When it comes to high-speed Internet access, Canada is second to none. Actually, we stand second behind South Korea but no one's going to quibble about a little self promo, right?! According to two studies by Solutions Research Group, 49% of Canucks with online access have high-speed service - compared with 34% in the U.S. Kaan Yigit, who oversaw the studies, said penetration rates north of the border are high due to the "heritage and priority differences" of cablecos and carriers, and geographic and socio-economic factors. Overall, high-speed penetration jumped to 49% from 31% in 2001. SRG also found 63% of Canadian households have online access, compared with 57% in the U.S.

Is Videotron trying to escape its discount ways in the local telephone market? It depends on how you look at the cableco's decision to rase its long-distance plan within Quebec to $7.95 a month from $4.95, and the price of its 1,000-minute North American LD plan to $10 from $5. It looks like Videotron is trying to move up the price food chain without admitting its deep discount plan of  $15.95 a month was a strategic mistake. That said, Videotron has attracted more than 75,000 local customers since it moved into the phone business eight months ago so the low prices have been a success. There are many people, however, who believe Videotron is leaving money at the table so higher LD prices is a quasi-subtle way to claw back from revenue.

According to Dictionary.com, the word "underwhelming" means "to fail to excite, stimulate, or impress". Well, you might as well add the logo for Yahoo's new blog search tool - and Google's RSS reader - along side the definition. Yahoo quietly launched its blog tool as an adjunct - afterthought? - to its news search service. To be honest, there's nothing interesting or new about it. It appears Yahoo realized it needed a blog search tool so it decided to slap something together. Om Malik describes Yahoo's blog interface "like water torture" and asks ""why,a company as fine as Yahoo, launches a supremely elegant podcast effort in the morning, only to give us a blog search tool that reminds you of the Baby-episode of Seinfeld." Yikes!
It strikes me as odd that major online players such as Yahoo and Google can arrive to new markets late and when they finally get there, they offer services that pale badly in comparison to the status quo. The whole concept of not having first-mover advantage is you get to see the other guys mistakes and then create something that's better. On the Web, however, it seems the new modus operandi seems to be that if you can't be first, just be there. Some might call this approach arrogance because it suggests Yahoo and Google believe their brands are so powerful, consumers will gravitate to their services even if they are not as good. This strikes me as a strange way to do business. Maybe the happiest person in the blogosphere today is Technorati CEO David Sifry, who has seen Yahoo and Google come into his market with less than impressive offerings. The key now for Technorati is to work quickly and intelligently to take advantage of this opportunity. Given the M&A frenzy now happening, maybe Technorati is even more attractive given big boys probably realize it's tougher than they think to roll out a good blog search tool.