It’s only five years and Nepalis have turned web crazy

- By Binaj Gurubacharya

KATHMANDU, Jan 25 - Nepal has gone web crazy. There are hundreds if not thousands of sites on Nepal and many of them are all home made.

There used to be time when the site - www.south-asia.com - was the only site managed and hosted by a Nepali company. Mercantile Communications first began the site in 1995. It contained news from The Kathmandu Post and other important information about the country. This was a revolutionary move that gave Nepali students and those working abroad a means to keep in touch with their homeland.

For potential visitors to Nepal, it was a way to browse through this interactive electronic catalogue, where information was practically just a click away and right at the users’ fingertips.

Five years later, a search for the word "Nepal" on popular search engines like Yahoo or Google would show thousands and thousands of web addresses. The over one dozen Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the country and many web page designers have flooded the world wide web with sites on Nepal.

From sites like www.kantipuronline.com or www.nepalnews.com that offer serious reading like news, current events and features, to fun sites like www.thisiskathmandu.com or www.boyfriend.com.np, there are choices to fit any mood and occasion.

Domestic portals like www.nepalonline.org or www.nepalonline.net, offer seas of information on Nepal for people both at home and abroad. Be it about movies being screened at theatres in the capital city or the latest happenings in town, these portal have updates for the home users.

The news sites have been a boon to all home Internet users, giving them the luxury of accessing news and reading them in their own free time. With other types of electronic media like radio and television, one does not have to wait for the broadcast but can just tap the computer and get the latest news.

Travel sites like www.travel-nepal.com or www.nepal.com offer wide range of information to travelers, be it trekking, mountaineering or just a vacation in the foothills of the Himalayas.

Travel web sites in fact are the most popular ones, giving potential visitors easy access to information and even photographs of the mountains and other places of interest in Nepal that for years have made this Himalayan nation a popular vacation destination. Hotels and travel/trekking agents now have the chance to show off what they have to offer in an much cheaper and convenient way as the cost of both accessing and hosting web sites plunged over the past few years.

Web sites are no longer a luxury but rather a necessity these businesses now can not do without.

On the fun side of these sites, www.she.com.np or www.glamour.com.np offer information on the latest fashion, makeup tips, magazines, skincare tips and even perfumes available. www.boyfriend.com.np and soon www.girlfriend.com.np give Romeos and Juliets a platform to meet, chat and exchange their love stories or just send plain electronic greeting cards.

www.cards.com.np is our own local site that offer electronic greeting cards that can be sent via the Internet. From birthday cards, to new year’s cards or Valentine’s day cards or card to just say "I am sorry" for hurting someone’s feeling or just to say "I love you" - these electronic cards work wonders.

To order pizza right at your doorstep or movie tickets for a film with your favourite star, there is www.nepalshop.com, where users can book tickets or place an order for pizza and other commodities.

Other new ventures include www.yokeho.com or www.kegarne.com or www.cyberlearningnepal.com offering education on the Internet.

And now, Information Technology and Telecom International (ITNTI) is coming up with free e-mail boxes for Nepalese users that the company will be launching during the Computer Association of Nepal (CAN) Info Tech show that begins on Thursday.

"We will be offering over 100 domain names enabling users to get free e-mails," said Pradipna Gautam, web designer for ITNTI.

Email addresses like yourname@nepali.com.np or yourname@hacker.com.np or yourname@father.com.np there are over a 100 choices of free e-mail addresses available.

Already there are estimated 50,000 Internet and e-mail users in the country and more and more people are getting hooked to cyber world.