It's almost impossible to keep up with all the developments going on in the local space right now. One that has quietly happened without any fanfare, apparently, is the relaunch of the Yellow Book site. Without having tested the data…
So that's my contribution to the bad headline puns making the rounds this afternoon. ...The acquisition proves, among other things, that a bad URL is no obstacle to success today. Seriously, it's yet another social media play at Yahoo! (not…
That ever-intrepid patent sleuth Gary Price over at Search Engine Watch has found a Microsoft patent application covering "electronic Yellow Pages." Gary posts the abstract: Abstract: A method and system for allowing a regional service merchant that is outside of…
I read in PaidContent that family-oriented city site GoCityKids.com had been acquired by Viacom-owned cable channel Nickelodeon. I met with founder Clare Ellis years ago when the network of sites had just launched (in 2000). Her concept was great --…
I got an update yesterday from news aggregator Inform.com. These guys launched several months ago with a host of super-charged features that proved well beyond what most users want from a news site. Product manager Julian Steinberg acknowledged this in…
Nielsen/NetRatings reported that traffic rose 61 percent at online comparison shopping sites in the week ended Nov. 27, compared with the week ended Oct. 30. Regular online retailers by comparison saw a 35 percent rise in traffic during the same…
After having 24 hours to play with Windows Live Local (WLL), my experience is mixed. The "Bird's Eye" photograghy is stunning (I can't wait for more coverage beyond the current 12 U.S. metro areas). The personalization features (Scratch Pad, etc.),…
I did a quick interview on CNBC about PPCall today (they had a bunch of technical problems so it may not run). The interviewer was using the terms "click-to-call" and "pay-per-call" interchangeably. There's confusion about the distinction between the two.…
MediaPost (reg req'd) writes about a new Borrell report about the potential rise of "independent local sites" as another threat to the newspaper industry (just add them to the list, right?). Well yes and no. T'he MediaPost piece focuses on…
As we're putting together the agenda for Drilling Down '06 in San Jose, we really want your input on the panels (and formats) you'd like to see. If you're interested in speaking or have any remarks about what you think…
Quietly, in the shadow of the Windows Live Local launch (say that 10 times fast), Google releases Transit Trip Planner. More from Search Engine Watch and the Official Google Blog. Wasn't December supposed to be a slow month?
My wife is having a baby today (our second daughter). So far the naming rights are up to US$10,000 on eBay (bidding ends today). Just kidding! (Sorry eBay.) I'm not kidding about the baby part, however. So I'll be taking…
When a company as large as Verizon decides to shed its directory business, a reliable source of cash for so many years, questions inevitably arise over what such a move says about the future of Yellow Pages. I've been scanning…
John Battelle picked up a PaidContent post about Google product VP Jonathan Rosenberg's comments to a conference crowd. Among the statements summarized by PaidContent was one on PPCall: Pay per call: "Interesting model. ... Our general experience has been the…
SiliconBeat and Battelle both cover "Yahoo! Answers," an interesting new social media/community initiative from Yahoo!. The idea is that I can ask the community any question and, probably, get an answer. Google Answers is a similar service, but it's not…
The San Jose Mercury News broke this story today about Yahoo! planning to launch a VoIP platform that will allow users to make PC-to-PSTN (landline) calls and receive calls from any telephone line around the world for a fee.Its previous…
I just met with Erik Jorgensen of MSN, and Windows Live Local is going live today/tonight. A number of features make it interesting and different from what's out there, including personalization, ease of use (I can insert a "pushpin" with…
This from an article yesterday in a Norwegian newspaper: Cornel Riklin, who has been CEO of the Norwegian directory publisher Findexa for the past 11 months, is leaving his post now that the company is part of Eniro AB, which…
Earlier this week John Battelle made reference to a search engine usage survey conducted by investment firm SG Cowen & Co. Today MediaPost (reg. req'd) reports on the same survey: People who have been online seven years or longer are…
PPCall provider Ingenio is adding both InfoSpace and, in a more limited deal, 1-800-FREE411 to its distribution network. This means that in addition to those two, the Ingenio network now includes Miva, AOL, AOL Mobile and Interchange's Local.com (with Yahoo!…
