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A good local guide
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Log on to Asklaila.com for detailed information about cities
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Is going micro a good idea? Asklaila.com thinks so. Wanting to be taken seriously as a local guide, it has got six cities (Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata and Hyderabad) ‘mapped’. Right now, Internet users can access informatio
n pertaining to four of them (Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi-NCR and Mumbai). The asklaila team is likely to extend its services to 30 other cities.
Asklaila, which has a centralised office in Bangalore, is backed by Matrix Partners India, Lightspeed Venture Partners and SVB India Capital Partners.
Chief product officer Arvind Sampathkumaran says the Indian market is underserved where local information is concerned. “Take any typical yellow pages; a quarter of the data is wrong.”
Given how outdated most information is, the asklaila team did not go with existing primary data sources. Instead, it set up a team in excess of 400 people to gather information about top Indian cities. Each city has a ‘keep alive team’, one-fourth the size of the primary information gathering team, to regularly update data.
Search engines at asklaila are intelligent to the extent that it uses ‘stems’ and throws up results that come close to what he is asking for when his original request cannot be processed. For example, it can identify Valluvar Kottam even if it is mis-spelt as ‘valluar kotam’. A search for a speciality restaurant in Kottivakkam says there is none in the area to the best of its knowledge, and then gives a list of Chinese restuarants found in areas close to Kottivakkam, such as Adyar. Users can also have information about a commerical establishment or something else sent to their mobile.
Asklaila also reviews places and business establishments in the city. Apart from writers who have entered into an agreement with asklaila, users can write in their reviews. Those accepted are paid for. All this information comes free, and Asklaila promises not to divulge details about users to commercial establishments.
At the next level, it will focus on merchant services. Asklaila can put in elements that can direct user attention to these merchants.
PRINCE FREDERICK
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Mangalore
Puducherry
Tiruchirapalli
Thiruvananthapuram
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
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