MS(Microsoft) in search of MS(Market share)

It's the latest attempt by Microsoft to have a market share in search engine segment. Well, with Yahoo deal chances looking bleak and Google's market share reaching it's peak, it is for one more time that MS is trying to enter and vying to establish itself in the search market. The latest offering is BING (the project code: kumo). This time MS is spending a whopping $100mn, on the advertisement of bing. Well, here is one of the bing commercial:

Microsoft was supposed to launch Bing (www.bing.com) on 4th June but, it surprised everyone by launching it four days early. And just after the launch Bing became instant hit with the porn tag being attached to it. People started to call it an adult video site. There were enormous number of hits to that site. Microsoft tried donning the damage control, but to me it looks like one of the publicity gimmic to attarct people to tryout Bing. Some people even complained that MS forces users to use Bing on IE6. For the people who had earlier set their default serch to Google, IE converted it to Bing and didn't allow users to change it back to Google, leaving upgrading IE as the only option to solve the problem.

Just by spending on around $100mn on ad campaign, and make the littlebit of improvisation here and there, Microsoft cant expect to dethrone Google. First of all the search has to be very good, updated and relevant. It should work equally good on all the platforms and browser. Googling has become a habbit and it would require Bing (or anyother competitor for that matter) to be radically interesting to break people of their habits. I think its good that microsoft is not yet ready to hangup it's shoes; I'm happy that Bing happened and hope it would pose some kind of challenge to Google so that the ultimate winners would be the users. Lets see if sun could rise from the west. We all know the answer.

Airtel postpaid sucks !!!

Well, when I thought of blogging couple of weeks ago, I thought that I would start with a really cool topic, off the track but interesting one. But, I guess, it was not to be.

It was a sunny morning on the Fool’s day when I landed in Hyderabad. It was a new job, new city and I was all excited. After settling down for couple of days, I thought I would get a post-paid connection, so I called up an Airtel executive and he came to my room to explain the tariff and give me the sim card. He said, as I'm staying alone in a rented 1BHK, that I need to pay an additional Rs.100 towards my bachelorhood accommodation fee (Maybe, Airtel fines you for not marrying ) and my service would be activated in next four hours. It got activated that night. So far so good.

After couple of days, they (Airtel) blocked my outgoing services. I called the customer care at 121 and they said my address verification was negative and they gave me the address verification dept number and asked me to contact those guys. Again I called 121 and requested them to do the address verification either after 6.30 PM or during weekend, as I would be at work between 9 – 6. They agreed. But when I called address verification Dept, they said address verification happens only between 9 – 6 !!! I told them about the request I made at Airtel CC,they said ‘some one has given you wrong information’. Again I called back 121 and they said they’ll make sure that the address verification people visit my room only after 6.30 PM.

Two days later address verification guy came, but at 1.30 PM and declared the address verification to be negative !!! But, they activated my outgoing services and I was happy. Again after couple of days later they blocked my outgoing services, and when I called up 121, they said I need to pay Rs.500 towards my bachelorhood accommodation fees and everything would work without any problem. Earlier, while taking the connection, the guy had said the bachelorhood accommodation fee is 100, and now these people are saying 500. When I asked, I got the same answer: ‘Someone has given you wrong information’. I paid 500 and they activated my number after TWO days. I was kind a ok with it as I get to keep the same number.

Everything working fine until only after 4 days, they suspended my number, for God knows why. I cant even receive/dial calls or message. I contacted the Airtel Relationship centre, where they can talk only Telugu and no English/Hindi, they said my number would be activated in four hours. Even after 10 hours when my number was not activated and I decided to mail the Airtel support and they replied back saying that my number cant be activated and I should go for prepaid !!!

I’m stuck here after paying Rs.1000 and giving them all the required documents, and still they cant activate my number.

So the Bottom line is dont got for Airtel Postpaid (atleast in Hyderabad). It sucks and make your life hell. When in B’lore, I had Vodafone (Hutch) postpaid for almost four years and not once I faced these kinda irritations. Hope this article helps you.