Banyan Netfaqs, the publisher of Afaqs.com, Afaqs Reporter and TheMobileIndian.com has launched a micro-networking site for the advertising, marketing and media community in India at ThePodium.in, reports Indiadigitalreview. The website, which is currently in Beta, allows media professionals to connect with each other by sharing ideas within the community. User Experience The website asks users to fill the sign-up form for registration. Note that it does not support Facebook Connect which allows users to sign in using their Facebook identity. Once signed up, users can either fill in their career and educational details or import them from their LinkedIn profile to ThePodium. Unlike LinkedIn, the site's approach to UI is more informal and instead of a list of experience summary. educational qualifications, and other details, it's a page scattered with widgets in different colours on a pin-board. Also, the only way to discover and connect with other professionals is to search their name in the search box. The site does not offer suggestions or displays profiles of recently added users. On ThePodium.in, users can share what they're upto, similar to status updates on Facebook. There's no character limit for the status update. Friends of the users can like or comment on the post. However, we observed that the experience to comment is not as smooth as Facebook and the website throws a popup in case one has to post a comment on the status update. Apart from that, users can also share their favorite articles, Campaigns, Presentations (.ppt, .pdf, .doc), and Videos.…
