TKG Data and Analysis: A Weekly Recap

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

Mixed Earnings for Yell, PagesJaunes

Yell Group saw an 11.3 percent rise in its share value yesterday (to 79 p) following its first-quarter 2009 earnings (its financial year ends March 31) announcement, in which the publisher topped its U.S. guidance, fell a bit short in the U.K. and held steady guidance for Spain and Latin America. Yell continues to trade slightly upward today. (read more…)

When Everyone Comes From Somewhere Else

One of the most challenging aspects of speaking to the geodomain industry was the diverse backgrounds of the people in the industry. They come from media companies, technology firms, the music industry and the real estate business. What they have in common is a strong competitive streak (not unusual in entrepreneurs) and an incredible desire to succeed. (read more…)

Inman Real Estate Connect: Social Media Is Real, Mobile Will Be

Social media may not be worth much as an advertising medium right now, but it has become a critical part of real estate marketing, according to speakers at the Inman Real Estate Connect conference in San Francisco. “It is not just FaceBook or MySpace,” noted Sami Inkinen, cofounder and COO, Trulia. “With Trulia Voices, you ask a question and within 20 minutes you start receiving answers from 100,000 real estate professionals. It is connecting buyers and sellers every day.” (read more…)

Facebook and Microsoft Expand Relationship

Microsoft announced today that it will integrate Live Search with the Facebook network. This will include search advertising served with results (via adCenter). This grows out of the existing relationship that included Microsoft’s $240 million investment in Facebook and its placement of contextual ads throughout the network. At the time of that deal, it was a big question mark whether or not search was to be included. Today that question was answered. (read more…)

Selling SEM: It’s Complicated

Over the past two months, we have been talking with sales reps in a variety of local media outlets who are selling search engine marketing. While we feel like some sales organizations are making headway in selling a significant volume of SEM products to their customers, we find that the technical aspects of SEM often work against salespeople who want to propose online marketing as an extension of an advertiser’s media plan. (read more…)

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Brew

This wedding tradition of something old and something new is appropriate for BusinessWeek’s leading online stories this week. GE is the something old, Google is the something new … you get it. The remainder of the saying is “And a Silver Sixpence in Her Shoe.” It is unclear the relative value of the silver sixpence compared with each of the companies mentioned above, but odds are its value is increasing while most of the rest of the economy is struggling.  (read more…)

YellowPages.com Buoys AT&T in First Half

AT&T Advertising & Publishing saw a 3.3 percent first-half revenue decline, to US$2.82 billion. Part of the decline reflects the sale of the L.M. Berry operation to Local Insight Media, and the resulting lost revenues. That deal closed early in the second quarter. AT&T reported that its Yellowpages.com revenues grew 40.2 percent in the second quarter, compared with 41.1 percent in the first quarter. Based on its strong online growth rate, TKG estimates that AT&T’s print revenues declined more than 6 percent in the first half of the year. (read more…)

Citysearch Mashup a Model for iPhone App?

An independent developer has created a Google Maps mashup that is basically another way to navigate Citysearch business profiles in Google Maps. The mashup has also recently been optimized for the iPhone. This isn’t an iPhone native app that can be downloaded from the App Store, but rather a Web-based tool accessed through the device’s Safari browser and optimized for the iPhone screen. The difference is parallel to that of Web-based e-mail versus a desktop e-mail client — there are subtle differences in performance and features. (read more…)

Product Placement Comes Closer Into Focus: Part III

Television is becoming more and more interactive, bringing us closer to a day when we’ll have pull-based content and ad delivery. IPTV promises a lot here, by virtue of its IP-based architecture. But there are lots of other factors that need to coalesce before we get there, including ad delivery, advertiser adoption and Madison Avenue wrapping its collective brain around this concept. (read more…)

Google Maps Adds Walking Directions; iPhone Next?

Google has rolled out a walking directions feature in its mapping product, previously available to few users in a limited rollout (as the company often tests new products or features). This was first offered by AskCity in 2006, but then the market was once again deprived of the functionality when it killed its homegrown mapping product. Now Google has given it back to us. (read more…)