OnYoMo

No , this is not a Japanese horror flick. It is the name of a search based startup incubated at IIT-Delhi and stands for , quite simply, On Your Move. See www.onyomo.com for more details.

I like the fact the problem(s) this company is trying to solve is a)real and b) relevant. With a growing economy , people travel more , for shorter periods, and to places which change and become unfamiliar at a rapid pace. So , if I am in Delhi for a 2 day trip and have the evening to myself , I might want to go and have a drink in a nearby bar. Or have a relaxing(!) bungee jump. I have tried such searches on google and yahoo and have never got good responses within my attention span which , admittedly, is quite short. But I guess that is the case with most people who use search engines. How many of you really go on to the next page of search results unless you are a) an academic or b) a geek or c) your life (or job) depended on it or d) all of the above ?

I think it is also a myth that most people know their cities - you might have heard of "parathe waali gali" in chandni chowk but you wouldn't know of every such street in Delhi. Even if you are a Delhiite, you probably wouldn't know that QBA is probably the only classy lounge in Connaught Place. Most of our cities are already headed towards becoming gigantic urban agglomerations : Delhi and Mumbai are already there and Bangalore is getting there too. There is too much information out there which I don't know and don't need to know until I want a drink :) .

A clincher for this product may be that they are ramping it up to work on mobiles through sms ,which is the way to go for an average Indian city user. After all , most people don't have/use GPRS on their mobiles ( to connect to web) nor would they want to look for a PC while they are out on a metro station. I also think that this market is quite niche and not big enough for the googles and yahoos to chase. They are addressing global problems.

All in all , a good idea and I hope it creates some solid momentum.