March 23, 2009

Bebo in India

You must me thinking that whats the news in this, Bebo has always been in India. But this is not about our size '0' Karina, its about Europe's leading social networking site which has been officially launched in India.

As per
Alootechie, Mr. Nicole Vanderbilt, VP, International, Bebo, is very confident about the success of Bebo in India and consider their "Open Media Platform" as a great differentiator .

Though I have not explored it in detail but something that caught my eye was its registration form. It seems they are targeting a very wide age group. Their dropdown for specifying age starts from 1903 and end at 2009. So it doesn't matter if you are 106 yrs old or yet to arrive in this world, Bebo is for everyone.


Will try to explore more this weekend :)


Noticed another strange thing. They are running ads of Bebo.com on Bebo.com. See the "Advertisement" heading on the right most image. Clicking on it will take you to the registration form. So are they paying for getting registration from their own site. LOLz


3 comments:

abhi said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
abhi said...

Expert Review Registration for of the site bebo.com should be renamed as "mental exercise stage 1, 2 and 3"....

starting with the first element:
1. "Your Full name" somehow okay

2. "Email", i suspect people know the basic difference between the term "Email" and "Email ID"...(if not i will tell you in other related comments) another thing i noticed, why written as "Email" is not prefix as "Your Email"???

3. "Password:" though password maxlength is restricted to be 20 characters only but the size of the text box is so good that if user wants to input fable in it.

4. Most interesting element "You are" now question arises "I am"?? waaaooo!!! "Gender" is re-phrased as "You are" and now no idea, if its telling me or asking me about my gender or "You are"?? glad to know programmer used a drop down for just 2 values (male / female) thinking it will reduce the mental load of the user to decide his/her gender.


5. "Security check" its a common good thing "captcha" but i don't know why the most of the sites as showing the textbox first (where user needs to input) and showing the image afterward (from where user needs to read and make a decision)?



Stage 1 ensures users are using his/her Mental and Mortar skills and speed very well (together known as moving mouse with accordance to the mind). Can't say if a living creature of 106 yrs or yet to arrive in this world can use this usable form easily....

Kahani abhi baaki hai mere dost, now once u submit the form, if you are using Indian / Asian subcontinent name then an error screen comes which says:

"The following errors have occurred
Your first name must be your real first name. We've cleaned it up a little below, please correct if needed before saving again.
Your last name must be your real last name. We've cleaned it up a little below, please correct if needed before saving again."


amazing isn't it? Programmer / website manager is ensuring if user is entering his/her real FIRST name and LAST name. I tried (Ajay Gupta) from which world or planet, the product owners of this site come from? they are making the process more easy or complicated, who knows? that is why Usability or user experience come into existence.




Notabene: This is just an expert review of the registration form of bebo.com, intention of the reviewer is not to hurt any community/class/people or website owners/managers/product persons.

Anonymous said...

lolzz..... we're awaiting more on this !!! do share your observations !