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Most of the daily newspapers have a "business" section but until recently investors and others interested in business news only had a choice of two specialist newspapers to choose from: The NBR and The Independent. What's more, these are only published weekly.

That changed this week when the Australian Financial Review entered the local market.

According to the paper, their daily edition is just what Kiwis need and want in order to stay abreast of the latest business news from both sides of the Tasman.

So what's all this got to do with the Internet?

Well it's probably worth pointing out that the AFR has a much stronger Web-presence than either the NBR or The Independent -- but the most surprising thing is that, as of this morning, the domain name afr.co.nz remains unclaimed. (screencap).

MID-DAY UPDATE: It looks as if someone has decided that afr.co.nz was worth registering since this morning's column was published. I wonder what they're going to do with it? :-)

Readers Say (updated irregularly) Nothing Yet Have Your Say

Given the amount of resource the AFR has allocated to its website, I find it astonishing that they didn't move to secure this domain name before launching their daily edition in NZ.

Even if they simply aliased afr.co.nz to afr.com (as they have done with afr.com.au), they'd still be protecting their branding and showing their commitment to the local marketplace.

It's worth remembering that Domainz has a policy of "first come, first served" when it comes to handing out domain names so, if the AFR doesn't ante up with the paltry $74+GST to protect themselves, they could face a much larger legal bill later on, should they decide to contest the domain.

Is someone asleep at the wheel or don't they care?

Zed Is Dead?
I'm always reluctant to link to Stuff.co.nz these days because those links become invalid after a week or so as the stories involved are moved to their subscriber-only archives -- however I'll do so just this once.

In this story, the ANZ admits that consumer response to its ZED smart credit card has been underwhelming.

Regular readers will recall that I was less than enthusiastic about the practical applications of the ZED card when I wrote a column on it earlier this year.

However, it looks as if VISA has its way, we'll all be forced down the smartcard road sometime in the next five or six years. Should we be worried or happy about this I wonder?

Hey, I Updated The Archives Index
In response to constant nagging from those readers who don't always visit Aardvark every day (you know who you are :-), I've finally gotten around to updating this year's archive list.

Now I know there are a couple of wonky links on that page but I should have them fixed in the next day or so. In the meantime, if you've only just discovered my ravings or think you might have missed something -- feel free to trawl back through the year. I've also added a "Best Of" page as well, just in case you're pressed for time.

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