The site offers links to over 3000 Melbourne-related sites, including car and bus rental, public transport, accommodation, animal rights organisations, real estate, and water polo clubs. Users also have access to a free auction site to buy and sell goods online.
"Melbournestar will never replace Yahoo or Excite as a web service but it is an alternative when the internet user looks for local sites. Yahoo and Excite don't really cater for local users in Melbourne," Kaiser said.
Melbournestar's goal is to be one of the top 500 Australian websites at the end of this year's third quarter. To achieve this, Melbournestar will next month start marketing programs with Melbourne businesses and organisations to increase traffic, according to Kaiser.
Sydneystar and Brisbanestar are currently in the development stage, and will be launched in the third quarter.
Interstar, the company behind Melbournestar, has registered the domain names of 150 star sites worldwide and is planning to launch internationally in 2001.
