News aggregation is being approached in every which way, driven by the long-tail possibilities of search optimization, and less and less local output from newspapers, TV and radio. The content creator sites, hyperlocal sites, blog aggregators and portals have also…
We've been getting lots of questions about Apple's acquisition of voice search processing start-up Siri. A report is in the works for BIA/Kelsey subscribers but here's a "thumbnail." First, it signals a vote of confidence for the company and the…
We've been getting lots of questions about Apple's acquisition of voice search processing start-up Siri. A report is in the works for BIA/Kelsey subscribers but here's a "thumbnail." First, it signals a vote of confidence for the company and the…
The U.S. Local News Network says that its San Diego News Network site is launching a weekly print edition of its best news stories. Print editions have been looked at by other sites to raise visibility for the site and…
Regional press reports suggest that Yellow Pages Group New Zealand may be up for sale. The company was scooped up by private equity buyers (CCMP Capital Asia and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan) in March 2007 for more than NZ$2 billion.…
Cox Enterprises reports that AutoTrader.com's revenue declined three percent from 2008 to 2009,but increased its total revenue by one percent to $629 million, largely due to the addition of print operations formerly managed by AutoTrader Publishing. The company considers its…
On the heels of Groupon's $135 million round (and $1 billion valuation), Living Social has stepped up to the plate with a new $14 million C round, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with U.S. Venture Partners, Grotech Ventures and Steve…
In case you missed it last night, the Daily Show had a great segment on recent Apple news items such as the iPad (a "big iPhone" that Jon Stewart uses to trick his kids that he's shrinking). But most of…
After HTC and other suitors walked away from potential acquisition, HP has just stepped up to announce it will buy the beleaguered Palm for $1.2 billion. This is very close to the previously rumored acquisition price and represents $5.70 per…
For the past year and a half, we have been answering questions about and consulting with our clients on sales transformation and consultative selling (see here, here and here). One of the key aspects of many of the questions we…
The deal-a-day phenomenon pioneered by Groupon has spawned direct attacks on the model from a wide variety of companies. Newspapers, social sites and others are all going at it. But how about gift card providers? Adility founder Thomas Cornelius, a…
Today I caught up with 4INFO CEO Zaw Thet, who walked me through the advertiser, publisher and user facing aspects of its mobile network. Though it's often thought of an SMS ad network, the company continues to diversify ad formats,…
Before there were 185,000 iPhone apps (or an App Store) Urbanspoon was one of our "preseason" picks for favorite app. It became not only one of the most popular local apps, but also a shining example of a new breed…
The local and community news “aggregator” space is poised to become increasingly important. Local news staffs, obviously, are being whittled away with the declining economics of local news. But there is more local content than ever, via blogs, pro/amateur content,…
Craigslist has always been murky about revenues, and remains a free site for most categories. It only charges a commercial rate for recruitment, with listings costing just $25 in 17 markets and $75 in San Francisco. Fees for apartment listings…
Outside.in, a major aggregator of local blogs, has begun the integration with CNN that was announced last December at our Interactive Local Media conference in L.A. First up is integration with CNN’s home page, weather page and profile page. On…
For the past few years, the U.S. Yellow Pages industry has been playing a nationwide version of the arcade game "whack a mole" -- beating down one opt-in or opt-out legislative initiative after another with a metaphoric sledgehammer. For the…
One of the hottest topics across the tech media and blogosphere (besides iPad and Facebook updates) continues to be social location based services. It was a big theme at Twitter's seminal Chirp event, Foursquare's escalating valuation, and continued speculation over…
Foursquare continues to boost efforts to get local merchants to promote specials to its users. Its last few moves are outlined in past posts (here and here). The latest is a new tool for business owners to claim their listings…
Milo.com, an online service that points consumers to stores that carry retail products and keeps track of their availability and inventory levels, has now expanded beyond its initial focus on big-box stores such as Best Buy, Fry's and Nordstrom, and…
