Online directory technology provider Local Matters is touting the launch of R.H. Donnelley's Chicago.B2B.com, a "local search and shopping marketplace" for Chicago-area businesses. The site uses Local Matters' Destination Search platform, which is being positioned as a solution for directory…
It seems the folks at GoYellow.de saw something in Paris Hilton that escaped the rest of us. And then Paris broke their hearts. The German online Yellow Pages directory has cut short its relationship with Paris to promote the upstart…
Classified aggregator Oodle launched today in the U.K. The press release is here, and we'll have more after we get the chance to talk to the company later this week.
The San Jose Mercury News has an interesting article today about cost-per-action advertising, and the relaunch of search engine Snap by serial entrepreneur and paid search luminary Bill Gross. Interestingly, cost-per-action could begin to receive more attention and use among…
Business 2.0's Future Boy has a very interesting column about Google's possible plans for Google Earth. The company is moving toward letting users design and create objects on its virtual Earthscape using simple 3-D modeling software. These can be representations…
CNET has a good wrap-up of Google's press day product launches. More to come.
Here's an interesting piece from CNET about local advertisers marketing themselves on MySpace. In essence a business can set up a profile on MySpace in the same way that a teenager would. We wrote about this concept a few weeks…
We spoke with Scott Randall, CEO of shopping engine Yokel, recently about the site's market positioning and some of the challenges of building an online shopping model (majority of conversions happen offline, difficulty in tracking consumer's, lack of inventory data,…
Google's second annual press day is going on as we speak. I've been watching bits and pieces of the webcast and will have more commentary later. You can watch it here, and read Philipp Lessen's live blogging of the event…
Maybe I'm missing something, but I'm having a hard time getting past the first obvious question that comes to mind as I read this announcement. If this is such a breakthrough business concept, then how come it's being sold on…
Here is a write-up of today's Yellow Pages Group annual meeting. I am traveling today and have not yet been able to listen to the call.One interesting item is the C$2.5 million purchase of 389 Canadian domain names across vertical…
What is the best way to bridge the so-called digital divide? • Provide a sub-$100 notebook computer for educational use in developing nations?• Introduce an ultra low-cost computer that is a combination phone and personal organizer that can be fitted…
The following is an excerpt from an article we prepared for Local Media Journal regarding Yahoo!'s new ad engine. It was published last month for our client advisory service. Given Yahoo!'s announcement today, we thought that a portion of the…
Om Malik also reports on the quickly consolidating telecom landscape and the corresponding branding game being played. It seems now that AT&T-owned Cingular could soon change its name to, well, AT&T. Many questioned the name change from SBC to AT&T,…
To add to Wednesday's post of the same name, Om Malik has some interesting data about the battle that is heating up for bundled services between cable and telecom companies.
After months of testing, and a very limited rollout to an invite-only list of small businesses, Microsoft's today announced the details of its adCenter SEM platform. The press release is here. AdCenter's selling points include better targeting options than Google's…
Bob Garfield, editor at large for Advertising Age, tried hard (perhaps too hard) to entertain the audience at the recent Yellow Pages Association annual convention. It was one of those multimedia presentations where he used a combination of PowerPoint, video…
Just as Comcast's first-quarter revenue growth (announced last week) was attributed to bundled service packages, this CNet article today points out that Time Warner Cable has experienced something similar. Quadruple-play offerings (voice, data, video and wireless) will become standard in…
A Wall Street Journal article today is receiving a log of attention for its speculation that Microsoft could be interested in a sizable equity stake in Yahoo!. The combined forces would be meant to battle Google. Here is additional commentary…
On the Heels of McClatchy's purchase of Knight Ridder (and subsequent sale of four of its papers to MediaNews Group), the publisher announced a partnership with WebVisible late last week at the AdTech conference in San Francisco. WebVisible's Geneva platform…
