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.

Potts Launches Effort to Make Hyperlocal Into a Real Business

Hyperlocal sites are well intentioned, and most have some kind of business plan. But they haven’t really focused much on making money. That’s where GrowthSpur, a new company, comes in. Launched by former Washington Post executive and BackFence founder Mark Potts, GrowthSpur is a “soup to nuts” provider of training and services, targeting an estimated  2,000 hyperlocal “independent” sites (i.e., independent of mainstream media). “We’re trying to support a new ecosystem of sites,” says Potts. (read more…)

Thinking Differently About ‘Wireless': A Conversation With Sensory Inc. 

Today I had the chance to talk to Todd Mozer, CEO of speech recognition technology developer Sensory Inc. In the past 15 years, about 60 million products have shipped with its chips and software embedded. These includes everything from in-car voice command systems to Bluetooth headsets to voice controlled toys. (read more…)

Diller: Vertical Search Represents Key Opportunity

A year since IAC’s spin-off of several businesses, IAC Chairman Barry Diller, during a 2Q earnings call, saw some bright spots, including ServiceMagic, which saw a 5 percent jump in service requests. Diller also expressed optimism that the company had strong opportunities in several key areas, especially vertical search, and extensive downloads of its iPhone apps, which add up to 5.5 million (although these were mostly from its Urbanspoon acquisition). (read more…)

TwitArea Helps You Tweet Local Businesses

Praized Media continues its march toward blending Twitter and local. The latest product is a browser plugin called TwitArea that lets users tweet about places. Specifically, the plugin plants an “insert place” button under the Twitter.com text box. When clicked, this launches a mini local search tool. After searching and browsing local listings, clicking a “tweet this” button automatically forms a tweet that notifies followers about a certain establishment. (read more…)

The Huffington Post Slates Denver as Local Market No. 3

The Huffington Post has hired a staffer for a Denver site. The site, in the nation’s 20th largest market, will be HuffPo’s third local site when it launches in September. New York and Chicago are already up. Los Angeles is slated to be No. 4, with more than a dozen sites planned in all. The sites are being linked with other local media, such as ESPNLocal, and typically will have one or two editors per market. (read more…)

Local TV Web Sites Beat Other Media on Audience Traffic, Engagement

According to the Internet Broadcast Local Index for May 2009, local TV station Web sites beat all other local media sites in total local minutes in 28 of the top 50 markets. BIA/Kelsey analysis of the April 2009 IB Local Index focused on how local TV stations also out-deliver newspapers in Web audiences by sometimes more than three to one. (read more…)

Microsoft/Yahoo Deal Announced

As speculated yesterday, the search deal between Yahoo and Microsoft has been officially announced. Many of the expected terms apply, and the official release has lots of detail and video addresses from Steve Ballmer and Carol Bartz (notice she mentions mobile twice). Here are the key terms: (read more…)

Vivian Schiller Reveals Her Vision for Local Public Radio With Relaunch of NPR.org

NPR’s CEO, Vivian Schiller, left NYTimes.com to join public radio because she saw a void in local media that needed to be filled. In a Newsweek interview published this week as NPR.org is relaunched, she elaborated on her strategy to reposition public radio around not only its on-air home but also its digital and online platforms. With the challenges facing local media from big city dailies to local TV and radio news operations, communities risk a painful loss of critical information and sense of identity. (read more…)

Yahoo/Microsoft Search Deal Expected Tomorrow

Yahoo and Microsoft are expected to announce tomorrow the search deal that’s been three years in the making, according to many sources. If we do see a deal, expect it to be structured something like this: (read more…)

Self-Service Mobile Advertising: A Conversation With Jumptap

We’re doing a bunch of research on self-service advertising by talking to companies that provide various ad formats such as paid search and display. This is mostly in the online realm, but we’re starting to see a move toward self service in mobile, led by companies we’ve profiled here in the past like AdLocal and Jumptap. (read more…)