Jan 17, 2001 07:54 PM
10929 Views
(Updated Sep 30, 2002 09:49 PM)
Four years ago, Times Of India was facing a crisis. Majority of the world's leading news houses such as the Gannett, Knight Rider and NY Times were moving online. Times Of India was not only not online, even it's domain name was not registered. This was early 1996. Somehow they managed to register https://timesofindia.com and brought their ''The Leader Sets the Standard'' newspaper online. Overnight, the site was success. I guess their servers crashed and they in their arrogance you bet boasted about it!
Two years ago, rediff.com and 123india.com fuelled with VC money were challenging https://timesofindia.com This site was plain, static (updated once a day at 1159 p.m. I think) and was badly organized. The new Jains (young and hip) at Bennett and Coleman perplexed at the situation and announced the launch of Indiatimes.com. Since then they have tried sooo hard to match rediff.com and other horizontal portals, albeit in vain.
Indiatimes, in it's pursuit to attract people to it's portal, obtained a clear, arrogant, undemocratic mandate from Bennett and Coleman to use every resource at disposal. This lead to a sense of threat and fear. So while rediff.com started paying for multiple full pages in Times Of India and publicised rediff.com, Indiatimes started using the power of Print media, shamelessly donated by Times Of India.
Indiatimes.com was now projected as ''the best portal'' as if there was nothing in the world before Indiatimes.com Indiatimes.com press releases are now generously, judiciously and decisively converted into front page stories on Times Of India. They promote their Indiatimes contests as something launched from heaven and God has personally delivered on earth.Try try and you will never succeed said the general public to Indiatimes.
A newspaper is a collective property. Once you are trusted by the masses, you should not play with their emotions. Promotion of Indiatimes.com in Times Of India was playing with emotions. It was is arrogant declaration that ''Times Of India can promote whoever, whatever they want, because Times has no competitor...'' ahhh how arrogant.
Indiatimes.com became greedy. When they found that online contests are the next big thing and no more contests are appearing in print, it started Indiatimes Contests by hiring the brain from Contest2win.com How unethical. Alok Kejriwal are you listening?
Indiatimes manipulates it's page views in public reports...but alexaresearch.com will not lie. Alexaresearch.com will tell you that Indiatimes.com, inspite of all it's effort is nowhere even close to rediff.com in terms of # of pageviews.
Ok, now that I have cringed enough about Indiatimes.com as a company, let me expose the site.
a) It's content is not as deep as other horizontal portals. Although Indiatimes.com is flashy. They have few sections but they hype it so well, we are made to believe that it's deep.
b) Their email sucks. I literally mean, it will suck up your time and will never open, just like hotmail.com
c) They rely on the power of lust..they attract visitors by placing a pic of a semi-nude model on the right handside...always...even their polls are like ''Have you ever dated your best friend's boyfriend/girlfriend behind their back?'' oh what a poll. Dont we and the nation has more important issues.
d)Their local initiative timescity.com is badly organized.
e) Their customer service is real bad. I can never trust any response from them, cause they never respond. Do you know they have a feedback suggestion box. Most professional sites have feedback form, Indiatimes feedback form asks you your ''date of birth'' and occupation. Why don't you ask my passport # and University seat # also.
f) Contact Info. There is no way you can reach indiatimes.com They have no phone nos. listed. nothing. Apply apply no reply situation. Am not talking about job application, am talking about a query that I posted them.
g)I have a story. We were initiating some alliance for my portal. And I wrote to them using the online form on their dumb site., there was no other way to contact them. I never got a response. I called their Delhi Office. I was asked to call Bombay office and speak to Swapna Bhanderkar. We spoke to her. She asked us to send an email to her...she gave her email id as swapna.bhandarkar@indiatimes.com. Mailed...mail bounced back...called her again. She apologized and gave another address swapna.bhandarkar@timesgroup.com mailed her...bounced back again...so she gave another addresss swapnabhandarkar@indiatimes.com Believe mme even this email bounced and that was the end of Swapna Bhandarkar. It's Indiatimes' loss because we soon merged with another portal and we made some money; but Indiatimes.com has employees that do not even know their email address...would you trust such a portal?
To summarize, oh god, this review sounds like a MBA project. My bottomline: Indiatimes.com is just a hype, with nothing of value on it, whose employees are dumb and dont care to respond.
