I tend to use Yahoo! to catch up on US news and markets. So this morning, I was not impressed to find the usual domain address re-pointed my browser to Yahoo!Xtra.
This is of the course the result of the tie up announced last year between Telecom NZ and Yahoo. So what do I think of the Kiwi version?
The navigation is good and on the face of it, the content looks reasonably up-to-date. How proprietary is the content? A quick click through some of the News and Business links suggest that a lot of content is sourced from NZPA and NewstalkZB feeds. There are one or two bits of content originated by Yahoo!Xtra staffers, but I get the impression the portal is basically an aggregator of other content owner's property. The Telecom NZ partnership is obvious. You can access a full range of Telecom products and services via the navigation.
A link on the home page provides a link to the original US version. Unfortunately, you cannot set this as a default so it looks like I will have to pass through the Kiwi version to access the more familiar US content.
It will be interesting to see what impact on this joint venture, a successful Microsoft bid for Yahoo might have. Telecom NZ cancelled a previous joint venture agreement with MSN to replace the incumbent with Yahoo! 'What's around, comes around' springs to mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment