Now plan out what you can do in the time you save

Search is a intriguing subject. You try to make computers do a job which humans do best. Ability to marry a user intention to appropriate search result is a one line problem but millions of lines of code and uncountable number of pizzas, cokes(pepsis too), nightouts and hard work by lots of engineers across the globe has gone in to solve this.

The various steps involved in an entire search experience are

1. A stimulant which caused the desire to search. The stimulant might be not knowing where Baluchistan is in  a conversation with a friend or you just got a call from your wife to book an appointment with a dentist.
2. Next step is to search for an appropriate tool to perform the search. This tool might be internet based technology, friends or books. Lot of us have already a clear algorithm in our mind on what source to use base don the context and in some cases we might end up using multiple tools also.
3. People who start using internet based technology have another important problem in hand. They need to figure out the keywords which they can use on search engines and effectively you have to do a search before search!
4. Once they are done with the keyword selection it is time to fire it to an engine and iterate till you get the desired result.
5. And now comes the fullfillment which might be reading up a webpage or calling up the doctor to fix an appointment.

So all this story was just to explain you the brand new features on our site which enable you to compress Step 3 and 4.

We have enabled a feature called auto suggest which keeps thinking as you type your query and keeps suggesting you options based on your selected city to ease your job and save some time on typing also.
Besides that we also have search suggestions to help you iterare better.

So happy searching and feedback most welcome.

AskLaila.com

Take just a moment, and think about why you’re here.
(Bear with me, I do actually have a point.)

You’re visiting this blog, because you’d like to know more about asklaila.
In other words, you have a few questions that you’d like answered.

And that, in a nutshell, is precisely what Laila does.
Laila answers your questions.

Laila is a local search engine, custom tailored to meet Indian needs.

This is where you can find the answers to all the questions you have about your city.
(Although we’re operating only in Bangalore for now, we’ll soon be in India’s top 6 cities.)

From pasta joints to plumbers, concerts to chaat-waalas, this is where you’ll get all the essential info. you need -including contact numbers, landmarks, hours of operation. 

Yes. Yes. I know. You want more.

Well, you can also browse articles and reviews, trade gossip, find reviews and lots more.
All, in easy to share mode, through SMS or e-mail.
So why? Why do this, in the first place?

Because it needs to be done. Because like you, I’m tired of the fact that there are no accurate and comprehensive services online for local information. Because we shouldn’t have to rely on obsolete phone books, or frivolous “city portals”, for the information we need. And because there are a whole lot of people, who feel just the way we do.

Now I could give you a lot of heavy spiel about the algorithms and data crunching.
And everything else that makes all this possible.
But I’d much rather introduce you to the rest of Laila’s gang.

The prime culprits are Kiran Konduri and Shriram Adukoorie the co-founders, and Bal Krishna Birla the chief technical officer.

They got the ball rolling, and sold the rest of us on the idea.

They did such a good job, that for the last 6 months, we’ve done nothing but eat, sleep and breathe Laila. (And believe me when I say, there’s wasn’t a whole lot of sleep.)

BTW, and I’m speaking for everyone here, what do you think of the fruit of our labour?

You see, we’re very keen on feedback. We think it’s the greatest thing since cookie dough ice cream. Plus, it’s the best way we know of, to constantly improve.

And it’s not all a one way street. To start talking back to Laila, just register, and log on.You can post comments, rate entries and even suggest a few of your own.All in all, just think of Laila, as the girl next door.

No. Not that one.
The other one.
The nice one.
 

Solving things the smart way…

One of the problem with a pure tech company where people only understand technology is that they think they can solve “world hunger and poverty” with technology and algorithms. But in a real world most problems are not technology solvable nor is technology always optimum.

A classic example is the Russian and American pencil/space pen story. In India especially, you need nifty little solutions that do the job and most times they are non-tech solutions. A classic case is, in India people ask others for directions, which is much more practical than carrying a map and trying to find your route when the city is always crowded and you are stuck in traffic.

One of the core competencies that companies can boast of is of having people who can think of problems in a holistic way, getting the big picture and solving the problem than deciding the methods to solve it beforehand. And for a company like ours working in the Indian domain, it is so very important to solve things the smart way, which works and is optimum.

Open standards

Its a dream, of every developer. A dream to have the freedom to build things in a single optimized, elegant fashion. Where the mind hasn’t got to think how to make things work on different platforms. Where one can focus on what is to be done and how best to make it more usable than how to make it work on a hundred platforms.

Lets take the most obvious example of the web, lets see what we have here…

1. We have different UI engines, starting from javascript, flash, ajax and then different implementations of these.

2. We have the age old battle of REST v/s SOAP

3. And most important of all we have browser wars. Is it IE, Firefox, Safari, Konqueror

So how does one make a decision on what technologies to use and what technologies to use and what platforms to support.

Does one go with what most used technologies/platforms? Or does one choose the best available, which probably has a brighter future too. Its a dilemma. Though we have all kind of statistics telling what is to be used and what not be, ideally you want to serve every user in a right manner and wouldn’t want to lose out.

I think its just a gut feel for now till we have Open standards…