New StatCounter already throws up insights: there might be future for Hindi language content on the web after all

This new StatCounter I added two days ago (right at the bottom of this page), is already throwing up some surprises. Also this blog is still largely surfed by a handful of friends and acquaintances, StatCounter has a cool feature where you can see HOW people are getting to your site. Now, this is nothing really NEW per say, it's been around since the earliest days of web analytics. BUT, it's cool that it's moved from enterprise traffic tracking to free for ye ol' garden variety personal bloggers (like yours truly).

Why is this cool? Because it delivers insight on readership, and content that matters to them. The picture below shows my current a-ha moment:


Yup - There are people searching for share bazar information in Hindi, and stumbling onto my webpage. Which means, there might just be a market for Hindi language stuff, we just have to provide it (Granted, this is based on ONE hit on ONE blog, but, the foolhardy have to hope). In fact, Rachit and I were semi-actively/passively working on a project to identify the best hindi-language content on the net catering to a rural clientele. The objective of the study was to 1) Find this content so we can deliver it through a one-stop-shop-portal and 2) identify where the gaps lie and find ways to convince content providers to deliver their content in Hindi. The example I site: How cool would it be if howstuffworks.com was in Hindi? Mind-blowing. Imagine cheezenkaisekaamkartihain.com. Even better, if ICANN ever gets international domain names going, चीज़ेंकैसेकामकरतीहैं.भारत.

That thing could single-handedly propel the next generation of scientists, adventurers, wanders, Intel Science Competition winners, all from rural India. Now that's a global flattener that even FlatWorlder Thomas L. Friedman could be proud of (incidentally, I just started reading that book).