Radix Registry, launched by the Directi group in 2012 has won the rights to operate the .website generic Top Level Domain (gTLD). The .website was won for an undisclosed amount on the basis of a private auction conducted on 23rd October.

Just last month, U.S.-based Endurance International Group had announced it would be acquiring a part of web services firm Directi for $100-$110 million.

Radix Founder Bhavin Turakhia said: “We are delighted that we have won .website — our first major win — on the historic day that the first new gTLDs were added to the root. .website has been one of our top picks for Radix’s flagship TLD and it’s exciting to get it this early. It is a fantastic extension that exemplifies our strategy — to operate extensions that have the maximum global impact. As our draw number is highly favorable, we hope to launch .website by late Q1 or early Q2 2014. Yes, it will likely be the first truly generic new gTLD that the world will see.”

Why this win is significant?

According to global survey data spanning hundreds of individuals and business owners across over 25 professional categories, the .website extension ranks among the top three in the generic category.

The .website TLD also featured in the top three choices of users who do not own a domain name and seek to buy one. With close to 70% of names searched being unavailable in the existing gTLDs, .website can provide the perfect alternative where users can easily find a first-choice name.

Competitors overtaken – The other competitors in the private auction conducted for .website gTLD were Donuts Inc. and Top Level Domain Holdings Ltd. For Radix, it is especially a big victory as it beat these 2 global leaders in the auction. In the 29 applications, Radix also has three uncontested applications — .press, .space and .host.

We have now truly made a mark in the Internet space!!!

Google has now introduced hindi language input for Gmail as well Google Docs. While multiple language support was always there on these platforms, the users needed to have the keyboard supporting that language or then use a separate software.

However, now Gmail as well as Google docs have native input support. What it means is you can directly write hindi using your mouse or a pen tablet and gmail will recognize those letters. It also has an option where phonetically it converts your english typed words into hindi.

As you can see from the above example, the handwriting input recognition is quite accurate. See the hindi letters that are getting recognized as I am writing them.

Another thing you can notice in the above example is that even though your handwriting may be slightly crooked and gives impression of a different letter, Google is most likely to correct it once the word is complete as it will probably see if the word actually exists in hindi dictionary (I am not 100% sure, but it looks like that may be the case)

To try it out, users will first need to enable input tools in Gmail or Docs and select the handwriting input (represented by a pencil icon) of the language you want to use.

As per Google announcement, handwriting input is available in Google Docs for over 20 languages and in Gmail for over 50 languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Hindi and Russian.

Local language support is extremely important from adoption perspective, especially in a country like India where less than 15 percent of population understand English.

Give this feature a try and let us know what you feel!

The GSM Association released an interesting in-depth report – The Mobile Economy India 2013 – which talks about various mobile trends prevailing in India. The stats and numbers presented in the report make for an interesting read.

GDP Contribution

The report states that in mobile ecosystem in India contributed about 1.27 Lakh crore or 1.3 percent to India's GDP in 2012. Given the growth of telecom subscribers in India, I am quite surprised that it's contribution is so low.

Mobile Subscribers

According to GSMA report, by end of this year, 107 million subscribers will have 3G connections out of total 9191 million mobile connections. The 3G number will grow to 171 million by end of 2014 and will reach 409 million by 2017.

Mobile Revenue Streams

As expected, the non-voice revenues are significantly growing, while the revenues from voice have slowed down significantly. In 2012, voice traffic saw only 9 percent growth as compared to 19 percent growth in 2011 and 32 percent growth in 2010. Non-voice (VAS) revenues on the other hand are seeing upwards 50 percent growth.

Mobile Call Prices / ARPU

India has one of the lowest mobile call rates in the world. When the tariff wars were at peak in 2011, the voice call rates touched the lowest of only INR 0.355 per minute. While it increased to INR 0.400 in 2012, it is still lower than what was prevailing in 2010 or earlier.

With low call rates, the average revenue per user (ARPU) also saw a significant dip in 2011 of only INR 119, but increased to 143 in 2012, presumably due to growth in VAS service offerings.

Economic Impact

The report gives an interesting statistic, and I am not sure how they arrived at it. But it says, that in 2012 the economic impact from mobile technology in India amounted to Rs 5.3 lakh crore (US $100 billion) or about 5.3 percent of GDP. The report calculates the total impact of mobile ecosystem based on productive increase of people among other things which itself contributed to about 3.8 percent.

Job Creation

The mobile ecosystem contributes nearly 2.730 million jobs in India out of which 730,000 jobs are direct, while 2 million jobs created at point of sale and distributor/vendor chain.

Miscellaneous

The report also talks about strong correlation between mobile ecosystem growth and GDP.

- 10 percent increase in mobile penetration leads to 0.81 percent increase in GDP for medium to low income country like India

- 10 percent increase in high speed internet connections leads to 1.38% percent increase in GDP

- 10% move from 2G subscribers to 3G subscribers leads to 0.15 percent GDP growth

- Doubling of mobile data usage increased GDP per capita by 0.5 percent.

The report also talks about how mobile ecosystem is positively affecting Social Agricultural, financial and other verticals in India.

You can download the entire pdf report here.

Cyber criminals all over the world are having a gala party right now; and India is the playground of this party. In a recent report by cyber security major Symantec, it has been revealed that in the period between July 2012 to August 2013, Indians have collectively spend $4 billion or Rs 24,000 crore to fight cyber criminals and protect their systems from their malicious intent; which is 8% more than last year.

This rounds to about $207 average direct cost per cyber crime victim inside India.

Globally, the total cost of fighting cyber crime is $113 billion or Rs 6,78,000 crore, with an average direct cost of $298 per cyber crime victim. Indians constitute 11% of all cyber victims globally which is alarming. This report has been compiled using the self-reporting experiences of more than 24,000 adult Internet users spread across 24 countries out of which, around 1000 users were from India.

The line between work and play is being blurred as 66% Indians use their smart phones for both work and personal use. And this has resulted in an explosion of cyber crimes specific to smart phones and tablets. The report states that 63% of all smart phones users in India have experienced one or the other form of cyber crime and alarmingly, 47% of smart phone users are not aware that security solutions for smart phones exists!

As both work and personal files are stored in the same device, the impact of cyber crime is even more evident now, compared to past.

Some of the risky habits which Indians have adapted and which are prone to cyber crime include:

• Accessing bank account via public Wi Fi
• Shopping online via public Wi Fi
• Sharing passwords among friends and colleagues
• Social Media users who do not log out after each session
• Storing files online in virus prone networks
• Using Wi Fi to download songs / videos
• Not using and/or updating anti virus system

Ransomware Is The New Cyber Threat

In another related report, cyber security firm Quick Heal announced that a new form of malware, called CryptoLocker is playing havoc with cyber security all over the world. Reportedly, around 500 new incidents are being detected every day, pertaining to this new form of cyber threat.

Classified as Ransomware, this type of malware encrypts all files inside a computer, and later on demands a ransom to unlock them. Typically, CryptoLocker demands around $300 or Rs 18,500 from each computer user to decrypt the files and make it available and in some cases, there is a deadline to pay this amount as well (around 72 to 100 hours)

Once attacked, such type of ransomware targets individual users rather than corporate ones and the demand of ransom is normally executed via online payment mediums such as Bitcoin, UKash, Paypal, MoneyPak etc.

The most common platform for spreading this new menace is social media sites and emails. Not surprisingly, even smart phone users are experiencing this ransomware, wherein infected applications are downloaded which encrypts all information present inside the device. Once a user tries to open a file, a pop-up appears which demands ransom to get the private key to remove this malware.

How To Avoid Ransomware & Other Cyber Threats

- Take regular backups of your data on smartphone; Tablet; PC and Laptop. This will help to recover files in case you decide to format the system.

- Always use a multi layered anti virus system and never forget to update it.

- Don't open unknown or malicious looking email attachment; links shared on social media sites or download unknown applications on smart phones.

- Use anti-phishing and anti-spam protection, specially meant for Internet users

- Rely on secured connections for most of the online transactions (https://)

- Use virtual key board for online banking and online shopping

- Use alpha numeric and special characters in passwords, and keep on changing them frequently.

Have you experienced any such cyber attack? Do share your security tips to fight these cyber menaces and to protect one's computer and smartphone.