HOW TO SEARCH FILED PATENTS ONLINE

There have been so many instances when I had an Idea in my mind and it got me very excited to check if I can file a patent for it. Well, I'm sure many us come across various ideas and all we hope is to find out: if there is already an idea similar to ours and if there is a patent already filed against it? Until today, I was as clueless as you are, but guess what I found my solution in the form of our very own "dearest" search engine: Google !!

Yes, no kidding. Google is maintaining a complete database of all the patents filed under the US patent office and has recently extended it to the patents filed under the European patent office as well. What is even more exciting is that now you can search all those patents online with complete details. To search for Patents you need to access this url: www.google.com/patents/  

Once you open the link you will see a normal Google search screen, but it will be searching your query against all the Patents those have been filed till now. Well, I know one person who has filed a patent at the US patent office, so I decided to search for his patents by entering his name in the search query. See what I got-

 
So, you see it did a regular search query against the keywords that I gave, but in the results it gave me all the Patents. What it even more exciting is the fact that you can see the complete details of the patent such as Application number, Publication number, Filing date etc. Of course, you can read the entire patent online or have the option to download it as a pdf on your machine, icing on the cake !!

Simply Awesome .....

 

Next time, when you have an idea that erupted out of your nerdy brain, don't just let it go at the expense of resources available at hand to verify it, but rather just do a Google Patent Search, the ultimate patent information solution.

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HOW MY BIRTHDAY WENT "VIRAL"

Birthdays are fun, aren't they? I just celebrated mine and as I went through the emotions of blessings and greetings I did a small social media experiment in order to utilize the occasion....Aaaahh I bet, you know the social media enthusiast in me..lol

Birthday Cake

Ok, to start with I did this experiment on Facebook. I've 480 connections on Facebook, of course few them are just "dead-ducks", what I mean is they just added me for the sake of adding and then never came online again, may be around 30-35 connections. Few of them are regulars such as me, but I guess there won't be more than 30-40 connections who regularly and frequently post on Facebook. Around 60% of my total Facebook connections (~ 288) are not more than 10-updates a month kind of candidates. In any case, I'm just giving a number for the sake of taking my calculations forward so don't just scratch your head yet.

Coming to my Birthday, you see I'm in India and I've around 30 connections in the USA, Canada and UK (otherwise pretty much nothing out of India). Due to the time differences, it all started from South Asia, as the clock ticked past 12 in the mid-night, Facebook flashed my Birthday to my connections and the birthday wishes started pouring in on my Facebook Timeline.

I first noticed my Facebook Timeline at around 1.15 am (IST) and saw about 25-30 posts. By the time I get to sit and read all the birthday wishes it’s 2 am and already there were 10-12 new posts.I pretty much "Liked" each and every single post and responded with a short "Thank You" Note mostly addressing with @Friend-Name. Of course, I included people’s names (like I type “Thank you @XYZ”) showed up on my connection's Timeline whom I responded. After that at around 2.30am I slept.

Now this is when the ball started rolling, because I posted and liked all my posts...they became visible on my feed to my connections as well as to my friend's connections, as a result it triggered a massive chain reaction. Starting from around 10am (IST) new messages started coming on my Facebook Timeline from all across my connection's in India. While I was busy at my work place and of course picking calls from friends and relatives the numbers kept growing.

I checked around 2.30pm (IST) post my late lunch and my Facebook was already floating with around 80 birthday posts. At the same time, I decided to upload 3-pictures of flowers and cakes that I received from my family and friends. Within couple of minutes, all 3-pictures together had around 20 likes and then again birthday wishes started coming from new set of connections as photo comments. I responded few of the comments with "Thank Yous and Likes".

At around 6pm (IST) I again happen to check my Facebook account, now because it was already morning in the west world i.e. the USA, Canada, and UK, I started receiving birthday wishes on my Facebook Timeline from more connections in that geography. In between, at around 8pm I responded few of new posts and photo comments with more "thank You" and "Likes", and then left for my celebration.

I came back online around 11.20pm (IST), by now the campaign had already ran around 24 hrs and my Facebook Timeline was filled with approx. 140 new 'posts' and 55 new 'Likes'. The after effect continued and I received more wishes and likes from more new connections who discovered it's my birthday. At around 1:15am(IST), the campaign now had ran over 25 hrs and my Facebook Timeline is fabricated into a beautiful graffiti with staggering 180 new 'posts' and 68 new 'likes', all in just single day i.e. my birthday... Ooooooohhh !!

Just to measure the effect of this very day in-terms of social media influence and network reach, I logged-in to Klout at around 1.25am(IST), and guess what I saw the impact: +3 points of bump !! If you are not aware of Klout, let me tell you it is one of the terrible algorithmic engine designed to measure your social media influence and reach, and to increase the score on it is no piece of cake :)

So, you now know how my Birthday went "Viral" :)

I would love to hear your comments if you have something special to share, cheers !!  

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SMALL BUSINESS VS STARTUP: VIDEO

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CITY HYDERABAD A.K.A. CITYHYD.INFO

CITYHYD is Hyderabad's most reliable online city guide. CITYHYD is Hyderabad’s first and only city guide that impartially lists the best of everything what Hyderabad offers. It lists and recommends people about 60+ categories such as shops, restaurants, art galleries, museums, monuments, eat-outs, pubs, night clubs, resorts, places of interest, palaces, sports facilities, and many other relevant categories, which will not only make your stay at ease in the city of Nizams, Hyderabad, but also blissful !!

When I spoke to the people behind the CITYHYD, they said- "We take a lot of pride in bringing the best the city Hyderabad offers. In short, if you are in Hyderabad, we bet, we have the best in class of what you are looking for !!"

The website is still evolving and hence, it's still Beta. There is a very refreshing look about the website, unlike all other only city guides, CITYHYD is neat and clean, easy to surf. All categories are very well listed and users can easily get the information they are looking for. One of the most common feedback received since the day CITYHYD went live is that- the website has a very simple and user-friendly interface, unlike all other websites in similar classification. Users have also liked about the website's specific advertisement spaces and appreciated the absence of the cloud of ads hovering all the web pages.

CITYHYD's blog is one of most famous portions of website, it's updated very frequently with the new content related to multiple genres such as- about CITYHYD, Tech, Ideas, News, City Tips, Around the world, Social Media, sports, politics, etc. to name a few.

CITYHYD's Movies section has also struck a chord with the movie buffs. In this sections, the latest movie reviews are published.The website covers movie reviews of films in three languages: English, Hindi and Telugu.People have really appreciated the true movie reviews posted on the website.

Also, do check out here for free Classified and Job posting about Hyderabad City. 

So, if you are in Hyderabad, CITYHYD is what you should be checking for all the information.

You may also join CITYHYD's FACEBOOK & TWITTER !!

 

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CITYHYD.INFO: HYDERABAD'S TOP ONLINE CITY GUIDE

CITYHYD.info is Hyderabad’s 1st and only city guide that "impartially" lists the best of the shops, restaurants, art galleries, museums, eat-outs, pubs, night clubs, resorts, places of interest, and 40 other relevant categories, which will not only make your stay at ease in the city of Nizams, but also blissful.

CITYHYD.INFO LOGO

What is unique about the CITYHYD.info ?

• It only lists the best in class under each category. Unlike all other city websites, CITYHYD.info believes in only recommending the things or places that are worthy of a mention.

• For each place mentioned on the website, you will see a Google Map along with contact details and proper address.

• CITYHYD.info is linked with Facebook and you can comment using your facebook login.

•  Unlike other website, CITYHYD.info is easy to navigate and extremely simple to understand.

• CITYHYD.info publishes actual videos of the places where ever possible in order to show the real picture.

• CITYHYD.info does NOT have a jungle of advertisements hovering over each screen, it understands how irritating those unwanted ads can be, hence has fixed ad-spaces only.

CITYHYD.info takes a lot of pride in bringing the best the city offers.


 In short, if you are in Hyderabad, CITYHYD.info has the best in class of what you are looking for !!

Connect with CITYHYD.INFO on FACEBOOK and TWITTER.   

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WHY PICTARINE IS AN ULTIMATE SOCIAL PHOTOS PLATFORM

Only a couple of nights ago, I was checking my web albums and getting distort while managing all my photos on various platforms and social media channels separately and independently. I murmured in disgust- why can't we have all my pictures and web albums at one place? The very next day, I bumped into a web post about Pictarine. After reading about Pictarine, I told myself that this web app is certainly worth trying, and guess what I'm ecstatic about my Pictarine experience, Simply Fantastic !!

Pictarine Album Snapshot

 In one sentence, Pictarine is an ultimate social photos web platform. I think, the more I'm playing with it, the more features I'm unleashing about it. With the extra ordinary number of photo storing and sharing solutions online, it’s most of the times really cumbersome to manage all your pictures. Obviously, the need of the hour is one stop solution for everything that can pull out all your pictures from every single photo sharing channel you are using, and club them together in order to manage efficiently, this is exactly where Pictarine comes into picture.

In my opinion, Pictarine is such a powerful web app. It pulls in all your photos from your various web channels and combines them at one place, and most importantly, it is web based, no more software downloads just an online login. Awesome, isn't it? On top of it you can select pictures from various photo sharing services and create a new virtual album, which in the Pictarine world called as a Zest, and then share with your network. What makes it even more fascinating is- the collaboration function. Once you shared an virtual album, people can add their own photos !!

Pictarine pulled photos from my Facebook

 Pictarine has a simple user interface and easy to understand buttons that makes the entire user experience a pleasure. It backs-up the pictures real fast and when you are inside the album you will see various options such as- Download, Open in Service (Flick, Facebook etc.), Slideshow, Invite to create Zest and many more.

From my side, Pictarine gets a big thumps up !! My advice- Go and start playing it today...

Here is a short video about Pictarine, check it out:

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STARTUP CLONES IN TECH INDUSTRY: AN OPINION

These days there is much hype about one of the perils of the startup business – clones !! These clone companies are spying the popular web platforms, analyze them till the core, design a ditto skeletal, develop them, find a new market for such a service and then launch a clone company in the new identified market. 

No body likes copied ideas, of course for the obvious reasons, but what I admire the most is the perfection these clone companies have in building those existing ideas and their unmatched flawless execution. Yes, you heard me right, execution is probably their (Clone Companies) biggest strength.

 

An entrepreneur will most certainly understand the importance of execution, execution is the bridge between an idea and the final product, if we talk in context of techpreneurs. And one may argue that the whole internet world is based on the ideas which were already existing. Certainly, copying is not new, but what really becomes a scoop is when a copied idea becomes so popular that the discoverer or the inventor of the original idea starts taking notice of the clone. Also, one cannot deny the fact that the internet is virtually an open source world, if someone created a website, you too can, hence, even though it might be copying; if you can develop a better website than you will have more traffic, simple isn't it? Well, it might be simple if it were just a website, but when it comes to web platforms such as huge business, it becomes dirty.

I cannot stop myself from mentioning the Samwer trio who have been labelled as the German clone machine for churning out web startups in European markets that are being copied from American web based platforms. Alexander, Marc, and Oliver Samwer are the three German brothers behind the infamous incubator Rocket Internet. Internet heavyweights like Pinterest, Amazon, Fab, and Groupon have all fallen victim to the Samwer brothers, of course I beg to differ and I don't claim anyone to be anyone's victim, and going by the speculations "Square" is next !! Samwer brothers have been tagged as the startup clone machine, what media especially love to call them, but trust me they are hardly the only ones involved. Russian-based Fast Lane Ventures has also been known for doing so. It’s home to PinMe – one can easily guess what that is – and a Zappos clone is sold to another larger Zappos clone called Sapatos (vicious circle??).

I consider Samwer brothers unarguably intelligent, business-minded, and tech-savvy, but many consider them to be nothing more than pirates of the web startups who rake in the millions. Most importantly, they (the Samwers) don't deny the fact that they copy ideas. I think deep down every business associated to the internet knows that copying is part of the internet era, if one has to name it as copying, but what probably differentiates a successful clone company from the unsuccessful one is the flawless execution. Personally, I really applaud Samwer brothers and their incubator Rocket Internet for being a specialist in starting an already existing (as in outside Europe) business in the European market and then making it such a huge success that the original company had to pay money to acquire their European clones. Yes, we can call a lot of names for copying the ideas, but hey, no one beats their execution. In fact, in some cases they have done better than the original ideas in a very short span of time. So, give some credit for their business skills at least !!

As far as the cloning of web startups is concerned in the year 2009, Facebook sued StudiVZ. The site was a complete copy of the early Facebook, and Mark Zuckerberg sued it on the grounds of intellectual property theft. Facebook lost the case badly!! It’s a perfect example that with all the fame in the world and a formidable case, it is still incredibly difficult to win in these situations. So, looks like it came down to the reality that internet world is no one's property. Good or bad, the argument will continue, but i tried to pick the best out of the current scenario in this article. In any case, do leave a comment about what you think of the whole situation.

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ANDROID APP MARKET VS THE IPHONE APP MARKET

In the year 2005, Google acquired Android, a startup company in California (CA). Android has a vast community of developers writing applications called “apps” that extend the functionality of the devices. There are currently over 550,000+ apps available for Android. Android Market is the online application store run by Google, though apps can also be downloaded from multiple third-party sites.

The Android application store’s growth rate has been accelerating since its launch, and even though it was anticipated that Android App Market will at some point in the mid of 2011 offer more applications for download and/or purchase than Apple’s iTune Store hasn’t happened yet. Apple’s iPhone Apps still rule the smartphone applications roaster. An app store analytics company, Distimo, forecasted that Android would surpass the App Store in size before the end of July 2011 along with another research firm, Germany-based, research2guidance. In reality, the forecasts have gone wrong and there is still a close contest going between the Apple’s iPhone/iPad apps and Android apps.

Apple has really taken the market like a storm in last two years with frequent launches of its various innovative products with amazing features, of course, the latest iPad/iPhone versions rule the charts. On the other hand, Android market is also galloping like a warrior’s best horse especially in the developing nations markets with many mobile companies moving to Android operating system. Samsung’s Android mobile phones, of course, are giving tough competition to Apple’s iPhones/iPads in countries in Asia Pacific such as India. On the contrary, the success of an Android/iPhone app stores is short-lived. All data from an app store including both the Android App Market and the Iphone App Markets shows that the download figures decrease drastically post the first months or even weeks after the launch of the app. And the reality is the long tail is getting longer while the top 10% gets richer!!

The latest buzz in the Android market is- Google is taking some great steps forward to get the better of the competition and recently launched "Google Play”. Now using “Google Play”, you can listen to your favorite music, read your favorite books, watch your most enjoyable movies, play astonishing apps, and games all in one place that are accessible from the Web and any Android device. In Google’s own words- “Discover, buy and share like never before”. I think it’s a great move by Google, I strongly believe it will be highly beneficial to the Android App market. For the developers and companies that publish Android Apps on the Android app store, there will be all new App Stats. App Stats show app’s installation performance across key areas such as countries, versions, device models, and others. Going forward it will be even more powerful for publishers with new metrics and ways to analyze data, and a redesigned user interface.

So, it is anticipated that Android App Marketing is going to rise so will be the businesses associated with Android Apps. Without any surprise, Android app testing, being such an important part of Android app market, will also flourish. Having said that not every Android App Testing company can harness business out of the opportunities and it requires huge efforts in terms of customer satisfaction and quality of services being delivered. I happen to meet one of such top performing Android App Testing companies- Testing4Success. Testing4Success is offering Android Application Testing/QA services for many years now and has established itself as one of the best Android App Testing/QA services business. Testing4Success makes sure that not once the customer needs to worry about the quality of application testing by performing exhaustive Android Apps Testing. Sure, this company knows the magic of launching perfectly adorable Android Apps in the market. Great !! So, in case you are looking for professional Android Application Testing/QA services, you know where to go- Testing4Success.

Testing4Success is one of the leading Testing/QA providers in North America. Besides the Android App Testing/QA, it provides following testing solutions- Application Testing/QA, Web Application Testing/QA, Mobile Application Testing/QA, and online ISTQB certification trainings.

My prediction about the Android App Market Vs the Iphone/iPad App Market is- the competition is going to get stiffer, and, Google and Apple will be implementing strategies one after the other to jolt the market. In case, I see more apps coming into the market, and of course that will lead to more choices for consumers to pick from. Whatever may be the case, it is going to be one truly exciting times in the smartphone’s (mobile) application market. Android Vs iPhone/iPad,  the game is on !!

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NOMINEE SYSTEM FOR GMAIL, PICASA, FACEBOOK, TWITTER ACCOUNTS ?

Amidst the Internet Era there are a lot of things that we upload over the internet, what if one day we die. How to retrieve the access to Email and Social Media Accounts of a deceased person? What can be done more in this direction?

Check out this video and share your thoughts about it-

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PHOTOGRAPHY THEMED E-STORE: PHOTOVATIKA.COM

Photovatika.com is an India based Online Photography Store offering unique Photo Gifts for everyone whosoever is interested in photography. You can find wide varieties of camera accessories, cameras and lenses across the famous well known brands, photo paintings, photo books, an i-corner and anything you can think of related to photography :-)

Techzik took this opportunity to meet Photovatika.com and created this fantastic review video. Check out everything about Photovatika.com in the video- 

Thinking of buying anything related to Photography, think PhotoVatika.Com !!

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IPHONE APPS: A BUSINESS INSIGHT FOR DUMMIES

With the popularity of iPhone (for that matter Apple’s all other products such as iPad and iPod Touch) in the global market, the iPhone application market has evolved like never before. There are thousands and thousands of iPhone applications in the market these days. The iPhone apps market has become an ocean of all sorts of apps. Yet, it’s very easy to distinguish a good iPhone app from a bad one. Yes, I’m claiming that not all iPhone apps are up to the mark or as desirable as the hi-tech iPhone/iPad users would want to have.

I thought about this massive explosion of iPhone apps into the market and for no doubt whatsoever it’s the Apple’s well laid strategy to allow anyone or everyone to develop iPhone apps at will. As a result, not only Apple made a significant progress in spreading the iPhone/iPad businesses but also gained a fresh insight into its products from the hi-tech and developers community. What came next was the keen interest of the corporate world, mostly in mobile industry, to develop apps on the Apple’s platform. Certainly, this was a win-win situation for both the Apple Inc. and the developers of the iPhone apps.       

Yet, I would want to highlight the negative side of the iPhone apps evolution. There are iPhone developers and iPhone app developing companies (few startups, few big ones) everyone is trying its very own ideas, few with some vision and others just like that. End result is market with flooded with the iPhone apps.

From a business point of view, the competition is intense, and it takes a lot to turn an iPhone app into a real success. For a company to cope up within the iPhone apps market it is just not about developing a good iPhone app but also about making it available to the target audiences; And if you are thinking it’s just about marketing than you are wrong. It is really important for the developer’s community to first be ultra clear about what app it is trying to develop, who will be using it and what you expect to do about the iPhone app in the future (one time app or any updates in future??) . Market research is so very important aspect of iPhone app business, be it identifying what app you want to develop or what niche domain you are trying to get in, everything has to be clearly defined before any development starts. In fact, Market research also identifies the target audiences and marketing strategy beforehand in order to avoid clueless strategy for selling the app later in the game.

One start-up that has a clear vision of where it’s going and where it wants to be is Faqden labs. I got this rare and invaluable opportunity to review the firstiPhone application that Faqden labs developed. The iPhone app that I reviewed was named “INTELLIVOCAB for GRE GMAT”. I predicted it to be an instance winner with its excellent user interface and even better analytics for learning the GRE/GMAT EnglishVocabulary, and I’m glad it simply produced the results the way I thought it would. It became an instant hit, and is among the top 5 apps in Educational apps today of Apple iTune Store. I have no doubt whatsoever that “INTELLIVOCABfor GRE GMAT” is the best vocabulary building iPhone app in the market at the moment. Recently, Faqden labs launched a similar product with specific focus of SAT students called “INTELLIVOCAB for SAT”. “INTELLIVOCAB for SAT” has a superb UI and analytics just as “INTELLIVOCAB for GRE GMAT” has. “INTELLIVOCAB for SAT” certainly looks the better improved version of Faqden’s first iPhone app. For SAT students take my world “INTELLIVOCAB for SAT” is the best vocabulary building app.

From a user point of view, there is a swamp of iPhone applications out there and buying an iPhone app is one thing but identifying the app that he wants to buy has become an extremely challenging activity on its own. This has evolved a business of another kind i.e. companies like Appolicious who are maintaining the directory for iPhone apps and help users narrow down on their choices. Basically, such businesses are weeding out the unwanted apps on the choices of users and their own intelligent logic. Amazing!! Now we have got software to churn out iPhone apps, it is like having an app for sorting out the apps, what a vicious circle :) :) ..........

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Tracking Individual Performances in Scrum

A question I've heard often is: Is it correct, in Scrum methodology, to track an individual's performance? This question has only one answer: No. Tracking and measuring the productivity of a single member of an Agile team is against the spirit of Scrum. The real question should be: If you were able to calculate such a metric, what would you do with the data? I suspect the answer is that you would use it to reward or punish on the basis of productivity, and this is something you don't want happening within a Scrum environment.

The Scrum framework doesn't prevent you from measuring whatever you want to measure. However, you'd be missing the spirit of Scrum if you measured the work of a single team member. Productivity metrics for knowledge workers are generally flawed, studies show, so you'd likely end up playing with incorrect data. The fundamental point is that if a Scrum team member is not able to contribute, then this points to a team problem. The Scrum spirit means that everyone jumps in to help; ideally, all team members work together on all of the stories. Different skill levels or types contribute to the best of their abilities. To create metrics for individuals, besides being inaccurate, would probably cause competition and division within the team. Individuals should work as a unit, be tracked as a unit, and succeed or fail as a unit.

It's unfortunate that Scrum tools have an "assigned to" field. Members should volunteer for stories and tasks; they should not be assigned work. It's better to think of this field as merely naming the primary person working on a task or story. I strongly feel that any team member who only does his own stories or tasks and doesn't help others in the team is a poor Scrum team member. Such behavior should not be rewarded, especially not in some kind of performance review. The best teammates are helpful and collaborative, and you can't measure their personal contribution to the team's velocity. You can only measure the entire team's velocity.

My conclusion is that tracking an individual's performance constitutes crime in the Scrum world. The fundamental idea of Scrum is team collaboration, and team members "volunteer" for tasks rather than having them assigned. One of the core values of Scrum is courage, and it's not a bad practice to announce at the daily stand-up, "I missed my task timeline today." If that's the case, the Scrum team collaboratively aligns itself to meet the sprint backlog, at least enough to result in a shippable product when the sprint ends. It's certainly possible that not all tasks in the sprint backlog get completed at the end of the sprint, but the Scrum team should be smart enough to plan the next sprint in a way that avoids a similar pitfall.

The keys, then, are accurate sprint planning and a "must-do" sprint retrospective. Most important, don't wreck the Scrum by measuring an individual's work items.

PS. I'm a Certified Scrum Master from Scrum Alliance and this article was featured on the Scrum Alliance website on 23 Jan 2012.

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