TKG Data and Analysis: A Weekly Recap

Here are last week’s highlights from the TKG blog, in case you missed any posts. Click below to read each post in full.

Of Video Games and Local Search
The latest show of climbing video game sales came in April’s 47 percent year-over-year increase. The $1.23 billion in game & console sales was buoyed by continued success of the Nintendo Wii, as well as the release of the hotly anticipated Grand Theft Auto IV. (read more…)

CBS Expects Local Benefit From CNET Buy
In its bid to establish itself as a meaningful online company, CBS Interactive has downplayed its traditional strength in local vis-a-vis TV stations, radio stations and outdoor. The company’s just announced acquisition of CNET for $1.8 billion doesn’t necessarily change things. But company officials acknowledge that CNET’s local brands — Urban Baby, a moms site, and Chow, a foodie site — are leveragable assets. (read more…)

ICMA Brussels: Shopper Pubs Focusing on Reverse Publishing, Verticals, Mobile
Shopper publications attending the International Classified Media Association meeting in Brussels this week — the vast majority from outside the U.S. — are showing resilience against the challenges of the Internet, and looking at new models to sustain their existing businesses. I was presenting a keynote on the transition to Marketplaces. (read more…)

Google Partners With Office Depot to Win Small Businesses
Google and Office Depot announced a partnership where Office Depot will offer advice and teach small businesses how to use Google AdWords. Any small business that registers and makes an AdWords purchase on the Office Depot site will receive a $50 advertising bonus. Office Depot will also likely receive a portion of all sales made through its Web site. The partnership also promotes Google Apps and Maps as additional tools small businesses can use. (read more…)

Yellow Pages as a Niche Social Network Aggregator
Since the social networking phenomenon began, I have been an advocate of the Yellow Pages developing a platform for niche social networks. Directories cover such a broad array of content that can be related to highly conversational topics, such as travel, music, legal, weddings, new mothers, retirement, interior design and home improvement. (read more…)

TV and Cable Cos. Take Page From Online
Two separate but related news items caught my eye today. First, Comcast has acquired social networking technology provider Plaxo in order to integrate social network-like features that let viewers share programming, among other things. Second, Turner Entertainment Networks announced a new plan to index content within television shows so contextually relevant ads can be served during subsequent commercial breaks. (read more…)

Marc Andreessen: A Dozen Killer Apps Over Next Decade
Internet legend Marc Andreessen waxed positive about social networking and VC opportunities for the next five years during a packed luncheon at the Think Tomorrow — Today conference. Without spending too much time talking about his own social networking venture, Ning, he asserted that the decentralized “many to many” media world we now live in has created 40 million to 50 million early adopters. (read more…)

More on Location Awareness From TTT
Today, I’m at ThinkPanmure’s Think Tomorrow — Today VC summit in Half Moon Bay, California. As Where 2.0 is happening as we speak on the other side of the hill, some attention to location awareness has been paid here as well.A panel discussion this morning on the convergence of fixed and mobile telecommunications stressed the opportunity for enterprise applications that tap wireless LANs to track people and inventory where GPS signals deteriorate (read: indoors). (read more…)

Skyhook Fixes on a New Location
Skyhook Wireless announced a series of partnerships that bring location awareness to online applications. These include Krillion, Yahoo! Fire Eagle and CitySquares, to name a few. They’ll each use the location awareness of PCs and laptops (via Wi-Fi signal) for different forms of geotargeting and smarter content delivery. (read more…)

SmallTown Offers ‘WebCards’ Via Google Gadget Ads, Others
SmallTown, the Bay Area hyperlocal company, is changing its core focus and will concentrate mostly on getting wider distribution of its WebCards microsites for small businesses. While the nine-person company will continue to maintain its hyperlocal sites, which are now in six Bay Area communities, it sees a bigger opportunity in having third parties such as IYPs and search engines selling WebCards, says CEO Hal Rucker. “WebCards.com has always been our vision. It hasn’t been hyperlocal.” (read more…)