Google Base Is Live
Here it is and it is in fact a separate area of the site. While one can search for anything, results are organized in content-specific areas on Google Base (e.g., Cars, Jobs, Real Estate, Recipes, etc.). But depending on what…
SBC CFO on Yellow Pages and IPTV
Interesting Q&A with SBC CFO Richard Linder in the latest issue of BusinessWeek. He discusses the possibilities for selling advertising on IPTV using the directory sales force. It's an indication of the strategic importance SBC is placing on its Yellow…
VoIP: Price vs. Privacy?
The ever inquisitive U.S. government is seeking authority to tap more VoIP calls at its discretion. VoIP calling is typically cheaper than traditional PSTN calling. In the third quarter, according to research firm TeleGeography, VoIP subscriptions had reached 3.6 million…
Paid Search Already at $7B?
Most of the paid search forecasts for 2005 have already been surpassed by actual revenues at Google + Yahoo! (combined approximately $7 billion through Q3, not counting anyone else): Merrill Lynch: $5.1 billion Goldman Sachs: $12.3 billion (online total, search…
ILM:05 Update
If you're anything like me, you wait until the last minute to register for conferences. And I always get shut out of the discounted rate for the conference hotel. I wind up paying $$ to be down the block. In…
Friendster Finally For Sale
The endgame is in sight for the once mighty "social networking" site (that term has itself become pass©). Who will buy it? Someone certainly will at the right price, but the brand is damaged goods among U.S. users. It's a…
ContactAtOnce! and IM Marketing
Atlanta-based ContactAtOnce! has been running trials with automotive verticals adding IM and presence management to dealer Web sites. The results of the trial, according to the company, were quite successful. Local dealers saw a "20% lift" in the number of…
Local Search Survey Cont'd
We're up to 95 responses on our Local Search Survey. We'll present the results before the "Building the Ideal Local Destination" panel at ILM:05 (end of Day 2). I'd like a few more responses to push the number above 100.…
TrueLocal Goes Live
TrueLocal is a consumer-facing local search engine that has been operating "under the radar" (except for appearances at SES) for a while. Run by search engine veteran Jake Baillie, the company is owned by database provider Geosign, which delivers local…
Enter the 'Shoposphere'
Building on its "social search" template, Yahoo! has revamped shopping and added a range of new personalization and community features. There's a heavy emphasis here on community reviews as a way to "filter" information. There are also degrees of trust…
comScore: Top 20 Sites by Traffic
Here's a list of the top 20 U.S. Internet sites from comScore, nicely compiled with growth rates, courtesy of the Internet Stock Blog: 1. Yahoo!: 9% 2. Time Warner Network: 4% 3. MSN-Microsoft: 3% 4. Google: 32% 5. eBay: 15%…
Major Market Meltdown?
It's nothing new to observe that big markets are disproportionately important to Yellow Pages publishers and that they are often the most in distress. The recent spate of nine-month conference calls among European directory publishers has reinforced this point and…
AOLTV, TW and 'The Tail'
Last week we issued an ILM White Paper about the future of TV (IPTV and video search). One of the strongest of the Internet incumbents in this category is AOL, with its broadband portal and video assets. Here's a deal…
Google Targets Verticals As Selling Tool
Google has set up a page of metrics and marketing copy (by vertical) to show advertisers by industry how consumers are looking for their goods or services online. Local metrics and Google's local targeting capabilities are featured in several of…
Amazon Patents Consumer Reviews? Absurd!
I was never a patent attorney, but I think that the USPTO is going too far in granting certain "business method" patents. Case in point: According to this InternetNews article, Amazon was recently awarded a patent covering the collection of…
More Free Weekly Classifieds
If you€™re in New York this summer and happen to be exiting one of many high-traffic transportation centers on a Thursday afternoon, you€™ll have a 1.9% chance of being handed a copy of the New York Times€™ new free classified…
Real Estate and the Future of Dynamic Mapping
Although everyone and their great grandmother has already written about this, I wanted to point out Housingmaps to the 10 people who haven't already heard or read about it. This site uses the Google Maps UI and Craiglist data and…
Google Local, Maps on Phones
Preparing for a day when there is meaningful usage of wireless devices as local search tools, Google has launched Google Local for phones. Maps are the centerpiece. It currently works on "Java-enabled (J2ME) mobile phones, especially those purchased within the…
A Different Sort of Google Print: Part Deux
Personalized search came out of Google Labs today, and now Google is extending its network to offline print buying. This program has been going on for a number of months at least, but it's now getting a bit more visibility.…
Faster and Faster
I was talking with one of the Yahoo! PR/corp comm people at AD:TECH about how everything seems to be accelerating. And recently another person from Yahoo! said he hoped things would slow down a bit so he could relax a…