Having seen the ad for ibibo.com on TV a few times, I decided to check the site out. The site loaded fast but the interface looked pretty bland. A Flash interface is not required but brighter colors could have been used as a white background looks like a corporate site. I took a brief tour of the site and then went to register, the process was straight forward with the customary mail confirmation and the now mandatory “Invite your friends” page. Once registered, I headed to the blogs section and posted in Hindi, it was hassle-free. They have also added an “enter code” field for additional security thus living up to (or at least trying to) their claim of being the safest social network.
I then wandered around the local, opinion and photos sections and found them adequate. I could not notice any significant goof-ups anywhere.
The local section was useful as an address book as I found a lot of entries though some phone numbers were incorrect (the Air France number took me to Jet Airways!). The opinions section reminded me of Mouthshut - a site which I trust for reviews on various Indian products. I breezed through the Sawaal section and found a lot of obscene questions on intimate issues (a filter is needed here).
The photos section had a “Pick New” button that showed me a random set of photos everytime - a good feature to use if you have a lot of time on your hands. The polls sections was interesting too and creating polls was a breeze. Finally, the search feature was also adequate, especially with tags implemented across the site.
I had a trivial observation: at some places the ibibo logo had a beta on it (at the local section), while throughout the site it was just ibibo. They better clean it up before their brand value starts building up.
ibibo aims to capture the Indian social networking market - the Orkut/Facebook/Blog/Flickr users with a one-stop solution. Beyond the local flavour that it brings I don’t see any novel feature in it that makes a user to go to the site again and again. Though people might join the site out of curiosity or due to their viral ad campaign, to sustain interest, something novel such as a snazzy interface coupled with toys such as Facebook Apps are required. Otherwise, people might just go back to their Orkut/Blogger/Facebook dens.
Pros:
- Simple, predictable, easy to use
- Unlimited storage of photos
- Fast site loading time
Cons:
- Dull, bland interface
- No filter on content
- No “Wow!” features
