There are a plenty of URL shortening services around that are both free and easy to use. URL shortening services are highly important when you have to share an interesting link with your friends or contacts online and don’t want to pass on an ugly URL which might just get chopped off at the other end, rendering it useless. URL shortening services such as TinyURL have become highly popular in the recent past. It becomes easy for one to share a link online be it on Facebook, MySpace or Twitter using a URL shortening service. So I was just wondering if I could have my very own URL shortening service which I could use personally or allow visitors on my blog to use it. So I Googled for a while and picked up a tiny class written in PHP, modified it as per my taste and bang! I have my very own URL shortening service here called Linx! Some of my friends were interested in applying this on their blogs/websites as well so I have decided to put it up here.

First of all, if anyone of you is wondering why I should have my own URL shortening service. Well here are a few good points;

- Every time you find an interesting link you want to share with your friends and if your link looks something like http://yoursite.com/1, you’re not just passing on a link but you’re passing on your website name. Publicity!

- Links are destined to go viral. So if around 1000 people love the content, they’ll pass on the link further. If even 2% of them case about the yoursite.com part, bang! You’ve got traffic baby!
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Yahoo! India is offering an unlimited web space and bandwidth plan for a dirt cheap price of Rs.1999 ($40) only for one year. The Yahoo! Small Business package includes ;

Domain name
Full featured Control Panel
PHP/MySQL
Storage Back-ups
Access Logs
1000 e-mail IDs
Unlimited Web space
Unlimited Bandwidth
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WordCamp is a conference that focuses on everything related to WordPress. India’s first ever WordCamp is happening right here in Delhi on 21-22 February 2009. The conference is being organized by Delhi Bloggers Bloc and Blog Design Studio. Currently the conference is in the planning phase. Matt Mullenweg, the WordPress creator, is coming all the way from US to attend the WordCamp here in Delhi. There’s also a surprise guest as mentioned by the organizers on Twitter recently.

In case you’re interested in volunteering for the event or delivering a presentation/keynote on WordPress, kindly get in touch with the concerned people;

Mayank Gupta - +91-9910786431, me (at) mayank.info
Twilight Fairy - +91-9811511719, twilightfairy at gmail dot com

It’s a must for every WordPress enthusiast. I’m gonna make sure I don’t miss this event! If you’re in and around Delhi NCR and you’d also like to attend the event, please do get in touch (use the comments area below).

Even though e-commerce took a lot of time to get used to but the Indian web users have finally swallowed the feeling that it’s quite useful to shop online. I remember the good old days when people were scared at the thought of punching credit card numbers online on a web page. And then there were those chicks who wanted to touch their fabric before making purchases online. Making purchases online has it’s own ups and downs. I’d rather say it has more ups and downs. You just need to be smart enough not to let anyone phish out your sensitive information.

I’ve been an active online shopper for a long time now. Being lazy may be one of the reasons I vote for online shopping but the convenience is pure heaven. Here’s a review of major Indian online e-commerce websites.

1. E-Bay India a.k.a Bazee.com 

I had been an active Bazee user when E-Bay acquired them. E-Bay opened a whole new window of opportunities for the next door chunnu-munnu  to start selling online with minimal investments. Buying on E-bay has become a pleasant experience. There are seller ratings, feedback etc. which always tell you which seller to buy from and which one to stay away from. I’ve bought from E-bay several times and I have always had a positive experience. Simple gadgets, gift items and utilities sell the most at E-Bay. The user interface is neat and the customer care usually respond quickly.

2. IndiaPlaza

Ever since Fabmall merged into IndiaPlaza I have been using them for buying my goodies online. IndiaPlaza is one of the few Indian online stores that remain independent i.e no ugly merchants in the middle so you get-what-you-see on the product description page online. You directly buy from them and thus quality is maintained. IndiaPlaza boasts to be the largest online shopping mall in India. The shipping is a bit slowish. The packaging is great. The customer care is alive and normally responds in 12 hours by e-mail. I use Indiaplaza to buy books and sometimes gadgets. They accept all major credit cards and netbanking payment facility.

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