...at least I don't run an international airline

Times are tough for British Airways - of that there is no doubt. If it isn't the environmental lobby pounding on your door screaming 'CONTRAILS' at the top of their voice, it's the bloody chav airlines, namely Ryanair, offering flights to '[somewhere near] Milan' for ten quid and a packet of peanuts. And that's before you even go through the door marked 'DO NOT MENTION' and discover an evil, grinning Richard Branson hatching plans to nick your routes and passengers - not to mention suing you left, right and centre for being bigger than his airline - s'not fair...

Bearing in mind how uniformly disliked BA are, I expected the blog waves to be packed, like Heathrow on a bank holiday weekend, with further reasons to hate them. But actually there was very little - or should I say, no more than other airlines.

Unsuprisingly, considering the green revolution sweeping the nation, all airlines are under the cosh for their contribution to the end of the world. Bloggers are fairly united in condemning them such as this one entitled "How do you reconcile promoting recreational air travel with being green?" though very few of them seem to have actual data to work off (I've yet to read any which compare the impact of recreational travel with freight, for instance). But most of the condemnation is laid at the door of the low-cost airlines and especially Ryanair. One only has to type 'I hate Ryanair' into google search to be inundated with venemous blogs - I have set up a list of links over --> to show the top search returns for this.

Netvibes didn't produce much enlightenment on the blog front with most being about lost luggage - though the BBC newsfeed did supply some interesting insight into the battle for the Transatlantic route and the business traveller's wallet. The Open Skies pact between the USA and Europe has created an opportunity for Virgin Atlantic to pinch the bottom of the great BA once again, with both airlines set to create business-only services to key American and European cities. Not so strangely, there is little mention from the business community of the environmental impact of yet more long haul flights with even fewer passengers per flight - someone somewhere better be planting a LOT of trees!

So what have I learned? That the internet is full of information on brands and businesses but the key is how to filter it. I have set up a Netvibes page including feeds from Boardreader for my clients and started updating them weekly on interesting stories - be it a business development on one of their competitors or an insight from one of their cutomers. It is a thoroughly useful tool and one that benefits both my understanding of my clients' businesses as well as making them think my finger is on the pulse of their industry. Little do they know the other half of my day is spent on Facebook!

...isn't ebay a gift for the touters?

I saw an article in the Mirror the other day about Stella McCartney launching a budget clothing range in Australia as she did for H&M in the UK recently. There were the predictable people queuing over night, the scrummage as the doors were opened and then the grabbing began - all of the range was sold by 10am.

What was almost as predictable was that the items bought that morning would appear on ebay within the hour for twice the price. Ebay is seen by most as a kind of digital yard sale, minus the homemade rose perfume. And this is the side that most of us will have discovered whilst doing this latest assignment - hence the random collection of entirely worthless items that were picked up 'on the cheap' (though how do you put any price on a bag of stick insects!?). But the other side is that many of the items that appear on ebay are not a 'bargain'; in fact they are way over the high street price. There is even a review on ebay written by a customer warning people not to buy Primark clothing at over twice the high street price.

So whilst ebay has certainly made the dream of a global car boot sale a reality, don't believe that everything you find their is a good deal.

...isn't hiding your identity online a bit sad?

If the world wide interweb is meant to be the greatest advancement in communication since - I don't know - the voicebox; it seems a shame that its core users choose to hide their identities behind strange symbols and semi-intelligible names.

Whilst there is certainly a degree of exhilaration and emancipation in being able to adopt a different persona from your own, it can surely never be as satisfying as standing tall (or short) and saying, 'I believe this - judge me for it, I don't care if you agree.' In a world gone mad with PC terms for any identifiable characteristic, feature or belief, wouldn't it be more satisfying, more liberating, to stand visibly for something? To be judged for who you are and what you believe? To be accepted as an individual?

To that end I feel it is only right to tell you that I am not NoChildGenius, my name is Phil, I am 42 years old and run a marketing business; and I wish for a life on the ocean waves. Or am I?

Til next time...