TKG Data and Analysis: A Weekly Recap

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

Craigslist Adds New Fees in Abuse Crackdown

Craigslist has added “erotic services” as its third paid section (in selected markets) in an effort to crack down on illegal activities, such as child exploitation. The site will now require a nominal $5 fee, paid via credit card, to post such ads. The policies were developed in consultation with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and law enforcement from more than 40 states. (read more…)

Start-Up Watch: GoodGuide Gaining Steam

GoodGuide was one of our favorite start-ups launched at the TechCrunch50 show back in September. It was also one of the few companies in the mix with a local search business model (see write-up here). This week, the company took top honors at a “launchpad” competition of start-ups at the Web 2.0 summit. It went up against five other companies (including Everyscape, a mapping company we’ve followed). (read more…)

Yellowbook Taps YouTube for Video Distribution

Yellowbook announced today that it has formed a partnership with YouTube to use it as an auxiliary distribution source for the SMB videos it produces. This essentially gives it broader distribution beyond its own walls (Yellowbook.com). This is good for Yellowbook’s growing crop of video advertisers because it gives them more places to be found. In other words, videos in YouTube have a greater chance of being picked up in search engine results (especially Google). (read more…)

Yelp Adds More Marketing Tools for Small Businesses

In April, we covered Yelp’s launch of a suite of marketing tools that let small businesses manage their listings. This is essentially a back-end tool that allows any business with a Yelp listing to claim his or her profile, add basic business info, and view analytics. Today it launched the next extension of this tool, which lets SMBs write about themselves in a more freeform and public facing way (accessible here). (read more…)

Marchex Reports ‘80,000 Local Advertisers’

Marchex, during its 3Q earnings call today, reaffirmed its focus on providing ad solutions for the local and vertical search space, noting that it currently works with 80,000 local advertisers via 110 local partner relationships, including AT&T and Idearc. The advertiser count is up 5,000 from the previous quarter. By the end of 2009, the company expects to serve 100,000 local advertisers, despite worsening macroeconomic conditions. (read more…)

Online Woes: A Few Signs of the Times

Headlines of layoffs and shutdowns are increasing, as is the general schadenfreude that we begin to see when the success stories of yesterday become the failures of today. The tech world got to see its fair share of this eight years ago, and it’s now rearing its ugly head all around us. Not to pile it on, but there were a few interesting (sometimes quirky, sometimes inspiring) items seen today that are representative of these times. (read more…)

Google/Yahoo Search Advertising Deal DOA

Google announced today that it has decided to walk away from its ad partnership with Yahoo, citing that legal battles with federal antitrust regulators won’t make it worthwhile to pursue. The deal would have placed Google text ads throughout Yahoo’s network and search results. The last concession made by the two companies was to cap the amount of Yahoo’s revenues generated by Google ads at 25 percent. But this wasn’t enough to satisfy regulators, so Google essentially decided there wouldn’t be a satisfactory middle ground. (read more…)

All Politics Are Local: A Talk With E-Voter Institute’s Karen Jagoda

Presidential elections always represent sea changes in the use of marketing tools (including local marketing tools). The Internet is an increasingly big part of it. Mostly, it is used for raising money. This time around, it has also been exciting to see thousands of people “request” in-person appearances by candidates via Eventful; to watch the McCain campaign use Topix to reach rural voters; and to see the Obama campaign use Centro’s local network to place geotargeted, online video ads. (read more…)

New Leadership Takes the Helm at TMP

Stuart McKelvey is no longer CEO of TMP Directional Marketing, a position he had held since 1998. He is leaving the Yellow Pages ad agency founded by his father, Andrew, in 1967 to join Health Diagnostic, also founded by the elder McKelvey, who is reported to be seriously ill with pancreatic cancer. Replacing Stuart McKelvey, who will remain on the TMPDM board, is Michael Flanagan, who had been the company’s chief financial officer since 2003 and was recently named president. (read more…)

New TKG Data: Smartphone Penetration Nears 20%

Today, The Kelsey Group’s second wave of the Mobile Market View consumer survey was released, supporting many of the claims we’ve been making here about the changing mobile environment. The biggest takeaway was that 18.9 percent of survey respondents (n=512) reported owning a smart phone, while 49.2 percent plan to purchase one in the next year. This comes about as device standards improve, prices drop, and there is a general erosion of the carrier control that has put subpar technologies in our hands. (read more…)