by cameron | Feb 1, 2007 | Iraq, Uncategorized
ROFL! Mark made the brilliant observation on the recent Sensis post that Telstra’s American CEO, Sol Trujillo, in a November 2005 article on the ABC said:
SOL TRUJILLO: Google Schmoogle.
PETER RYAN: Speaking at yesterday’s release of Telstra’s strategic review, Mr Trujillo said Sensis was the answer, at least for Telstra, and that Google could be feeling some heat, at least locally.
SOL TRUJILLO: We’re outgrowing Google in Australia. We’re doing more, we’re growing faster and we have more capability, because we’re more relevant.
Well here’s the Alexa charts for Google’s Australian site versus Sensis versus YellowPages.com.au:
You may not be able to see the Sensis or YellowPages lines on the chart. That’s because they are wayyyyy down the bottom. Sensis has been a terrific asset for Telstra over the last few years but it’s time to face the facts – they are losing the battle for online search which, by all rights, was theirs to lose.
They aren’t the only ones that should be kicking themselves.
Back in 2003 I suggested to Steve Vamos, who had recently left Ninemsn to run Microsoft Australia, that we could take Hotmail and turn it into a White Pages killer. At the time I think Ninemsn were saying they had 7 million registered Hotmail accounts in Australia. My idea was that if we could create an incentive for people to put REAL contact information into Hotmail, instead of the dubious information usually in there, it could have become a serious online threat to Telstra’s WhitePages. Steve just laughed at me.
That’s why he and Sol get paid the big bucks I guess.
Of course, the Hotmail site is now a usability disaster of Iraq proportions. Not that I ever go into it anymore, but Belinda checks her old Hotmail account from time to time and I look over her shoulder… and shudder.
Speaking of shuddering.. I was just in Officeworks and saw that “Microsoft Windows(TM) Vista Home Premium Oh My God Can We Fit More Words Into This Title How Much Room Is Left Of The Box You Would Think We Are Charging By The Word Oh Hang On We Are Edition” is selling for $500! $300 for the upgrade! Wow. I nearly got excited about it yesterday when a mate of mine from MSFT told me that it can take a USB hard drive and turn it into RAM. Why isn’t THAT in the advertising?? But at those prices, I’ll have to wait until someone gifts me a copy. And just forget about paying $800 for the new version of Microsoft Office. I know that ribbon is kind of pretty but it ain’t $800 pretty.
by cameron | Jan 31, 2007 | Uncategorized
When I was with the Tangler boys last week, I asked them for suggestions on what they would like to see us do to make podcasting easier for the mainstream to get into. Mick and Marty gave me a long speech about how RSS is still way too difficult for the masses but how much easier email updates are. Personally I hate email but maybe that’s because I have to deal with a lot more of it than most folks.
Anyway, today I’m introducing the G’Day World Email Feed! Click on the link below and you’ll start getting emails of the blog posts and the podcasts sent to your inbox. Don’t fear – the 20mb attachment doesn’t come down in your email, just a link to the mp3. If you have any feedback on this service or any ideas for how we can make podcasting more user friendly, please let me know!
Subscribe to TPN:: G’day World by Email
by cameron | Jan 30, 2007 | Uncategorized
Meg has this interesting post on the decline of Sensis and Yellow Pages. Check out their Alexa graphs.
I wonder where their online customers are going?
I was also interested to read on her blog that former local Microsoft sales director Gary Cox has moved to News Digital to head up their local search play, TrueLocal.
by cameron | Jan 26, 2007 | Uncategorized
While I was in Sydney yesterday I popped into the Tangler offices to catch up with Marty Wells and Mick Liubinskas for a beer.
I got to see and hear more about where Tangler is going and I’m finally starting to understand the vision – and it is very cool. The boys threatened to force me to play another round of liar dice with them if I divulge too many details, but keep an eye on their site if you want to see how online conversations are going to change. I can’t wait to integrate it into TPN.
By the way, it wasn’t until yesterday that I realized that Mick was the marketing manager at Sharman Networks aka Kazaa. I can’t wait to get him onto the show to talk about what THAT was like.
by cameron | Jan 22, 2007 | Uncategorized
Despite Darren Barefoot’s barely credible name, the fact that he’s Canadian and his repeated attacks on podcasting over the years, I kind of like the guy. He was even on G’Day World once, a long long time ago. But his new project, “First Life“, is terrific and *very funny. Good work, eh?
by cameron | Jan 19, 2007 | Uncategorized
I actually had a nightmare last night that I was still working at Microsoft. Woke up about 4am and took a few minutes to remember I left 30 months
ago. Was still in such shock I couldn’t get back to sleep…. weird. In the dream, someone in HR had compiled a document about dealing with difficult employees which was pretty much an indirect attack on me. Even mentioned what to do when someone comes to work wearing Elvis sunnies.
I bet that document actually does exist in Microsoft HR somewhere.
