MSN has tied up with domestically tiny match.com for dating, while Yahoo!Xtra has nobody. So let’s try searching for love….. Searching Yahoo!xtra for ‘dating’ gives biggest local site NZDating as the first response, but second biggest FindSomeone is the 7th response. ‘online dating’ puts FindSomeone 4th and NZDating 6th. Some work to do here Yahoo! …
Author Archives: Lance Wiggs
xtrayahoo vs msn.co.nz rounds 3+4
nz.yahoo.com (why call it yahooxtra when that’s the site url) is now up, and substantially better than the msn offering. Meanwhile msn.co.nz fails to deliver the main news photo in Safari, and much of the content does not work. Firefox shows a much better site for msn.co.nz. Round 3 to Yahoo! but wait – the …
msn.co.nz – round 2
so the seek search links don’t work, the weather search (for wellington) doesn’t work, the advertising link isn’t a link…. well – maybe I’ll just let msn.co.nz keep working on things and have another look tomorrow. Meanwhile it’s is pretty pathetic. so round 2 to yahooXtra – they at least have not launched something that …
msn vs yahooxtra: round 1
well msn.co.nz is up, but it is a pale imitation of ninemsn. A lot of work to do there people, including some senior hiring it seems. But as at 00:10 there is still no YahooXtra.co.nz….. so – round one to Microsoft/PBL
msn.co.nz launch – the players…
Telecom has ditched Microsoft for Yahoo. What do Microsoft do? Launch msn.co.nz of course. (and note, YES, there was no redundant ‘www’ in the press release) Without even seeing the site Telecom should be afraid – very afraid. As should Fairfax and APN. Microsoft are linking up with PBL – that’s Packer Broadcasting Limited, who …
yahoo!xtra launches tomorrow (March 1)
Here or here We should also watch what happens to xtramsn.co.nz – will it redirect to yahoo!xtra or to msn.co.nz? What will msn.co.nz look like? Who will they partner with?? Times they are a-changing…
findit in Aussie…
findit.com.au is not bad and is in beta right now. The gap in the Australian classified market is there as eBay has missed the Craigslist market and is late to the motors/property/jobs. They have a long road to haul, and some pretty serious competitors, but the site seems professional and reading between the lines they …
.bank.nz
dumb idea – why do I want to type 2 more letters for some dubious security benefit? Phishers can get by this pretty easily using their existing techniques, while meanwhile everyone would have to change their links, and the .nz domain would be doing something that is non-standard. Once we get .bank.co.nz we may as …
$15m gets broadband for Wellington
Sign me up – metro area Broadband is a savvy Wellington City Council’s response to lackluster telcos. Please just do it. We all know the Telecom debacle, but I’m frustrated at how lame Citylink is after what was such a promising and early start. I thought they would have owned the Wellington region by now. …
Technology versus law: incandescent lights ok after all
Seems that GE will manage to develop incandescent lights that are as efficient as fluorescent ones. Perhaps lawmakers, as Slashdot points out, should stick to mandating efficiency levels rather than technologies.
YahooXtra: inauspicious start
What can you say…. “A 17 year-old Ponsonby youth who caught internet giants Xtra and Yahoo flat-footed last year by beating them to register the website address yahooxtra.co.nz won’t say whether he was paid off or arm-wrestled into relinquishing the web address.
Fighting economics and banning sin….
You just cannot fight economics and you cannot ban sin – in the long run stupid moves like trying to ban online gambling in NZ will fade away, as it is dead simple to just set up a site offshore…
myHome
A new property site for the Aussies – a JV between PBL and Microsoft and with “the support of members of the Australian real estate industry”. Shame about how it renders on Safari: The site is for Real Estate agency listings only, and the service seems clunky – changes to listings are made by phone …
eBay search ads work…
Looks like Yahoo! ads on eBay are working in the USA – so eBay will now start testing Google ads on international eBay sites. For these ads to work it must mean that the sell through rate did not change, and that the click through rates are high enough for advertisers. This is good use …
Aussie newspaper ad spend…
A couple of Aussie groups are predicting increases in Australian Newspaper advertising spend this year. The Newspaper Works is predicting a 2.2% lift, while Fusion Strategy are predicting a suspiciously precise 1.48% lift. Umm – from the same article newspaper advertising revenue FELL last year in Australia by 6.3%. Sure there may be a slight …
Lance Wiggs 