The path to self-sustaining revenues for free directory assistance isn't clear yet. But if there is any real money to be made, it is going to come from category search. Unlike name search, users don't have a clear idea who…
One of the foreseen deficiencies that could hold cable companies back in the battle for bundled services is the lack of wireless service assets. Though they possess short-run advantages in the relative ease in building a voice business (compared with…
Yahoo! this week launched a new version of its free Web site development and hosting product, through Yahoo! Small Business. Although it previously had a free tool for small businesses to establish a Web presence, this is an improvement because…
The CTIA Wireless confab is under way, and we're expecting a host of product launches and announcements that have implications for mobile local search. A prelude to some of these were given last week at TKG's Drilling Down On Local…
The big picture guys know the battle of the future isn't just between newspapers or Yellow Pages and Google/Yahoo!. Indeed, as society goes mobile, it is also between the content owners and handset manufacturers. During his Day 2 opening keynote…
Peter Horan, IAC Media and Entertainment's new head from About.com and other companies, says he's a "guy who has to run Web sites for a living and sell stuff," so he takes "a very pragmatic view. Visionaries and consultants aren't…
Spot Runner, the high-profile video production house and media buyer for small businesses, is winning some big deals with national players that want to provide solutions for partners and affiliates and also target locally. During his Day 1 keynote at…
It appears Yell Group may be the target of an unnamed private equity group hoping to pursue an LBO of Yell, which is the leading YP publisher in the U.K. and Spain and the largest U.S. independent publisher through its…
The latest news on the sale of Yellow Pages Group (New Zealand) is that a partnership of the private equity KKR and Australia's Seven Network has made a final offer of about NZ$2.2 billion, which is about 9 times the…
A close second to video in terms of getting "airtime" here at the Drilling Down on Local show, has been (a two-way tie between) social media and mobile. Leading up to the conference, there has been a lot of conversation…
Video has taken center stage at Drilling Down on Local '07. Actual local video ads are getting a lot of play on the jumbo-tron screens that flank the stage both between sessions and during some presentations. This has been…
Earlier this week I was rereading the transcript of the Nordic directory publisher Eniro's Q4 2006 earnings call, and I paid a bit more attention to an item I had glossed over the first time through, when I was more…
Nick Veronis, managing director of Veronis Suhler Stevenson, says he doesn't see a "dollar for dollar" transfer between incumbent media in the local arena and their Internet offspring, but publishers are in a position to make money online. "The big…
Yellowpages.com unveiled the first screen shots of its IPTV Internet Yellow Pages channel at Local '07 yesterday. The shots show a colorful video service that enables users to select and browse by popular categories, with details of nearby businesses also…
Yahoo! EVP Hilary Schneider, during her opening keynote to Kelsey Local '07, emphasized that the company is really zeroing in on local to play a major role in Yahoo!'s growth plans. Local search's share of overall search within Yahoo! went…
Just got a press release in my inbox from Yellow Book announcing that it would begin publicly disclosing audited circulation figures for all its directories with distribution greater than 100,000. In the release, Yellow Book makes the claim that it…
The "little guys" at the local level are generally obscured in both the "organic search" and "paid" rankings of the search engines. A search for "home improvement" in "San Diego," for instance, yields just two local contractors in 10 slots.…
The America East show the largest regional event in the U.S. newspaper industry took place last week in Hershey, Pennsylvania, with 1,200-plus attendees. I'd sum it up by saying that the attendees' mostly small and medium-sized markets remain…
Skype officially launched version 3.1 earlier this week. As we wrote about a few weeks ago, this includes a new feature that lets users find local businesses. This has clear synergies with its core product and represents an opportunity to…
We noted with interest the recent move by Canada's Yellow Pages Group to introduce a companion directory in the Calgary, Alberta, market along with this year's core directory. YPG's decision to introduce a companion book may be related to a…
