Thanks for getting the word out about Zook! Also welcome are your inputs about the service. A couple of points:

1.This service is intentionally built for and to be available on the mobile - and so everything was made first for the SMS users - thats 95%+ of the market - hence the SMS based confirmations.

2. In its fullness, the ‘asking’ will also automatically select appropriate people from a user’s network (and if appropriate, beyond) to pass the questions on to. Yes, part of the intention IS the viral spread, but the basic idea originated from real life behaviour - people often ask those they think might know for answers in real life situations. Even currently, by letting people create and add contacts to groups, Zook does make it easy to ask your contacts, more so in the case of thematic groups.

7.5 crores! Severely doubt that figure...Nadathur typically makes far smaller investments...any official confirmation for this investment?

Sceptic: We just got an official confirmation from Nadathur. Post updated.

Thanks for the update, Nikhil. ISuch info is best confirmed by an independent source

Oh, and we added a whole lot of new mobile content today - I guess Zook is the first search across mobile content providers now, esp on the phone!

http://www.zivasoftware.com/blog/2007/03/15/search-mobile-downloads-on-zook/

WOW.I had the opportunity to listen to them in Proto.in. Their approach borders on wiki’s human search/yahoo answers. Venky (my brother) put it beautifully -Time to forget the artificial divide between the online and the offline but provide a seamless user experience which may or may not entail the dovetailing of the two worlds. All the very best to the ziva team and look fwd to use their expertise soon.

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Ma Foi !!!

Ma Foi Consulting Solutions Ltd. (MCSL) in association with Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) is pleased to invite organizations to participate in IAMAI – Ma Foi Compensation and Benefits Benchmarking Survey. This is a co branded survey being done for the internet and mobile industry in India. Any organization whose business supports the online content and advertising, mobile content and advertising and e-commerce industry is eligible for the participation in this salary survey. These may be online publishers, mobile VAS companies, internet technology and infrastructure provider, advertising agencies, gaming companies etc. Each participating organization will get a copy of the report.

This study is an effort from our end to gather and share information to effectively deal with the human resource challenges present in the growing internet and mobile industry in India. The primary objective of this exercise is to collect and share information on trends in compensation, benefits and people practices in the internet and mobile industry and help participating companies take strategic decisions in the area of Human Resources.
The scope of work is to conduct Compensation and Benefits survey amongst the companies in the internet and mobile Industry. The information / comparisons would be drawn and a report will be shared to the participants on various parameters like:
Compensation and Reward Strategies – to draw comparative differentials with current salaries payable across positions amongst the comparator basket
People/HR Practices – to identify the current HR systems and policies amongst the participating companies
Attraction and Retention strategies – to identify strategies and policies as practiced by the participating companies to attract and retain talent.
HR “Best Practices”

For more details, please contact the undersigned.

Warm regards,
Kalpesh


Kalpesh Vohra
Consultant – Business Development
Ma Foi Consulting Solutions Ltd. (MCSL), Mumbai
Phone: 022 – 67232253 (Direct)
Mobile: 9322444332

Email: