TKG Data and Analysis: A Weekly Recap
Here is a recap of posts from last week, in case you missed any. Click below to read each post in full.
IPhone Runs Away With JD Power Consumer Satisfaction Award
The iPhone took top honors in JD Power’s influential consumer satisfaction study, smartphone edition. This doesn’t come as a big surprise, and it was mostly a clean sweep across the main categories (features, ease of operation, physical design, etc.). The only place it didn’t kick everyone’s butt was “battery life” — where BlackBerry and LG had the highest scores. (read more…)
Clips on Video From Thought Leaders
I had the pleasure of attending an excellent mini-conference yesterday on Digital Media Thought Leadership. The organizers were the prolific “emerging technology connection” SDForum and the venerable VC firm Sierra Ventures. (The key commercial sponsor was the law firm Nixon Peabody LLP.) (read more…)
More Local Sites Target Rural, Exurban Populations
Every time we turn around another local-oriented Web site says it’s targeting rural and exurban audiences. So far, we’ve got Center’d, Topix, MerchantCircle, WeddingMapper.com and others zeroing on the rurals (are we missing any?). All these sites are drawn by the technical capability of geotargeting thousands of population centers by ZIP code. They’re also encouraged by the relative absence of significant local media. (read more…)
Citysearch Scoops Up Urbanspoon
In addition to a 22 percent year-over-year revenue decline, IAC announced during today’s first-quarter earnings call that it will acquire Urbanspoon for an undisclosed amount. There are many possible synergies with IAC’s Citysearch — most notably mobile. Citysearch is pushing harder on its mobile strategy after seeing that its mobile users are 5x more likely to write reviews than its online users. (read more…)
Center’d Gets a Facelift: More Local Search & Discovery
Local/social/event planning site Center’d announced a redesign late yesterday, which will make the site more effective as a local search and discovery engine. This will be version 3.0 if you count the site’s first iteration as FatDoor. The second version of the site, under the direction of former Yahoo Marketplaces head Jennifer Dulski, fashioned itself more as a local event planning tool. (read more…)
YPA ’09: Malcolm Gladwell Talks Yellow Pages
Best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell, the man behind top business tomes such as “The Tipping Point,” “Blink” and now “Outliers,” spoke today at the Yellow Pages Association conference in San Diego, suggesting that Yellow Pages publishers’ advantage over Google and others is their “deep trust” with advertisers — something he may have picked up at a YPA breakfast before his speech. (read more…)
Microsoft Brings Video to SMBs in Europe, via Spotzer
Microsoft announced today that it’s working with Spotzer to bring video production capability to small businesses in the Netherlands. This will be part of a broader product under Microsoft’s advertising division that involves a self-service platform for SMBs to create and manage video, display and text ads. (read more…)
YPA ’09: National Advertisers Remain Loyal to Yellow Pages
National Yellow Pages advertisers appearing on a YPA conference panel moderated by The Kelsey Group’s Charles Laughlin reiterated the importance of Yellow Pages to their businesses. While they were open-minded about experimenting with new types of directional advertising, including Yelp, Internet Yellow Pages and search, print clearly remains their core effort. (read more…)
YPA ’09: Dave Swanson, R.H. Donnelley; Chris Cummings, Marquette Group
Keynoting at the Yellow Pages Association Convention in San Diego today, R.H. Donnelley CEO Dave Swanson acknowledged “the worst local media environment this country has seen since the Great Depression.” But the YPA’s outgoing chairman also noted that “the will to live, in our industry, is very strong. (read more…)
Clickable Aims Local, Focuses on ‘Scalable’ Sales Solutions
Clickable, a third-party online search manager, says local search packages are too heavily marked up, with too little emphasis on conversions. It is re-aiming to fix these problems with a “highly scalable” local solution for publishers and resellers. The “Clickable Platform” is supported by a team of 85 people, of whom 55 are dedicated to the local initiatives. (read more…)
