A couple of days ago there were a lot of stories run on print and television about how a lot of people were using websites to manage their qurbani process during Eid – from finding a lamb to the process of sacrifice and distribution.

I’m suprised the blogosphere didnt cover this, and I tried to find all the sites that were mentioned but many of the ones I found have shut down by now – e.g. Dawn mentions BakraOnline.com which is now down – apparently due to not paying their host, which isnt a good sign.

Some of these sites were targetted towards expats who may want to have someone handle this for them in Pakistan – this is the same use-case that tohfay.com, Mamoon in Pakistan and other sites operate in.

But some of the sites were targetted for local people. As Dawn mentions, local people used the site in light of security threats around Eid. I couldnt help wondering that – after social networks, portals and job hunting sites, all of which target the youth – sites that offer qurbaani services and kasaai-finding services are targeted for an older, more mature audience, who can use credit-cards to process payments.

And if local people really did use these online services on Eid, it represents in my view quite a landmark achievement in terms of the internet finally arriving and being accepted by the mainstream. If that really is the case, perhaps our little dot-puff could finally start making more useful services compared to portals.