How Social Media has changed my life

I was using Social Media for a year now but was not very active on that. Lately, I have become addicted to it and have learnt quite a few tools and trends around it and have realized that my non working hours are being utilized differently and like any other change in life, it is influencing me big time.

Professionally:
a) I am able to get in touch with the biggies of the industry with whom it was unimaginable to say even hello otherwise forget about the discussions that I have with them on regular basis.
b) I am able to give a direction to my career by interacting and learning from the veterans of the industry with whom it was impossible to even meet in normal course of life.
c) I am able to compare trends of industry country by country without buying any expensive reports – thanks to my friends having my kind of role in different countries. I am able to talk to them, know about their existence and vice versa – thanks to Social Media
d) The bar for me continuously keep on rising as I am able to see the work of veterans in the industry and precisely know that I have miles and miles to go before I sleep :)

Personally:
a) I have been able to get in touch with those friends back with whom I have lost touch somehow but they were close to me
b) I am in touch with all my cousins on a regular basis and know all that’s happening in family and matters to me without making any effort of phone calls and writing emails.

Financially:
a) I have been able to learn so much about personal finance management and mutual funds from certain Yahoo! Groups that my entire perspective about money has been changed. I have become more aware about money dynamics and have learnt investing money is more difficult than earning it.

WAT Show on Yahoo! Groups Moderators Union

Thanks to WAT Blog for attending Moderators Union in Mumbai and covering it in their blog. Swami is rocking in the WAT Show.

Twitter Twitter All you Stars

Wondering what all others from your industry are doing all the time?

Twitterpacks is the answer. Twitterpack is nothing but a wiki to collect all the like minded twitterers together. Wikis are editable page that you can create, and then all the twitterers in your pack can add information, edit it any time they want and the same will be informed to all other twitterers via email. Every twitterer has the same power on the pack so it’s everyone individual responsibility to police it. The best part is once you join a pack, you can follow all the twitteres in one go via Autopack.

You can categorize the packs by topic, location, company, events or identity.

Thanks to Connie Bensen for creating one for Community Managers. If you want to join the please follow her blog post.

10 super cool ways to increase your network in Linkedin

1)Get all your contacts in the address-book of your Outlook, Yahoo, Google, Rediff, AOL and MSN email accounts.
Download your address book of any of your email account on your machine and upload it on your Linkedin connections and send an invitation to connect to all these contacts

2)Write a comprehensive profile with proper keywords
Write a brief profile so that people are interested in reading it. Very long descriptions are boring and generally people lose interest in the mid-way. Use the key words appropriately to make your profile more search-friendly.

3)Use your interest sections most intelligently
It’s like a tag cloud of your blog. Use all the key words relevant to your interest / industry to increase the searcheability of your profile and also it makes it easy for others to identify your area of expertise.

4)Make getting connected with you as easy as possible for others
Use Quick links on your other sites, your email address in your Linkedin profile, direct people to your blog / site – do any thing to make it easy for others to connect with you

5)Get connected to the top open networkers
Linkedin best part is your 2nd and 3rd degree connections; get connected to open networker (they usually have huge network of their own) to increase your 2nd and 3rd level of connections.

6)Be an open networker yourself
To be an open networker you need to register your profile at http://www.themetanetwork.com/ and write [LION] in your profile which stands for Linkedin Open Networker

7)Join relevant groups
Join the groups relevant to your interest / industry to get connected with like minded people for many fruitful discussions.

8)Ask relevant questions
Asking relevant questions on Linkedin will not only increase your business acumen and understanding of your industry, it will also help you in increasing your network.

9) Answer questions related to your field
As they rightly say “what goes around comes around” - help people with your expertise and they will help you with increasing your network.

10) Answer to all your connection invitations messages
Last but not the least step is little time consuming but its crucial for maintaining fruitful working relationships on Linkedin.

Videos of Moderators Union are live

Watch out the videos of your intorductions at Moderators Union in Mumbai on June 7, 2008 at Sahara Star at the following link:

http://video.yahoo.com/mypage?s=4446725&public=1

No more compromises with your email address with two new Yahoo! domains

Gone are the days when you have to make several attempts to get an email address a bit close to the one that you really wanted for yourself. Yahoo! has brought a whole new ocean of email addresses with its 2 new domains; namely; ymail.com and rocketmail.com.

Email addresses created on these domains will work exactly like any other yahoo email with all the features and most importantly it is FREE of cost :)

Visit http://in.promos.yahoo.com/address/ to get your email address before it is taken away by someone else again.

If you want to create or join Yahoo! group with your new email addresses of these domain i.e. xyz@ymail.com or xyz@rocketmail.com; you will be prompted to create a new public profile with a screen name that will display for your communications on Group. Once you create your new profile, you will be taken back into the normal "join" or "start a group" flow.

For more information; please visit Yahoo! Groups Blog

Pictures of Moderators Union happened in Mumbai on June 7, 2008

We have uploaded the pictures of the event on Flickr. Check out the link
http://www.flickr.com/photos/moderators-union/sets/72157605540321347/

About Shefali Gaur

Shefali Gaur is an MBA and Engineering graduate with about 5 years of experience in the IT services & Products and Internet industry. For past all these years of her career, she has worked in almost all the disciplines of business development like Sales, Sales Support, Presales, Marketing, Knowledge Management, across multiple domains.

Shefali has had her clientele across the globe, she has managed bids for millions of dollars, created loads and loads of Marketing and sales collateral, optimized processes like Bid Management, Major Account Planning, Launched Sales Kits, done market research and competitive analysis, done front-end and back-end sales assignments etc. She has also taught Brand Management and Customer Relationship Management at B-schools and conducted several workshops for Group Discussion and Personal Interview skills.

At Yahoo! India she is working as Community Manager, where facilitate, manage and help her vibrant online communities engaging better with the product by proactively finding solutions for their problems; finding innovative solutions for better collaboration; and implementing ways to increase efficiency of community. She focus on communities for all the Community and Communication products of Yahoo! India (Mail, Messenger, Groups, Mash etc) to receive and analyze feedback/requirements on product experience for existing products and beta programs and synthesizing the same into recommendations for Product and Marketing teams.

At Unisys Global Solutions India (UGSI) she was working in Presales and Marketing team where she built, updated and maintained UGSI centric marketing repository tool that has supported and driven demand for UGSI globally within and outside Unisys along with competition tracking and Market Research. She had also worked on Requests for Information, Requests for Proposal, and Requests for Quotation from clients across the globe. She has also provided pre-sales support to Global Sourcing Demand Executives and Business Units for all business inquiries.

At Capgemini India Pvt Ltd she was working as a Global Knowledge Manager where her job was to develop knowledge management strategies after liaising with the global leaders to serve business needs and to facilitate implementation of activities around it. She used to capture, maintain and promote the internal and external knowledge of the firm for the government sector across Technology, Consulting and Outsourcing services. She has also supported information requirements for client pursuits and delivery projects by managing the communication channels such as the community intranet website and community newsletter. She also used to provide research and analysis based on a variety of primary data sources such as IDC, Gartner etc. to client teams across the globe.

At Zensar Technologies she has worked on different activities like Overall ownership of Major Account Planning Exercises, Customer Satisfaction Surveys, Sales Force Automation, Telemarketing and Bid Management. She has created collateral like Bid Components, Relationship Documents, Capability Papers, Process Documents, Sales Presentations, Case Studies etc. She was accountable for business from prospects through the overall ownership of bid management process. She has created, maintained and managed Sales support repository or proposal factory for enhancing the speed, quality and consistency of bid response.

Moderators Union in Mumbai on June 7, 2008

I skipped a heart beat the moment I landed up with two other team mates on Mumbai Airport at 1:00 am on June 7, 2008. It was raining cats and dogs and the airport has turned into a huge but shallow pond. If it continues who will come to the event for which we were working for the last one month, namely, Moderators Union.

All those late night meetings for defining process of registrations, invitations, devising communication strategy, planning, goodies shopping, everything seems to be floating away with the empty paper cups near the coffee vending machine at the airport.

Thanks to the spirit of Mumbai and Mumbaikars (as they rightly say the city just never stops) we had an amazing turnaround at the event and the event was HOUSEFUL! :)

As usual we started the event with an official welcome from IM Swaminathan, Director Communication and Community Products, Yahoo! India and then came the most interesting part of the event – Moderators Introduction.

I was so touched after listening to each and every moderator, after realizing their enthusiasm for being on stage and speaking publicly for the first time in their life, after witnessing their passion for the cause for which they are running their respective group and above all after feeling their love for Yahoo! and me. Without any hesitation, I can proudly say that I am one of those few lucky ones who got the opportunity to receive an ocean of love in a four hour event. Some of the feedbacks have really touched my heart and soul.

After four rounds of introductions with interesting quiz and cool prizes, Raj Reddy, Product Manager Yahoo! Groups from Sunnyvale, US has given the updates on upcoming features in Yahoo! Group and two brand new Yahoo! India products were showcased to moderators. Yahoo! India Local and new Yahoo! India Search called Glue.

We wrapped up the event with even more goodies and a sumptuous dinner.

Special thanks to Dr. Leo Rebello, who distributed his book on Yoga to every moderator.

Recommendations on Linkedin

For the post of Community Manager at Yahoo! Web Services India Pvt Ltd (5)

1) “It's unimaginable the amount of talent present in some of us, like her . I have not been working with her for long and being a big critic of people as I am, I thought it would take a little longer for me to understand her contributions and tireless efforts in keeping the things and her at top. But here she is. Ladies & Gentleman Shefali Gaur, ingeniously expanding her network of friends and blogging herself to glory. I whole heartedly endorse her brilliant ways.” July 15, 2008
Himanshu Sharma, Vice President, TalentBergwas with another company when working with Shefali at Yahoo! Web Services India Pvt Ltd

2) “I happend to work with Shefali on a project for a short period. It was an excellent expereince to work with an individual and proffesional like Shefali. What always kept us going is her cheerful and fun at work attitude. And at the same time she was diligent, focused and confident in her work. The key thing about her was, her constant endeavor to read up and learn more about emerging business trends. I found her very energetic and self-assured, am sure she'll be an asset wherever she goes.” Keep Rocking Shefali.” May 28, 2008
Sai Venkat Kumar B, Country Marcomm Mgr, TEKTRONIXwas with another company when working with Shefali at Yahoo! Web Services India Pvt Ltd

3) “Shefali is one of those few people who believe in trying new things and mastering it in no time. She has worked in various roles in her career and thats what actually makes her master of all traits. Shefali truly believes in power of networking and continuously works towards developing network of enthusiastic & skillful people. This is basic quality any community manager should have and she has it naturally! Being a pleasant personality and good human being, she is going to do really well in her career and personal life. My all wishes are with her. I would prefer to work with Shefali more and exchange learnings which helps both of us personally and professionally.” May 26, 2008
Archana Pandey, Product Marketing Manager, Yahoo!worked directly with Shefali at Yahoo! Web Services India Pvt Ltd

4) “Have known Shefali during her B School days, an out of box thinker, task oriented team worker. Her zeal to manage the show is very much appreciable. We share a lot of common freinds, even have found people who know her out of the way, no wonder why is she into community management!!. She has already started delivering results for Yahoo Community Product. Great going Shefali!!” March 24, 2008
Aneesh Shrivastava, Manager WAP Products, Yahoo Indiaworked with Shefali at Yahoo! Web Services India Pvt Ltd

5) “Shefali is a multifaceted individual you always cherish working along with. Regards, C.J.” March 20, 2008
CJ Shah, Director Sales, Zensar Technologies, Inc.worked with Shefali at Yahoo! Web Services India Pvt Ltd

For the post of Marketing and Presales at Unisys Global Service India Pvt Ltd (8)

1)“Shefail is a great personality to work with and she is very detail oriented person. she has due respect to others and helps them in need. Am very fond of her working culture and was impressed. I wish her all the best in her future endeavors and would recommend her for any opportunities” August 8, 2008
Arun Kumar S, Business Analyst, Unisys Corporation was with another company when working with Shefali Gaur at Unisys Global Service India Pvt Ltd

2) “A quick learner with an uncanny ability to get things done, Shefali was a good player to have on the Marketing team at Unisys. Approachable, fun-loving and a people person!” June 11, 2008 Jayakishore Satla (jaykishore@gmail.com), Marketing Manager, Global Sourcing PMO and Pre-Sales, Unisysmanaged Shefali at Unisys Global Service India Pvt Ltd

3) “I had the opportunity of working with Shefali when she was part of the pre-sales team. She exhibited high energy levels, has a positive attitude and a contagious smile! Shefali’s communication skills are excellent. Her networking skills - quite evident here isn't it :-) I wish her the very best in her future endeavors! Srikanth” June 9, 2008
Srikanth Raghavan, Director - Software Development, Unisys worked with Shefali at Unisys Global Service India Pvt Ltd

4) “I remember Shefali as a great pre-sales professional at UGSI. She had a clear-cut idea of the right mix of techno-functional information/support that was required by her from my group. She not only explained her requirements extremely well but was also great in rigorously following up. She is a tremendous asset to any organization.” June 3, 2008
Tamal DC, PMP, COP, Practice Manager, Unisysworked with Shefali at Unisys Global Service India Pvt Ltd

5) “Shefali is a vibrant employee with a zeal to innovate and come out with new ideas. Her energy levels are contagious and has very good interpersonal skills. During her stint with Unisys she has effectively contributed to presales team. Her ideas and her expertise in her area of work has been well appreciated. I am happy to recommend Shefali.” June 1, 2008
Bobby Joy, Senior Manager - Learning & Development, Unisysmanaged Shefali indirectly at Unisys Global Service India Pvt Ltd

6) “Shifali was part of the marketing/pre-sales team at UGSI when I worked for the 6sL PMO. I had a chance to interact and work with her on quite a few ocassions. She is an excellent communicator and has very good networking skills, as a result of which she manages to get work done from anyone in the organization. She will add value to in any organization she becomes part of.” March 20, 2008
Tushar Sashittal, Senior Software Engineer, Unisysworked with Shefali at Unisys Global Service India Pvt Ltd

7) “Shefali is an absolute go-getter with focus on the quality of her work and deadlines. She is well-known for her strong networking skills and can quickly connect with people. She is very energetic, amicable and professional person with work with.” February 27, 2008
Venkat Raghavan, Manager - Resourcing, Unisysworked directly with Shefali at Unisys Global Service India Pvt Ltd

8) “I know Shefali as a enthusiastic Marketing person who relentlessly follows up for the good of the organisation.” February 19, 2008
Manivannan Sk, Senior Program Manager, Unisysworked with Shefali at Unisys Global Service India Pvt Ltd

For the post of Global Knowledge Manager at Capgemini Consulting India Pvt Ltd (10)

1) “Shefali is a vivacious person with very high energy level. She has been an exceptional student with impeccable academic career. She is extremely focused and dedicated to her work; a workaholic who also maintains a healthy social life. Shefali is very well connected and is loved and admired by one and all. She has an amazing resilience in her character which helps her in difficult times. I wish her all the very best in her career and life.” July 22, 2008

Prabir Sarkar, Sr Specialist, ABC Consultant was with another company when working with Shefali at Capgemini Consulting India Pvt Ltd

2) “I have had not only the opportunity to work with Shefali but have been her batchmate also at College. She is one of the good people person I have ever seen. She always take her best stride at every thing she works at.Always ready to help and share her knowledge with others.” March 8, 2008
Jyoti Goyal, Senior Consultant/Business Analyst, Capgemini Financial Servicesworked with Shefali at Capgemini Consulting India Pvt Ltd

3) “Shefali has excellent communication skills and she used them to liaise and interact with a wide network of experts and exceutives. She is an accomplished multi-tasker, and delivered timely and high quality services as the Global Knowledge Manager at Capgemini Consulting. I wish her all the best in her future endeavors.” February 28, 2008
Shshank Srivastav, Senior Consultant, Capgemini SAmanaged Shefali indirectly at Capgemini Consulting India Pvt Ltd

4) “I have known shefali as a very sincere and result oriented person. She has a commendable ability to maintain poise and deliver the results even in face of significant personal challanges. She actively seeks feedback and incorporates in to her work very well. She would be an asset to any organisation she works with.” February 23, 2008
Dinesh Jindal, Senior Consultant, CapGemini Consultingmanaged Shefali indirectly at Capgemini Consulting India Pvt Ltd

5) “Shefali was an extremely competent, positive and driven professional. I found her never-say-die enthusiasm and committment towards her work admirable. She is a team player and a value-add to any organization she works in.” February 21, 2008
Sumita Chakrabarty, Manager, Capgemini Consultingmanaged Shefali indirectly at Capgemini Consulting India Pvt Ltd

6) “A very hard working, down to earth person who completes her work and the responsiblities assigned without any follow up. She goes out of the way to help her colleagues in need. She is a good team player and will be an asset to an organisation she joins. Wishing her goodluck.” February 20, 2008
Rohan Srinivasan, Senior Consultant, Capgemini Consulting India Pvt Ltdmanaged Shefali indirectly at Capgemini Consulting India Pvt Ltd

7) “Shefali, a girl with steel nerves has moulded her professional aspirations well.During her tenure at Capgemini, I interacted with her on some of my consulting assignments and her incisive insights and trends were a good help to me. Wishing her all the best in future.” February 18, 2008
Vihar Bhagwat, Senior Research Analyst, Frost & Sullivanwas with another company when working with Shefali at Capgemini Consulting India Pvt Ltd

8) “Shefali has an eye for details. I remember when she joined, her role was undefined (as it was quite new), with absolute zero clarity on what is expected from her. However, she proactively took the initiative to dig deep into the new role and made a positive impace on her leaders. She managed more than one roles quite efficiently, with minimal delays / escalations. I think she is a good people's person, rather than just a robot. Given a chance, I would like to work with her again...” February 18, 2008
Sagar Toshniwal, Knowledge Manager, Capgemini Consulting India Ltd.worked directly with Shefali at Capgemini Consulting India Pvt Ltd

9) “Shefali was a very good Knowledge Manager and paid attention to details. Always tried to give her best in the job she was assigned.” February 18, 2008
Surendra Chauhan, Consultant, Capgemini Consulting India Pvt Ltdworked directly with Shefali at Capgemini Consulting India Pvt Ltd

10) “A very smart and hard working employee and as she will be an asset for any organisation.I recommend Shefali highly. She has a drive to take new challenges and never shirks responsibility.” June 14, 2007
Prashant Chaudhari, Tam Lead / SAP & SIEBEL CRM Consultant, Capgemini worked with Shefali at Capgemini Consulting India Pvt Ltd

For the post of Consultant at Zensar Technologies (10)

1) “Shefali has an eye for details and was methodical in what she was tasked with.” July 6, 2008
Prateek Seth, Sr Executive -Marketing, Zensar TEchnologies Ltd.managed Shefali indirectly at Capgemini Consulting India Pvt Ltd

2) “Shefali is a dedicated professional. She puts in every ounce of effort in understanding things she has little knowledge about, but are important for the growth of business. It is her clear determination and attention to detail that gives her the edge to achieve her self imposed targets. I wish her the best.” June 21, 2008
Proshanto Mitra, CTO, Balasai Net Pvt. Ltd.managed Shefali indirectly at Zensar Technologies

3) “Shefali is one of those professionals who learn each day not just at work but also in spare time, no wonder she has progressed so early in her career. She always has some new perspective to offer in any given situation and is a great team player. Her enthusiasm is contagious and she is not only motivated herself but also instils loads of optimism in the people around. Great going Shefs...” May 29, 2008
Neelam Singh, Consultant, Zensar Technologiesworked directly with Shefali at Zensar Technologies

4) “Shefali is a sincere and dependable professional, keen to expand her horizons and learn new skills.” March 25, 2008
Manjiri Gokhale, Head, Marketing Communication, Zensarmanaged Shefali indirectly at Zensar Technologies

5) “During my interaction with Shefali at Zensar technologies, I found her to be very knowledgeable & responsive in the field she was working for. She also has a positive & cheerful personality, which can be a great asset for any organization she is working with.” March 6, 2008
Ashish Dharap, Manager Systems, Zensar Technologies LTDworked with Shefali at Zensar Technologies

6) “Shefali was highly dedicated at her work and put in the utmost sincerity. She always aimed for near perfection and any task assigned to her could be completely left to her with complete confidence of it getting completed.” February 25, 2008
Aashish Chokhani, Consultant - Marketing & Presales, Zensar Technologiesworked directly with Shefali at Zensar Technologies

7) “Shefali is an exemplary candidate to ensure smooth project roll outs. She continuously pushes the team to think in multiple streams other than the conventional ones which allows the project to happen almost meticulously :)” February 20, 2008
Piyush Upadhyay(piyush.2005@gmail.com), Manager, IPTV Product Management, Bharti Airtel Ltd,Indiawas with another company when working with Shefali at Zensar Technologies

8) “Shefali is one of such rare professionals who always know how to carry out their day to day responsibilities with utmost diligence. Clarity of thoughts and her inimitable attitude make her a refined and mature professional altogether. I have always seen Shefali have a clear growth path and work sincerely but smartly to attain milestones. I am sure of her success and wish her the very best in all her endeavors towards being a finer professional and a wonderful person.” February 19, 2008
Kedar Keskar, Technology Consultant, Zensar Technologiesworked with Shefali at Zensar Technologies

9) “Shefali is a perseverant and diligent marketing professional. During my association with Shefali I found her work exceptional and she showed wonderful acumen in handling all marketing and sales response tasks. I was thoroughly delighted at Shefali's initiatives and proactive activities that elevated sales response in my team to greater heights and set the bar high for other marketing and sales response teams in the organization.” February 18, 2008
Ravi Ramanathan, Head of Marketing & Sales Response, Zensar Technologies Limited managed Shefali at Zensar Technologies

10) “Shefali is a very intelligent and "can-do" person and is a great person to have in a team Dr Ganesh Natarajan” February 18, 2008
Ganesh Natarajan, Global CEO, Zensar Technologiesmanaged Shefali indirectly at Zensar Technologies

Testimonials recieved by Moderators about Moderators Union in Mumbai on June 7, 2008

From Cyrus Malaowala - Moderator of Have-a-Heart
THREE CHEERS..!! and my HEARTY APPRECIATIONS for SHEFALI GAUR,Community Manger, for wonderfully organising, presenting and conducting theYahoo India Moderators’ Union in Mumbai.It was a great event ,informative, interactive and enjoyable.CONGATULATIONS to Yahoo India, and SHEFALI.for making this event so interesting and allowing us group Moderators to express ourselves, and showcase our aims and objectives in forming our groups.Its indeed heartening to see Yahoo India recognising the value and role played by small groups like my Have-A-Heart Group.I will cherish these moments of being together with many larger groups.and wish that Yahoo India and SHEFALI ( she gets BEST MANAGER Award from me ) will remember me and my Have-A-Heart Group for the next event .
Regards, —CYRUS—

From GG Dalal - Moderator of IAEMP
Dear Madam,
It was a very exalting & memorable experience to be with you & the executives of Yahoo on June, 7 ,2008 in Moderator's Union at Mumbai.
Our IAEMP Indian Association of Energy Management Professionals took birth in 2006 with the on-line networking platform provided by Yahoo to IAEMP President Mr. S.K.Sood who pioneered the cause of "conscience keeping to the Nation on energy matters".
You really brought dynamism to the whole gathering in Moderator's Union throughout the meeting.
In order to interact with various groups who participated in the Moderator's Union, I request you to send the list of E-mail addresses for integrating human skill to produce refreshing creations for social welfare.
Best Regards,
G.G.Dalal
Vice-President
IAEMP, Mumbai

From Amar Gutta - Moderator of alumni94
Hi Shefali,
I would want to take a moment of your time and appreciate you and Yahoo team for putting up such a great event in Mumbai. My associate with Yahoo groups has been since I had started the "Alumni94" group and my primary reason for using the group was to keep in touch in with my batch mates but I was amazed to see how people use the Yahoo group for various things like spreading awareness (Whistle Blowers) , answering queries (Accounting & Shares) and also pursuing their hobbies like (Bike Nomads). Infact I am so inspired by the event that I am planning to start a new group for public which can use skills of people like me (into technical background of IT networking). Though the event was delayed due to the incessant rains in Mumbai still you have covered all the moderator introductions and let them speak on stage. I was also fortunate to share the stage time with other moderators and introduce my group to others. I would like to be invited to such events in future and in case you have a mailer group where such announcements are made then please add my email id to that group. Thanks and Congrats once again for hosting such a great event. Regards,Amar Gutta

From Bilquis - Moderator of Dil Maange More
Dear Shefali I am very much thankful of being a part of moderator union which was held on 7th june 2008 in mumbai.I heartily thank the yahoo groups once more for promoting new talents and giving recognition.I thought i was confined to the four walls and be only a homemaker but yesterday event boosted me a lot. Is it possible that you can send pictures taken during the events. Thanking You Bilquis Take Care

From Melvin Dalmeida - Moderator of sharetrading
Hi Shefali and the others at Yahoo team,The moderators union at mumbai was really good and exceeded my expectations. It was nice interacting with moderators and moreso with the yahoo team at least we knew what was the plan of the yahoo team. Most of the groups were quite impressive each one dedicated to their own cause. It was quite nice to know about yahoo locals. Do let your staff who was presenting know that I am trying my best to promote yahoo locals between my friends also I have written about 10-15 different reviews on restuarant and plan to write many more as I come across them. If at all he wants he may feel free to mail me. I have a lot of suggestions and tips to improve the quality at yahoo locals. Do let me know if I could be of any help to you guys in anyway. All the best and keep up the good work!!!Regards,Melvin...

From P. Shrinivasan - Moderator of ANSH2007
Dear Ms. Shefali,Thank you and every team member of YAHOO who has put in a great effort in making the Moderators Meet a grand event. As a moderator if you feel you would need my help at any point of time please do not hesitate to let me know.
I would like to inform that being in Internal Audit field my nature of job is touring almost 15-20 days a month. So whenever you mark any mail to me I shall kindly request you to mark the mail at both my Official mail ID as well as my personal Yahoo ID.
At any point of time if you feel that I can be of any help to you please do not hesitate to contact me.
I can also be contacted at any of the numbers given below.
With Best Regards,P. Shrinivasan

From Vibhu Rishi - Moderator of bikenomads
hi Shefali,
Thanks for giving me the wonderful opportunity of meeting you folks and other moderators whom I do not think I would have met if not for the moderator's union. I have written a short writeup on my blog at :
http://vibhurishi.blogspot.com/2008/06/yahoo-moderators-conference.html
I did not get much time to talk about the Yahoo group features on stage, as time was running out. However, here are a few things I would like to share with the Yahoo Groups team.
1. Please remove alternate yahoo ids if possible. We have had trouble makers whom we had moderated create alternate ids and slip in and again create issues on the group.
2. Can they provide a way of allowing 'n' number of moderated posts (setting depending on the moderators) after which the members posts follows the group rules ? e.g. on BikeNomads, we have the first posts moderated. We use this to check the first few mails of people and see if they are posting proper stuff, after which we have to manually go and change the settings. This is a pain, would be good if Ygroup had a setting for this.
3. Can we lock email threads ? e.g. if mods lock a thread , anyone replying to that gets the mail bounced. ?
4. better threading. its slow and clunky. would be good to have threading on the ygroup page like on slashdot.
i was quite excited about the demos shown.
in.maps.yahoo.com -> we have been using that for finding distances. We got to know about it 2 weeks back by a post on the group.
in.glue.yahoo.com -> looks very neat.
Ygroups 2.0
I was blown away with what you guys are doing, as I was myself wishing for those things. Let me know if you guys want any help from me. I would love to sign up for a pre-alpha if available :D
- I am not sure if there is a provision for adding a blog to it or not. if you check http://www.blogger.com/www.bikenomads.com , we have a blog and a wiki. We would love to have something like that on yahoo group.
Vibhu..

From Jayesh Sampat - Moderator of HRCommunity
Hi Shefali,Thank you for the wonderful evening at the Moderators Meet. I had a great time. It was good to meet you in person.I am looking forward to these interactions with the Yahoo team.Regards,Jayesh Sampat

From Manoj Karam - Moderator of Indian Whistlers
Hi Shefali
At the onset let me thank you and your team for the wonderful event that you organised last evening. This was a first time for me and a great experience. Looking forward to many more similar events from the Yahoo team.
I wish I could have given your team and the audience few more minutes of our unique entertainment programme of whislting. May be next time I should take the liberty of exceeding the time limit that had been set for each speaker :)
Anyways you can always visit our website http://www.blogger.com/www.whistleindia.org for lots of such entertaining events.
As discussed with you I have attached a list of Suggestions, Limitations, Problems which I have come across while moderating our group. I am sure your team may have already noticed most of these and would be alread working on them.
I have made it in a format which should be convenient for all to track the issues and give feedback. Being from the IT industry I can understand how important it is to receive clear problem reports :)
For convenience I have also cc'd this emali to Swami and Prakash.
I am sure your team will do their best to look into these issues.
Regards & Thanks
Manoj Karam

From Kush Singh - Moderator of Bombaynet
Hi Shefali,Thanks for inviting me at the yahoogroups moderators union meet!I LOVED every moment of it and regret not having been able to talk to you adequately enough. There were so many INTERESTING people to meet and network with that day. Wish the momentum is maintained and you continue to play an important role in all this NETWORKING. Its good that Yahoo India is strengthened further in order to make social networking by internet/email a success for the development of the country and the world. I must also congratulate the organising Team once again for a wonderful/splendid/outstanding job that they did. All those who helped organise this event did a SUPERB job.( Don't remember everybody's names so can only mention in no particular order --Diti Shah, Shridhar, Prakash, Swaminathan, Sundeep, Abhishek, Raj and others )I have a few requests/suggestions --1 Would the unedited video of this meet be available somewhere on youtube etc? How can one get a copy of it?2 How could one remain in touch with the moderators who attended this meet? I was able to find only a few moderator groups on yahoogroups and the yahoogroup search is something which needs drastic improvement. Is there any yahoogroup for those who attended these PHYSICAL meetings at Bangalore and Mumbai?3 Who was the videographer/sound specialist contractor for this meeting? Could I have their contact details? Pls keep in touch once in a while.Thanks and regards,Kush

From Bhaskar Jyotish - Moderator of Jyotish Ganga
Dear Shefaliji and Sridharji,
I thank you for inviting me to this great event, which was very well organised, and we really felt special seated with your presence amongst us invitees. You made us feel distinguished and pampered us with your warmth , gifts and the lovely dinner.
We were working silently in our Groups. You brought us from obscurity to the limelight.
Most of all, Yahoo has proved that its not business all the time, but more than that, its about making relations and keeping eternal connections with people, for you have focused on quality within us and not the numbers, as was evident when we went through the programme of the introductions. For this Group who attended the event , Yahoo would always remain their favourites. And so would it be for me. I would always remain grateful to Yahoo and your goodselves for you warmth sharing and and giving us importance.
Yes, one more point, before I leave. All of You speak so well, it was great to hear you talking so effortlessly the flow of words putting us at ease during the function.
best wishes,
Bhaskar.

From Arun Raj - Moderator of Fun_Kingdom
Hey Shefali
It was really a Grand event that took place at sahara star hotel & it was so enchanting than the last event at bangalore, You are doing some great job in Yahoo india & i must also thank you for giving me a chance to share my experience with some older ppls & i was happy to hear from some moderators that they started their group for some noble cause like DR.abhishek having group dealing with blood banks etc & some unique group like the bike normads , illaiyaraja,The_development_cafe, i was lucky to have look at product launch of Yahoo! locals,Really i had nice time there, once Again Thanks for inviting us to such a grand event .With Regards~Arun~

From Arun Vishwanath - Moderator of trainers_forum
Dear Team Yahoo,
Let me at the outset thank you all for organising this wonderful event called the “Moderators Union”.
Yahoogroups while being easy to use and administer is connecting people worldwide!
The introductions from various groups gave us great insights and demonstrated the passion with which the Moderators are working on their pet causes.
Of course, this event personally helped me in benchmarking Trainers Forum. With the planned changes to the Yahoogroups, as presented by Raj Reddy, Yahoogroups would be a great force to reckon with!
We certainly look forward to many more events like this.......
Thanks once again..............
With Warm regards,
Arun Vishwanath
Head - Training

From Dr. Valentine J Gandhi - Moderator of the_development_cafe
Hello and how are you?I just wanted to thank you for organizing a wonderful meet and a great evening. Hats of to you and TEAM YAHOO for organizing the program as well as running a wonderful service as the yahoo groups. Keep up the good work. We are expecting the new features to be introduced soon. I would appreciate if you can show the_development_cafe groups as a featured group. You can use the existing logo. Thank you and regards, Val

PC World names Yahoo! India best Web Portal in the country

It’s official – Yahoo! India is the undoubted no. 1 web portal in the country. PC World announced the 2008 Web Awards recently and picked Yahoo! India as the overall winner of the very coveted title of best Web Portal in India.

Yahoo! India swept this title by a huge margin, leaving several able contenders for the award way behind in therace. Not surprisingly, Yahoo! India picks up this award for the second year in a row! We also picked up the the sub-category win for the portal with the Best Design, under this title.A much deserved win to the outstanding team of Yahoos behind this fantastic web portal.

Here’s what the PC World team had to say:
“Among the many sites in the reckoning, AOL India, MSN, and Yahoo! India raced ahead of the others but the clear winner here was Yahoo! India, which also won last year. It edged out MSN because of its superior design and visual appeal, with the user-friendly interface making it a pleasant experience for the users.”

Read more about the win here - http://www.pcworld.in/india/features/Communications/Web_AwardsPortal/4325504/12

Or simply continue to discover the best Web Portal experience at http://www.yahoo.in/

A whole new Orkut

Like many other young Indians I also jumped on Orkut when it was launched in India and was addicted to it for quite sometime. To give the application its due credit Orkut has helped me very much in overcoming a really bad phase of my life; it was a great stress buster.

Then some horror stories happened in India using Orkut and even some of my friends were also victim and Orkut has lost its charm for many of us until it has introduced some new features like restricted view of your profile to only your friends.

Personally, I find Orkut to be much better for regular interactions than any other SNS; you cant beat the convenience of leaving a scrap. With all the new features Orkut has added (some are little old as well but just to get an overall view in recent times) it is back in favorites:

a) Restricted view of your photos, scraps and practically everything for your friends only
b) Cool Applications
c) Updated Status Message
d) Themes (7 are operational and 5 more to come)
e) Photo Tagging (Tagging of your photo in the entire site)

In a nutshell, Orkut is responding to the competition and innovating the product continuously and so far has been successful in retaining its position of no. 1 social networking site in India.

Social Media in Plain English

Common Craft did it again!

LeeLeFever has come up with Social Media this time. Needless to say that CommonCraft videos are always interesting, attention grabbing and very simple to understand and thats what make them so popular.

This time he has taken an analogoy of a town where the best ice-creams were made. The town grew to have many more ice-cream flavors from the three mundane flavors when every one has started making their own ice-creams rather than depending on one big factory; similarly the market will grow as now with social media every business big or small or even individual has the equal opportunity to connect with their customers. All of them have similar platform to reach out to people who care to listen.

Great Job!

Yahoo! Messenger's latest version 9.0 Beta is launched

Yahoo! has launched the latest version of its Messenger 9.0 Beta on 30th May 2008. Some of the feature enhancements of this version are as follows:

· Pulls user generated content from Buzz and Avatars
· Improved discoverability of status message – choose from 3 states only (thankfully)– Available, Busy, and Invisible; remembers last 5 custom status messages. You can enter the custom messgae in a text field.
· Contact List improvements – contact list can be displayed in either detailed or compact view
· Improved games – Games can be accessed from the Activities button and appear in the same list as plug-ins
· Plug-in selector and skin fixes – new plugin manager and new skins
· Import contacts from other Email, IM and SN sites like facebook , myspace , orkut etc.
· Voice in chat rooms for Vista users

To check the demo of all new features of Yahoo! Messenger 9 go to http://messenger.yahoo.com/promo/demovideo9

To try it yourself download it from http://messenger.yahoo.com/win/