Many best wishes to all our clients for the beginning of another financial year. We trust your past year was spectacular, and may the coming one be at least as good. We've had a busy year:

• This time last year, we noted traffic to aussiehome.com running at a rate of over 3 million visitor sessions a year; the current rate is 4 million a year 
• June traffic was again over 325,000 visitors (2nd highest ever)
• Real Estate Clients that use aussiehome.com rose 20% (from 150 users to 180)
• We launched a new-look web site on March 1st
• Set up free 4-month trial to rent.com.au
• And announced our IPO would be in October 2007

This coming year is going to be very interesting. New online players are entering the marketplace, we're stepping up a few gears and the inexorable shift from print to online advertising for real estate continues. We will open offices and web site portals in Singapore and Jakarta, and look to grow on from there.

In another Australia-first for aussiehome.com, last week we added a new 'Travel Directions' service on every property on aussiehome.com - click on the link on any property page to give it a whirl.

Let aussiehome.com and the all powerful Google Maps show you 'where to go'!

CONTACT US to add Travel Directions to YOUR web site - $550 incl GST once off coding cost.

You may have noticed the agent suburb ads have been transformed into multi-coloured graphics, which we will design for you, and can link to your own web site/page - or your own page on aussiehome.com.

Still only $100+GST per month - get noticed in your suburb. Up to 3 ads per suburb - simply search for your suburb on aussiehome.com to see if it is available.

First coined in 2003, "Web 2.0" refers to 'second generation' web-based communities which facilitate collaboration and sharing between users. These sites basically run themselves, being empty vessels for web-using public to fill.

Famous Web 2.0 websites include Wikipedia (the largest encyclopaedia in the world, having just 5 full time employees), YouTube (video posting site, sold to Google for billions after only an 18 month life), eBay (auctioning), MySpace (friends), Flickr (photos) and Second Life (virtual reality environments).

Although Web 2.0 does not in itself bring us new technology, it is the way the power of online community is harnessed that might be scary for traditional businesses. Certainly it is not something to be ignored.

Elements of Web 2.0 can be seen in Weblogs ('blogs'), RSS feeds (syndicated content), mashups (like our Google Map on aussiehome.com) and XML feeds (how we feed your listings to other sites).

Could Web 2.0 change the way the real estate industry works? The answer of course is "Yes, it could" - but how? and when? Global real estate web 2.0 sites (mainly in US) include trulia.com and zillow.com. Some sites in Australia claim to be Web 2.0 in real estate, but we've yet to see a pure community based property site ... yet.