What IF?

It's 6.30am and alarm rings....hit snooze.....again snooze...snooze! Suddenly I realize, 'Oh no I'm going to miss my cab today, Abhishek wake uppppp'. Ever wondered if there wasn't something called snoozing the alarm! Then two things would happen. Either you reach office on time or you are too late that particular day. After reaching office I remove my 'Laptop', connect it to 'Internet', check my 'Emails', login to 'Facebook' and it goes on. It's 4.30pm and leave office.

We are so accustomed to things around us, things happening around us and how we interact with them. Ever wondered how would the world be if everything around were different or absent:

  What if :

• There was no internet or no Facebook.
• Bill Gates never existed and there was no Microsoft.
• Sergey Brin and Larry Page never met each other.
• Mark Zuckerberg was born in a remote village in Africa. 
• Earth rotated in clockwise direction instead of counter-clockwise direction.
• Mouth was above our eyes.
• Wheel was never invented.
• Newton was sitting under a coconut tree instead of an apple tree.
• Sachin Tendulkar was a bowler.
• You had crush on someone else during your college days.
• There were more than 24 hours in a day or there was no concept called time.

Things would have been totally different right? I have tried to imagine things like these but it gets too complicated for my little brain. 

Try to come up with some interesting answers to these questions or you may even post your own questions. Thanks in advance!!

Circling around Google+

Google Plus or simply G+. Nice name for a social networking website. I think Google+ means Google+Me. Initially there were rumors of Google me. Rumors were indeed right but the name slightly changed. You may have few questions, why is Google trying to catch up with Facebook, why should I join, will it be a hit? I'll try to answer these briefly.

Why is Google trying to catch up with Facebook?
Facebook already has 750 million users. It's the second most visited website after Google. Earlier this year it had even become the most visited website according to alexa. Is it the web traffic Google is worried about? Google wouldn't want to give up the No.1 position. But isn't it just load on their servers! In reality, internet companies want users to spend more time on their website and "click more ads". Another reason is search. People are sharing so much information on Facebook and Twitter. If you see the Google's mission statement, it is clear that their main focus is search. Everything they do is circled around search. Whether it be Chrome, Android and now Google+. Google is the default search engine in Android and Chrome without any cost to the company. (I actually love the fact that Google is accessible so easily, everywhere and hats off to Googlers for their intelligence!) One place Google is missing out in search is: Google doesn't know what a person likes or his friends do to provide a personalized search. Google+ is an effort to make the search better by knowing who your friends are and what they are sharing and their +1's on different websites . Few may complain about privacy or sharing data with Google+. Everyone is using Google for free and Google is trying to make the search better, there is nothing wrong in sharing general information, likes and dislikes(+1 and -1 in Google's language). Also, Google has so many services like Search, Picasa, Calendar, Gmail, Youtube, Maps etc. Other than Android there is no service which integrates everything together. With Google+ this can be done. Thus it clearly makes sense why Google+ exists.

Why should I join?
Because it's awesome! Google+ is a clearly thought project. It targets Facebook, Facebook pages, (also Twitter) in one shot. If you have a Google plus profile, you can connect with your friends, users can follow you (if you are a celeb). This can't be done in Facebook or Twitter. Here you can make your post available to everyone who is following you (have you in their circle) by making the post public or just the people whom you want to share with. I have seen many of them writing Circles and Facebook lists are similar. I say No. Reason: I've already said that.

Google talk is my all time favorite software. Even Gmail chat. I really don't like Facebook chat. And if you're a Twitter user you can't even chat with friends(followers). Oh ya, how can you forget invisible option in Gmail! Group chat, video chat too. Now even Facebook has these. Though 'Sparks' may not appeal for a lot of people, it's still good to have it. Just in case you have very few people in circles or you're bored. I'm not sure if anyone has used hangout till so far. Though a nice feature to have. No comments on huddle since I haven't used it so far.

Will Google+ be a hit?
 Google is pushing really hard on this. Google has huge potential compared to Facebook. Facebook and Twitter are still the best in social networking. Chances are Facebook, Twitter and Google+ will coexist for few years to come. It all depends on the users and their emotional attachment to the service they like. Lets not forget how Orkut lost it's traffic to Facebook. Internet is free. People go for the best service available on internet. So there are chances Google+ will one day be the most popular social networking website. I'm just hoping that happens!!

Please feel free to provide any feedback or comment.
Note: This entire article is completely author's point of view. This is not intended to hurt anyone, biased or advertise about the product. Thanks for your time.

Facebook messages

Facebook, faceBook facebOOk!! Even a 10 year old kid knows about it. If you say you don't know what facebook is, come on, you got to be kidding! Alright lets come to the point. Facebook Messages.... Sounds cool right. It is cool. Is it a Gmail killer? Is it the future of messaging? Well lets see.

Before you read the entire article goto http://www.facebook.com/about/messages/ and request for an invitation.

What is Facebook Messages?
There is chat and there are messages in Facebook. Someone at Facebook might have thought, how about merging both. Thats what Messages is all about. Chats with your friend it gets saved as a conversation. Send a message it queues up in the same thread. You chat or message him the next day it gets saved in the same thread again. Point i'm making here is, no matter what you do, you and your friend have only one thread for your conversation. Don't be disheartened. Its nice! You can continue your chat from where you left few hours ago or even few months ago(and if you haven't conversed for like years I don't know what will happen to Facebook messages and your friendship after so long).

Seems like you are getting excited about it. Read on...

After you get invitation for messages you get following benefits:
1. Your chats get saved.
2. You get a username@facebook.com email address.
3. You can opt for sending the message directly to your friend's cellphone via sms (Earlier it was sent by default).
4. Most important of all the conversation in a single thread.

Folders
There are two folders. "Spam box" is called "Others" here. Spam - messages from your friends(its minus not hyphen)=Others. So thats a great thing. No one other than your friends can spam your inbox(messages). What if my friend starts spamming? No worries, you can always tell Facebook to send all messages from that particular contact to "Others" folder.

Facebook Email
Facebook email lets you send/ receive messages from other email ids. Example: I can send messages from Gmail to Facebook directly.

Gmail Killer?
I would say No. MAy be. I prefer to send messages to my friends over Facebook these days. These are casual "Hi", "Hello" messages. What if you want to send your friend a excel speadsheet. Your friend can open it through google docs even without downloading it. Thats how good Gmail is! Imagine you send it over Facebook? Naa. I wouldn't want to do that. Facebook's offline messaging capabilities can't be matched with Gmail. So Gmail doesn't get killed. :D

Facebook messages seems to me the future of messaging(unless Google does something about it).

Here are few screenshots to clear your thoughts. Open them in a new window to view:

Thanks for reading. If you haven't yet got this feature just wait for few weeks(don't forget to request for an invitation if you are really excited about it).

I found a similar article on the web. Click here

You are welcome for comments. Please don't forget to hit one of the buttons below. I would say its "Cool".

Day I met Naresh and Goutham

It was my 1st week in Rvce. Alone. Not knowing anyone in the college. I was looking into the timetable near Electrical dept figuring out what the hell is engineering all about. And from nowhere two guys came and stood beside me. I realized even they were looking into the same timetable. Was in two minds whether to speak to them or not. I finally asked "Are you from Electronics?". "Yes" was the reply. My next question was "Can I join you guys?". And again the answer was "Yes". ( I don't remember who was answering me but pretty sure it was Goutham)

There it all started. Now they are one of my best friends. Naresh and Goutham were such good friends that I used to feel left out sometimes. As the time passed by I got to know them better and better. They both were such an integral part of my engineering life. We studied together, sat together in class, robotics, fests, lunch etc etc. Naresh is passionate about robotics, and that passion fetched us so many prizes in robotics competition. Me and Kv provided our full support.

In 3rd year Naresh joined hostel. Me and Naresh became big fans of basketball. Thats how I learnt to play basketball. Daily 1-2 hours of play. Even day before the exam sometimes. 

Had I not made the courage to ask "Can I join you guys?" the whole story would have been different. But that definitely was the best question I've ever asked anyone. Wow! Can't imagine how my four years would have been without these two. You both rock \m/

Hello World!!

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