Microhoo or Yasoft: how does it affect you?

Read Eve Dmochowska's article here.

Given that Yahoo is the most popular website in the world - think about that - what can other web sites learn from this? Well Yahoo is a central resource for a lot of useful information isn't it: email, news, movies, video and quite a lot of other stuff.

In the end though, Yahoo is still 'email' to most people. That is its problem. Same goes for Google. It wants to be more, but it started as 'Search' and is still, essentially, a tool for 'Search'.

A lot of brands simply refuse to believe or accept that they can be and can do more than they were conceived to do. Coke can never also be a car, no matter how hard it tries.

Branding is exactly what it says it is, and you can't be what you are and something else. To do that you need to create another brand from scratch, and not many are prepared to do this. Herein lies great opportunity...

Why Google isn't New Coke - but Microsoft and Yahoo may be Pepsi

News24 Reaches 1 Million Milestone (1st In SA)

News24.com, the breaking news and information service in the 24.com network of sites, has recorded more than one million unique South African visitors in a month – the first South Africa website to do so. This is according to international statistics group Nielsen//NetRatings' list of the most visited local Internet sites for October 2007.

Elan Lohmann, News24 publisher, comments, “Online media is often regarded by marketers and traditional media executives as not yet on the map but our reach is continuing to grow in the local market. News24's achievement is a significant event for the entire industry. It shows that there are a mass of South Africans who require their news content online. More importantly perhaps, it shows that the local Internet market is coming of age as a viable mass communication medium.

“We believe that connectivity will continue to improve at an increasing rate in South Africa and that news websites will have the most to gain. Global giants like Facebook, Myspace, Google and Youtube may steal away local users to their services but nobody can do local news better than we can on home soil.”

Compelling content

Jannie Momberg, News24 editor, attributes the site's success to a strategy focused on breaking news and compelling content. “It has been our focus to ensure our readers are kept up-to-date with the fast-paced news cycles of the 21st century. News24's content is also available via mobile phone and on DStv channel 299, providing more South Africans with the opportunity to access news when they need it.”

“Furthermore, we have made the News24 experience more relevant to our users. MyNews24.com, where we publish stories written by our readers, has attracted over 80 000 users per month. This is a remarkable achievement when we consider that it was only launched in May this year and a clear indicator that South Africans are embracing the digital revolution of Web 2.0. The comments facilities that we have added has also stimulated fantastic activity and given a real voice to our users,” says Momberg.

Concludes Lohmann, “It is a privilege and a highlight of my career to be associated with such an Industry milestone and all credit goes to the dedicated News24 team.”

From Bizcommunity.comAlso: The Tipping Point for Mobile is Near

NVDL: I wonder if this really means that News48 has actually only reached 500 000 unique users ;-)