Tomorrow I will participate in a webinar sponsored by Search Marketing Now on the topic of "call mining" along with John Busby, VP of advertising platforms at Marchex Call Analytics. The whole idea is to take the content of calls…
Online "ad versioning" has taken on heightened significance as national and regional brands vie for their own piece of the sizable local advertising pie. However, as SEM becomes more sophisticated and consumers expect smart targeting from commercial messages, basic…
The future of city guides has been morphing beyond events and features. This was driven home today by the launch of Metromix Deals, a JV between Metromix, the 50+ site city guide chain co-owned by Gannett and Tribune, and Local…
From the Friday afternoon A/V department, here is a good lesson in viral marketing and also a glimpse of smartphone evolution. NYC band Atomic Tom shot a seemingly impromptu (though likely produced) subway jam session, using only iPhones as instruments.…
In case you missed them, here are a few headlines and links to recent posts on our Mobile Local Media blog. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed here, and the e-mail alert here. -- Jamming on the Subway: There’s an App…
Placecast is announcing that its ShopAlerts platform will power location-based push marketing for O2 in the U.K. This is its first major carrier deal, joining existing deals with U.S. brands such as The North Face. Placecast (see past coverage) divides…
In what I'm starting to call bar code week, the latest is RedLaser's addition of QR codes to its existing UPC code scanning functionality. In a recent list of recommended mobile apps to scan QR codes, I left out RedLaser only because…
For iPromote CEO Michael Barr, "a picture is worth a thousand words." Now he's trying to convince third-party publishers, and the local clients they represent, that it's a no-brainer to serve keyword and location-based display ads alongside the text-based search ads…
In the ongoing developments of mobile bar code readers, Google recently launched a QR code generator for any Web site, based on its link shortener tool Goo.gl. Link shortening incumbent bit.ly has now responded to Google's entrance to its space…
XAd today raised $4 million from Emergence Capital in order to build out its LocalAdXchange network and its technology platform. The company continues to cross milestones including profitability and 20 percent growth. It's also built a strong backbone of mobile…
As local businesses increasingly transition their advertising dollars online, they expect agencies and publishers to furnish them with simple, consolidated solutions supported by tangible, trackable ROI. MerchEngines built its white-label "relationship generation" system to enable online marketing providers to do just that for their SMB clients. In…
Today I had the chance to speak with navigation software provider TomTom about product strategies in a quickly evolving mobile technology environment. The company was an early mover in the mobile navigation space including some of the first in-car navigation systems…
This just in (via Bloomberg), Marissa Mayer, Google VP of search products, will switch roles and now head up all local and location products. These are increasingly important areas of development for Google as evidenced by its public moves and…
As expected the Seattle City Council overwhelmingly passed the first piece of big city print Yellow Pages opt-out legislation in the country. The vote was 8-1, and the implications for the Yellow Pages industry may be far reaching. Leading up…
As expected the Seattle City Council overwhelmingly passed the first piece of big city print Yellow Pages opt-out legislation in the country. The vote was 8-1, and the implications for the Yellow Pages industry may be far reaching. Leading up…
Media General is the latest traditional media franchise to partner with a deal-a-day provider, launching a partnership with Groupon to open a new revenue stream in the much-hyped group buying space. Media General owns both local television stations (18 total)…
At the recent NAB Radio Show in Washington, D.C., broadcasters, developers and vendors alike harped on the mobile mind-set change that must occur for effective strategic practices to take hold. The fundamental message: "Having an online stream and building a…
In case you missed them, here are a few headlines and links to recent posts on our Mobile Local Media blog. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed here, and the e-mail alert here. -- R.I.P. GOOG-411 -- Mobile DTV Hits and…
The independent directory publishers gathered here at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver for the past two days appear to be even more convinced than ever that the print directory product is not only their past but also their future,…
Google announced today on its official blog that it will pull the plug on the very cool but underused GOOG-411 free directory assistance. Underuse was not the cited reason though. As we've written many times since it launched in 2007, the…
