sadakmap.com

We just released “SadakMap Updates”. Users will now receive an email feed for subscribed topics. Any time a user adds a mark or joins a SadakMap Group, the user is subscribed to the mark or the Group. Any future updates on the mark or the Group are then sent to the user as an email feed. A great way to keep track of updates to the map. Soon, users will also be able to subscribe to a feed for specific regions on the map (e.g. cities, neighborhoods, etc).

Happy mapping…

We are slowly turning into a “Blog on a Map”. With our new “sadakMap Groups” feature, one can create custom maps regarding any topic, invite others to collaboratively manage the content of the group (think writing a blog post) and once it is published, allowing anyone to post comments. Track your classmates around the globe, plot your last travel vacation, express yourself. Some of the groups:

• Indian Startups
• DLF Indian Premier League 2008

Coming soon, a RSS-like feed for posts on the map. Lets you subscribe to Groups, updates on specific markers, areas on the map. Sure does sound like a “blog” - just on the backdrop of a map, though.

Our “Personal Online Business Card” feature, which we call the SpotMeUrl, now looks more like a real business card. It allows users to select an emotive face (actual photo upload coming soon) and display a personal message. We track the user’s activity such as the number of marks they have made on the map and how many unique visitors have they had (those visiting their SpotMeUrl page). Here is a snapshot of what it looks like.

Thanks to our selection at this years Innovation 2008 (http://www.innovations-pune.com), we got interviewed by Times Of India and were profiled in its Pune edition. Checkout the article (http://www.sadakmap.com/pr/timesofindia.jpg).

The Innovations 2008 was an excellent venue for us and we benefited a lot from the exhibition, presentation Q&A, and listening to the special invitees. Above all, we benefited the most by being able to talk to a lot of users who stopped by our stall and gave us valuable feedback and suggestions.

Thanks IIT-Bombay Alumnus Association for giving us this opportunity and platform.

Dear SadakMap users,

Quick update of where things stand…

First of all, we are excited to let you know that SadakMap.com has been selected as a finalist for the Innovations 2008 contest organized by IITB Alumnus Association. SadakMap is one of 16 innovative companies selected from all around the country. The finalists get to present to a set of distinguished panelists on Jan 5, 2008 in Pune. So if you would like to be present and listen to interesting pitches from entrepreneurs, be there. More info at: http://www.innovations-pune.com

Next comes the distinction for most number of marks on the map. This time, its shared by 2 users who have made 39 marks each:

1. Once again Miki (http://www.sadakmap.com/spotme/miki) from Goa shares the top spot with

2. Kholkar from Pune (kholkar hasnt set his SpotMeUrl yet - so unable to share it with you)

Thanks to a 9th grade student who’s interest in history led her to plot the historical places around Pune. So do checkout the Tourism spots in and around Pune (select Pune from the City dropdown).

Finally a rundown of some new features we have added:

1. Facebook Integration: Facebook users can now access SadakMap without needing to register for an account. This opens up a slew of networking related applications for us…

2. Blog-like comments: All marks on the map can now be commented on by the general public (no login required) similar to blogs. So feel like adding to the information listed for a place, just enter your comments and let everyone know.

3. EDITING: You can now edit the places you added to the map. We have provided a rich-text-editor so you can add color, images, etc to jazz up your content. Login to you account and under “My Account” you will see a “My Places” selection. Clicking on that will give you a list of all the places you have added.

4. Minor change: added 2 more categories (banks/atms and petrol pumps).

Our enterprise-facing framework is ready and we have started pitching it to the likes of banks and auto centers to provide location lookup service on SadakMap. If you know someone who can use this framework and are willing to get us introduced do drop me a line.

Thanks again for blazing the trail with us. Use SadakMap more often to talk about the good/bad experiences you have had with local businesses. Post messages on your street to talk to your neighbors (better virtual than never). Build vibrant communities around you.

Cheers,

Unmesh.

SpotMeUrl: http://www.sadakmap.com/spotme/unmesh/

PS: we also got pluggd

Now anyone can comment on marks (places/messages) on the map without needing to sign in. This turns all the marks into mini-blogs. One needs to login to add places/messages, but anyone out there can comment on those. Here is an example of a place where I added my comments: http://www.sadakmap.com/p/2007-Sawai-Gandharva-Music-Festival/

So blog-away on SadakMap…

Facebook users can now access SadakMap directly without having to register for an account at SadakMap. Facebook users can click on Login using Facebook to first login on the Facebook site and then be directed to SadakMap. This way, their userid/password are secure with Facebook (SadakMap never gets to see those - we dont even get to see your email address and would like to keep it that way).

So logging into SadakMap has become even easier - removing one barrier to making marks on SadakMap. We are working on similar integrations for Google/Orkut/Yahoo. We have also started thinking of friend-circle based features that can be useful on SadakMap (e.g. see on the map where your friends are, see what marks they have made, etc).

A new feature was released today that allows users to add places using Rich Text (word like formatting). When you go to add a place or edit an existing one (yeah, we managed to slip the edit-feature in as well), users are presented with a textbox with formatting links on the top. This will allow anyone to create a more appealing page than can be achieved using plain text. All the existing places have been updated to use this new format. Using this text editor, external images can also be linked. Checkout the SadakMap HQ link (http://www.sadakmap.com/p/SadakMap-Inc/).

This email was sent out to our beta community on our one month anniversary:

Dear SadakMap User,

Its been a little over a month since we launched SadakMap and we wish to thank our beta community for all the wonderful insights you have provided through either your direct feedback or through your usage of the site. We are excited with the controlled inroads we are making into the indian online community.

So far, over 90 marks have been made on the map. The honor of the most marks made on the map goes to our first featured user “Miki” (Check out Miki’s neighborhood: http://www.sadakmap.com/spotme/Miki) who added 22 places near Goa, prompting us to add “Goa” to our list of cities in the dropdown. We would like to thank “Miki” and would urge many more of you to similarly mark your neighborhoods up to show what a vibrant community you live/work in.

During this one month we have managed to generate some press and have got great feedback and referrals from these as well.

StartupDuniya

Webyantra

IndianWeb2.0

InformationMadness

Among the new features we feverishly worked to add were:

1. Categorization: You are now able to select the type of the marker (Hotel, etc) when adding it (as pointed out by the post on InformationMadness we are working to enhance this).

2. Permalinks: Each mark on the map now has a Permanent URL (e.g. http://www.sadakmap.com/p/Gupte-Hospital/). So everytime you add something to the map, dont forget to note its Permanent URL. This is the easiest way to help point other folks to places of interest on the map. This will also help us get the places/posts you add noticed by search engines such as Google, Yahoo, etc. Basically, we have 90 Permanent Links on the site and the possibilities are endless, so keep adding.

Once again, we wish to thank each one of you in helping us morph into what SadakMap truly wishes to become, a community run platform. We will continue running as Beta for some more time before turning the tap on.

Regards,
Unmesh. Founder - http://www.sadakmap.com
SpotMeUrl: http://www.sadakmap.com/spotme/unmesh

I wonder if the “post messages on the map” feature could be used to bring to light the problems with civic issues (road conditions, infrastructure, garbage, encroachment, etc). All it takes is for users to start posting messages by clicking on the street/intersection/etc on the map where they see a problem. Now just imagine if along with the post, users could select color codes to indicate the severity of the condition. The result would be a color coded map that shows where most of the issues are in a city. The post message feature is available sans the color coding, so go ahead and start highlighting the civic issues in your city. If I see such messages showing up I will move the “color coding” up the requested-feature list.