Last week The New York Times published a great summary of the looming Google vs Microsoft battle in the advertising game. Microsoft will have an early lead in the cellphone business but expect that to be eroded when Google launches its mobile strategy.

Lance kindly told me to push on with the blog last night so I said I would.  And I had promised to link to Bernard’s thoughtful posts.  Bernard was fired up about (real) broadband this week.  We need to get much more vocal about this issue.  Together.  You know - coordinated, like …

So I’m back.  It’s been a hectic three weeks since I boarded the Trade Me rocketship.  Hello to all my new-found friends and hello to all my old friends I’ve been neglecting.

I’m thinking of sailing this weekend.  And dropping by Elements.  Trout fishing season starts on Monday so summer really is just around the corner.  And it’s daylight saving time again - this Sunday at 2am in case you were hiding under the proverbial rock.

Might see you around the town, perhaps …

What’s Hot
St Johns Restaurant - don’t go past the crayfish ravioli entre; bursting with flavour, you’ve just got to try this dish!
Gourmet Family Food Parcels from Baby Angel, Wellington’s hottest site from which to shower proud new mums and dads with treats (when you’ve exhausted the supplies at Martha’s Babylicious, of course).
Aangel reminder services - a very clever idea for anyone on Vodafone - sign up, then dial 808 to get appointments, tasks and contacts into Outlook.
Doubleclique - brilliant local web company behind both the Baby Angel and the Aangel sites, although they do need to update their portfolio.
The South African Springboks. See you in the finals, dammit.

Ins & Outs
It appears that the recent catastrophic fires in Greece which killed 64 people could be linked to developers seeking title on bare land which cannot be claimed if forested. Whether the fires impact Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis’ re-election hopes will be known overnight as the country heads to the polls today.

TVNZ 6 launches on 30th September. Highly targeted to kids and families during the day and adults at night, it’s advertising-free and only on Freeview. You have to wait until March ‘08 for their other (Freeview too) news & doco’ channel, the equally cleverly named TVNZ 7.

Spring is looking to deliver more than daffodils and lambs to many of us - with a thawing of mortgages rates - designed to kick-start a frozen housing market. Here’s an Island Bay beauty.

For your entertainment
I wish I could get a copy of the speeches from Run the Red Founder Ben Northrop’s wedding on Saturday - absolutely priceless. Someone post them to YouTube! All the best to the beautiful Kirstie and the irrepressible Ben.

Completely unrelated, and for all my single friends, this comic (below) is worthy of study. Ironically, I’m sitting at home on a Sunday evening … doing graphs!

And finally the place to find your next inspiring brainy quote on the ‘net.

What’s hot
The Pumas have demonstrated huge progress since the last World Cup, earning a huge win in the first game of the 2007 Rugby World Cup meaning the French need to beat Ireland on Sept 21st to advance to the quarterfinals. Interestingly, the darker French uniform means we’ll be playing our away strip when (if) we meet them, leading to one local rugby commentator badging them ‘… killer whales’. Image courtesy of Hadyn from The Dropkicks.

Trade Me’s soon-to-be-launched Travel Bug gets some early notice from Lance, Mauricio, and Lawrence.

Ins & outs
Daniel Vettori will shortly be anointed Black Caps Test Captain, replacing the long-serving Stephen Fleming who has been approached by the rebel Indian Cricket League to captain a team.

Popular weatherman Jim Hickey is coming back to One News.

For your entertainment
When next in Palmerston North, make sure you visit the Rugby Museum of New Zealand. Two exhibits currently ‘on tour’, are a whistle and a coin, both used to start this weekend’s 2007 Rugby World Cup in France. The whistle was originally used by Welsh referee Gil Evans in games involving the All Blacks Invincibles (1905), Springboks (1906) and Wallabies (1908) when those teams made their first tours of Great Britain.

The Australian yesterday reported that Internet portal ninemsn will be selling banners and video ads on Vodafone Live, that carrier’s Australian 3G content service.

Vodafone will be charging A$40,000 (ratecard) a month for a banner ad on its Live portal that clicks through to a mobile website. They are predicting industry mobile ad revenues will reach A$20M in 2008.

Wisely, Vodafone has zero-rated all video ads so consumers do not incur any data charges for accessing these adverts. Customers clicking through to advertisers’ mobile websites will be rewarded with free wallpapers and music downloads.

If this kicked off in New Zealand, (a) who would make the mobile sites? and (b) would you click through?

I was a teenager when I first saw this fella live about 20 years ago - was it ‘87 when he first toured NZ? Subsequently I bought all his records (yes - vinyl, still got ‘em) and spent hours trying to belt out tracks like ‘A New England’, finally getting a gig at an English Pub in Palmerston North - my one and only ever public performance - thankfully for you all.

Anyway, here are three tracks from one of my all time favourite artists. And a gift hint at the start of the first track for anyone who knows of my pending birthday.

A New England - live 15 March ‘06

Between the Wars - from Top of the Pops!

Waiting for the Great Leap Forward - shame they didn’t edit the start …

If you’re a Facebook user, I recommend checking your privacy settings pronto.  Facebook now enables anyone to search for Facebook users who have public search listings.  Soon Facebook will allow users to make these public search listings visible to search engines like Google.

If you restrict your search privacy settings your public search listing will not be shown.  But, if you want friends who are not yet on Facebook to be able to search for you by name, you can change your settings on the Search Privacy page to allow this.

If you do choose to make your public search listing available, anyone who discovers your public search listing must sign up and login to contact you via Facebook.

I’ve accepted the role of Advertising Director at Trade Me. It’s all in this media report from last Friday by Ken Lewis at Freeman Media, online publishers of m-net, Telecommunications Review and The Line.  If you’re not a subscriber, here’s the full article.

Michael Gregg appointed Trade Me advertising director

Trade Me has appointed Wellington IT entrepreneur, speaking circuit raconteur and advertising boss Michael Gregg as its new advertising director. Gregg says he will take up the position on September 10 and will manage advertising for the Fairfax-owned company across all its websites.

The role, which will take care of display advertising across the sites, is a new one for the company. A Trade Me spokesman said that after such rapid growth, the company realised it needed someone who could effectively network with advertisers. “It has taken three months to find a candidate with the right combination of senior advertising experience, a knowledge of online markets and someone who would be a good fit with Trade Me,” he said.

Gregg said he is “stoked” at the appointment. “Trade Me is a glamour brand. I’ve worked in advertising and IT, and this sits nicely in between,” he said.

Gregg has a 10-year advertising background, but is also a past board member of the New Zealand Wireless Forum and the former chairman of young ICT professionals group, Unlimited Potential.

For five years until 2006, he was founding chief executive of Wellington telecommunications technology company, MediaLab, but returned to advertising in April last year as interactive director of local agency, Clemenger BBDO.

Trade Me is the largest internet auction website in New Zealand and was sold to Fairfax in 2006 for $700 million. It has several sister sites, including Find Someone, Old Friends, Safe Trader and smaps.