Net Logos 2000
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Amongst many other print-magazines of the time who listed and reviewed portals and vortals and Dot.Coms and what-have-you off the web, the magazine Business Today listed it's "The Web 50" (contextually Indian) in the issue of September 4-17, 2000. To us at The IDEA, this was a clear framework for a perspective upon logos as digital-art-indicators and benchmarks of the era, and we therefore gathered most of these original logos online and reproduce them below unaltered (except for 2-3) alongwith summarazitions of the individual site-profiles, derived from the original summaries of Business Today. Comments on design and aesthetics etc., have been consciously abstained from.

An "horizontal" portal described as having a content-model similar to yahoo.com, with chat, e-mail, home pages, message boards, and love/romance channels for building online communities targeting youths. This venture counts among the early birds in WAP-enabling internet content in India, and has alreday tied up with Usha-Martin Telekom in Calcutta to provide content for the latter's mobile phone network.

A stab at jockeying the second-hand car marketplace by the Indian auto major Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. Already said to host India's largest online inventory of second-hand vehicles (7,000 plus).

Promoted by professionals including a significant ex-ICICI bunch, the site is essentially a web-enabled loan marketplace for credit cards, automobiles, homes and personal loans. Interesting tools for calculating EMI, loan v/s down payment options and so on, with a search facility for appropriate loan/credit cards, that enables visitors to apply online, track application status and ensure delivery at home.

The umbrella site of four auction sites serving India, South Africa, Australia and Italy respectively. There are exclusive sections on mobiles and accessories, jewellery and mediacal equipment, in addition to braoder searchable categories including cars, books, computers, electronics, office supplies, etc.

Registered users get to participate in contests by punching in the user IDs, but there's no passwords here because "there is no reason why you should participate for someone else!"

An initiative from the Dataquest group of IT publications, Ciol.com is looking to be an IT community site with lots of content including an extensive directory section on IT resources and information. While the site is still new and seems substantially to be still under development, the focus presently seems biased towards beginners and neophytes

Part of the international CNET group of sites, this one's obviously hugely content-rich in technology news, information, reviews, product comparisons and locators, and somewhat slow but highly specialized software downloads..

Forbes magazine recently read this to be the best Indian personal finance site. Quantum Financial Services, who set it up, have packed the site with scrolling stockmarket quotes with the latest index position, news & features, stockmarket commentary that's updated every two hours, and information on over 500 Indian companies, with fundamentals such as profitablitity, share valuations and growth projections and trends laid out for ease of use.

A recent winner of the Web Wiz Award for best use of technology in internet trading. It's all about offerring realtime order routing, market and client information, bank account management and transactions history in a pleasant and efficient user matrix.

Representing the first comprehensive online presence of an Indian print-media major, the site hosts electronic editions of the parent group's two English dailies under a "News" click-through. Archives go back to 1997, and current updates are frequent. The site also hosts extensive and well-focused special interest sections including Cerfkids, Rebellworld, Mythology, and Girlteens, etc. It's e-bate section has a reputation for high activity chat and dating segments.

Financed and assembled by Hindustan Times and Chase Capital Partners with strategic investments from HDFC Group, and powered by Planetasia.com, this site claims to have assembled one of India's largest web communities. It's all about a clean and neat look packaging a host of chatty sections including films, careers, astrology, cricket, money matters, health & fitness, travel, chatrooms, diary, greetings, women's world and a search engine.

A "flashy site with heavy and loud graphics" that's reported to attract visitors by the sheer number of contests, promos and features it offers. The idea? To help corporates promote their products and effectively execute their net campaigns.

The industry leader in India's net-based equity trade segment, with the largest number of online clients in the country, this one is not surpringly the net presence of one of India's fastest growing private sector real-world banks. The trading platform is divided into specific allocations for funds, view demat facility, trading centre for buy/sell, order book and cash projection screen and a security projection facility amongst much else.

An umbrella site encompassing five vortals together with a range of interactive and contributory sites, this is projected as a family portal with information on education, products, non-governmental organizations, consumer rights and useful city-specific information. It also host an online-communities building framework called "Indvillage".

This here's a fascinating approach to addressing the creation of an online marketplace for new and second hand cars. On the one hand, the site has tie-ups with about 950 new car dealers and some 250 new two-wheeler dealers around India. On the other hand, used cars in it's list have each been individually bought, serviced and evaluated by the company before being put up for sale!

From the ICICI stable, a site with features beyond it's average competitors ~ such as real estate market related news and features, a primer on home finance, a guide to home loans, and ready reference on related topics including leagsl, insurance, tax, stamp duties, interiors, home selling/buying tips, property management and even Vastu Shastra and Feng Shui tips and pointers.

Offering general content in six Indian languages, the site hit big-time news in the second half of 2000 as possibly the first major Indian Dot.Com to be going under. It had earlier produced headlines for big-spending including an expensive tie-in with VSNL (India's only direct gateway to the net at the time), that was to set as default website for new VSNL users dialling in. Aside from the usual portal content, Indiainfo.com offers relatively unusual/new features such as Short Messaging Service on cell-phones, a tax-calculator, customisable currency converter, and a loan EMI calculator.

Easy to use, with lots of listings. Not surprising an early entrant to the segment, with good layout, effective search engine and a bagful of useful alliances, all adding up to an online platform for purchase or lease of residential, commercial, agricultural, and industrial proeprty in India.

A major contender for primacy amongst Indian content-based Dot.Coms, this one is the net presence of the Times of India Group of Publications. Alongwith two month archives of the flagship Times of India and Economic Times (with live stock-tickers), the site also offers online versions of Maharashtra Times, Femina and Filmfare, in addition to sections covering fashion, cookery, pets, current events and festivals, etc.

The travel entity in the Indiaworld network of websites. Focused essentially upon information, it is said to excel beyond expectations in this by including lots of viewpoints, opinions, impressions and first eprson accounts of travel experience. There's no online fulfillment of any kind (ticketing, bookings, etc.), but it comes highly recommended for international travellers looking to visit India for the first time.

A major net play from Microland, the group headed up by one of India's most well regarded pin-up boys of the net revolution, Pradeep Kar. Backed up with fascinating advertising on television, print media and street-hoardings, Indya.com hooked the Asia MTV ex-boss Sunil Lulla to head it up from takeoff, and is therefore not surprisingly focussed on youth with channels like Cinema, eCampus, Lifestylz, and a Singles Club spread across three broad categories: entertainment & leisure, information & knowledge, utilities & services.

A comprehensive Indian personal finance site originally established by the corporate research house Probity Research & Services. Large volumes of data are neatly classified into different sections hosting financial analyses and annual reports of over 1,200 companies, research reports on companies and sectors, price/volume data on commodities, monthly economy reports, analytical tools, etc. Indiainfoline.com recently made a major mind-share play in the real world by attempting to distribute 2 million (soon corrected to 1 million) automatically updatable CD-versions of the site for free, via a massive ad-campaign under the copy-line "It's all about money, Honey."

A business-to-business e-commerce portal looking to bring together dealers and re-sellers onto a common platform. Registered IT trade members get to post quotations against requirements posted by others, but this is more than just a trading and auction platform. There's also quality content on IT industry happenings and a section dedicated to training and manpower consultancy.

A good source for IT industry news, with a IT-specific stock monitor to boot. Popular with IT professionals for it's "ClubITspace" networking platform, the site is also well known and often accessed for the presentations it puts online from major IT conferences and seminars.

Twenty four channels of e-commerce is what this as all about, with unique offerings like magazine subscriptions, stationery and insurance information. Only American Express cards are accepted, with an option to pay by cheque/cash on delivery in Mumbai or Delhi only. There's comparison-shopping, online financing, and free home delivery across Indian and international brands such as Kenstar, Funskool, Sony, Reebok, and Gillette among others.

Spoken of as a delightfully-designed India-specific site. There's cyber communities for professionals, tips and advice, impressive databases, and an interactive "Personal Job Management Agent".

Offering recruitment services for seven countries in the South Asia region, through job searches and job alerts.

200,000 registered users and posting 10,000 jobs a month, mainly within the streams of software and technical vacancies. Registration is compulsory, with searches by occasional surfers limited to 10.

A relatively newer entrant into the online equity markets game, this however comes from one of India's most well-reputed and respected broking and financial services houses. The trading module is not unlike others', with market watch, trade menu, placing of buy/sell orders, etc., and there are market related tutorials and a range of tools for investors. Other facilities include account services, IPO, mutual fund and equity investment advice, and a portfolio manager.

A site for the serious investor, backed up by Investment Research & Informations Services Ltd., and recently tied in with Internet Securities India Ltd. to offer online share trading. There's realtime news and analysis, live stock quotes, java charting tools, broker research, research tutorials and an exhaustive spreadsheet amongst other goodies for busy executives.

This is naukri.com, India's first online recruitment forum, and is said to still be making waves. It's moved on from being a forum for employer, placement agencies and jobseekers to become a service provider for Indian corporates ~ with over 3,000 companies on it's client list. It's winning streak is based essentially upon simplity of use for both the job-seeker as also the recruiter.

A one-stop shop for a range of personal finance products including car, home and consumer durable loans, credit cards, investments, insurance, holiday packaegs, time shares and more. Looks to complete transactions in the real world,.. at your doorstep.

Claiming to host more than 40, 000 jobs, this is a neat and fast site covering job categories beyond just IT. Registered users get to store up to three separate resumes, and can use a "job robot" to fetch jobs matching searcg criteria. There's also an "applications manager" to keep track of jobs applied for.

Taking a wide angle view upon personal finance, this one (from the equitymaster.com family) offers interesting planners for retirement, marriage, education and property purchase. This of course is in addition to information on housing and auto-finance, credit cards, insurance options, interviews with professionals, investment tips and advice, etc.

India's best-known portal at the turn of millennia. Sharply focused upon the Indian community at home and abroad with online shopping, local language editions, search-engine, e-mail, chat, instant-messaging and home-pages. Said to register 110 millions page views a month, with simple and effective presentation incorporating an interesting news section.

Now part of the Satyamonline group (see below), this site operates mainly via links rather than any great measure of original content. Headline links connect to major news-sites, also covering television news media such as NDTV and ZeeNext, with business news buried just a layer below. Also hosts a well-segmented and categorized section of links to corporate websites.

Recently re-christened from "Satyamonline.com" in line with it's recent listing on the US Nasdaq as "Sify". Recently emerged also as India's largest private sector ISP, while the portal itself is honoured as being perhaps the "largest Indian portal", with channels addressing news, entertainment, food, health, movies, sports and an impressive search engine, all paralleled within the portal in several Indian regional languages.

A cool name for a cool-cool site with a highly interactive demo for potentials users, this one's among the early birds to offer online share-trading in India. Managed by a mumbai-based broking firm called SSKI Ltd., the site allows members unlimited trading without brokerage or transaction fees against a membership fee of Rs. 1000/- per month. There's tie-ups with HDFC and Global Trust Bank for investors' account handling, and the site also maintains segments on news, investment ideas, BSE and NSE quotes, a porfolio manager, and lucidly written stock market commentaries for "registered" users.

The web-play of a brick-and-mortal travel shop called Sound Travel. The site is e-commerce enabled to allow online air, hotel, cruise, holiday package and car rental bookings. Site response for users is often by e-mail or offline fulfillment mechanism.

Representing India's largest newspaper publication (including various city editions), this is a well-organized electronic version of the newspaper, with add-ons such as breaking news, free newsletter, stock ticker, photogallery, chat and e-mail, cartoons, and a limited two-month news archive.

Content-rich for the business visitor, this site hosts informations on equity, mutual funds, FDS, forex, insurance, bullion, taxation, personal loans, and a customised personal portfolio manager. There's also data on 5,500 companies, with technical charts, online market roundup, live mutual fund quotes, latest corporate results, books closures, and frequently updated news.