A couple of years ago, SMBs merely shoveled their existing offline presence online. But today, they are really developing a unique online experience, noted Facebook’s Rita Fabi, who runs market solutions, global customer marketing and communications and spoke at DMS…
Two companies investing in self-service advertising for SMBs agree that self-service is an important and growing category, but isn't likely to replace direct sales. This morning's panel at DMS ’11, "SMBs and Self-Serve: Ready for Prime Time?" featured Paul Levine, COO…
In the afternoon session at the BIA/Kelsey DMS conference on Wednesday afternoon, two players in the local search industry talked about the growing local display market and the use of display by SMBs. Moderated by Matt Booth of BIA/Kelsey, Tyler…
Capping off the first day of DMS ’11 and the Performance Media SuperForum was a one-on-one session with David Read, director of Pay for Performance of AT&T Advertising Solutions, and BIA/Kelsey moderator Charles Laughlin. Read talked specifically about how AT&T…
Microsoft isn’t doing anything particularly unusual in search. But the assets it is assembling over the next year or two will pack a mighty punch by leveraging all the fast-moving trends, said Chris Sampson, head of worldwide Bing Local search…
BIA/Kelsey analyst Charles Laughlin wrote a conference blog post in less than 10 minutes today at the company's DMS show. The post, which can be found here, broke the previous analyst record of 11.5 minutes set at the company's Deals…
Yellowbook CEO Joe Walsh made a very direct case this morning for massive consolidation in the core U.S. Yellow Pages business sometime over the next couple of years. Ultimately, Walsh believes there will be a single national print Yellow…
YPG of Canada has greatly boosted traffic and repositioned itself as a center for local applications by opening up its data via an open API (Application Program Interface). YPG Director of Business Development Darby Sieben, speaking at DMS ’11 in…
Matt Booth kicked off a session at DMS ’11 with some BIA/Kelsey data on SMBs' perception of value for the many things offered to them in search advertising services. Above SEO assistance, keyword selection, site traffic reports and the usual…
AT&Ti Deals are now in Atlanta, Dallas and Los Angeles, and will likely be launching deals offerings in 10 markets by the fourth quarter of 2011, according to AT&Ti VP of Business Development Todd Rose, who was speaking at DMS…
The walled garden approach may be history, as too many consumers are cut off from access. But companies still want to control customer activity, and will now pursue more of an “open garden” approach, suggests Halogen Media’s Peter Horan, a…
Today at BIA/Kelsey's DMS conference, the evolving local merchant was dissected by MerchantCircle founder Ben Smith, Halogen Media Group Chairman Peter Horan and Reply.com CEO Payam Zamani. SMB savvy is accelerating as a function of the business owners' role as…
Infogroup's president/CEO, Clare Hart, was the kick-off headliner at DMS ’11 and shared her vision of the SMB space as it relates to the rapid transformation in small businesses' use of new tools and features in online commerce. Hart argues…
Google Wallet is out with its first video ad, starring none other than George Costanza. For those familar with the famous exploding wallet bit ("The Reverse Peephole" episode), this is perfect fodder for a Google Wallet spoof. This also isn't…
Around here, we're prepping presentations, briefing speakers and packing boxes. Tuesday begins DMS 2011, and it's looking good. We're not doing a mobile SuperForum, as we usually do at our big shows -- that format will be reserved for great…
We’ve liked the idea of an ad network that makes it easy for place bloggers, local news sites and others to combine their audiences for advertisers wanting to target on a hyperlocal basis. The Sacramento Press has been working on…
This is the first time since it started that I wasn't able to attend TechCrunch's Disrupt conference (formerly TC50). But I've been able to watch some of it, as TechCrunch intelligently offers a live stream of all the sessions, powered…
One of the questions we have about the deals space is, how social is it really? In early days, with demos leaning toward college-educated women, deals were very social as subscribers referred deals to each other in return for a…
James Sanders, head of Channel Partnerships, Google Asia Pacific, will keynote the first day of ILM Asia, a conference that BIA/Kelsey and ADPAI are jointly producing Oct. 25-26 in Singapore. The event will attract directory publishers, as well as new…
Google’s march into local reached another milestone today with the acquisition of Zagat, a major international provider of high-end restaurant and lifestyle reviews in 100-plus cities. Zagat remains a major player in a reviews space it pioneered in 1979. In…
