NEW DELHI, August 27 : A-cube Software, a
web-designing company and the offshore development unit of DSF Internet
Services--a three year old web-designing firm, announced the launch of
in.orientation.com, a Web site for India with text in Hindi as well as
English. The Orientation site is a part of a global network of local,
regional and international Internet portals that are typically
multilingual--English and the local language.
Each site has a localized database of 77,000,
categorized web sites. It provides localized information such as news,
Indian IRC channels, e-mail in Hindi and English, etc. Currently the
absence of font standards prevents typing in Hindi. The firm is
negotiating with Microsoft and Netscape to evolve standards, according to
Manager-Business Development Varun Gupta. Once the standards are set,
A-cube also plans to introduce text in other regional languages.
While the USP is bilingual surfing, advertising and PR
activity will form a major role in making the site popular. According to
Mr Gupta, the first three months will involve popularizing the site, after
which a business model will be worked out.