Panama is more targetable

The news is out. A new set of features were added in Panama today which allows the advertisers target their audience well. The specific targeting allowed are:

1. Geo Targeting - This was existing in Panama even before the launch today. Geo Targeting has been enhanced by adding more granular geo locations (like cities and zip codes).

2. Demo Targeting - This allows you to target your ad-campaigns to users which fall under a specific demography - like a certain age group/gender.

3. Ad Scheduling - This is the most important feature from my point of view. It allows you to target your ads only at a certain period during the day or only on specific days of week.

Along with all these targeting, advertisers can also place premium bids on specific targets. This is a huge improvement directed towards the advertisers ease of doing business with Yahoo! Looking at this in contrast to the earlier release which focussed on bringing variable minimum bid per keyword per advertiser and bring fairness in Yahoo's marketplace (but also got in the line of fire from many advertisers who did not like the idea of min-bids getting raised) this feature is something which will help Yahoo's advertisers to make the best of their money spent on the ad platform. Let's see how does this go with the advertisers.

Ahh! It feels so good to see something you worked on being launched for the whole world! One of the good things to work for an internet company like Yahoo!

International Cricketers attacked in Pak

Heard this news today which is still developing as I write this blog post. Srilankan cricketers were attacked in Lahore (Pakistan) today while their bus was arriving at the stadium where they were supposed to play the host team. 5 Cricketers (and very high profile ones like Sangakara, Chamida Vaas) have been injured.

The media reports say that the injury is not serious, but I wonder what effect will that have to their cricketing career. Time will tell more about the nature of injuries and how much time will it take for them to recover and get back in field again. This event is a very big blow to the sports image of the Pakistani nation. From my gut feel - it seems Pakistan is going to get boycotted from the cricket fraternity. Definitely they will not be able to host any match - not at least for the next couple of years.

My prayers go out for the players and others who got injured in this incident. Hoping that the Pak govt will do something to bring the culprits to justice!

Touch...

Just touching my blogger account after such a long time!! Its been more that 2 years that I last blogged. The world seems to have changed quite a bit since then...

1. Twitter came in to shift the focus from blogs to tweets
2. I joined Yahoo India and took UniversityHiring from full-time to part-time
3. Aayush joined Amazon India.
4. We shifted from one part of Bangalore (Millers Road) to another (NGV Koramangala) to another (HSR Layout)
5. Investment banks bringing a new wave in IITs - and then bringing darkness in global economy.
6. Obama bringing new hope for the world
7. Yahoo India launching some of the important releases (MRP) for Advertiser Apps.
8. Reorg within Yahoo hitting me hard - got 3 managers in a period of 1.5 years.
9. IPL bringing lot of players under a single umbrella - great perf by Rajasthan Royals last year - Pieterson/Flintoff getting 1.5 mn - really a blessing for him during recession :)
10. My GF shifted to BLR and since then my movie index has gone up dramatically. (Movie index is a term I just coined - mathematical defn = No of movies (non-pirated) watched in a week) - In short a loser got a life :)
11. Some great movies made people laugh/cry/think - Jane tu ya jane na, taare zameen par, slumdog millionaire, khuda kay liye, a mighty heart...
12. Many reunions with friends planned - none executed
13. My sister getting married...

On the other hand - quite a few things are still the way they were;

1. Metro train construction in BLR
2. Politicians never getting mature - every thing has a political impact - be it malegaon or mumbai attack or mangalore incident
3. My tummy
4. domestic airfares - actually went up and then came back to where they were 2 yrs back :)
5. I still sleep on a mattress without a cot :)

What else... nothing up on my mind right now... lets keep the rest of it for the next blog post.. hope the next interval is smaller that 2 yrs...