1. eBooks will become relatively normal. It will begin to feel a little silly to purchase products that require cutting down trees, chemicals, huge plants, toxic inks and expensive production and shipping. eBooks are cheaper, fast to obtain and just as easy to read, except in the bath. New Zealand will lag on this one, but the switch will gain huge momentum in the USA. 
   I’ll give myself a qualified YES for this one. Amazon’s Kindles are now on sale in NZ stores, we see eReaders being used pretty much everywhere and a lot of people I know have converted. Whitcoulls and Borders hit the wall for a variety of reasons, but eReaders are a part of their story of failure.
2. Pacific Fibre will be financed, and prices for capacity between Australia, New Zealand and the USA will continue to fall.
   That’s a NO – or more precisely a “not yet.” I can’t write too much about this, but suffice to say the team of professionals are beavering away on financing as well as operations and sales. They have announced 4 major customers, signed a great contract with TE Subcom for the cable delivery and that’s all I can say. Stay tuned.
3. The Apple AppStore will precipitate an app revolution, with the best applications migrating to, and many appearing exclusively on, Apple Macs and iOS devices.
   I’d have to say NO on this, as while the app store is showing incredible results for developers and customers alike, and apps are increasingly the place for the leading edge, other formats are also prospering.
4. Rowan, Koz and Amnon will do something amazing – though I have no idea yet what it is, and probably neither do they.
   Southgate labs invested in and got heavily involved with Vend, TheRugbySite, and GoVocab. All are awesome, especially Vend (which I am a smaller investor in) which is gaining good traction. I’m going with a YES, based on helping Vaughan Rowsell with Vend.
5. There will be some significant wins in the Copyright battles for those that want less draconian protections. The lobbying from the entertainment industry owners will continue to backfire as consumers and their advocates fight for what they want.
   YES – the S92A wording in NZ was considerably softened, the USA’s hideous SOPA bill is backfiring and the entertainment industry continues to amaze with their inability to understand the internet. (Latest example). There appears to be a growing mood for a major revisit of Copyright law.
6. The iPhone 5 will blow our socks off, and I and millions of others will buy one to match our new iPad 2.
   It didn’t blow our sicks off with hardware features, but the iPhone 4S with Siri is pretty amazing (it actually understands my weird accent) and it sold 4 million in the first weekend. The biggest change is actually in distribution, as we can buy the 4S anywhere. It did not bring anything truly magical on the hardware side, but I bought 2 of them so I’m giving this a qualified YES.
7. The split US Congress will actually deliver some good legislation to be signed off by President Obama.
   NO. I think this one was wishful thinking, and the state of politics in the USA continues to baffle the rest of us. What was once an amazing example of civility, cooperation, pragmatism and statesmanship (I refer specifically to the Senate) has turned into two side that cannot agree on anything except for the importance of attracting campaign finance. Sad, but the Occupy Wall st movement, Larry Lessig’s book and what is going to be some blatantly crazy spending by the SuperPacs are promising signs of change. It will take something major to break the system, and that’s sad.
8. National with John Key leading will easily win the NZ election and form a coalition  government.
   An easy YES. I’m very happy with the result, even with some of the ACT policies if not their players, and especially happy to see the Green party field some quality new candidates and get rewarded for it. Labour suffered for not doing so and needs to reinvent themselves and their selection process.
9. Powershop in New Zealand will go mainstream – and people will begin to wonder why they ever received paper invoices from their utility.
   Powershop has certainly achieved much higher penetration into the public eye, with the switching sites often highlighting their cheaper prices, and a lot of coverage. Powershop deservedly won the Deloitte Fast 50, has a very successful GrabOne campaign and currently have over 42000 customers. My parents use it, so I’m going with a very soft YES. There is certainly a long way to go before it hits the big time.
10. There will be no major success from the attempts of large generalist newspapers to charge for content online 
    Except, apparently, for the NYTimes that is. NO. I have sharply reduced my own reading of their content as a result, and I suspect the jury is really still out. 
11. The All Blacks will lose the World Cup. Admit it – we have gone into every other World Cup looking as strong as we are now the season before, but when it comes to the crunch each players in every other team lays their individual life on the line to beat the All Blacks in the World Cup knock out stage. It’s essentially impossible to play three or four must-win games in a row with opposition like that. (Clearly I’m very happy to be wrong on this)
    NO – and as I said, Clearly I’m very happy to be wrong on this. What I also didn’t predict was just how good the Rugby World Cup would be for spectators and New Zealand. I ended up seeing 13 games live, including the opening and the final, and spent a huge amount more time and money on the festivities than I had planned. It was superbly executed, the atmosphere was universally positive and the crowd management continuously learned and became excellent. A hearty well done to everyone involved.

This predicting business is great fun, but hard. I count five clear noes, four soft yeses and two clear yeses. Some of those noes will turn into yeses soon, though number 11 is certainly going to stay that way for almost 4 years.

There is plenty that I didn’t predict, but on to next year. 

1. eBooks will become relatively normal. It will begin to feel a little silly to purchase products that require cutting down trees, chemicals, huge plants, toxic inks and expensive production and shipping. eBooks are cheaper, fast to obtain and just as easy to read, except in the bath. New Zealand will lag on this one, but the switch will gain huge momentum in the USA.
2. Pacific Fibre will be financed, and prices for capacity between Australia, New Zealand and the USA will continue to fall.
3. The Apple AppStore will precipitate an app revolution, with the best applications migrating to, and many appearing exclusively on, Apple Macs and iOS devices.
4. Rowan, Koz and Amnon will do something amazing – though I have no idea yet what it is, and probably neither do they.
5. There will be some significant wins in the Copyright battles for those that want less draconian protections. The lobbying from the entertainment industry owners will continue to backfire as consumers and their advocates fight for what they want.
6. The iPhone 5 will blow our socks off, and I and millions of others will buy one to match our new iPad 2.
7. The split US Congress will actually deliver some good legislation to be signed off by President Obama.
8. National with John Key leading will easily win the NZ election and form a coalition  government.
9. Powershop in New Zealand will go mainstream – and people will begin to wonder why they ever received paper invoices from their utility
10. There will be no major success from the attempts of large generalist newspapers to charge for content online
11. The All Blacks will lose the World Cup. Admit it – we have gone into every other World Cup looking as strong as we are now the season before, but when it comes to the crunch each players in every other team lays their individual life on the line to beat the All Blacks in the World Cup knock out stage. It’s essentially impossible to play three or four must-win games in a row with opposition like that. (Clearly I’m very happy to be wrong on this)

It’s worth reading the report – at least for your industry.

“At June 2010, there were approximately 3.5 million mobile broadband services in operation, an increase of 71 per cent since June 2009.”

“The number of mobile telephone services increased by only one per cent in the same period (from 22.2 million to 22.5 million).”

“Telstra reported that the number of its PSTN lines had decreased by 358,000 over the year to June 2010″

“…and it estimated as many as 12 per cent of households are now ‘mobile only’ for voice, up from around eight per cent a year ago”

“Financial results for 2009–10 show that all mobile operators have enjoyed significant increases in data revenue. Telstra recorded non-messaging data revenue (handheld devices) increases of 21 per cent, VHA reported data and non-voice service revenue increases of 43 per cent and Optus reported that mobile services were a key contributor to growth, with mobile revenue accounting for 63 per cent of total company total revenue during 2009–10″

“Research undertaken by Gartner, indicates that the number of mobile application downloads will grow from 2.5 million in 2009 to a predicted 21.6 million in 2013.” (Actually Apple iTunes right now shows overall app downloads approaching 10 Billion, so Gartner’s headline of “Over 50 Billion Applications Downloads Generating Over $72 Billion From 2008 Through 2013″ is already well out of date. Overall those Australian numbers seem highly anemic.)

“… 27 per cent of adult internet users in Australia identified the internet as their most trusted source of news and information, in comparison to 20 per cent for newspapers, 17 per cent for television and 12 per cent of internet users identifying the radio as their most trusted source of news and information.”

“..only 39 per cent of adult internet users in Australia described newspapers as an important or very important source of information, compared to 34 per cent describing them as somewhat important and 27 per cent describing them as not important”

In September last year I purchased the latest Kindle, which is smaller, faster and a lot lighter than my A4 sized Kindle DX. More importantly it actually works in NZ (over Wifi) to instantly download purchases, and so I have purchased over 40 books from Amazon USA between then and now. In the same time I’ve purchased just one regular, paper, book – and that cost $1 at a second hand store in Echuca, Australia. I struggle to justify spending money on other paper books as the Amazon prices for Kindle books are usually much much cheaper compared with NZ prices for paper books, but more importantly the e-books weigh nothing, are able to be purchased anywhere and are always with me on one of my many devices. Each book purchased gets downloaded to one of three Kindles (two of us read them), an iPhone, and iPad or, extremely rarely, a computer.

It’s the same with music – it’s very rare that I will buy a CD as it’s much simpler, faster and cheaper to buy on my iPhone through iTunes.

In each case the decision to buy and the download is concurrent with the purchase itself, and usually seconds after I have discovered the book or music. The discovery of the book could be through a recommendation from a friend, or through browsing through the physical books in a regular bookstore. It’s probably one of the reasons that Barnes and Noble is in so much trouble – there is little rational reason for having huge stores full of popular books when a virtual store with infinite inventory is everywhere.

This probably means the death of most bookstores – at least those that cannot make the switch to electronic media. There will be very few winners as we will most likely end up shopping in the same place. This year we will continue to see buyers of books switching to electronic media, and this will make it even more difficult for those stores with marginal economics. Fishpond and their ilk are better off than physical stores, but they are in a dilemma – can they switch their business to electronic delivery if the publishers won’t play? How can they make the Australian and New Zealand markets attractive to publishers without invoking the giant Amazon giant to actually get its act together downunder?

Overall I now see no reason why the physical book isn’t doomed. It makes no sense to spend so much money on the printing and distribution of physical books when an electronic purchase is available so much more conveniently. Yes we will still love the smell of books, and reading a Kindle at the beach or in the bath is perilous, but these are small problems in the scheme of things.

Fishpond, rather smartly, have diversified away from books and CDs into other products.

Sadly the same thing is happening to games and DVDs as happened to music.

Movies are large, and so in New Zealand and Australia our constrained bandwidth (along with the small markets) has meant that purchasing and downloading movies is still small. But in the USA the legitimate movie downloads have been huge, with both movies and regular TV increasingly being delivered over IP. Meanwhile the prices of DVDs are just silly, and it’s difficult to justify the time spent viewing a $40 or $20 DVD with the time spent playing a decent $1.29 iPhone game. Meanwhile I’ve sharply reduced the amount of time watching the TV, be it movies or otherwise, as I’ve switched to using other more engaging media.

Apple has transformed the games industry by making it oh so easy to buy Mac or iOS games using their app stores. Steam has done the same on several platforms for games. So it’s hard to justify buying a shiny disk that won’t arrive for days, and it is especially hard to justify spending $50 to do so. All this gets worse for the sellers of shiny things as the data capacity and download limits available to us increase.

It’s going to be very hard to be an electronics manufacturer this year. Cameras are now a part of cell phones, music players need to be iPhones or iPods and the market moves wildly quickly, while the standard for design is relentlessly high. Apple dominates an increasing number of categories, rendering much of the rest to be commodity products. Even watches are barely required today when we have so many digital devices that tell us the time.

But selling stationery and kitchenware is a good extension for Fishpond, as it’s hard to substitute these for electronic versions. It’s a sign that they are determined to be the Amazon of down under, and good for them.

However the proverbial elephant for Fishpond and their competition MightyApe is that substitution by electronic media, and they would each do well to ensure that the domestic industry has an answer that serves us all well.

I got this email just now, it’s so ugly I thought I’d follow the link to see how bad the survey was. I took the extra time to take pictures and write comments.

The landing page as not too bad, except I couldn’t care less about adding to my nano collection, and suspect many in the target market feel the same way.

The first questions were broad. So I own lots of devices – but which ones do I view news on? The categories of apps are so broad. Perhaps it wold be better to focus on media apps, and even ask which ones I have and which ones I use. (NYTimes.com is the only one I use, and even then not very often)

The questions stayed bad – it’s actually really hard to design a questionnaire, and I suspect that the answers from this one will not be that useful. The feature list forgets that the most interesting thing is content. The payment question could lead to someone thinking that $10 per month is ok, when we all expect to pay $1 for the app and that’s it. And even the publications question – the answer it I’d probably look at all of them if they were in one app, but more important is the link to their online content.

I like the open question about what a mobile app would look like, though answers could be quite fun.

Finally the survey makes the basic mistake of enforcing the question asking for my email address and phone number. This is a great way to reduce response rates and increase bias, as evidenced by my not hitting the respond button.

So to summarise:

- We want to help, and while some people are motivated by winning prizes, most are not. So don’t make us give you our email address and phone – it feels like spam and we probably won’t.

- Focus the survey on the topic – which is a iPhone/Android/iPad app for your magazines

- Write the report that you want to result from the survey before you write the survey. This means that the answers you get will be the answers you need to fill the holes in your report.

Here are some, in decreasing order of ‘Basic’ readabilty.

Proving something about left wing academics, tough I am not sure what. Overall very consistent in readability – not too simple, not too hard.

Complex matters, again presented consistently.

Seems right – Kiwiblog writes about complicated matters, and so the most basic language won’t work a lot of the time. However the lack of advanced language means the site is very readable. Well done.

Pretty good overall result – the basics are easy to read, but the complex is there as well. Appeals to a wide audience, or off-putting for the mainstream?

Hard to differentiate here, as always. Our mainstream media are more readable than the Economist and WSJ (2% and 8% basic respectively), along with the NYTimes (9%). However while MSNBC (44%) and USA Today (31%) are higher, it’s somehow disturbing that Fox News has about the same readability level (23%).

Entertainingly these two Aussie Fairfax Media papers have more difference between them than NZHerald and Stuff do in NZ.

News sites that focus on the new news, and not features – so you’d expect the easier readability.

Do Trade Me sellers define the best mix of language that sells? A strange coincidence that Rowan’s blog and this blog are about the same as Trade Me in readability.

These two group buying sites (I’m involved with Groupy) provide more evidence that simple sells.

The girls have it.

Or perhaps it is because they are saying some breasts are better than others – when breast cancer folks are very careful to avoid that <update – this was reported by 3News, but @jenene says it is not at all true><update 2: Actually it is true – there is a Facebook Like button next to each pair.

Here, pointed out by @boganetteNZ, is what happened to some of those pictures:

>

Or perhaps it is because it’s such a naked attempt to get publicity for a site that is dead in the water due to Facebook.

Or perhaps it’s just bad <database/server> design.

It certainly is lousy website <infrastructure> design – the site has been offline, apparently, for much of today.

Whatever it is – any reputation NZGirl had is now toast.

As a reminder:

1. Parents – don’t let your kids go there. It may be named ‘girl’ but NZGirl is aimed at older folks. It’s not safe.
2. Those over 16 – don’t ever place pictures of yourself naked online, and don’t even take them in the first place. Your current friends and colleagues will see them, as will your future employers, boyfriends, children. Data always escapes.
3. NZGirl – fess up that it was a dumb idea, take the promotion down and pay $10,00 to the cause immediately. You’ve had your publicity now stop the damage.

Check out the Dr K Breast Checker (from Lingopal) to help you check your breasts regularly. No photos required.

Also check out the Susan G Komen website for good information on the issue of breast cancer.

And this article in Salon talks about selling breasts for cancer

<update. Some tweets

It’s hard to answer this without sounding like a fusty curmudgeon.

Kate may or may not be a victim – that depends on exactly what she uploaded and what else is already out there. However feeling like a victim is not an essential element of being one.

To that point, I really hope this is not true yet.

(later)

Oh heck – it actually is:

@wandaharland raises a good point here:

My take is that they thought it was a clever idea but never really considered the implications, or tested it with enough people outside the NZGirl RDF. It was perhaps driven by both business and a passion for the cause, but not, as very little actually is,  deliberately evil.

I’ve called out a lot of businesses and websites here and elsewhere. The responses range from defensiveness, to aggression, to heavy internal discussions but nothing public (but a quiet word a year or two later) to (my favorite response) a phone call, decent conversation and thanks for pointing out an issue.

This one is tough for NZGirl  as the mainstream press picked it up first, and stances have been set, and yes – I came out angry and swinging. I still believe the right thing to do is make a splash of paying some money to the cause and exit stage left.>

So meet a selection of headlines from 8pm on this Sunday night. Each colour is a different NZ outlet – NZHerald, Stuff, Yahoo, MSN, Infonews, Scoop, Tv3 or TVNZ.

Can you guess which colour is which outlet? Were you surprised?

Answers after the fold.

Purple Media

NEW YORK: Naomi Campbell danced on the sidewalk of Madison Avenue in leather hotpants.

Even those who’ve lost everything are seeing their glass as half full.

This dumptruck loses its lunch in Andrew Baxter Drive, Manukau

Overdue rental fees are costing the New Zealand video industry millions of dollars

I said it last Sunday and I have to say it again: I hate writing about myself. I made an exception last week to briefly

The country’s best known cocktail king has mixed with a local skincare company to conquer the world of beauty.

This week we look at the Canterbury earthquake and marvel at how capitalism saved lives and how buffoons think the disaster will be good for the economy.

Blue Media

Nine years ago, nearly three thousand Americans lost their lives on September 11, 2001.

Parliament voted last night to send a private members bill allowing Manukau City to ban street prostitution to a select committee

Let’s get one thing straight. Earthquakes are not good for the economy

When a population can be guaranteed to be more extreme than its government, democracy has become a majoritarian excess.

Grey Media

Police and forensic staff have spent the weekend digging up an unmarked grave at the Karori Cemetery, where the remains of a dog was found

Risk’s to New Zealand’s biosecurity from flooding, earthquake, and other natural disasters are not being adequately addressed and require urgent action

Harriet Fenwick was crowned the New Zealand winner of the 2010 Stella Artois Draught Masters on Friday in Auckland

Orange Media

Tragedy has brought the boys from Evermore home to Feilding for a special one-off concert

Chinese pilots, who had lied about their flying experience, have been allowed to return to…

There are dozens of reasons to visit Sebastopol – bird-watching, biking, ballooning. But…

Brand Beckham and cringeworthy celeb ads

Dark Red Media

Real estate agents in Christchurch say it’s a nervous time for buyers and sellers

Apple may not have reinvented the wheel, but it has revolutionised the personal computer.

Bieber rocks downtown LA

Rooneys reveal ‘extreme pain’ after sex claims

Light Purple Media

NZ Orion flying to Antarctica to rescue a critically ill US man has been forced to return to Chch

Moonwalking just like Michael Jackson will soon be possible for everyone with the launch later this year of the first video game

South African fusion band Freshlyground have been barred from performing in Zimbabwe after releasing a video that pokes fun at long-time…

A Paris man who registered 55 children by 55 different mothers faces up to 10 years in jail and fines

Green Media

Ashburton has tasted sweet success after it took almost 24 hours to set a new world-record for a giant chocolate bar.

There are many types of lace available, from chunky cotton laces resembling broderie anglaise to very intricate and fine fabrics more akin to decorative tulle.

Prague zoo says one of its fearless honey badgers is on the run.

Pamela Anderson says her life has gone “downhill” since Baywatch ended.

Aussie 007 actor George Lazenby says he bedded a woman a day during his time playing the British spy.

American consumers like the immersive feeling of watch 3-D television, but are put off by having to wear special glasses because they restrict multi-tasking at home

A man in Kentucky facing eviction over his hostile temper became enraged by how his wife cooked his eggs and killed her, his stepdaughter and three neighbours with a shotgun before shooting himself

Turquoise  Media

Which airports offer the best service to travellers all over the world?

Brush up your dance skills at a sizzling Latin dance class taught by Dancing with the Stars performer Hayley Holt

Their paychecks may be are huge and they have a lifestyle to match. So who is Hollywood’s richest actor in 2010.

Sexy bikini models show their stuff at the launch of the Ralph 2011 swimwear model calendar over in Sydney

Red Media

WHY THE HELL DID I DO THAT? COLEEN IS PREGNANT

Google and Mozilla take separate paths in search of greater adoption of their open source browsers. According to the latest Net Applications numbers, Internet Explorer stills hold 60 percent of the browser market, while Firefox is stuck at

Vice girl Helen Wood today breaks her silence and reveals how cheating Wayne Rooney had three-in-a-bed sex with her, then – riddled with guilt – hung his head in shame and asked her: “Why the hell did I do that?

They might be Top Models, but a couple of the contestants on the top-rating television show have turned out to be anything but role models for anti-tobacco campaigners.

How many did you get right?

Scroll down

NZHerald

NEW YORK: Naomi Campbell danced on the sidewalk of Madison Avenue in leather hotpants.

Even those who’ve lost everything are seeing their glass as half full.

This dumptruck loses its lunch in Andrew Baxter Drive, Manukau

Overdue rental fees are costing the New Zealand video industry millions of dollars

I said it last Sunday and I have to say it again: I hate writing about myself. I made an exception last week to briefly

The country’s best known cocktail king has mixed with a local skincare company to conquer the world of beauty.

This week we look at the Canterbury earthquake and marvel at how capitalism saved lives and how buffoons think the disaster will be good for the economy.

Infonews

Nine years ago, nearly three thousand Americans lost their lives on September 11, 2001.

Parliament voted last night to send a private members bill allowing Manukau City to ban street prostitution to a select committee

Let’s get one thing straight. Earthquakes are not good for the economy

When a population can be guaranteed to be more extreme than its government, democracy has become a majoritarian excess.

Scoop

Police and forensic staff have spent the weekend digging up an unmarked grave at the Karori Cemetery, where the remains of a dog was found

Risk’s to New Zealand’s biosecurity from flooding, earthquake, and other natural disasters are not being adequately addressed and require urgent action

Harriet Fenwick was crowned the New Zealand winner of the 2010 Stella Artois Draught Masters on Friday in Auckland

TVNZ

Tragedy has brought the boys from Evermore home to Feilding for a special one-off concert

Chinese pilots, who had lied about their flying experience, have been allowed to return to…

There are dozens of reasons to visit Sebastopol – bird-watching, biking, ballooning. But…

Brand Beckham and cringeworthy celeb ads

TV3

Real estate agents in Christchurch say it’s a nervous time for buyers and sellers

Apple may not have reinvented the wheel, but it has revolutionised the personal computer.

Bieber rocks downtown LA

Rooneys reveal ‘extreme pain’ after sex claims

Yahoo NZ

NZ Orion flying to Antarctica to rescue a critically ill US man has been forced to return to Chch

Moonwalking just like Michael Jackson will soon be possible for everyone with the launch later this year of the first video game

South African fusion band Freshlyground have been barred from performing in Zimbabwe after releasing a video that pokes fun at long-time…

A Paris man who registered 55 children by 55 different mothers faces up to 10 years in jail and fines

Stuff

Ashburton has tasted sweet success after it took almost 24 hours to set a new world-record for a giant chocolate bar.

There are many types of lace available, from chunky cotton laces resembling broderie anglaise to very intricate and fine fabrics more akin to decorative tulle.

Prague zoo says one of its fearless honey badgers is on the run.

Pamela Anderson says her life has gone “downhill” since Baywatch ended.

Aussie 007 actor George Lazenby says he bedded a woman a day during his time playing the British spy.

American consumers like the immersive feeling of watch 3-D television, but are put off by having to wear special glasses because they restrict multi-tasking at home

A man in Kentucky facing eviction over his hostile temper became enraged by how his wife cooked his eggs and killed her, his stepdaughter and three neighbours with a shotgun before shooting himself

MSN NZ

Which airports offer the best service to travellers all over the world?

Brush up your dance skills at a sizzling Latin dance class taught by Dancing with the Stars performer Hayley Holt

Their paychecks may be are huge and they have a lifestyle to match. So who is Hollywood’s richest actor in 2010.

Sexy bikini models show their stuff at the launch of the Ralph 2011 swimwear model calendar over in Sydney

Google NZ

WHY THE HELL DID I DO THAT? COLEEN IS PREGNANT

Google and Mozilla take separate paths in search of greater adoption of their open source browsers. According to the latest Net Applications numbers, Internet Explorer stills hold 60 percent of the browser market, while Firefox is stuck at

Vice girl Helen Wood today breaks her silence and reveals how cheating Wayne Rooney had three-in-a-bed sex with her, then – riddled with guilt – hung his head in shame and asked her: “Why the hell did I do that?

They might be Top Models, but a couple of the contestants on the top-rating television show have turned out to be anything but role models for anti-tobacco campaigners.

And tweak they will need to do. Sadly for me the site has taken a giant leap backwards. I enjoyed reading the blog, but now all that lovely content seems to be buried and scattered. Buried in that only the first sentence of an article is directly visible, and scattered in that the content is spread amongst the sections. The scattering shows up interest’s problem – their daily content for each area is thin, while their content itself is rich. So I feel the news site approach is not the best for them. A good case study is Kiwiblog, which releases about the same (and this is a wild guess) number of articles each day.

I like the tagline for interest.co.nz -”helping you make financial decisions”, but the site could do so much more to do so. If I go to, say, the insurance section, then I want to see a combination of general information, widgets that help me select a provider and, say, a mother-in-law guide to insurance clauses. The possibilities are endless.

So this review in pictures is pretty critical – sorry Bernard – but the real work starts now, with constant improvements promised. I’m looking forward to where it is going.

<update – pictures now click through to larger versions>

The Home page leaves me confused to interest.co.nz’s purpose.

News. This was quite disappointing, and where I expected the blog content to be. If I want short snippets of news then I’ll go to Stuff or NZHerald. I come to interest.co.nz for more insights, which is why I’d like to see the words.

Property seemed vacant

Borrowing is all about what could be done in the future

As is saving.

So many obscure terms – I wonder what they mean?

Interest.co.nz should be the definitive guide to NZ financial institutions. It’s not (yet).

Insurance

There is plenty more there – have a look around and try your favorite site. There are plenty of other bloggers that use WordPress.com – such as Rowan, dimpost, Poneke,  Open Parachute, and home paddock. I confess to not reading any of these aside from Rowan’s – I got them from a list of top NZ blog sites compiled by Tumeke, of which more later.