Prosperity. Happiness Works.

The growth of boadband continues in Ireland, with the amount of broadband subscribers now nearly equaling the amount of dial up connection subscribers. That equates to 517,000 broadband users to 518,000 dial up depressives. This number of broadand subscribers represents a doubling in the space of one year. These figures are supplied courtesy of ComReg.

Another area that has shown a big increase is mobile telephony - in terms of texting and penetration. Texting has been increasing exponentially over the last five years, from 515,000 texts a quarter in 2002, to 1.5 billion in the last quarter of 2006. Mobile phone penetration now stands at 111 per cent, which now exceeds the European average . . . seems the conspicuous Irish are exceeding the European average in everything now, from binge drinking to mobile phone ownership.

Well the seperation of internet and mobile usage statistics may soon be a thing of the past -  according to key speakers from Google, Yahoo and MSN at the recent Search Marketing World Conference, convergence is the future. Convergence is the marriage of mobile phones and internet services. Once the killer applications can be taken mobile in a convenient way, hand held devices will become the norm.

As search is now the major killer app, some statistics reported at the conference, courtesy of Amarach Consulting, relating to searching habits in Ireland warrant a mention. 53% of Adults use the internet (73% of 18 - 34 year olds). Nearly half use search engines every day. Over two thirds of 18 - 24 year olds use search engines every day. One third click on one or more of the first five results.  15% click on one of the links in the first page. 10% first few pages. 38% of males click only in the top five results, while 31% of women restrict themselves to the top five.

And as for those sponsored links . . . 2% of searchers click on sponsored links every time they do a search. 15% do so quite often. 48% rarely do. And 34% never do. And interestingly, 35 - 44 year olds are most likely to click on the sponsored links, and women are far more likely to do so than men . . . well it is a form of shopping.

It is great to see that RTE is now streaming news and current affairs content. In light of the fact that the Irish are somewhat of a wandering tribe, it is essential that we give the Irish abroad this sense of connection to home.

Of the monthly traffic in terms of Unique Users, 44 per cent of the RTE Website traffic is based abroad – this is a staggering half a million people from outside of Ireland clicking in each month. These figures represent the huge desire for news from home. Many national TV stations charge their emigrants for content, through online streams or satellite boxes, but RTE is bound by its public service obligations to provide this content for free. RTE intends to develop their site into a full content TV and Radio streaming resource, with on-demand radio and TV content.

The very fact that TV and Radio content can now be provided on demand provides a major advantage over the TV box, and for this reason online TV is not just an option for the wistful Diaspora, but it is now taking an increasing share of national audience viewing time away from the TV. If and when it gets to the point that all TV content can be accessed online, will this consign the TV licence inspectors to the dustbin of history? Now that would be a terrible shame.

Prosperity fully understands the importance of a having a strong web presence, and therefore we have developed sub-sites to our main Prosperity site in order to provide more comprehensive jobseeking resources to our candidates. To that effect, we have developed sites that will list jobs and information pertaining to each of our main employment categories.

Marketingjobs.ie - for marketing jobs in Ireland.
Developerjobs.ie - for IT and developer jobs in Ireland.
Designjobs.ie - for graphic and web design jobs in Ireland
Multimediajobs.ie - for multimedia jobs in Ireland
Fmcgjobs.ie - for FMCG sales and marketing jobs in Ireland
Salesrecruitment.ie - for media sales jobs in Ireland

In due course, we hope to gradually increase the amount of information and interactivity available to candidates, and build each of these sites into a one stop shop for jobs and information.

I listened last night with interest to Newstalk when George Hook cleverly introduced the world of blogging to the Irish public

He had some of the leading Irish bloggers on air and he approached the subject as a novice which helped his listeners understand the basics of setting up a blog. George asked should I set up a blog??? George should definitely set up a blog.

One thing a succesful blog requires is firstly a good writer and more importantly an honest writer, judging by his book, George has both qualities in spades.

He writes from the heart and I would place a strong bet on Paddy Power that George would hit the top of the Irish blogging charts as the man who
brings blogs into the Irish public domain.

The Irish Blog Awards 2007 took place on March 3rd in the Alexander Hotel

Best Videocast - Sponsored by Cork Internet eXchange
Winner - Allyn Quigley - Size Matters

Best Designed Blog - Sponsored by Equisoft
Winner - Beaut.ie

Best Podcaster - Sponsored by Microsoft
Winner - EdgeCast (Conn O Muineachain)

Podcast - Sponsored by Newsletter.ie
Winner - An Lionra - 06 12 06

Best Business Blog - Sponsored by logic+intuition
Winner- Ice Cream Ireland

Best News/Current Affairs Blog - Sponsored by the Sunday Tribune
Winner - IrishElection.com

Best Sport & Recreation Blog - Sponsored by Boards.ie
Winner - Tom’s Sporting Almanac

Best Technology Blog/Blogger - Sponsored by Bitbuzz
Winner - Bernie Goldbach

Best Use of the Irish Language in a Blog - Sponsored by Edgecast Media
Winner - Hilary NY

Best Newcomer - Sponsored by Edelman
Winner - Beaut.ie

Best Personal Blog - Sponsored by Interactions - Creative Strategies for Business
Winner - RedMum

Best Group Blog - Sponsored by PutPlace.com
Winner - In Fact Ah

Best Specialist Blog - Sponsored by iQ Content Ltd
Winner - Ice Cream Ireland

Best Political Blog - Sponsored by Technofutures
Winner - IrishElection.com

Best Music Blog - Sponsored by Clubbing.ie
Winner - Nialler9

Best Arts and Culture Blog - Sponsored by Poetry Ireland
Winner - Sinead Gleeson

Best Contribution to the Irish Bloggersphere - Sponsored by FirstPartners.net
Winner - Bernie Goldbach - But given to Damien Mulley - deservedly

Best Photo Blog - Sponsored by Pixenate.com - The online photo editor
Winner - Headphoneland

Most Humorous Post - Sponsored by Beecher Networks
Winner - Twenty Major - Countdown to Next Election.

Best Blog Post- Sponsored by Hosting365
Winner - Conor’s Bandon Blog - You may feel a small prick

Best Blog - Sponsored by BT Ireland
Winner - Twenty Major

You’ve got to hand it to Today FM -  they have a great programming formula that works.

The recent JNLR figures show Today FM as the biggest winner, increasing its market share by 0.4 per cent to 12.1 per cent. A key winner for Today FM was Matt Cooper’s The Last Word, which recorded 192,000 listeners, an increase of 9,000 since September, to overtake its RTE Radio 1 rival for the coveted evening drive time slot.

What is it that gives Today FM the edge? They keep it simple, they have good presenters and they have clever marketing campaigns. As one well known radio producer commented: People love consistency on the radio; they develop a relationship with that presenter, and they like to know when they hop in the car for that long drive home that Matt or Tom will be there to keep them company. Also Today FM strives to convey a local feel even though it is a national station.

Having said all of that, the main factor in the growth of Today FM is down to the fact that it is owned by one of the biggest media companies in the UK, Emap, who yesterday said that they are doing a major restructuring of their Media division in an efficiency drive that is likely to involve redundancies.

Emap business interests include consumer magazines in the UK and around the world, b2b information services, events and publications with a focus on radio, music and television. They employ approximately 4,500 people in the UK and Ireland and are quoted on the UK stock exchange. So in a reality TodayFm is run by a corporation which is so commercially
orientated it makes the banks look like your local charity.

But in fairness, Willie O Reilly and his team, plus their ad agency Cawley Nea, have to be applauded for holding to a strong, clear and focused campaign in what is an extremely competitive business.