And that’s what we say about myBantu – the little helper with never imagined of before features. After logging into myBantu.com from your computer or your mobile, key in the information you need about your favorite movie shows or cuisines nearby. From searching through various sites such as
Yelp
Rotten Tomatoes
Open Table
Yahoo
Semantic Engines etc.,
with the help of its complex algorithms for recommendation technology, this teeny-weeny helper serves you with 3-9 results after straining it from various preference criteria mentioned by you at present and in the past.
Besides this you can also consult friends and recommend the service to others. There is also a shareable to-do list. If in case you are on the go, you can access it from your mobile and also get the location of the service on the map. And all this is absolutely free.
Just log in to myBantu.com and search for what you want and myBantu will search for your favorite movies to booking restaurants to customizing gifts through various sites.
Be it a date night or your mom’s birthday, myBantu can help you plan a movie show followed by dinner at your favorite restaurant. And that’s not all. It can also help you with a customized gift for your loved ones for them to remember forever after.
We mentioned in our last post that myBantu’s new Avataar for the iPhones and Androids will be smarter, faster and more intutive for the users to enjoy the online assistant’s services on the move. Here is a peek-a-boo into the features available:
Movie Tickets Bookings, Dining Reservations-Just as in the web link, users can easily ask myBantu to book movie tickets or do dining reservations at a vegetarian restaurant nearby or buy you flowers for to be delivered at a friend’s place for his anniversary.
Share and assign to-do with friends – Share your to-do list with your associate as and when you remember and also stay updated with whatever they share with you, almost instantaneously.
Information on local places- in your city – Users can ask myBantu for information about places (Malls, service centre, theatres, various landmarks, etc) in their city and view them on map and also get driving directions!
Just a couple of days more and the wait is over. Keep watching this space for our pre-launch jitters and of course the launch announcement.
How familiar are you with this little online friend of yours who is so capable that you can’t imagine. This little online concierge is ever ready to:
1. Help share coupons for Bob’s Hoagy Steaks or your to-do list ,
2. Recommend Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black that has again started featuring in the charts
3. Shout out your opinion about the product you selected.
Over 528,872 recommendations have already been given by this application. Don’t be left behind. ‘Bantuing’ is the way to delegate all your dinning, shopping and movie preferences. Delegate your needs and let the application ‘Crank it up’ for you.
myBantu.com sources the recommendations from humanized web using its patent pending technology – ActiveRelevance. It uses Recommendation Technology in conjunction with the social experience and goes a step ahead of this by not only suggesting what is needed but by also assisting users in their decision making through Crowd Experience. The cool tool myBantu acts as a faithful intelligent service that provides relevant and reliable recommendations to the user through its intelligent service delegation algorithm. It fetches content which is relevant, collective and congruent for you and also allows you to get opinions from those in your network who have used the products/services you have searched for. The key differentiating factors of myBantu with its competitors are:
Relevant Recommendation – myBantu provides 3-9, Socially Relevant, Personalized and digestible recommendations based on the user’s search criteria.
Opinion – Both seeking and providing relevant opinions from both web and Friends on user’s needs is an important aspect of myBantu. A user can give opinion on the product/service used thereby enabling a richer repository of opinions for others to use.
Leveraging the crowd experience - It uses different tools like Search Engines, Semantic Engines, Social Networking Sites, and other specialized sites like Yelp, Yahoo, OpenTable, RottenTomatoes, Amazon etc., for sourcing relevant recommendations to the users.
Context Aware Relevance – Once a user keys in a requirement, myBantu remembers the user preferences and the next result with the same keywords displays results based on the previous search criteria. Say for example a user searches for Italian restaurants nearby and selects a vegetarian restaurant, next time the search algorithm would automatically include vegetarian restaurant and display results accordingly. Hence the same keyword may not display the same result for different users.
ActiveRelevance Technology – myBantu uses its patent pending technology ActiveRelevance, which provides recommendations intelligently after understanding the user intent. The tool myBantu leverages Artificial Intelligence and Social Relevance, together termed as “Social Intelligence“.
‘Bantuing’ or searching with the help of the myBantu application allows users to get relevant results based on Content (What you are looking for ), Context (is it for today, have you already consumed that information nugget), Service Immediacy (when do you need this info to consume, how much time window and hence breadth of search and actors to reach out) thereby making it the preferred choice of VPA. Have you Bantood yet?
What is common in Pippa Middleton’s Maid Of Honor Dress by Sarah Burton, Natalie Portman’s award winning Black Swan in which she was trained by Mary Helen Bowers for ballet , Sachin Tendulkar’s bat by Mehnga Ram, or the historic 2008 Barack Obama Presidential social media campaign by David Plouffe? It’s Personalization. They all used experts in the business, who created personalized solutions for their requirements, to achieve outstanding results.
From fashion to fitness, sports to politics, personalization has become a part of all those who are juggling with tough roles and expect to excel in each one of them. Amazon.com popularized the product recommendation engine to help ecommerce customers personalize their preferences through its suggestion/recommendation mechanism based on what they and others like or had purchased or viewed in the past. This is the level of personalization consumers expect today.
With high work pressures and limited time for all jobs, it is becoming increasingly difficult for individuals to strike a perfect work-life balance. After a long day’s work if you need to unwind somewhere with family and friends over a cup of coffee or a movie, driving down to the movie theatre or a restaurant only to find that the bookings are not available is very disheartening. myBantu is just the kind of online personal assistant that helps you make the right choice after consultation with the experts-the specialized sites, social networks, semantic engines etc. The get opinion widget is also useful in checking out the opinion of friends in the network and others who used the same option.
After bagging the ‘most innovative startup of the year ’award, if you have to take your colleagues to one of the finest dining joints, just ‘bantu it’ i.e. use myBantu.com. Be it about looking like a million dollar maiden on the red carpet or striking the most difficult shot with great ease on a cricket field, personalization is the mantra of the day. Why should you be left behind? myBantu, the super delegated is here to help you.
Once bitten twice shy is an adage aptly applicable to managers who try to delegate and because of their wrong choice of assistant, they fail and decide to do it on their own, losing out on the opportunity to enjoy with their near and dear ones. Why? Well, because they are busy searching, reviewing, shortlisting and many a times searching again, while the members of their family are enjoying at a swimming pool or at a restaurant or at a cinema hall or without them. Your worklife balance too gets disturbed thereby affecting your productivity at work. You spend most of the time in office explaining to your boss and at home to your, well boss again. While you do work harder to put the pieces of your life together, you lose out on the quality of life.
However, if done correctly, delegation can be a very powerful tool in your life’s toolkit. A simple to use personal assistant – myBantu.com, helps user to get the desired search result by not just acting mechanically by searching various Search Engines, but goes beyond by looking in Semantic Engines, Social Networking Sites, and other specialized sites such as Yelp, Yahoo, OpenTable, RottenTomatoes, Amazon etc., for sourcing relevant recommendations to the users. The search algorithm also includes the past preferences of the user.A typical myBantu delegation model is as follows:
User searches myBantu –> myBantu understands the intent and requirement–> Finds out relevant recommendation from specialized service providers–> hand-picks 3-9 recommendations based on the user intent–>enhances the recommendations with handy widget to enable the user buy tickets/reserve tables/ask for opinions and coupons etc–>Fulfills user requirements based on their instructions.
However, the user does not need to take this path always, and he can skip or get back a box.
Using the tool myBantu.com is simple and gives relevant results based on user intent. So you get all the necessary recommendations, opinions and reviews for you at one place, real time. No more will you miss a swimming date with your kids or mom’s 60th birthday. Let myBantu slog for you, while you get a life.
With X-Men First Class hitting the screens, all would be queuing up to see Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy as younger Magneto and Professor X or at least would be searching the net to get the reviews. Some would probably go a step ahead and want to read the book review to see how close Kevin Bacon does come to Sebastian Shaw, as he himself claims that he was wondering why he was offered that role.
Typically the movie goers would be interested in:
Movie show close to his location.
Movie reviews of those who have seen it.
DVDs of older versions of X-Men to compare the performances.
Any coupons available with friends
Or going a step further and looking for the X Men comic series.
And once they have seen the movie they would want to give their opinions to their friends and other people wanting to watch the movie.
Most of them generate over a lakh of results and it takes the user more than required time to filter the choices. The user has to visit different sites to check for the desired show timings. Moreover they have to search for the movie reviews separately thereby wasting much of their otherwise productive time.Not all tools available on net facilitate all of the above mentioned points as effectively as myBantu does. Read http://www.mybantu.com/blog/2011/03/31/googles-1-and-mybantu-ugc-and-shoutouts/ .
myBantu leverages both artificial intelligence and social networks through friends recommendations and opinions. myBantu currently is facebook centric, available as an application in facebook, a web application and iphone app – with plans to extend into other smartphones.
myBantu’s first class X-Men Brigade i.e. its key differentiating factors includes the following:
Just like Prof X who gives clear direction to the mutants, myBantu too provides 3-9 socially relevant and personalized recommendations for user’s needs, based on its patent pending Relevance Technology
Like Dr. Moira MacTaggert who is a leading specialist on genetic mutation – myBantu acts as a search specialist for the user and seeks relevant opinions from both web and Friends on user’s needs
Havok has the power to emanate waves of energy from his body and channel them in one direction just as myBantu leverages the crowd experience and channels them to the user based on his search request.
Similar to Mystique who originally gave the nick names Magneto and Prof X to add relevance to their being agents- myBantu too provides context aware relevance.
And don’t forget to feed in your opinion on the movie. There are many of them out there waiting for your review on X-Men the movie and myBantu’s X-Men brigade. So don’t wait for a minute more and just ‘Bantu it’.
Before founding myBantu.com I used to wonder, “are there people like me who wanted a personal assistant so badly”. But today when I look at Cisco Valet contest – “Your Valet life” and its overwhelming response with users submitting a ton of videos why they need a personal assistant, thought it would be a good idea to share our 101 reasons why I need a personal assistant …
Hi there Valet contestants !! Please feel free to pick ideas from here to submit your videos.
To organize my busy life
Help me find a best & personalized valentine’s gift for my friend
Keep track of my monthly bill payments and expenses
Help me with getting a dining reservation for a romantic dinner on valentine’s day
Pickup my laundry
Book my travel
Clean up my room
Monitor my credit card accounts and payments
Research and get me information on how to do a HD video for Valet Contest
Wash my cooking utensils
Be my shopping assistant
Feed me with all the news that am interested in every morning
Find the best deals on grocery at a store nearby
Automatically sync my phone contacts with my gmail account
Periodic updates on my stocks and how they are performing
Monitor my emails and alert me with the important ones
Queue up good action movies every Friday night on Netflix
Give me creative ideas for a weekend getaway
Manage my schedule and calendar
Attend to my phone calls when am busy & occupied
Find out best sites to buy antiques
Find out best places to sell my paintings
Fix and re-schedule appointments with my doctor if needed
Assist me do my weekly-grocery
Alert me when my groceries are getting over
Plan & arrange for my upcoming summer vacation
Get me the schedule of ongoing Tennis championship
Coordinate with house maid service for cleaning
Schedule for my car service and get it done
Remind me about anniversaries and birthdays
Arrange for a social gathering at my home & invite guests
Arrange for a limo services during my upcoming trip
Find me the best deals & discounts for the new kitchen appliances am planning to buy
Find me the best plumber to fix my kitchen faucet
Clean and install new heating equipment for my house
Suggest me with Fat-free recipes
Suggest a good comedy movie to watch tonight
Get me the latest Wii Mario game
Let my wife know that am running late – got stuck in a meeting
Help me change my travel plans while on the roadshow
Help me find a nearest dance bar
Suggest what I should wear for my upcoming party
Get me the weather details before I travel
Plan and arrange for my kid’s 1st birthday celebration
Schedule for a shipment pickup from my home
Help me order and get my prescription medicine
Help me with a list of movies I can watch with kids
Manage my daily to do lists
Coordinate and manage my pet day-care
Pick up my daily morning coffee to the office
Find out good spa and set up an appointment
Coordinate schedules with my Golf buddies
I need a reflexology now
Manage my tax documentation and coordinate with my Tax pro
Send thank you notes on my behalf to my team members
Help me shop my gadgets
Record “How I met your mother” and save it on my tablet
Coordinate warranty service repair of my new home theatre
Help me trace my lost lugguage with airlines during my travel
Find out the social events that I can attend to and arrange for the passes
Help me find a very special gift for my dad for his 60th birthday
Prepare a guest list for mom’s birthday and send them invitations
Get me a massage occassionally
Deal with my lost credit cards
Remind me about my insurance and car sticker renewals
Store all my friends contact info and share it when needed
Send the top songs that my friends are listening too
Find and suggest best salsa dance school
Track all my online orders
Automatically download popular games into my iPad/Android
Research on iPad vs Android tablet and update me
Recommend me things to do on my next road trip
Deal with the returns that I need to do
Do the tax planning for me
Suggest topics to be written for my blog
Pick-up undelivered mails from FedEx
Get me the movie tickets for this weekend
Plan for a movie night with my wife
Pick up the kids from day care
Schedule salon appointments
Suggest ideas for a date night dinner
Coordinate parent’s visit to my place
Take messages on my behalf while I am sleeping
Recommend me the convenient parking garages in SFO
Arrange for rental car in SFO during my trip
Get me the flight status and delays during my travel
Fix a dental appointment with my dentist
Research and get opinion on LED vs Plasma TV
Help in listing my second car for sale
Suggest new songs every week for listening while driving
Suggest and help in purchasing living room decor
Finding translation services during my trip in China
Suggest a cute gazebo for my garden
Follow up with the insurance claims agent
Vacuum the sofas
Recommend upcoming book releases based on my interest
Manage my rebates and mail-in rewards
Manage my mileage points and reward points
Track what I eat and alert me of too much junk
Help me manage my social personas online
Monitor my credit score and any suspicious activity including my reputation online
