Want ibibo Sawaal to be the best knowledge platform in the World?

Your reasons for being a die-hard fan of ibibo Sawaal can be different, but then if you are a die hard fan….I am sure you want ibibo Sawaal to be a grand success.

Like you, my job also is to make ibibo Sawaal the best Questions & Answers platform in the World. Can we join hands and achieve it together?

How can you make ibibo Sawaal a grand success?

Here is how:

1) Blog about ibibo Sawaal’s Expert program & its recognition and earning model so that more people come to know about it.

2) If you don’t have a blog, you can still contribute by asking your blogger friends (within ibibo & outside) to do the same as a favor. You can guide them to http://experts.ibibo.com

3) Submit some of the best questions with best answers (answers can be yours!) to http://digg.com

a. You will have to create an account at http://digg.com

b. You will have to identify the question to submit

c. You will have to spread the word amongst your friends/relatives who will “Digg” the question you submitted

d. You will have to continue doing it …. that is, if you want ibibo Sawaal to be the best

4) Submit some of the best questions with best answers (answers can be yours!) to http://del.icio.us

a. You will have to create an account at http://del.icio.us

b. You will have to identify the question to bookmark

c. You will have to continue doing it … that is, if you want ibibo Sawaal to be the best

5) Submit some of the best questions with best answers (answers can be yours!) to http://indianpad.com

a. You will have to create an account at http://indianpad.com

b. You will have to identify the question to submit

c. You will have to spread the word amongst your friends/relatives who will “Vote” for the question you submitted

d. You will have to continue doing it � that is, if you want ibibo Sawaal to be the best

By this time you probably ask, what is in it for you….so here you goes:

1) If ibibo Sawaal is a grand success, you become a top expert in the World’s best Question & Answers platform

2) If ibibo Sawaal is a grand success, you as an expert get to answer questions of users from all over the World …. so recognition across the globe and the opportunity to make friends from across the globe.

3) If ibibo Sawaal is a grand success, you will get more questions to answer and thus more points to earn & cash

Last but not least, we believe that there is a real need out there, today lots of people are in need of advice or are looking for answers not readily available. Here you can play a major roll in fulfilling that need and helping out a fellow net citizen and a potential future friend.

At the end of the day what defines and differentiates us is not based on what we have taken but what we have given back freely and without reward.

Posted in ibibo Experts | 18 Comments

Change in ibibo Experts Points System

Dear ibibo Experts,

The ibibo Sawaal team believes that change is the only constant. Towards that effect, we are making some changes in Expert points system.

Starting next week, only the first 10 good answers to a question will be awarded points. A premium will be attached to the answers that are given first. Here is how it will work:

1st good answer to a question will get you: 10 points
2nd good answer to a question will get you: 10 points
3rd good answer to a question will get you: 5 points
4th good answer to a question will get you: 3 points
5th good answer to a question will get you: 2 points
6th to 10th good answer to a question will get you: 1 point

There are two objectives:

1) To award the ibibo Expert who works harder by trying to answer a question as soon as it is asked
2) To ensure there are no unanswered question, for people asking questions are in a hurry to get answers and it is the responsibility of the ibibo Expert community to solve the problems of the askers as soon as possible

To ensure you earn the maximum points by giving good answers to unanswered questions, we have also introduced an UnAnswered Questions tab on Sawaal Home.

If you want to focus only on the unanswered questions in your top categories, visit this page & use the “UnAnswered” filter.

So what are you waiting for?

For clarifications, please blurb any one of us:
Umed Bisht, Ramakanth Evani, Hemant Bharti, Jamshed V Rajan & the latest entrant in our team Sandeep Parashar.

Response to the comments so far

@ satyakam: The idea is to give answers to the users who ask the question as soon as possible. If an expert is sick, he/she can work his/her way up the points as soon as he/she is back from illness. We can’t expect the users with questions to wait till then….can we?

@ Debasis: I think you needn’t worry. The moment you are back, you will be able to answer the questions and make your way to the top of the leaderboard.

@ Rajib Gurung: It is the chronological good answer. If there are no good answers in the first five answers to a question, we will check the sixth answer to see if it is good…if it is good…it will get 10 points.

@ Danish Momin: You have raised an interesting point…but don’t the users who have asked the question deserve a quick answer? How will they feel if with so many ibibo Experts…we give him/her an answer after seven days? As the ibibo Sawaal community it is your and my responsibility to ensure quick answers.

@UWON: If an ibibo Expert has answered a question first …and that answer isn’t good, he/she won’t be getting any points.

@TingTong: All questions get answered in the first 10 good answers…and an asker doesn’t need more than ten answers to help him decide. Just because there are already 2 or 3 or 4 answers to a question, you shouldn’t stop yourself from answering that question because….four answers don’t mean four good answers. What if we rate them as bad…and your answer (which was actually fifth) becomes the first good answer and gains 10 points?

@Madhu Vamsi: With this format, all ibibo experts will focus on their categories, which means you will be the king of your top three categories. Believe me, it is a positive move towards ensuring that the people asking questions get the answers as soon as possible.

@Writer: We are brining in a Discussion Forum, and I am sure you will love it.

@Suparna: Please specify what the doubt is, and I will try to answer it. Regarding copying & pasting from Wikipedia…we allow that because the user gives a source. Sometimes, it helps to quote from a source.

@A Banerji: Appreciate the sportive spirit. I think this is the way to go!

@Farzana $: Out of all the answers that a question gets, only the first ten answers that are rated as “Good” by our rating team will win points. For more on how the questions are rated, please check http://experts.ibibo.com . Also, this new points system applies to experts at all levels.

Posted in ibibo Experts | 39 Comments

Introducing Ibibo Experts Leaderboard

This is an attempt to make the ibibo Expert system as transparent as possible.

All India, All Time Leaderboard
This ranks all ibibo Experts according to the points they have earned since the ibibo Experts program was launched

All India, Today’s Leader Board
This ranks all ibibo Experts according to the points they earned the previous day by answering questions

All Time Leaderboard for a Category
This ranks all ibibo Experts according to the points they have earned by answering questions in a particular category

Today’s Leaderboard for a Category
This ranks all ibibo Experts according to the points they have earned the previous day by answering questions in a particular category

Posted in Other Categories | 10 Comments

Sawaal visiting cards for ibibo Experts are here!

If you are an ibibo Expert and your Expert level is Masters and above, you qualify for ibibo Sawaal visiting card.

Step 1:
Find out if you are an ibibo Expert at Masters level or above. (Visit your dashboard & check the left panel)

Step 2:
If you are an ibibo Expert at Masters level or above, download this PDF (1.5 Mb, Zip file) to see the three visiting card designs you can choose from.

Remember to be correct the first time. No correspondence for change in details will be entertained, after the submission.

Posted in Other Categories | 55 Comments

What type of answers do you give?

Sawaal users answer questions in three ways –

Posted in Astrology | 43 Comments

Customization of Sawaal home page

Dear Sawaal users,

The Engineers working on ibibo Sawaal – Ramakanth Evani and Umed Singh Bisht – have come up with an idea that is going to thrill you. At least, that’s what we think.:-)

As of today, ibibo Sawaal has two tabs on the home page: Featured & Recent. Very soon, we will be introducing two more tabs: Favourite Categories & Favourite Users.

Posted in Computers & Technology, Movies, Music & Books | 11 Comments

The all new ibibo Sawaal!

Hey Guys!

The experience of asking & answering questions just got simpler. And no it isn’t an April Fool Day’s joke!

You have probably already seen the new-look Sawaal from within your Myibibo page. If no, take a look here. We have brought Sawaal into your Myibibo because we want you to experience the whole of ibibo from your comfort zone.

In the new Sawaal home page, you will see ‘Featured Questions’ - all handpicked by Editors from ibibo, from across all Categories. In short…the best of Sawaal at one place.

On the Sawaal home page itself, you will see another tab called ‘Recent Questions’ which displays recent questions from across all Sawaal Categories – a sort of Open Questions page, if you want a name.

The Ask a Question page has also turned user friendly. You don’t need to select options from two drop downs, before you can ask a question. The category pop-up, you were already familiar with, is being used in Ask a Question page too.

You can now post a question to the whole ibibo community or your friends alone (you get to choose the friends you want to ask the question to). After you submit the question, we give you the option of forwarding it to your friends - from within your ibibo community or outside.

Let us know what you think of the sleek & defined ibibo Sawaal look. Anything we can do to improve?

The all-new ibibo Sawaal

Mansi Sawhney, Content Team, ibibo

Posted in Movies, Music & Books, Other Categories | 20 Comments

Sawaal Team introduces Ask The Expert

Sawaal team has served yet another cool feature for the ibibo Sawaal users - "Ask The Expert."

In our day- to-day lives, we reach out to different friends for advice/suggestions on different issues. For example…within the Sawaal team we reach out to Deepak Sharma for any doubts on mobile phones, Umed Singh Bisht knows everything about hill stations and Ramakanth is the last word in Yoga and Asanas.

Extending this real-life concept to the World Wide Web, we thought why not use the Experts Program on ibibo and get answers from people who have been there, done that. Result: Ask The Expert feature.

The Feature

Finding the Link
In every category/city page of Sawaal you will find a link called ‘Ask The Experts in this category.’ Clicking on this link will take you to all ibibo Experts in that category. (Screenshot Below)

Category Experts Page
For example, if you were in Sawaal’s Astrology category, clicking on the link will display all Experts for Astrology. Or if you the locality you chose was Delhi, you will see all Delhi Experts (Screenshot Below)

Asking a Question
In the Experts Display page, if you click on the button ‘Ask a Question,’ a pop-up emerges where you can type in your question, pick the category to which your question belongs…and also decide if your question is Private or Public. If a question chosen as Private, only the Expert to whom it was asked gets to see and answer it. Before submitting the question, you can also opt for a mail alert to be dispatched the moment an expert answers your question. (Screenshot Below)

Asking Another Question
Once you click on the ‘Ask Now’ button, and the question is sent to an Expert, you have the option of asking another question or closing the pop-up. (Screenshot Below)

Changes in your MyQ&A
If you have asked an Expert a question, you can see it in the ‘Direct Questions’ sub-tab of you’re my Q&A. If are an Expert, you can see all questions which were asked to you by clicking on the newly introduced fourth tab, ‘Questions Asked to Me’.

Posted in Other Categories | 66 Comments

Introducing ibibo Sawaal in a friendlier format

ibibo Sawaal is now in four separate flavours to facilitate your quest for information -

# Knowledge sawaal -If you are looking for real knowledge that’s updated and relevant…

# Local sawaal - If you want to find something or somebody in your area, Local Sawaal is for you. From doctors to Dentists to plumbers to driving directions…

# Advice sawaal - If you need advice, counseling or support on love, relationships or family…

# Shopping sawaal - If you need ideas on what products or services to go for or user comments on the best brands and prices…

The ibibo Sawaal team has also introduced new features while asking a question. In the new-look Sawaal you can preview your question before you Ask it. Once a question has been asked, by default it is open for seven days. You can change the closing time of your question, whenever you want. Once a question is closed, users can’t answer it but the knowledge remains. Anyone who is looking for information will always find it easily.

You can answer another question from the same category after you have answered the first. Once you have answered a question, we suggest other questions from the same category that you might be interested in. You can also discuss the question once you have answered it.

ibibo Sawaal team has put in their hard work to make this knowledge platform better than what it was before. But to make it the best, they rely on your feedback.

Please explore the all-new ibibo Sawaal and leave your comments. The best comments will be featured as a blog post!

Posted in Other Categories | 113 Comments

Computers & Technology � Shift Control

Somebody once said “all programmers are playwrights and all computers are lousy actors”. How true.

If only computers were expressive and made things easier for us to understand, we would not have so many questions.

The problem with computers begins at the very beginning. How else do you explain this question by MilindPhadke: Which is the best computer to buy? See if you can help the poor guy.

But then, the problems only keep mounting. After one has bought the computer, one wants to know “How many keys are there in keyboard?”. Don’t ask me why Dinesh wants to know. On second thoughts, wouldn’t it be easier to simply count?

Knowing the number of keys on the keyboard doesn’t help either because then one would want to have a complete understanding of all the accessories as well. Perhaps that is why Ikmar of Kolkata asks: “What is meant by memory stick?” Ikmar, just in case you have been wondering, memory stick is not the scale with which our teachers hit us when we didn’t memorize the lessons.

What use is a computer if there is no internet? Maybe, that’s why Anup wants your help on some good broadband companies in India.

With the internet connection live and kicking, it would be time for search (not soul searching!). Internet search, that is. While we are on the subject why don’t you answer Dayal’s question: “Which search engine gives the most relevant results - Yahoo, Msn or Google?”

BTW, you can also try out the new look Dwaar!

Posted in Computers & Technology | 22 Comments