The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Editorial Ash Nallawalla ash@melbpc.org.au |
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Last month I invited PC Update readers to ask me for an invitation to Orkut http://www.orkut.com. I think it is curious that only one member out of 11,000 took up the offer.
Business Networking
I know that a few members belong to the professional networking site LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com - I was invited by a fellow member. If anyone is interested in business networking through LinkedIn, let me know. I also have a free account at Ryze http://www.ryze.com/go/crm911. I like Ryze the least because it tends to be more of an intrusive "Hey, be my friend and by the way, I sell blah" or just idle chatter, not a networking service like LinkedIn. No, I do not make a cent out of any of these schemes and I have not opted for the paid versions either.
I have found two small clients through Ryze but as I have not tried to make connections through LinkedIn, I can't speak for its effectiveness. All the same, the list of people in Australia who are members (free so far) of LinkedIn is impressive.
Job Networking
Some years ago I started a Melb PC job networking group, which is supposed to meet electronically at http://groups.msn.com/melbpcnet. It has been too quiet for a long time, so fellow manager Anna Lyser and I are considering its closure. A few of the job links listed there are no longer valid. If anyone has a strong view about keeping it alive and vibrant, please discuss in that forum. We need something better than a suggestion to let it remain just in case it might get used.
Google Again
As Google heads down the IPO path very soon, it continues to reveal new offerings, not all exciting. Head over to http://labs.google.com and look at what Google calls Groups 2 Beta. I am underwhelmed. My best guess is that Google is taking the concept of newsgroups and extending it to a private set of newsgroups that anyone can create.
Some people are suggesting that Groups 2 will challenge Yahoo Groups. Perhaps it might. Yahoo Groups places a 20 MB limit on files uploaded to the group and I know someone who creates additional Yahoo Groups just to store files. If Google allows the 1 GB storage that Gmail users already get, then it will attract many people over from MSN Groups and Yahoo Groups.
Overture
Closer to home, Overture Australia has made a few coups of late. Overture is Google's biggest competitor for pay-per-click (PPC) text advertising. When you see ads in NineMSN or MSN, for example, the Sponsored ads are from Overture in the main. Its main victory has been to unseat LookSmart from NineMSN in Australia. This is good news for advertisers, because LookSmart had an unusual business model where the advertiser did not have a direct interface to his ads and bids, whereas Overture does.
The f2 network, comprising
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f2.com.au, smh.com.au, theage.com.au, afr.com.au, drive.com.au, domain.com.au, mycareer.com.au, tradingroom.com.au and moneymanager.com.au |
also signed an agreement with Overture to display its ads, so Overture is
probably accurate in claiming to have over 80 percent of the market share in
Australia. After all, PCs with Windows XP default to NineMSN as the browser's
home page and many people are happy to leave it there.
Sensis
I have been a critic of Sensis in the past, because from the outside it seems
that here is a large company with the resources to build a service to rival
Overture or Google, at least in our region. Sensis has been hiring recently and
it acquired the assets and staff of LookSmart Australia, so we should see some
new offerings later this year. Its challenge will be to capture some of the
eyeballs that are presently looking at Overture-dominated sites.
ADSL for Members
With this issue, members will be left in no doubt that Melb PC has finally found
an ADSL Internet Service offering for its members. I am presently locked into a
contract with another provider but would otherwise switch to WestNet for all the
good reasons you will read on other pages.
Reprinted from the June 2004 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
