dislike Button for social networking

Bangalore:

When youngsters are busy finding ways to increase the number of likes on their photos on Facebook or doing all they can to beat each other with respect to the number of friends, a few have got together and simply created a new site that combines social networking, music player, chat and even news updates.

Their multi-networking forum is called Binox (binox.me). Among other things, users can also look forward to a 'dislike' button, which has long been the demand of Facebook users.

Binox is the brainchild of eight students in their final year of BCA at National Degree College in Basavanagudi. The young minds — Amith Chandrahasa, Anoop Santhanam, Chandramouli V Jamadagni, Guru Murthy, Narendra B S, Sachin Kumar, Sankarshana S and Shreyas M S — started working on the idea a year ago. A completely user generated forum, Binox is a package of social networking, music player, search engine and also applications. "The name Binox is a short form of binocular. Through Binox, one can see far and across the internet. The 'me' is a reference to people telling each other to 'Facebook me'. We came up with 'binox.me'," Anoop explained.

Their venture was the result of the frustration of opening several tabs and even browsers. "When I am online, one of my browsers runs Facebook, another a search engine while a third one plays my favourite music," Varun said.

"Binox eliminates the need to switch between tabs. A user can play their favourite music by creating their own playlist and run news updates on the side. For networking, your friend's activities will also be constantly updated on the same page," Chandramouli said.

"Users can go to each other’s profiles and even share the playlists or songs. There is no need for a different tab to run Youtube," Amith added.

Among the features, the founders consider the dislike button as a new step in social networking. "We know how youngsters spend hours on Facebook and other networking sites. On Binox, your time won’t go waste. With every 10 hours you spend on Binox, you unlock an application," Anoop said.

The students started this venture by saving Rs 10 every day from their monthly allowance. With 1,000 users already, they plan to generate revenue in future by giving out ad spaces. "When we started, we spent around Rs 6,000. Now it’s gone up to Rs 13,000. But we have no complaints," Anoop said. They plan to add e-commerce or online shopping to improve the financial viability of their venture.

"We have had great support and encouragement from our friends and family. We were also supported by our teacher Anjana P V," Chandramouli added.