Microsoft India has launched a new Web site that called NextWeb. This is their second attempt to clarify the markets and customer segments that Microsoft India would address. Why I said second attempt, their first attempt was the reinvent of their Hotmail product, the “Cool Hotmail” that allowed an Indian user to get a unique email ID that reflect her own personality. Cool Hotmail was launched in last month and I did not covered this product when it launched partly because I think the email ID ends with mumbairocks.in, clubsrk.in, Iamgod.in, ilioveyoga.in is not really that cool. Paradoxically, the formerly “ordinary” product is becoming fully cool, while the cool product that I first saw on the Web is becoming run out of cool.

Both the CoolHotmail and NextWeb, recently launched by Microsoft, is their latest resolve to extend their technology coverage beyond the operating system segment, or corporate IT professionals to encompass computer hobbyists, designers, and the younger generation people. This move led to Microsoft India’s rearticulation of its business model. Prior to this, many people perceived Microsoft India as a desktop technology provider, but now Microsoft India saw their opportunities in some of their Web products and begins to create greater value for their end users there. They recognized ways to improve their Hotmail product by providing choices of personalized email ID, and now with the building of this NextWeb Web site, they showed their Indian users how they will have a compelling experience by using their Web technology, i.e. Silverlight in building a Web platform.

Not long ago, I posted a blog entry that provided a link to an article entitled “Web 2.0 is not for India,” and can you believe it, things have changed now. As opposed to the above viewpoint, social networks are currently hot in India, particularly these two sites, iShare and BigAdda.

According to an Indian news, Rediff iShare claims it has managed to hook nearly 1 million users in just a month and a half. BigAdda meanwhile, is looking at hooking close to 10 million users by 2010.

I just came across a news that mentioned Sunnyvale-based Minekey has raised $3 million in a round A financing that led by NEA IndoUS Ventures. Minekey is a startup that founded in year 2005 and have offices in Santa Clara and Bangalore. They have a simple goal in mind, to solve the information overload an average Internet user face today. However, the widget Minekey that target contents/news to Internet users’ interests is by tracking the users’ click stream data. Normally, the technology for tracking click stream data began with cookies. Minekey collected the visit information through all these click stream data and then analyzed those data in order that they know what contents should have delivered.

Minekey was founded by Delip Andra as a project incubated at IIT Kharagpur, India’s leading technology institute. Previously, it received a seed funding amounted to $600k also from the venture capitalist NEA IndoUS Ventures.

I just came across an interesting article that entitled, “Google, Yahoo may be eyeing Rediff,” discusses a possible acquisition of an Indian portal by the U.S.-based Internet giants, Google and Yahoo!. Rediff, found in 1996, is a leading online portal targeting at India and Indians worldwide. It offered a variety of community offerings such as search engine, domestic airfare search, up-to-date India focused news, P4C classifieds, chat, email, and etc. Besides, they also aimed to be a e-commerce platform by offering the book store and music store online in order to recruit the merchants in India. With the goal as a one-stop shop in India, they have grew into a leading portal in little more than a decade.

Speculation of this possible acquisition is hovering around $1 billion. However, I wonder Google and Yahoo! both are the suitors for this take over since they can grow in India with their own internal resources.

I just came across another Digg clone that was created by an Indian company in Bangalore. Irintech, their design, formating and layout was the same as another Digg clone, Yasvs.

A vexed questions for all these Digg clones is how they can uncover the opportunities to position their offerings in a way that they would never have thought before, or identify the new points of differentiation, at least when the first time we see these sites, we’ll not recognize these as the Digg clone. However, it seems that this become an act of genius now.