The world around us

I first read about this way back in February, but I never got around to blogging about it. Springwise reports on spotting a new trend, sewing cafes. While knitting clubs have trickled down to being quite common now, sewing cafes are still something that are completely new. Linkle was founded by Linda Eilers in Germany who got the idea when she was giving sewing classes in The Netherlands a year back. She started a sewing cafe in Berlin and provides the sewing machines for which she charges 5 euros for an hour. At present she has 10 sewing machines on offer and a cutting table and of course Linda Eilers’ knowledge of sewing.

She helps replace broken zippers and advises on tailoring a vintage dress or stitching a handbag. Linkle serves a wide range of customers—from teenagers customizing jeans, to a woman creating her own wedding dress. For entrepreneurs with a knack for sewing (or carpentry, or almost any other kind of craft), now’s the time to make the most of the craft revival as it continues to expand. Set up a working / being space, and maybe combine it with a fabric or supplies shop.

Hitwise reports that Google remains the number one search engine by a huge margin, one that is increasing with each survey. The Seattle based search engine accounted for 64.13% of all searches on the Internet while closest rival accounted for a meagre 21.36% of online searches. MSN stood at 9.15%, Ask at 3.48% and the balance was made up by the remaining 48 search engines that the Hitwise Search Engine Analysis Tool tracks. 

Hitwise bases its rankings on a sample of 10 million U.S. Internet users. "Google`s growth shows no signs of slowing," said Bill Tancer, general manager of global research at Hitwise, who is speaking at Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition, June 4-7 in San Jose, in a session entitled Getting Better Mileage From the Search Engines. "Despite capturing the majority of searches in the U.S., and in light of competitors’ improvements, Google’s market share of executed searches continues to grow, exceeding 10% growth year-over-year.”

I had written earlier about a concept called "team buying" in this post where shoppers team up together to get higher discounts from merchants. Springwise now reports that a Malaysian website called Tumpang is offering a similar service and lets conusmers combine their resources to avail bulk discounts. An added twist to Tumpang is that anyone can advertise items for sale on the site, after paying Tumpang a fee for listing on its site, and lists a discounted price and how many buyers are required. It’s a great and innovative alternative to regular retail stores.

Have you got life insurance as yet? I haven’t although I have been thinking of getting it, but somehow always keep putting it off for a later time and date. I think it’s important to think of it as an insurance for the future, regardless of whether one needs it for medical or some other kind of emergency. One just has to starting thinking of life insurance as essential to us as automobile insurance actually, after all one doesn’t give that a second thought since it’s required by law and one is used to the system.

A lot of consumers are just plain scared to get life insurance, since it all seems just too complicated and requires too much paperwork. It actually is simpler than people think, especially now with instant quotes and companies that compare rates from a number of different companies so you can pick the best one, the one that suits you best. One of the top term life insurance companies in the US is Termco, which provides free level term life insurance quotes on its site. If you are new to the system and want to get some information on it, contact Termco which is a good place to get started. 

We spent most of the weekend poring over The Gulf News Properties section, looking for apartments in Dubai. I have looked for apartments in a lot of cities, both here in India and in the US, but this was the most organized property classifieds I have ever seen. The listings are sorted out very clearly for sale or for rent, the prices are written in the begining of each listing, so if it doesn’t fit your budget, you need not bother reading the rest of the entry.

I have contacted several real estate agents via email and one of them has replied already, saying that it’s no use giving me a shortlist of available apts right now as they are in such demand that they probably would not even be there by the time we got there to check them out!

The other amazing thing about real estate agents in Dubai, is that they are whole-heartedly geared up for international clients. Dubai is an all out international city and its real estate agents list the languages they speak, such as Russian, French, Dutch, German, Afrikaans, Arabic, Japanese etc. The more I find out about Dubai, the keener I am to go there.