I’m not sure of whether this is NDTV Convergence’s tongue-in-cheek take on the news, but NoGyan.com certainly is a bizarre site, aggregating some of the strangest news. Some samples:
– Todays top story: “Sarkozy’s father stages erotic art exhibition”
– One story that appears to clearly cover all three ABC (Astrology, Bollywood and Cricket) segments significant to India: “Preity invested in IPL despite astrologer’s warning”
The site lives up to its name, and doesn’t provide any useful information, focusing only on the irreverent: “NoGyan brings you the best videos from the Wild Wild Web! Lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, pride – you’ll find it all here. Enjoy a sinful viewing.” Sinful viewing is certainly a money-spinner on the web, and perhaps that is what NDTV Convergence is banking upon. It does remind me of a blog I used to contribute to – Chiennes Sans Frontieres, though that more of a critique of mainstream media than a collection of bizarre news. CSF II would have a field day, thanks to NoGyan.
While this clearly doesn’t fit into the serious business ventures I usually cover, I’m very intrguided by NoGyan…is this what really works for the Indian audience? One thing is for sure – it certainly is no boingboing.
Follow Up: Why my mom 1.0 hates your web 2.0
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8 Comments until now.
Nikhil you should know better. They have tied up with youtube and basically need a channel to be able to position the trivia there, and drive page views/downloads etc. I guess in their contract there is a clause which stipulats the nos. In the abence of a clear business model.
GK
Hi Gautam,
there’s more on that site than just YouTube videos. Do take a look. They’ve syndicated news content from IANS as well.
Nikhil:
This sounds similar to the self-explanatory Oddly Enough section on the Reuters website. One has to say that on the Reuters website, that section provides some humorous distraction. But NoGyan seems only distraction and therefore in my view joins the already high-decibel area lead by Perez Hilton and the likes, albeit with a more localised format and presumably content.
Well it seems that such stuff do work for the Indian on the web.
As for the content, I believe that it is going to be wider and more exclusive once the site is on full-steam.
This seems to be a take on Onion to me
I think all of us need to have a lighter side to life!! So what if it comes from NDTV…its a website which is atleast taking a clear stand on its positioing..its not midway like all our other portals like rediff or yahoo’s of the world…Certainly a bold attempt by NDTV Convergence…
THE DESIGN !!!!!!! eeewww !!! did the designers leave without notice ? ?
didn’t even make me want to go thru the content. Although i respect NDTV tremendously, and i believe this comes from the NDTV stable , the look is something that i’m sure even i can do a better job at, and i’m not even in the media business ;)
crappy stuff m/s trehan and co. nice domain totally valueless (that’s ndtv for you).