Ever since the dot com boom and bust, I don’t get too excited about new websites anymore, especially Iranian sites.
Iranian sites for the most part either suck, or they are template sites and the greedy developers seem to want to create the most busiest and complicated sites with the teeniest tiniest text that you can’t read, almost as if they wanted to make it as hard to use as possible. God forbid they have those awful ads on them too. Farsi language sites are often bad, as the penchant for Iranians to blog like crazy, at times becomes too much to bear. Certainly painful on the eyes. I think the number of Iranians blogging now, is more than the actual number of Iranians reading those blogs.
But recently I found a sweet little website that hopefully you will enjoy using. Kodoom.com
One of the most common problems we as Iranians have is managing our social calendar. We know what we like and don’t like, but one of the hardest things to do is to make sure you are at (and more importantly seen at) the coolest events and don’t waste your time (or get the hell out of quickly) at the not so cool events.
The other problem is finding a place to eat. Specifically, Persian food.
Which is how I actually found Kodoom to being with. Leave it to my Iranian Shekamoo tummy to drive my deepest internet desires!
Kodoom is not a search engine per se, but something kind of like a search engine for events. But it is not an events calendar either.
How many times have you been frustrated by those lousy calendars that are almost always empty when you visit them, but then you seem to miss out on a really cool event the week you were either too busy to, or decided not to go to the site.
One of the best features of Kodoom is that while browsing the events in your area, upon finding one you like, you can instantly add it to your Google or Yahoo calendar, a very powerful tool to make sure you don’t forget or miss something important. Need a map to the venue of that concert or speech? Kodoom has that already waiting for you, along with all the usual share with a friend and print functionality.
Kodoom is on of those rare sites that appears simple, and is utterly simple to use, but as you use it, you realize the brilliance of the subtle complexity behind delivering answers to your questions.
Kodoom instantly knows where you are surfing from, based on your computer’s connection, so it is smart in that, but you can easily change locations from any page and find what’s happening in any town that you like. Yes even Tehran!
I will warn you that the Kodoom titles are primarily in Farsi, which took me a while to get used to, but there is plenty of English information once you are past the front page and well into your local area’s events, so don’t panic. Plus it’s good for you to practice reading Farsi now and then!
You can check out Kodoom for yourself at http://www.kodoom.com and give it a try.
If you have a cool website that you would like me to review, don’t send me cash, just send me an email.
