The Philippines is still not yet the most popular in terms of developing mainstream commercial websites that Filipinos do own, but that’s about to change. MySandBox is a new website developed and owned by Smart Telecom, a Filipino telecom company, that basically will push the mobile internet here in the Philippines…
… I was one of the lucky bloggers who were invited in the secret event that they launched a few months back. It was a sneak preview of MySandBox that they’re about to launch, the whole concept was revolving around “MoBlogging” or mobile blogging which is related to their products and services. It was heavily backed that almost 300+ bloggers were invited and were all given a Sony Ericson Phone (for free), as well as, 1 year supply of Php 500 prepaid credits per month for one year.
– MySandBox HomePage ScreenShot –
I’m so happy to see Filipinos finally developing commercial websites, for me this is one of the major commercial website developments in the Philippines and is backed by a heavy backer. It has entertainment news in their website that is provided for by a local Filipino newspaper source. It also sells games, music and wallpapers thru their website. And streaming shows which is definitely attractive to many. They’ve also added groups, forum and chat section in their website to enhance social interaction. The main highlight of this website is the mobile blogging area, where people can blog using their Smart SIM cards.
Even though I’m happy to see this for the Philippines, I believe there’s still a lot of improvements that they need to do (hence the beta version). First, they need to redesign the website into a more web 2.0 style. Second, the forums that they have certainly needs to be redesigned, even the footer’s links are not working (as of today). I think they focus way too much on the mobile aspect that they’re forgetting that a lot of people would prefer looking at a big screen when they have the chance to switch to the bigger version. Third, the domain name is a .COM. Now being a filipino company, why can’t they use the domain name .PH or .COM.PH which could give them an SEO boost, as well as, a sense of nationalism in the country. Fourth, the domain name is “MySandbox” and not SandBox, the logo is confusing and can be so misleading, the need to bring the word “My” in the logo.
Overall, I love that the big companies are starting to see the potential of the internet. However, there’s still a lot of things that they need to learn and with this. Their designs are still in web 1.0 and has still yet to reach the web 2.0 standards. Although they’re advertising heavily on this, if it user friendly enough the whole project could fail. I’m also surprised that the domain name extension, which they’re supposed to highlight the .PH or use both domain names in the same website. I would like to say thanks to Smart Telecom for the Nice Cellphone and load, and I hope them all the best for the success of this website. I’m a pro-Filipino tech person and I’m supporting their cause.
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This a great innovation for us Filipino, specially filipino is fund of chatting now that Sandbox is around the corner Filipino chat would be now handy using you’re mobile phone.
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