TKG Data and Analysis: A Weekly Recap

Here is a recap of posts from the last week in case you missed any. Click below to read each post in full.

New Tools, New World
Earlier this week, my colleague Charles Laughlin wrote a blog about the beginning of the YPA annual conference and exhibition titled “Yellow Pages Industry Pledges Counteroffensive.” That headline pretty much captures what was an upbeat event that attracted 600 attendees. As YPA President Neg Norton told the industry, “the root of the problem is a belief that we are going away.” The fact is that both the print business and the electronic piece suggest otherwise. (read more…)

Hyperlocal Keeps Going; OurTown Launches
There are a number of new or re-energized hyperlocal efforts out there, trying to crack the code. New efforts are expected shortly from Outside.in and SmallTown. Ongoing efforts are being made with AmericanTowns, which counts Idearc as a lead investor, and Dallas’ Pegasus News, which is owned by Fisher Communications. CitySquares in Boston continues to build its model. Topix has also remade itself into an aggregation of local news and hyperlocal commenting. (read more…)

Yellow Pages Today (Part 2): Selling White Pages
The Yellow Pages Today April workshop featured a divergent view of how best to sell the White Page product line. While some differences exist, due in part to the products offered in the core White Pages product such as those published in Germany, most companies agreed that White Pages needs its own unique sales approach and marketing focus. (read more…)

Citysearch Talks Mobile
Citysearch made a recent announcement that it will partner with Scanbuy to offer a mobile application that lets users get information and promotions about local businesses by scanning bar codes placed outside their locations. Technically, it’s not a bar code scan but more of a picture that is being taken (camera phone required) and read by the application (download required). (read more…)

Will Social Be the Killer App for Mobile?
Michael Arrington scribes his vision for mobile social mashups in a TechCrunch post yesterday. He argues social networking could be the killer app of the mobile device, and one of the biggest beneficiaries of the expected surge in application development (we argue it will be local search). (read more…)

Google Struggles in Radio; Bid4Spots Gains Favor
Google’s ambitious effort to take its bidding system across media might be hitting a bump in radio. The company’s program started out fairly well when it bought dMarc (since renamed Google Audio Ads) for $102 million plus incentives in 2006. Since then, it must have been doing something right. It now claims affiliations with 1,600 FM and AM radio stations. DMarc only had 700 affiliates. (read more…)

Diversifying Local Video: A Conversation With PixelFish
Today I had the chance to talk with Dave Brewer, bus dev director of online video production company PixelFish. The company was founded by CEO John McIntyre, who previously founded Web hosting company Affinity Internet (acquired by Hostway last year). His goal was to take the democratization of Web site hosting and development behind Affinity and apply it to online video. Since then, the overall online video space, local in particular, has clearly followed this trend. (read more…)

Trulia Launches Street View: The Street You Might Live On
Trulia, the real estate portal, has added a new “Street View” feature that enables home buyers to not only check out a house, but also navigate up and down the street and neighborhood. The feature was built on the API from Google Maps, which was released in late March. Trulia’s Street View is now in 40 markets, including San Francisco, Dallas, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York and Los Angeles. More will be added on an incremental basis. (read more…)

Kudzu Integrates Video From TurnHere
Cox Communications’ regional local search site Kudzu today became the latest to resell video production capabilities to its SMB advertisers. The company had already offered the ability to show video along with business profiles or listings, but SMBs had to “show up” with their own video. This move essentially lowers the barrier and makes it decidedly more user friendly for Kudzu’s potential and existing advertisers to buy into video. (read more…)

YP Industry Pledges Counteroffensive
The leadership of the Yellow Pages Association came out swinging against its growing number of critics and doubters at yesterday’s kickoff of the group’s annual conference in Las Vegas. Chairman Dave Swanson (also CEO of R.H. Donnelley) gave a passionate defense of the directory industry, making a strong case that much of the criticism it has received has tried to pass off assertion as fact, while the facts often paint a different picture. (read more…)

Everyscape Comes to San Francisco (and Points East)
On the heels of its $7 million B round last month, 3-D mapping provider Everyscape, announced today that it will expand its coverage to San Francisco, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. It now covers 15 total cities including its first batch, Boston, New York, Aspen and Miami. (read more…)