I haven’t really got much to post at the moment. As I have mentioned previously, I intend to up the quality of content on this site from basic commentary to essay-length posts. This post is a sneak-peak of a couple of technology reviews I will be doing in the coming weeks.

The sites I will be reviewing are WasabiTV.com.au and Tiinker.com. Both “Web 2.0″ type start-ups created here in Australia. I won’t go on  in detail at the moment but do check them out for yourself.

Stay tuned for the full-reviews in the coming weeks. They are great sites!

I read today that Co-founder of Topix, Rich Skrenta is looking at taking on Google with new search engine, Blekko. I discussed this with a few people at work today and the response seems to be very negative. The responses I got: “Sif!”…”As if anyone can compete with Google”. To be critical of yet another so-called competitor of Google, I believe, is rational. It’s been tried before and giants like Yahoo! and Live haven’t even managed it. So what is so good about Blekko?

Well, one of the problems I think Skrenta and his team are trying to fix is when you type in a word like “Kylie Minogue” you get many pages of results: images, news, scholar, books, et al. Not to mention the hundreds of pages of search results. I feel, Blekko is trying to achieve a more integrated Google. One page and summaries of what you actually need (want) to know. And apparently no PageRank algorithm.

I’m really excited to see what Blekko has in-store. I am, admittedly a Google-aholic but I am also open to better ways of doing things. For example, I am looking at making the move from iGoogle as my home page to PageFlakes as the latter looks and moves a lot better, whilst still being integrated with the likes of Gmail.

Apparently, Blekko will not be live until 2009. At the moment by going to the domain you get a picture of some cute, puppet-looking creature. I wonder how cute and fun Blekko is going to be…

Yaro yesterday posted a blog on his achievements for the year over at Entrepreneur’s Journey.

Some of the highlights:

- Attending the Strategic Profits event in Florida.

- Attending the World Internet Summit in Melbourne.

- Buying his first house and a new car.

- Selling BetterEdit.com for a low-six figure sum.

- Continuing to enlighten, inspire and teach me more about online business and the opportunities it provides.

If you would like to read the blog post, and I highly recommend you do, click here.

This post is the first of three posts Yaro intends to publish on this topic. So add his blog to your RSS reader so you don’t miss out on the others.

Over and out…

P

Long has there been a romance of going to the bottle shop; picking out a bottle of wine with some fancifully designed label; consuming its content; and putting out the bottle with the recycling or worse, straight into the trash. These aesthetically pleasing glass bottles were recently challenged by the cleanskin brigade, great, because they do away with all the unnecessary labels and marketing expenditure and carry over a lower price to the consumer.

Other innovations in the wine industry include, of course, the invention of screw-top bottles and synthetic corks. All of this considered, we are still drinking from the bottle. Heavy glass bottles that sure, can be recycled but still require a lot of energy in their production and recycling. There has to be a better, more environmentally friendly way, right?

Tetrapak, the same Swedish company that revolutionised the fruit juice market, have done just that. They have invented a design called tetraprisma which is a multi-layer carton with a screw cap.

An early-adopter of this technology in the Australian wine industry is Andrew Pease Wines which reported the following to SMH about the logistical efficiency of the tetraprisma design:

“A standard six-metre container holds 1176 cases of wine, including 10,584kg of wine and weighing 18,816kg overall. With tetraprisma that same container holds 1575 twelve packs holding 18,900kg of wine for a total overall weight of 19,530k”. “That is substantially more wine for virtually the same weight,” Andrew Peace said to SMH.

To read the entire article, check out this link.

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.