ILM:09: Localizing the Portal

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Microsoft’s new MSN Local preview site is set to launch in 2010, Scott Moore and Cyrus Krohn announced on their “localizing the portal” panel at ILM:09. MSN Local will leverage Microsoft assets like its 100 million U.S. MSN users, Bing, Hotmail, and its new partnership with NBC-U and Hearst for 3,000 video clips in 36 markets. Moore says the overall goal is to add value to local by going beyond restaurant reviews and events to include content that drives frequent visits (news, weather, sports, traffic) and deeper content like that offered by Microsoft’s acquisition of EveryBlock, which aggregates publicly available local data like restaurant inspections, police reports, etc.; normalizes it; and serves it by neighborhood. MSN Local will offer its own content, applications and services but add value as a platform for third parties to provide complementary value to users and partners. Live feeds such as Twitter will be featured, and Moore says this is a ripe area for search innovations. He cited examples of live Twitter feeds being searchable via Bing and then mapped locally with drill down “human scale” (i.e., digital photos) views at the street level.

Scott ended his ILM:09 presentation with three predictions:

  1. Hyperlocal is not hyper hype. It is real and can be monetized. It will become a large business.
  2. MSN Local will complete and not compete with local portals by adding value as a platform for third parties.
  3. Consolidation in local is inevitable; there will be a shakeout.

 

Rick Ducey

Rick Ducey is the managing director for BIA/Kelsey. He is an expert in digital media innovations, competitive strategies, new product development and new business models, including digital ecosystem collaboration strategies. Ducey oversees the firm's consulting, research and advisory services areas. He is also the program director for BIA/Kelsey's Video Local Media advisory service. This program provides coverage and analysis of how online, mobile and broadcast video technologies, competition, shifting consumer demographics and media usage trends are driving changes in the media ecosystem and SMBs and other advertisers can be successful in the new environment. Ducey assists clients with their business planning and revenue models, strategic research, market assessment, and designing and implementing digital strategies. He is also a cofounder of SpectraRep, one of BIA�s companies, which sells a patent-pending IP-based alerting system that he co-invented. Prior to joining BIA in 2000, Ducey was senior vice president of NAB's Research and Information Group. In this position, he was in charge of the association�s new technology assessment, audience and policy research, strategic planning and information systems, including all Internet operations, and he also developed publications and seminars. Before joining NAB in 1983, Ducey was a faculty member in the Department of Telecommunication at Michigan State University where he taught and did research in the areas of emerging telecommunication technologies and strategic market research. He also served on the graduate management faculties of George Mason University and George Washington University in telecommunications management and the University of Maryland, where he taught strategic market management and research methodologies. Ducey was selected as the Spring 2011 Shapiro Fellow at George Washington University where he teaches entrepreneurship in new media. He has published a number of research articles and papers in these areas and serves on editorial boards of leading scholarly journals in the communications field. He has also worked at radio stations WSOQ-AM/WEZG-FM and Upstate Cablevision in North Syracuse, New York. Ducey received his Ph.D. from Michigan State University, M.S. from Syracuse University and B.A. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

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