TKG Data and Analysis: A Weekly Recap
In case you missed any posts this week, here is a recap of coverage from the TKG blog. Click below to read each post in full.
Day: Consolidation Best for Dutch Market
My colleague Michael Taylor and I spent part of this week in London, making the rounds among some of the key players in global directories based in that wonderful and surpassingly expensive city (sorry, kids, no souvenirs). One of our last calls was to see Andrew Day, CEO of Truvo (ex-World Directories), who walked us through his company’s perspective on the recent deal with rival European Directories to consolidate the Dutch directory market, as well as a discussion of Truvo’s commitment to selling print and online directory products through distinct sales channels. (read more…)
A Conversation With BuzzLogic II: Monetizing the Buzz
Back in April we wrote about BuzzLogic, a San Francisco-based company whose web based app finds out where particular topics are being discussed throughout the blogosphere and online news media. This takes form in a dashboard that includes an overhead-map-like interface, showing all the inbound and outbound links to various sources of authority on a given topic. The goal is to show users who are the top “influencers” in a given topic or product category so they can join, or advertise near, those discussions. (read more…)
Yellowpages.com Sees $1.5 Billion Across 3 AT&T Screens by 2010
While the other telcos have divested their Yellow Pages unit, AT&T still maintains that there is real synergy in pursuing a three-screen strategy. Rather than selling the YP unit and using the proceeds to build out its network, a la Verizon, AT&T is betting that there is a home field advantage in keeping its landline, mobile and U-verse video customers intact, and selling advertising — especially local advertising — across the digital channels. (read more…)
Widgetizing Polls to Engage Online Shoppers
I just got off the phone with Pasadena, California-based Interpolls. The company has a number of rich media ad products and national brand ad clients, including HP, Scion and T-Mobile (full list here). The company’s newest ad format is a widget-like product that brings polls into the mix. This places polls within banner ads to generate and qualify traffic for its advertisers. Though this polling data can be valuable for marketers, the functionality is used more to engage online shoppers. (read more…)
MerchantCircle Goes Positive in Telemarketing Effort
MerchantCircle has apparently changed its tact for getting small businesses to sign up. In the past, there have been numerous reports that it autodialed SMBs and notified them they had to check out the company’s Web site to see their “bad review.” Now, the message is much more positive. (read more…)
Eurekster Comes out of Beta, Joins Video Movement
Eurekster is an interesting company in the general category of social search and discovery engines that provides a search widget (Swicki) for publishers to plant on their sites. Swickis essentially refine search results over time based on the search behavior of past users of a given site. This makes search results more socially relevant over time, and within particular communities, than the broader algorithms that rule Google SERPs. (read more…)
Google Local Symposium: Listen Carefully, It Is Google
Google is simultaneously the most open and most shut business I can think of. On one hand, it is amazingly transparent. You walk around the two campuses in Mountain View and you can walk right by Larry and Sergey’s offices. During my short time there, I even spied CEO Eric Schmidt casually ambling by with a group of Japanese businessmen. It also takes real pains to understand its partners, and to help their businesses. What’s the word I am thinking of? It is thoughtful. And it keeps the checks coming. On the other hand … (read more…)
