I checked out Yahoo's new Audio Search last night, and came away with the same impression as John Battelle. From a search perspective, it's pretty impressive but the fact the service is heavilly geared toward paid downloads takes away from its appeal. I did manage to find a free interview with Phil Esposito about the 1972 Canada-Russia series but came away with blanks on search for legendary hockey broadcaster Foster Hewitt. If people think Yahoo Audio Search is an easy way to find free MP3s, they will be sadly disappointed. Obviously, the service is work in progress and its launch reflects the "we really need to get to the market before the evil competition" approach prevalent in the search world these days. That said, if the online music business is going to gain momentum, services such as Yahoo Audio Search are a step in the right direction. What say you, Google?

Here's a riddle for you: how come CallVantage is regularly ranked as the best VOIP service provider (the latest kudos come from PC World) but it gets nowhere near the buzz and, for that matter, customers as Vonage? It's not like CallVantage was late to the game or its prices were not competitive with Vonage. Perhaps it was CallVantage's association with AT&T. For early-adopters, why leave the ILEC world for VOIP only to sign for service from an ILEC? Maybe CallVantage didn't get enough love from AT&T CEO David Dorman, who was trying to transform the company into a big data network player before SBC came on the scene. For whatever reason, CallVantage doesn't seem to have much mojo. Maybe that will change once/if SBC starts to pay some serious attention to the VOIP market and CallVantage after the deal is approved by later this year or early 2006. Until then, CallVantage will likely continue to score high marks but its subscriber base will pale in comparison to its stature.
For some more thoughts on CallVantage, check out Andy Abramson, who uses the service and Vonage.

I've got a story in today's Financial Post looking at the strike at Telus Corp. What's interesting about it is many unionized employees in Alberta are crossing pickets lines while Telus has told employees in British Columbia to stay home amid fears of physical and verbal intimidation. The Telecommunication Workers Union contends Telus is luring its employees across the picket line by offering them all kinds of incentives, including a $400 iPod for free. This is just another "imaginative" way the iPod is being used as a marketing/sales vehicle, which I believe is aimed at younger people who appreciate the iPod's cache. I've also seen the get a free iPod offer used by TD Bank to convince people to move their bank accounts, and by Apple to encourage people to buy an Power Mac, iMac or Power Book.

The Washington Post's Steve Pearlstein has a column today looking at the success of entrepreneur Ken Bajaj had in selling out at the right time. This includes the sale last year of DigitalNet, which develops network systems for the Pentagon and other U.S. government departments, to BAE Systems last year for $595-million - at the height of the government IT consolidation frenzy. Pearlstein's supports his belief the government IT space is still hot by pointing to Nortel's $448-million acquisition of PEC Solutions Inc., which he describes as a "desperate move to get Nortel back on the offensive". Nortel, he contends, over-paid by coughing up 15 times PEC's EBITDA - compared with "normal" multiples of 10 times. Perhaps the deal will start to demonstrate dividends when Nortel posts its second-quarter results on Monday. The key for Nortel PEC will be its ability to leverage Nortel's size and customer base to rise above PEC's status as a mid-tier systems integrator to secure major contracts. In many ways, PEC was an expensive way for Nortel to get into the U.S. government contracting game. Irregardless of whether Nortel too much or just enough for PEC, the deal will be assessed on whether enough business comes in the door