Email more popular than social networking in India

Facebook, Twitter might be flavour of the season, but email remains more popular than social media as a method of internet communication for Indians, says a survey.

According to global research firm Ipsos, 68 per cent of people across India, who are connected online, send and receive emails while about 60 per cent communicate via social networking sites.

“Internet penetration in India has been very good in recent years, however, relative to country like China, India still does lack behind,” Biswarup Banerjee, Head of Marketing & Communications, Ipsos in India said.

Only 25 per cent use voice-over IP ( VOIP) for audio conversations conducted via an internet connection.

The Indian trend of communicating online is largely similar to the global scenario, as a strong majority (85 per cent) of online-connected global citizens in 24 countries use the internet for emails. Globally, 60 per cent use it for social networking, and little over one in ten use the internet for connecting with people through voice-over IP.

According to industry estimates, 103.6 million people will go online in 2012, and the number of users is expected to more than double to 221.6 million by 2015.

“This along with proliferation of internet access through smart phone will further increase the usage of email, social networking sites and other online communication tools,” said Banerjee.

Incidentally, according to another Ipsos survey, around 40 million Indians access the internet through their smart phones, 56 per cent of smartphone users in the country access the internet multiple times a day. Nearly 40 per cent surf the net at least once a day and only 6 per cent never use their phone for connecting to the Web.

Internet users in Hungary (94 per cent) are most likely to say they use the web for emailing, followed by nine in ten of those in Sweden (92 per cent), Belgium (91 per cent), Indonesia (91 per cent), Argentina (90 per cent) and Poland (90 per cent).

Meanwhile, 83 per cent of Indonesians access the net for social media, in Argentina the figure stands at 76 per cent, Russia (75 per cent) and seven in ten of those in South Africa (73 per cent), Sweden (72 per cent), Spain (71 per cent) and Hungary (70 per cent).

“Although Facebook and other popular social networking sites, blogs and forums, were founded in the United States the percentage of users was lower at six in 10, and in Japan it fell to 35 per cent, the lowest of the 24 countries in the global survey,” added Banerjee.

Ipsos interviewed a total of 19,216 adults in the month of February in an online survey across 24 countries.

Displaying Latest Twitter Feeds

PHP Function to Displaying Latest Twitter Feeds

<?php

function display_latest_tweets(
$twitter_user_id, $cache_file = ‘./twitter.txt’,
$tweets_to_display = 100, $ignore_replies = false,
$twitter_wrap_open = ‘<h2>Latest tweets</h2><ul id=”twitter”>’,
$twitter_wrap_close = ‘</ul>’, $tweet_wrap_open = ‘<li><span class=”status”>’,
$meta_wrap_open = ‘</span><span class=”meta”> ‘, $meta_wrap_close = ‘</span>’,
$tweet_wrap_close = ‘</li>’, $date_format = ‘g:i A M jS’, $twitter_style_dates = false) {
// Seconds to cache feed (1 hour).
$cachetime = 60*60;

// Time that the cache was last filled.
$cache_file_created = ((@file_exists($cache_file))) ? @filemtime($cache_file) : 0;

// A flag so we know if the feed was successfully parsed.
$tweet_found = false;

// Show file from cache if still valid.
if (time() – $cachetime < $cache_file_created) {
$tweet_found = true;

// Display tweets from the cache.
@readfile($cache_file);
}
else {
// Cache file not found, or old. Fetch the RSS feed from Twitter.
$rss = @file_get_contents(‘http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/&#8217;.$twitter_user_id.’.rss’);
if($rss) {
// Parse the RSS feed to an XML object.
$xml = @simplexml_load_string($rss);

if($xml !== false) {
// Error check: Make sure there is at least one item.
if (count($xml->channel->item)) {
$tweet_count = 0;
// Start output buffering.
ob_start();

// Open the twitter wrapping element.
$twitter_html = $twitter_wrap_open;

// Iterate over tweets.
foreach($xml->channel->item as $tweet) {
// Twitter feeds begin with the username, “e.g. User name: Blah”
// so we need to strip that from the front of our tweet.
$tweet_desc = substr($tweet->description,strpos($tweet->description,”:”)+2);
$tweet_desc = htmlspecialchars($tweet_desc);
$tweet_first_char = substr($tweet_desc,0,1);

// If we are not gnoring replies, or tweet is not a reply, process it.
if ($tweet_first_char!=’@’ || $ignore_replies==false) {
$tweet_found = true;
$tweet_count++;

// Add hyperlink html tags to any urls, twitter ids or hashtags in the tweet.
$tweet_desc = preg_replace(‘/(https?:\/\/[^\s”<>]+)/’,'<a href=”$1″>$1</a>’,$tweet_desc);
$tweet_desc = preg_replace(‘/(^|[\n\s])@([^\s”\t\n\r<:]*)/is’, ‘$1<a href=”http://twitter.com/$2″>@$2</a>&#8217;, $tweet_desc);
$tweet_desc = preg_replace(‘/(^|[\n\s])#([^\s”\t\n\r<:]*)/is’, ‘$1<a href=”http://twitter.com/search?q=%23$2″>#$2</a>&#8217;, $tweet_desc);

// Convert Tweet display time to a UNIX timestamp. Twitter timestamps are in UTC/GMT time.
$tweet_time = strtotime($tweet->pubDate);
if ($twitter_style_dates) {
// Current UNIX timestamp.
$current_time = time();
$time_diff = abs($current_time – $tweet_time);
switch ($time_diff) {
case ($time_diff < 60):
$display_time = $time_diff.’ seconds ago’;
break;
case ($time_diff >= 60 && $time_diff < 3600):
$min = floor($time_diff/60);
$display_time = $min.’ minutes ago’;
break;
case ($time_diff >= 3600 && $time_diff < 86400):
$hour = floor($time_diff/3600);
$display_time = ‘about ‘.$hour.’ hour’;
if ($hour > 1){ $display_time .= ‘s’; }
$display_time .= ‘ ago’;
break;
default:
$display_time = date($date_format,$tweet_time);
break;
}
}
else {
$display_time = date($date_format,$tweet_time);
}

// Render the tweet.
$twitter_html .= $tweet_wrap_open.$tweet_desc.$meta_wrap_open.'<a href=”http://twitter.com/&#8217;.$twitter_user_id.'”>’.$display_time.'</a>’.$meta_wrap_close.$tweet_wrap_close;
}

// If we have processed enough tweets, stop.
if ($tweet_count >= $tweets_to_display) {
break;
}
}

// Close the twitter wrapping element.
$twitter_html .= $twitter_wrap_close;
echo $twitter_html;

// Generate a new cache file.
$file = @fopen($cache_file, ‘w’);

// Save the contents of output buffer to the file, and flush the buffer.
@fwrite($file, ob_get_contents());
@fclose($file);
ob_end_flush();
}
}
}
}

// In case the RSS feed did not parse or load correctly, show a link to the Twitter account.
if (!$tweet_found) {
echo $twitter_wrap_open.$tweet_wrap_open.’Oops, our twitter feed is unavailable right now. ‘.$meta_wrap_open.'<a href=”http://twitter.com/&#8217;.$twitter_user_id.'”>Follow us on Twitter</a>’.$meta_wrap_close.$tweet_wrap_close.$twitter_wrap_close;
}
}

display_latest_tweets(‘<twitter-username>’);

?>

Twitter facelifts its homepage

Twitter has revamped its homepage, offering a brand new microblogging UI that serves up more stuff alongside your collection of self-serving mini-messages – from embedded photos and videos to geolocation tags.

“We’re introducing a new, re-engineered Twitter.com that provides an easier, faster, and richer experience,” Twitter co-founder Evan Williams said in a blog post.

Yes, the page is still centered around your never-ending stream of “tweets.” But above this timeline, you’ll find new links to additional lists, including your “retweets” and searches. And when you click on a tweet, a second pane appears on the right-hand side of the page, for viewing additional stuff, including replies, more tweets from the same user, a map showing where the tweet was sent from, or embedded media. Embedded photo and video viewing is provided via partnerships with the likes of Flickr, TwitPic, Vimeo, and YouTube.

You can also click on a sender’s name to view a truncated version of their profile. Twitter provides a video of the redesign here:

Williams said the redesign will roll out to users “as a preview” over the next several weeks. Some accounts, he said, will receive it as soon as Tuesday night. During the preview period, you’ll have the option of returning the old interface. But eventually, all Twittering types will be moved to the new Twitter.

Young Indians on Social Networks Through Mobile

A new survey has revealed that 30 percent of young Indians access social networking sites through mobile phones. The survey was conducted with over 350 respondents in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore. In terms of usage, Facebook is the first, followed by LinkedIn

Indiabiz News and Research Services (INRS) has conducted this research and is called Social Media survey. The survey has also tried to breakdown the usage on social networking sites. It claims that 63 percent of those who took the poll have never engaged with Communities, Groups and Fan pages on networking sites. About 11 percent of users join social networking sites on recommendation from friend, the rest join on their own. 90 percent of the users join social networking site to follow or stay in touch with their friends, while 80 percent follow their friends for their pictures.

37 percent of the survey respondents were aged between 26-30 years age group and almost 35 percent of them were professionals with mid-level jobs. This might be the reason that LinkedIn dominated with 45.8 percent vote, followed by 36.5 percent for YouTube and 29.6 percent for Twitter. Strangely the survey does not tell us and statistic about Facebook but just claims that it has the highest usage.

Nokia N900 handset soars into Indian market

Nokia has news for those looking out for a mobile computing solution that’s easy to fit into a pocket. Nokia has brought the N900 smartphone to Indian shores. The handset flaunts a high resolution 3.5″ WVGA touch screen and full slide-out QWERTY keypad for comfortable typing.

The device is fitted with a 5MP camera that boasts of Carl Zeiss optics and dual LED flash. Users can enjoy multiple connectivity options like access to 3G networks, Ovi services and apps like Nokia Maps, messaging, IM, Ovi Files through the Ovi Store. This phone allows access to e-mail, social networking sites, music, websites, images, and more. It provides users with memory of up to 32GB that can be expanded by up to 48GB through a microSD card.

“Mobile computing has undergone a substantive evolution owing to changing consumer needs. Technology enthusiasts and mobile workers today seek much more from their mobile device more power, more ability, enhanced functionality and constant connectivity,” affirmed Jasmeet Gandhi, Head of Product and Services Marketing, Nokia India, while commenting on the N900’s unveiling.

Apart being powered by an ARM Cortex-A8 processor, the handset offers up to 1GB of application memory and OpenGL ES 2.0 for graphics acceleration. Users can switch between applications and access running content through the dashboard. The phone allows the home screen to be customized with favorite shortcuts, widgets and applications as per user requirements.

The N900 has been attributed with Nokia’s Linux based Maemo operating platform which is a web based program which complements Nokia’s smartphones that run the Symbian OS. This software equips developers to create various applications such as podcasting, IM apps and Twitter among others. The tag cloud UI allows users to share images and videos online directly from the phone. The device is touted to possess multi tasking capabilities that let users to open several applications simultaneous.

Automatic Maemo updates provide users with video calling and FB chat support, software upgrades, portrait browsing, e-mail and calendar improvements. This gadget is equipped with Mozilla technology that makes websites look the way they would appear on a PC. Additionally, the quality of the online videos and interactive apps is enhanced with full Adobe Flash 9.4 support. The device enables speedy internet connectivity via 10/2 HSPA and WLAN. Users can surf web pages while chatting on instant messaging or listening to music.

“The Nokia N900 has been designed specifically to address the unique needs of this section of consumers, who are obsessed with all new forms of technology. With an open source operating system, faster multitasking ability, incorporated technology like an OMAP processor, real time web widgets and the ability to be connected just about anywhere, the Nokia N900 has kick started a new era of powerful mobile computing,” added Gandhi.

The winning participant or ‘Maemo Master’ of Nokia’s newly launched ‘The Maemo Masters Invitational Series’ interactive web based initiative for mobile and technology buffs across India will be invited to purchase a special Maemo Master Edition of the N900. This special edition will encompass the Nokia N900, Nokia BH 214 Bluetooth stereo headset and more.

The Nokia N900 will be available for purchase from June 9 this year through Nokia branded outlets in major cities across India. The price tag attached to this handset is unclear for now.

Olive Announces Triple SIM QWERTY Phone

The Olive brand is now famous in the country for one device they launched last month. Remember the Olive FrvrOn handset? Probably the only phone in the world to come in dual power options. The phone, apart from having a normal Li-Ion battery, also packed in a slot for an AA battery that can be used to power the phone for a few minutes in an emergency.

The same company has now announced the launch of the Wiz VGC800, a new triple SIM QWERTY mobile for the Indian market. Olive claims it is the first triple SIM phone to arrive in a QWERTY keypad form factor. The VGC800 supports two GSM SIM cards and a CDMA connection.

The phone is social networking ready and comes with Facebook Twitter, MSN and Yahoo clients. It also comes preloaded with Opera Mini for browsing needs. Thanks to the QWERTY keypad and a decent e-mail client, it can double up as a capable e-mail device as well.

Other features include a basic 2.0 megapixel camera. The screen is a not so large 2.2-inch one capable of displaying 262K colors. Connectivity options include Bluetooth and USB. It has a built in FM radio, stereo headset and speaker phone.

The Olive Wiz VGC800 is priced at Rs. 6,000.

Twitter tries to calm developer fears over Tweetie acquisition

Company bought Tweetie to ‘avoid confusion’ among new Twitter users, says engineer

Ryan Sarver, an engineer at Twitter, said the company had acquired third-party client Tweetie in order to make it easier for newcomers to the microblogging service to download a Twitter app. Although there are dozens of third-party clients available, none are allowed to feature “Twitter” in there name, leading to potential confusion.

“We realised that it was causing massive confusion among user’s who had an iPhone and were looking to use Twitter for the first time,” wrote Sarver in a blog post to the development community. “They would head to the App Store, search for Twitter and would see results that included a lot of apps that had nothing to do with Twitter and a few that did, but a new user wouldn’t find what they were looking for and give up. That is a lost user for all of us. This means that we were missing out an opportunity to grow the userbase which is beneficial for the health of the entire ecosystem.”

Sarver also sought to allay the fears of developers who were concerned that Twitter might be about to launch its own suite of products and services traditionally catered for by third-party clients. He said that Twitter would never use the word “official” to describe a mobile or desktop app, but that the company would be adding new functionality to its site, and making acquisitions where appropriate to improve the ecosystem and user experience.

“Each one of those things has the potential to upset a company or developer that may have been building in that space and they then have to look for new ways to create value for users,” he acknowledged. “My promise is that we will be consistent in always focusing on what’s best for the user and the ecosystem as a whole and we will be sincere and honest in our communication with you.”

But industry commentators believe the acquisition of Tweetie could signal the death knell for third-party clients. “When all is said and done, the Twitter client market is dead, a winner has been chosen,” said Zee Kane, editor-in-chief of The Next Web. “The same thing happened for Twitter search and it will happen again for any other Twitter app niche.

“Who visits the App Store, sees ‘Twitter for iPhone’ and thinks it isn’t the official Twitter app? What chance to apps like Tweetdeck and Twittelator have when ‘Twitter for iPhone’ from Twitter ranks first on all Twitter keyword searches in the App Store?”

Twitter is holding Chirp, its first official developer conference, in San Francisco later this week. It appears its acquisition of Tweetie relates only to the iPhone app; Atebits, the company behind the third-party client, said it would be developing Tweetie for the Mac platform, and was putting together a beta as fast as it could.