Many will be familiar with Google News. It’s a Google interface that searches thousands of sources for news articles. Well, just found a site a little similar to it. The site is called Plugger and it searches various sources for Australian business news.

Check out Plugger here.

It’s about time that people realised they must adhere to an acceptable use policy (AUP) with broadband access. I’d say the vast majority of home internet users use some form of file-sharing program to obtain music and movies for free. I agree that if people want this facility they should understand they will need to pay some sort of premium on their internet subscription fee.

Not necessarily a penalty but a higher fee than someone that is using their bandwidth conservatively -lawfully. Myself, I can’t be bothered with P2P in all honesty. As much as it’s illegal and immoral I don’t want to be downloading all sorts of crap to my computer. Personally, I am a fan of BigPond Music -which I can’t use unfortunately as I am an Apple Mac user- and Apple iTunes -which I love dearly.

What annoys me as a Cable user is that my bandwidth is often hogged by those P2P users in my street. I, however, am trying to download legally and pay a nominal fee for each song and I get the short straw. Check out what Internode is going to do:

ADELAIDE-BASED ISP Internode is considering using filtering systems to contain rampant growth in peer-to-peer internet traffic across its network.

Internode product manager Jim Kellett said the company was examining the technology after it announced that it had jacked up the price its high-end broadband internet services by up to 30 per cent. “It’s certainly an area of technology that we’re keeping a close eye on,” Mr Kellett said.

Read on…

EDIA company Destra Corporation has done a deal with businessman Lachlan Murdoch to increase its stake in online film subscription outfit, Quickflix to almost one-fifth.

Under the arrangement, Mr Murdoch’s firm, Illyria, will swap 6,260,587 shares in Quickflix in exchange for 4,173,725 new Destra Corporation shares.

The deal means Destra will own 19.9 per cent of Quickflix and Mr Murdoch’s Illyria will own a 2.8 per cent stake in Destra.

Destra has three divisions, dealing in CD and DVD publishing in Australia, online communities including the scene.com.au and online media representation.

The company has a current market capitalisation of about $71 million.

Quickflix is Australia’s largest independent online film subscription company, with a catalogue of 25,000 films.

It has a market capitalisation of about $10 million.

At 10.48am (AEST), Quickflix shares (qfx.ASX:Quote,News) were up one cent to 19.5 cents and Destra (des.ASX:Quote,News) was down 0.5 cents to 32.5 cents.

Source: News.com.au

James Packer’s Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd (PBL) has sold a further 25 per cent stake in PBL Media Holdings - which owns the Nine Network and magazine businesses - to its joint venture partner, CVC, for $515 million.

Read more at SMH.

The battle between Telstra and G9 continues. Below is a table, released on the Now We Are Talking website shows the strengths of Telstra and weaknesses of the G9 plan. Let’s substantiate on each of these claims:

Engineering flaws

• G9 propose Sub-loop unbundling (SLU) which enables other carriers to interconnect with Telstra’s customer access network at any point between the exchange and the customer premises.
• SLU dismantles Telstra’s network - Telstra will be required to go out and physically cut the copper wire from its network and connect it to the competitor’s node that could see service disruptions and a host of potential technical difficulties.
• This type of SLU has never been done anywhere in the world because it doesn’t work.
• Responsibility for maintaining end-to-end service quality is not considered: how would failures be detected and who would be responsible for fixing them?Read what the Communication Workers Union of Australia has to say about SLU (www.cepu.asn.au)

… Read the rest of this article at NWAT (nowwearetalking.com.au)

Looking at this hoo-har from a logistical point-of-view; G9 doesn’t have the work-force, experience nor vision to be feasible. The required work-force and experience -especially- can not just be manufacturer overnight.

If G9 is favoured, which it has been so far, bye-bye to so many millions of dollars that will be NZ and Singapore bound.

Pajago

Gazal Corporation, owner of brands including: Bisley workwear, Midford schoolwear, and Lovable intimate apparel is looking at offloading its Mambo streetwear brand.

Gazal’s net profit fell 7.9 per cent to $6.73 million in the six months ended December 31, 2006. So it looks like Gazal is considering some approaches it’s received for the Mambo business. Mambo has undergone a major re-branding over the past couple of years and now has a strong street presense with its bold colours and local art-cum-clothing.

Wotif.com, an online accommodation booking site, has severed ties with Ninemsn Ltd.

This comes as Ninemsn and Sensis recently joined forces. Ninemsn is a portal that brings both Microsoft (MSN) and Channel 9/PBL content -particularly news- together through the one interface. Currently, Ninemsn attracts around 11-million visitors per month.

Wotif.com’s chief operations officer, Robbie Cooke said in a letter to shareholders that “The withdrawal of Wotif.com from the Ninemsn site will have no negative impact upon the Wotif.com’s financial performance.”

Without the partnership (with Ninemsn) Wotif.com is likely to see a decline in visitors. I feel we’ll see advertising attempts increased by Wotif.com in the coming months.

A greenhouse levy for domestic air-flights may be introduced to curb demand. A surcharge of $30 per ticket may apply.

Author of a study by the Australia Institution “think-tank”, Andrew Macintosh says the basic message of this initiative is for people to “fly less”: to do their part to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

It’s common knowledge that passenger jets emit large amounts of greenhouse gas to the atmosphere and this levy would help achieve reduction targets.

“Unfortunately for aviation, there are no technological options that will allow us to drastically reduce aviation emissions.” says Macintosh. Due to the dense nature of jet-fuel a replacement or substitute is a long way off.

With the introduction of high-speed broadband, video conferencing, voIP and the like. It’s easier for business people to keep in touch without the need to fly. This has positive effects, both financially and environmentally for businesses.

Some references for this article sourced at ABC.

Boost Juice, founded by Janice Allis in 2000 became huge success with its beaut range of fruit smoothies and juices. When Boost hit the market, I always doubted it’s performance in the winter seasons. After all, who wants icey-cold smoothies amidst the cold of winter?

It was interesting to see Boost release a range of winter “hotties” as a reaction to the decline of sales in the winter months. I see this as a classic example of SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunity and Threat) analysis. Let’s take a look at what a SWOT analysis is and how it applies to the above case study.

Strengths and weaknesses are internal factors, so things that are directly controlled from the insides of a firm. Opportunity and threats, however, are external. According to Wikipedia, “A SWOT analysis, usually performed early in the project development process, helps organisations evaluate the environmental factors and internal situation facing a project.”

So now lets take a look at SWOT’s implication in the Boost story.

Strengths: Boost would have seen its customer base, and loyalty as a strength. The business already had a great supply of loyal customers repeat-buying it’s smoothies and juices, or what I will refer to as summer product-line. Boost also has a very strong, prominent brand. A brand that’s been molded to cater for it’s target market.

Boost’s product-line is also very healthy.

Weaknesses: The prime weakness in this case study is it’s lack of winter offering. Boost has a “chilled” product line that is most consumed during the warmer months.

Opportunity: The main opportunity for Boost in this scenario is to produce a healthy winter product-line to compete with the establish winter beverage market. A market that I see primarily catered for with caffine-based beverages.

Threats: Caffine-based, and other hot beverages dominate during the cooler months. People might not find a healthy option as desirable as the already established and dare I say trendy caffine products.

Boost’s answer to this SWOT analysis is its range of warm healthy drinks/s-meals (small meals), including: flavoured teas, oats, hot chocolate and soups.

I feel this range differentiates itself from the market by promoting health and by keeping with the Boost branding strategy. The range really plays on Boost’s existing customer base and is compelling enough to bring in new customers.

P.S -This article is written based on my own opinions.

So it seems Cibo Espresso, Adelaide’s premier coffee outlet has intentions to not only expand to the Eastern states of Australia (they already have a few stores on Brisbane) but they want to go big-time in New York City and Rome. Good on them -they’ll make it!

I feel their next step out of Australia should be New Zealand. I find the coffee in New Zealand to be absolutely horrendous. I would have tried at least 10 different coffee places when I was over there and they were all similarly; milky, weak and ick. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Pajago