After eight years of charging users for messaging one another Friends Reunited has decided to go free – pretty major news I’d say. I’m wondering what fantastic business model they have up their sleeve as overnight revenues will be down by 40%.

Given that Friends is not Facebook, Bebo, MySpace or LinkedIn I think their success will be down to defining themselves as a distinct entity. And given that they’re owned by ITV, building media around your salad days would seem like a natural progression – I’m thinking tailored TV channels (class of ’85), lo-fi reunion shows, essentially arrogating media around key points in peoples lives.

Stay tuned.

With two brands as strong as Nike & Apple some type of collaboration was inevitable. No surprises then when last summer we saw the launch of the rather super Nike + trainers. Wirelessly they transmit your footsteps to your i-pod recording the progress of each run, helping to optimise your training.

So what about this for a sweet Nike, Apple mashup: Hook up your Nike Triax watch (it monitors your heart rate) to your i-pod. Now as you start to ease off on a run the music tempo picks up and you’ll hear a little “Eye of the Tiger”, push it too far and you’re back to Enya.

Bring this into your morning commute and you have an i-pod that will generate a different playlist after you’ve had a double espresso. I don’t know about you, but I’ll certainly be queuing up outside the Apple store to get hold of one of those.

Hard to believe but apparently we’re still in the grips of a hosepipe ban. A permanent reminder sitting in your garden shed (next to your hosepipe) might prove to be a better advert for water saving than the current rash of posters.

I’ve calculated that one 48 sheet poster for one month in a half decent location could buy about 833 units.  So in this instance the medium is indeed the err… message.

*£2,500 / **£3 = 833 units

*www.viacom-outdoor.co.uk
**www.tradekey.com

When searching for a local tradesman in the Yellow pages you’ll always run into the problem of having too many results. Inevitably you’ll start off at ABC plumbing and work your way through the list.

Online the situation isn’t any better. Just as in the phone book you have a huge list of plumbers, but this time you also have a links to their website, making the job of finding the right person even more time consuming.

118118.com have introduced a customer rating system. However, as the person giving the rating is completely anonymous, and the rating is moderated by the business owner, it doesn’t mean much.

Better then to get an independent authority to do the job. In the example above Corgi – the national watchdog for gas safety. There are hundreds of trade bodies like this who could help consumers make more informed choices.

So now when our plumber books his advert in Yell.com he’ll also send a request to Corgi. If he has indeed passed his monthly exam, the logo placement will be authorised. And when we next search for a local plumber we’ll be better able to determine who’s right for the job.

The news that Sony lawyers have successfully closed down video game importer Lik-Sang will no doubt come as a blow to every video game enthusiast. Lik-Sang has always been like having a bunch of friends in Japan, whose sole purpose was to seek out cool stuff for you.

You’ve got to wonder how many hundreds of thousands of pounds Sony spends each year developing relationships with early adopters and members of the gaming community. It seems obvious that they should have regarded Lik-Sang and its customers as a resource, not as a threat.

I guess I’ll just have to put this incident behind me, be patient, and form an orderly queue outside Argos.