Rediff Blogs finally gets a life!

Der aayi durust aayi!

That about sums up rediffblogs’s latest avatar. As someone who is among the oldest users of rediffblogs, let me convey my sincere appreciation to the team which enabled this latest change. My interactions with the help team over many years shows many names and identities, none long-lasting alas, so I guess the churn had taken a toll on rediffblogs too.

But it wasn’t always so. The early rediffblogs platform had Keep It Simple, Stupid! written all over it. Too bad they took their eyes off the blog and let newbies build themselves up from scratch. I have no idea who was behind rediffiland but whoever it was probably went laughing all the way to the bank while rediff users shed a silent tear.

The latest rediffblogs doesn’t offer anything that other platforms don’t already have. In that sense it is contemporary, not futuristic. I hope rediffblogs won’t rest with this and think it’s all done and dusted; even as I write this the competition is tweaking new apps, new features. To go from beyond this stage, rediffblogs will need to constantly improve, finetune the product.

It’s long been said that Indians can only adapt, never innovate. If there’s a company that can turn this maxim on its head, it is rediff.com. The point is, do they know it? If they know it, do they believe in it?