News , Views and More

Burrp has released a widget which allows to embed the burrp search functionality in blog making one to boast of some cool features in there blog. What that means ? Visitors to your site can search for Pizza in Bangalore from your blog and see the results in your blog .

Burrp has rich database for restaurants reviews which can be leveraged in blog by using search widget . Following functionality are there is the widget which I think is useful :

• Auto completion for the areas in the city so for Bangalore Widget (which is running here) if people type in K then they get suggestion for the locality starting with K in the type box.
• Showing the search result in the widget which has phone number of the place , rating and cost of the meal.
• Ability to send the address of the restaurant from the search result as SMS without leaving the blog.

For me down side of the widget is that it is not a wordpress widget in the true sense and require some plumbing but considering this is first version we can expect improvements in future versions.

Try it out here , remember you can search only in Bangalore :
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On Some of the egroup that I have subscribed to I keep hearing on how real estate developers have cheated , charged more , finally provided flats which were not upto the promise , increased the flat price before delivery , but unfortunately there are not many sites which can capture and provide the feedback about particular builder . Problem with posting on egroups are they are not search able on google and yahoo so the comments and feedback get buried . I had a blog on Sobha and Mantri Developer here and there are some reviews on mouthshut but there are far and few reviews about developers.

It would have been nice to see developers review like we see movie reviews so after a project is launched there should be reviews based on certain parameters.

For now be cautious while dealing with Confident Group which have some projects on Sarjapur road as they make lofty promises .

I got these cartoons in email capturing the travel condition of Hosur road , Bangalore .

Having bought a house from Mantri and Sobha developers (Still waiting for possession) in Bangalore thought it will be good to narrate the experiences.
Mantri I bought earlier and found dealing with them much smooth as there customer representatives are much amicable and usually accommodate delay in payments compared to Sobha there customer rep’s are bit aggressive and probably depends on there brand to carry them through as Sobha has good vibes in bangalore compared to Mantri , with Sobha they don’t accommodate any delay in payment and will pose fine upto 18% for any delay .
With Mantri some bargaining is possible on cost of the flat but with Sobha bargain is no-no .
Mantri gave possession of the houses in advance and with Sobha delivery is a concern as it is getting delayed which was anyway told by my friends earlier who bought house that Sobha projects normally gets delayed .
Quality wise haven’s seen anything yet from Sobha as still waiting for the possession but Mantri quality is above average and so is priced accordingly .

Sobha factor the quality in price so it’s case of what you get is what you pay.
Overall for people looking for house and has boiled down to these two developers my suggestion would be to consider how long are you eager to wait and what is the budget you have in mind as Sobha is on higher side and there projects gets delayed .

Hope somebody finds this experience valuable. Leave comments for any other insight .

As per ET economy needs 320 Billion $ by 2012 for improving infrastructure , hope some money is spent on Bangalore roads & public transport.