Google Wave is ‘Email Refreshed.’ The entire purpose of Email when it came into existence was to be a more effective medium than ’snail’ mail. As a result, Email wasn’t built to be able to include videos within the message or to have an embedded Monopoly board that would allow you to play the game with your friends via Email. No one back then thought that you would be able to do such things over the Internet and consequently the way Email is right now, such features can not be added. So Google has built a whole new tool called Wave that allows rich communication and collaboration and that could potentially phase out Email.

Wave also tackles a lot of small problems that currently exist with E-mail and Instant Messaging. For example, when there is a long exchange of mails amongst a large group and someone important gets included at a later stage – then he or she may find the context missing. Also, some may reply to an older email in which case the new people on the list may get left out again. With Google Wave that would not happen. It introduces a playback button which takes you through the entire exchange of messages sequentially like in a video.

Apart from several such improvements, Google Wave also allows you to collaborate with friends and colleagues. So it gives you the ability to collaborate on a presentation or solve a sudoku puzzle along with a friend or play chess against someone without needing any attachments.

While all of this makes it sound like a revolutionary concept, the truth is that the smaller improvements come at the expense of a lot of complexity and requires a user to learn a whole new way to communicate. Despite my savviness with technology, I found the tool extremely painful to understand and use. Also, while the collaboration ability is actually path-breaking – one may want to use it either to work on documents with colleagues or to play games with friends. And for that we already have document collaboration tools like Google Docs and if one wants to play games with friends you would rather go to Orkut or Facebook. The whole point is, why would anyone want to collaborate on a document or play a game inside an email when there are better ways of doing it on other applications such as social networks?

Verdict: Google Wave will get an extended run because it’s from the Google stable but in its current avatar it won’t see too much success. Google is probably desperate to win an audience that is fast moving towards Facebook for all its communication needs. But then Wave is definitely not the answer.

=
This review was written for the first edition (November 2009) of the newly launched Times Group magazine called Top of Mind that is focused on celebrating marketing excellence. (Scanned copy)

Advantage #1: Be invisible. Unlike other job sites, your HR Manager would never know you’re using Workosaur.
Before you tell us that other sites allow you to hide your profile from your HR Manager, hear us out. Almost every company using popular job sites to access resumes, use a third-party recruiter login to check who’s looking out. Naturally, the only person who loses out in the process is you. Your privacy gets violated and there’s nothing you can do about it. And no, we don’t allow that on our site.

Advantage #2: We did not sell our soul to the devil and we do not sell your CV to anyone.
Job sites make money by selling their resume database to Tom, Dick & Harry – and not necessarily to people who are potential employers.

Advantage #3: Workosaur is India’s only exclusive site for 7-figure jobs for 7-figure professionals.
A few cheap imitiations are sure to crop up. But you’re smart enough to separate the wheat from the chaff.

For more, check this space.

Here’s how people reacted to this question on our Facebook page. To participate in this discussion, head over here.

• Ekta Adani: This question needs to be met with a resounding ‘no’ from everyone in corporate India.
• Praveen Kumar: I strongly believe that they work towards an organizations profit and should get their fair deal. While austerity in public figures is expected as they live on public money, extending the same on private institutions is downright ridiculous.
• Kaustubh Mishra: Definitely NO, why should a person who deserves the BEST should compromise, when a lot of Political Jerks enjoy the Perks Freely..
• Vibhash Prakash Awasthi: Agree with Kaustubh!!!
• Puja Adani: There’s an article on Rediff via Business Standard on this matter. Check this link
• Ashish Srivastava: I am actually divided on this question. On one hand, I agree that salary of the CEO and other employees should be controlled by the market dynamics, but on the other hand, I am appalled by the behavior of CEOs like Dick Fuld, John Thain, Rick Wagoner and the likes.Apparently, without checks and balances human beings will go out of control. So … See Morethere has to be a way to justify how much the CEO (and for that matter any executive) makes vs how the company does.That being said, I still maintain that government needs to stay out of private business and should rather introspect why tax payers money is being flushed down the toilet building statues and celebrating birthdays and anniversaries.
• Workosaur: Ashish, the context here is the recent statement by Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid and trade unions calling for the regulation of CEO salaries in India.
• Avnish Anand: I think a company which seeks a bailout from the govt loses the right to operate by market dynamics. A company which runs on its own and keep its stakeholders happy has every right to make its own decisions. Why should trade unions be worried about CEO salaries of companies which don’t even have a trade union. For a long long time we had been paying our CEO’s poorly, so much so that most of the good people left for better paying jobs abroad.The trade unions and the ministry didn’t want to ape America then. Now they want to copy them. Salman Khurshid should shut up and focus on other issues.
• Kaustubh Mishra: @ Avnish – totally agreed.
• Workosaur.com: Hmm, I think this is yet another ‘me too’ debate inspired by the US. In US there is a definite case for this because they have data to prove it.Real wage (Inflation adjusted) for the American worker has been the same since the mid 70s. In the same period Average CEO salaries has gone from being 25 times that of the average production worker to 500 times. (Links below)In India I am fairly certain we do not have this data.

  A major reasons why this happens
  1. Stock markets review a CEOs performance quarterly. It is in the CEOs benefit to keep stock prices up. CEOs are not sure of their future for long and negotiate large salaries and severance packages
  2. Stock options are a major source of CEO remuneration, this becomes a very personal motive for the CEO to keep markets happy and prices high

  The result, CEO try and control costs as much as possible, some of the favorite levers are controlling salaries, automation and outsourcing. Control cost of human capital.

  Having said this, I still think rather than controlling costs CEO remuneration must be made performance focused & transparent. The stock holders and other employees should know why a CEO is getting a hike or why is he/she is getting a cut.

  Link 1 | Link 2

• Sandeep Laxman: Should salaries of CEOs be controlled? – Definitely. But to what extent is the question. We often tend to misinterpret a fast growing company as a successful company and the shareholders are happy to pay the CEO his multi-million dollar salary. However a quick and continuous increase in size may not be akin to the performance of the CEO. Take Subhiksha and Suzlon as examples. Though they grew extremely fast in the past few years, they are currently struggling to pay their debt.I think it is important that something more than money drive the CEO of a company. Take a look at Warren Buffett – one of the world’s richest people. He takes home a salary of just $100,000 which is even lesser than what most MBA pass outs get. Steve Jobs is another such example.Kindly note, that I am not emphasizing that good CEOs should not get rewarded but just stating that it is more beneficial to ensure that its not just money that drives him.
• Krishna Prasad: The shareholders have the right to decide…to align it with performance…no outsider can comment or attempt to regulate this.
• Ganesh Ramakrishnan: Not necessarily. how much money will be saved and where will this money go to… this is the next question / problem
• Workosaur.com: Experts over at ‘India Knowledge@Wharton’ had this to say – Executive compensation and risk-taking are closely tied. An asymmetric risk-reward structure and short-term incentives incite people to take risky decisions and cash out before bad consequences are played out.

A post on TechCrunch says that Google has put up signs around the MIT campus with a code that reads, “If you can figure this out, you may have a future with Google.” The code that follows is an array of alphabets and numbers and has been reproduced below:

Apparently, the code reveals a phone number where you can call in and leave your contact information. So go ahead and take a shot at it.

Update (Sep 23, 2009):
The code has been solved. It’s a alphanumeric substitution cipher with the key being JOBS. So, the code for translation works as follows:

JOBS = 0123 (J=0, O=1, B=2, S=3)

And hence the alphanumeric series is to be deciphered as:

0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
456789ABCDE2FGHIJKL0MNOP1QRS3TUVWXYZ

The result:
CONGRA T UL ATION SK EE PSEAR CHIN GORCALL6 17 6390 570×10
CONGRATULATIONS KEEP SEARCHING OR CALL 617 639 0570 (extension 10)

We just had a free-wheeling conversation with Meetul Patel, India Head of the Transformational Consulting Practice at Capgemini Consulting. His career story makes for a compelling read and he also has some great advice for aspiring CEOs. We’ve shared the conversation here.

This 128-page presentation called “Reference Guide on our Freedom & Responsibility Culture” was circulated at Netflix a few weeks ago. It details the prevalent culture at Netflix. What was meant to be an internal document for employees to read, has now become a killer recruitment pitch.

We’ve put together the fifth edition of 42.0 – Ted Turner 42.0. This is a set of 42 quotes by Turner selected by us after going through all the articles where he’s been quoted. This compilation was put together by my friend, Adwaita, and it’s a must-read. My favourite is Quote #41:

I know what I’m having ‘em put on my tombstone: ‘I have nothing more to say.’

The Manpower Employment Outlook Survey (MEOS) is conducted quarterly to measure employers’ hiring intentions in the forthcoming quarter as compared to the current quarter. This survey is based on interviews with 72,000 public and private sector employers across 35 countries to measure anticipated employment trends each quarter. In India the sample size is nearly 5637.

Key Findings of MEOS Q4, 2009

• With a Net Employment Outlook of +25%, India’s employers report the most optimistic forecast among all 35 countries and territories participating in the survey. India’s Outlook has improved by 6 percentage points quarter-over-quarter, but weakens by 14 percentage points when compared to 4Q 2008.
• Employers in four of seven industry sectors and three of four regions surveyed report stronger Outlooks when compared to 3Q 2009.
• Hiring optimism is strongest among employers in the Wholesale & Retail Trade (+34%) industry sector. The sector Outlook is 13 percentage points stronger quarter-over-quarter and 3 percentage points weaker year-over-year.
• Manpower India cites a recent Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ASSOCHAM) study that indicates jobs in infrastructure, construction and hospitality are expected to ‘increase tremendously’ in advance of the Commonwealth Games scheduled in 2010.
• The softest hiring pace in India is reported by employers in the Transportation & Utilities (+16%) industry sector employers where the Outlook declines by 2 and a considerable 20 percentage points quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year, respectively. This is the least optimistic forecast by sector employers since the survey began in 3Q 2005.
• Employers in the Manufacturing (+21%) industry sectors are also reporting the least optimistic hiring forecasts since the India survey began in 3Q 2005.
• Employers in the East and South (both at +25%) regions report the country’s strongest hiring expectations. The Outlook in the East is 3 percentage points stronger quarter-over-quarter but 7 percentage points softer year-over-year. Despite the comparative optimism, employer hiring intentions in the South are the weakest reported in the region since the survey began in 3Q 2005, and decline by 16 and 18 percentage points quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year, respectively.
• Employers in the West (+20%) region report the country’s weakest hiring intentions. While the Outlook is 7 percentage points stronger when compared to 3Q 2009, it declines on a year-over-year basis by a considerable 16 percentage points.

Read the entire report below:

Shared from the Slideshare Newsletter:

These seven presentations are handpicked by the Applicant Blog at applicant.com. They also got some love from from getthatjobonline.com

1. Effective Job Interviewing from Both Sides of the Desk
   It is gives great advice by looking at both sides of the job interview. My favorite tidbit is, “Your Awesomeness is not self-evident.”
2. 10 Job Search Attitudes that Will Get You More Interviews
   Short, but sweet. I think attitude is often an overlooked piece in the job hunt puzzle. My favorite tidbit is, “I will search as if I don’t need a job.”
3. Rethink your Job Search
   This reads a bit like marketing material for JobTiger, but is still has good content. My favorite tidbit is, “Tap into job openings that may not have been published.”
4. Leveraging LinkedIn for the Job Search
   A great little walkthrough on using LinkedIn for your job search. Favorite tidbit, “When you find a connection, leverage it to find other connections.”
5. 10 Commandements of Job Search
   This is the presentation by the Applicant Blog, and it stresses staying positive. “Ignore the fact that your friend, uncle, aunt and even your mother-in-law is unemployed. It’s about you.”
6. Job Search with Social Media & Mobile
   This is a great presentation that covers LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter & some mobile apps. “Maxims remain the same … tactics are very different.”
7. Converging Trends Impacting Your Job Search
   It covers a lot of ground discussing marketing trends, social media and what networking means today. “Become a content expert … shift, cull & create content”

(Link via Yash)

If you are designing software for the social web, then this is one presentation that you absolutely must go through. The presentation looks at ways to tackle the 3 big problems of social software:

1. The Sign-up Problem i.e. People don’t seem to be signing up for our service despite an interest in it.
2. The First-time Use Problem i.e. First-timers on your site don’t know what to do or how to get started.
3. The Ongoing Engagement Problem i.e. What comes first – users or the value?

The presentation prompted me to re-look the ways I have been building out Workosaur and there’s something in it for everyone.

If you like the presentation, then do follow Joshua Porter’s blog for some great insights on interface design / social web design.