ReachLocal has launched ReachLocal XChange, a local business ad exchange, with Fox Audience Network, Ask Sponsored Listings and others. By doing so, the company moves beyond its initial reliance on search packages to small businesses.The introduction of an ad exchange…
I saw several more articles over the weekend on how small businesses are using social network sites like Facebook and MySpace for marketing. This triggered a couple of thoughts… There’s a whole a ‘shadow network’ of business marketers (B2C and…
Here is a recap of posts from last week, in case you missed any. Click below to read each post in full. Skype Redefines Itself: It's All About Local I’ve spent the past few months in talks with Skype about how…
As reported in the San Francisco Chronicle, a new report by consultants Sageworks reports that amid the economic gloom, some industries are actually doing pretty well. These industries, with their sales growth rates for the past year, include accounting and…
Intuit has purchased BooRah, a rating and review site, and will add its functionality to the Intuit small business platform, which has also incorporated the old StepUp e-commerce site and Homestead Web site construction services. The companies aren’t talking much…
I’ve spent the past few months in talks with Skype about how the company would like to diversify its product model, and better position itself as a tool to generate leads for local businesses. Perhaps the timing couldn’t be better…
Mobile ad network Millennial Media released its first monthly Scorecard for Mobile Advertising Reach and Targeting (SMART). This extrapolates market data based on the activity it sees on its network -- much like the reports we've covered from the likes…
Recently the company that delivers Idearc Yellow Pages in the Princeton, NJ, area brought our office a few copies of the most recent edition. I imagine that most people do what I did when the book came, which was to…
Apartments are in the vanguard among online marketplace verticals, as more apartment owners take advantage of Web and mobile features to target prospects -- especially younger prospects. Indeed, apartment owners are increasingly leveraging video to show off floor plans and…
Selling advertising on customized Google Maps is becoming increasingly common, with agencies such as LAT49 showing the way. Ads have been sold on maps for hiking, jogging trails, local transit and other categories. Now Wedding Mapper is taking the same…
Under the new leadership of CEO Carol Bartz, everything is up for review at Yahoo, and that probably includes HotJobs, its recruitment site. But recent press reports suggesting that HotJobs has already been designated for sale are off base. The…
Jumptap took an evolutionary step today with the launch of its tapMatch mobile ad targeting platform. The company has traditionally provided a range of mobile products, including a white-label search platform for publishers and carriers like AT&T and Virgin Mobile.…
Superpages today officially launched its iPhone application. This joins iPhone apps from all the major U.S. Yellow Pages publishers, as they each try to solidify brands and build traffic levels on the quickly growing mobile Web. Some of the features…
We've written recently how Twitter and other real-time feed based communication tools have potential integrations with local search. We're also hearing a lot about how Twitter can be used for a new kind of search -- used to comb through…
TechCrunch's Sarah Lacy poses the specialist vs. generalist question, as it relates to mobile devices. It's an issue we've raised here before: Despite improving smartphone market penetration and quality standards, are they hybrid plays that lose quality in the many…
The News Hour with Jim Lehrer followed The New York Times' lead today with a segment on “news alternatives” (audio download here). Featured on the program were Joel Kramer of MinnPost, John Brod from Patch.com and Esther Thorson from The…
It would be a pity if The New York Times Co.’s Boston Globe were shut down, because its Boston.com site continues to innovate with local online advertising capabilities. Today, the company’s YourTown hyperlocal sites launched Flyerboards: a virtual bulletin board…
Over at Local Search News, my latest column posted. I also did a podcast with LSN's Steve Espinosa over the weekend that should be available soon. The column has lots of data from our recent mobile ad revenue forecast, but…
We’re always looking for what’s up and down in the economy. One likely contender: garage sales. According to coverage in the L.A. Times, garage sale postings on Craigslist are up 80 percent nationwide (and 50 percent in the L.A. area).
The New York Times weighs in today on whether hyperlocal sites will fill the local coverage gap left by shrunken or collapsed newspapers -- never mind that newspapers themselves have only recently rediscovered neighborhood-level news themselves. Almost of their attention…
