There was a security upgrade available (security fixes) for wordpress. I have upgraded it and given it a check. It is working great for me. Do let me know if you encounter any bug.

As I mentioned at various forums (1,2,3) that phase 2 of blogging is about integration with established services for promotion. In web 2.0, distribution of content is a must and phase 2 of blogging is all about distribution and promotion. This tuesday I devoted some time to understand technorati (I will be writing about how technorati tags work) and feedburner. I did not spend enough time exploring feedburner but just created a feed (http://feeds.feedburner.com/ajinimcblog).

Today I decided to give a look at the statistics and it was great to know see that 24 people have subscribed in one day. The stat is only available for 5th Dec as we started on 5th Dec.

Here is the distribution of the feed readers.

Feedburner is a great platform to share your blog content with blog readers. I do not have any option to contact the subscribers and thank them for their appreciation. I am thankful to everyone for such an appreciation which helps me motivate myself. I will try to blog regularly :).

Some tips for feedburner users
Replace all the feed links with feedburner feed links. Keep things simple. I have converted all my feeds to feedburner feeds.

This is a guest post done by my friend. He sent me this screenshot of his gmail account with google ads.

I thought Google is very strict with adult websites but here we see an example of bad description for google ads which uses hinglish words to trick Google. Search for the word in google and you will get to know the meaning. May be some advertisers are using hinglish to trick google. May be the word means something else somewhere but it appeared to an Indian and he was shocked. May be Google needs to give it a check to ensure that they are not tricked.

I could watch the second half of the final match where India defeated Pakistan 35-23 to retain the gold medal at the 15th Asian Games. It was a good match, even entertaining. When Indian cricket is struggling with its performance there are many to criticize them but when we are doing wonderfully at another field there is hardly anyone to appreciate. Let’s change it this time. Let’s congratulate the Indian team for winning it for the fifth time.

Rakesh kumar (also the vice captain) looked as impressive as MS Dhoni with long hair. Captain Dinesh is no lesser than Dravid. Pankaj Shirsat, Sachin of Indian Kabaddi. Naveen also played nice. Pakistan tried to deceive the umpire few times but Indian won with style.

We congratulate the complete quad who made us proud. Good work done and keep it up.

The squad: Dinesh Kumar (Capt., BSNL), Rakesh Kumar (Ind. Rlys, vice capt.), Navneet Gautam (Raj), Naveen Kumar, Vikas Kumar (Ser), Pankaj Sirsat, Gaurav Shetty (Mah), Manpreet Singh (Pun), Rajeev Kumar Singh (Bih), Suresh Kumar (Raj) and Sukhbeer Singh (Ser).
Coach: Balwan Singh; Asst. Coach: Uday Kumar; Manager: Muthu Swamy.

Do add a comment to congratulate Indian team. Subko acha lagega.

Microsoft might have launched MsDewey.com powered Live.com. Can the search hostess MS Dewey bring lady luck for MSN search. I have serious doubts. But there are no doubts that Google is ruling the Internet search industry and with the coop attempt (which also includes an adsense revenue sharing mode for CSE) Google is growing stronger and stronger.

(You can choose Yahoo and MSN from the above pic but Google is obvious)

There are various explanation for Google’s success like

• They have better architects and they are on drive to hire more using the money muscles. (1, 2, 3, …). Does that mean if Mr Bill Gates (oops Mr Balmer now) hires better architects they can beat big G.
• Google’s interface and overall theme is simpler. Does that mean if Yahoo makes a clean page they will win?
• Competing with Google’s search engine is no longer about search results quality, it is about brand and distribution.
• Plenty more arguments in similar lines.

Here is the reason why Yahoo and MSN can’t beat Google in near future, THE DATA.
Once Peter Norvig said, “Worry about the data first before you worry about the algorithm”. I am sure this is more relevant for Data mining but I think it hold very true for Google’s success. It has collected immense data which can be used for better search experience (They may use Behavioral targeting soon if not already). Google can collect data using toolbars,analytics,adsense,cookies and with almost every G product. Some links about Google’s data collection:-

• Google Data Collection Embeded in Firefox 2
• Why does Google trap user data?
• Where Does Google Draw the Data Collection Line?
• Google Watch - Facts or Myths, you decide.

For SEOs look at the result for “auto loan” and this is result of data muscles powered by some algorith. Google knows the browsing habits of Indian surfer (The data is available to them). How will yahoo or MSN beat this SERP?

# Google.com listing
1. http://www.bankrate.com/brm/rate/auto_home.asp
2. http://www.bankrate.com
3. http://www.eloan.com/
4. http://www.autoloanlocator.com/
5. http://www.autoloans.com/
6. http://www.banksite.com/calcs/autocalc.html
7. http://www.lendingtree.com/
8. https://eloan.com/s/show/auto?context
9. http://www.carloan.com/
10. http://www.capitaloneautofinance.com/

# Google.co.in listing
1. http://www.hdfcbank.com/personal/loans/new_car.htm
2. http://www.myiris.com/loans/auto/tipsAuto.php
3. http://www.myiris.com/loans/article/autoArt.php?autoartno=3
4. http://www.icicibank.com/Pfsuser/loans/carloans/alhomepage.htm
5. http://www.autoloanlocator.com/
6. http://www.sify.com/finance/loans/
7. http://www.cars.com/go/advice/financing/calc/loanCalc.jsp
8. http://www.surfindia.com/finance/auto-loans.html
9. http://www.economictimes.indiatimes.com/articlelist/754990.cms
10. http://www.theautofinder.com/

I am continuing with my post on “why people leave companies?“. One of the factor (as pointed by few) can be greener fields (in terms of monetary gains). Let’s put a thought on who all leave for greener fields?

1. The first placement: This is applicable to all people but mainly for B-school placement days. People make the decision on the basis of money, as it is an easy way of judging companies from outside. (Cup Vs Coffee - The presentation does matter for first impression). We generally expect good coffee inside good cup (expecting better culture and management with better payments).
2. Dissatisfied employee: When a member of your team is not satisfied he starts comparing his fields with the existing market. Most of us do not do an analysis about our dissatisfaction. We generally blames our salary for it. Salary is certainly the most visible factor due to its quantitative factor. We can calculate the increase in salary at a visible surface but satisfaction improvement can only be hoped for.
3. Creative and smart crowd: If the company pays same amount to an average and a smarter guy, either the smarter will become average or smarter will leave. The incentive structure based on performance is very important (and very difficult to achieve). Smart guys wants to progress faster and the company culture should support that. Companies needs to work out a plan to separate men from boys.
4. At various career disconnected nodes There can be situations when current company may not be able to give you deserved growth due to other limitations forcing you to leave.

There can be other reasons (which I will be covering in my next post after “making a silicon valley inside your company”) but I have covered only about people leaving the company for greener fields. Let me explain why a fresher (initial phase of career, may be first 5 years) should not consider money (salary) as a deciding factor while leaving a company. Let me put a short story and explain it.

I went to the woods with God asking the same question “God, I am not earning enough. Look at my friends they are earning so much. I think I am not worth it”.

“Look around”, God said. “Do you see the fern and the bamboo?” “Yes”, I replied.

“When I planted the fern and the bamboo seeds, I took very good care of them. I gave them light.I gave them water. The fern quickly grew from the earth. Its brilliant green covered the floor. Yet nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo. In the second year the Fern grew more vibrant and plentiful. And again, nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo. He said.

“In year three there was still nothing from the bamboo seed. But I would not quit. In year four, again, there was nothing from the bamboo seed . I would not quit.” He said.

“Then in the fifth year a tiny sprout emerged from the earth. Compared to the fern it was seemingly small and insignificant…But just 6 months later the bamboo rose to over 100 feet tall. It had spent the five years growing roots. Those roots made it strong and gave it what it needed to survive. I would not give any of my creations a challenge it could not handle.”

He said to me. “Did you know, my child, that all this time you have been struggling, you have actually been growing roots?”

If you can survive (I repeat survive) then first few years of your career should be worked out for growing roots and building muscles. You should look for challenges and learning environment and money will follow you soon. In my words “If you follow money for first few years it will become a habit and you will always run after small money. Money will run after a well rooted man so try and grow roots for those heights”. Also remember that you can earn money even after 10 years but you can’t grow roots after 10 years.

Purpose of this post
Neither good companies can survive without good people nor good people without good companies. I have learned few things from my experience and here I put down in bulleted format :-

1. Mentors for freshers: Many a time freshers have superficial expectations from companies and are not sure of their career. They keep comparing the salaries (even now we have products in India for pay comparisons). A good mentor can help a fresher understand the value of first few years and provide a good working culture. We have always tried to do that and in my next post “creating silicon valley inside your company” I will be explaining the methods. Companies should provide good mentors for freshers.
2. Learning environment: Companies should provide a good learning environment. The teams should be a proper mix of experienced and new comers with proper diversification in culture and gender. At the end of the month with targets and sales for a person companies should analyze the learning curve for each employee. Companies should believe in creating smart workers than only creating works and sales.
3. Analysis before leaving the company: If ever you leave the company make sure you have done a collective analysis with the HR department to make sure you are on the right path.

Switching companies are good for both the parties as companies can get fresh ideas through new employees and the employees gets a new culture to work in. But remember that life is not only about companies, jobs and money, it has more dimensions to it. Keep your values very high (as high as possible). Before leaving the company do following things

• Sit with HR dept and explain them your problem as bold as possible. Leaving a company is not a crime so be humble and explain the problems boldly.
• Allow some time to the HR dept and team to help you.

I get these mails quite often and I am really sorry for not blogging frequently. There are many things which are keeping me busy (some leaving heavy tensions as well) :-

• Office work: We need to go for a heavy recruitment drive as our new office is almost ready. Before going for the recruitment we want to clean up the house to give it a fresh start. We are working on overall policies, salaries and team configuration as a part of planning. HR manager is keeping me really busy with all puzzles, IQ tests and other exams (to set an expectation mark for new candidates). I can give you a hint (esp those who are appearing for “Grmtech try outs” :
  

  There are group of four animals which needs to cross a road. Each animal takes its own time to cross the road

  1) Lion takes 2 secs
  2) Tiger takes 1 secs
  3) Elephant takes 5 secs
  4) Tortoise takes 10 secs

  There are three conditions
  1) At a time only two animals can cross the road.
  2) They have one white flag (symbolizing peace) which must always be with the animal crossing the road at any time. So when tortoise and tiger is crossing the road then need to hold the white flag and when tiger returns alone to take the second animal it needs to hold the flag again.
  3) When 2 animals cross the bridge, they together take the time of the slower animal. For example, if tortoise and Tiger is crossing the road together then they take 10 secs.

  What is the minimum time required to cross the road? Bill Gates says that 17 sec is also a possibility, what do you say?

  I have rephrased the question so excuse me for the English. You can post your answer here or mail me.

• I am writing a book on “Future of Blogosphere” and doing a study on blogsphere. (some discussions at WMW as well).
  
  So you can expect a post on blogspot (Google may not like it).
• I am trying to generate few lakhs for Church building through some creative ways.
• United common convention is coming and we need to plan for it. Also the Christmas season is here so busy with cake making campaigns.
• Dental checkups

I like blogging and will try to post soon. I will post about

1. Personality and character (Which I promised a long time back). I recently had delivered a speech on spiritual character and personality at a youth meeting. I have learned few things about it. I will love to share it.
2. Why people leave a company? I have done some good studies and will write my observation. I have already termed it as “Battle of energy spheres” and also shared it with HR manager.
3. A big post on blogosphere and blog promotion.