. Also there aren’t many websites for the lesser known areas(for Indians) of the US like Minneapolis, Kansas City.
Localfiles manages to keep itself up-to-date with the various event listings in and around the city. The information is constantly updated. almost on a daily basis. It caters to the
needs of Indians living in the following cities.
Atlanta Austin Chicago Columbus Lubbock Minneapolis Oklahoma City St. Louis Detroit Charlotte Washington DC
I heard they had plans of adding more cities to this list.
Access Speed:Good.
PopUp Ads:None.
Support:N/A.
User Friendly:Very Much.
- Koramangala.com
It is an out and out Bangalore website for the IT-Professional. For uninitiated, Koramangala is a place in Bangalore.(Sigh! What a city. what a life.) The website is a resource of information for the software professionals who are in multitude in that area and the nearby areas. BTM Lay Out, Koramangala and Madiwala has the highest population of software engineers.
The website of course caters to the entire Bangalore area. It is really an engaging site. Fun and information. hand in hand. With good navigation and site design. However this site will make no sense to people who cannot relish if someone says’Enjoy Maadi saar!’
Access Speed:Very Good.
PopUp Ads:None.
Support:N/A.
User Friendly:Very Much.
- Sulekha.com
You are at home with Sulekha. This is an online Indian community which is trying its best to become popular. The theme of this website is literature. The readers can submit their articles, stories etc for publication. If selected(95% of them do.) the story will be featured on their front page. At the end of the year, if your story is a blockbuster, it will be included in the print version of the site: Sulekha Select.
However the most important and vibrant aspect of this website is their message board called CoffeeHouse. For more details please visit them or read my review of this website on Mouthshut.
Access Speed:Very Good.
PopUp Ads:One Annoying Citibank Ad. Sometimes.
Support:Expect Long Delays.
User Friendly:Not in the least.
- Andhrapradesh.com
This is the official website of the state of Andhra Pradesh. Surprisingly, the website is so neatly organized and frequently updated that it outshines any other Indian government website.
For example, you can submit a dynamic query on the Finance Budget Data of the last ten years. You can read the details of this year’s Budget online. They had put online the 2002-3 Budget on this site much before it was presented in the Assembly. The viewers were requested to send their feedback on the budget. All this had happened before it was actually presented by the Finance Minister in the Assembly.
Just for the heck of it, visit Andhrapradesh.com once.
Access Speed:Very Good.
PopUp Ads:None.
Support:Very Good.
User Friendly:Excellent.
Actually I forgot to mention that I have a sixth obscure website in my list. which has pathetic user interface and a plethora of other problems. People hate it like anything. It is Mouthshut.com.
Oops! That was meant to be a joke! Mouthshut is the best of them all.:)
Venu