Auctions have influenced a more dynamic shopping environment, but aren’t very important and have ended up as just a niche shopping format, argues James Surowiecki in the June Wired (article not posted). Even on eBay, they just make up 31…
Yell Group announced its full-year 2011 results this week (its year ends March 31), with digital media revenues growing by 9.4 percent from last year. CEO Mike Pocock projected during the full-year earnings call that by 2015, 75 percent of Yell's…
There are some occasions when you need to hire someone right away. At least that’s the hypothesis of Ginjex: The availability engine,” a new ad-supported U.K. directory that focuses on real-time hiring. Launched by Mark Riley, a former exec with…
Radio Ink's "Radio Tech Summit" runs through today at Microsoft's Executive Conference Center in Mountain View, California. Media UK's James Cridland was the kick-off keynoter and asserted that "radio is not dead...but it must compete on content not platform." Cridland,…
Last week, we reported on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors vote to pass an opt-in ordinance for print directories. The law would go into effect next year. This week, San Francisco businesses and publishers opposing opt-in will ask Mayor…
Groupon is moving past deal a day with a Quiznos deal on Wednesdays that will issue an eight "signature sandwich" punch card to users for $26 -- roughly half off the $51.92 maximum value. Maybe buyers will indulge in some…
Dealfind, a Toronto-based daily deal site, has raised $31 million as it strives for rapid growth to reach 100 markets in Canada and the U.S. The site, which has sold 806,199 vouchers since its launch in 2009, is currently operating…
Over the past year, American Express has embarked on a series of initiatives centered on digital advertising intelligence for SMBs. These include SearchManager (via Clickable) for SEM and multiple social media experiments with Facebook and Foursquare. Now, its small business-focused…
2010 was a dismal year for the New Zealand branch of Deutsche Bank after exposure to the Yellow Pages Group restructuring. The KPMG Financial Institutions Performance Survey issued last week shows that Deutsche ranked at the bottom out of 10…
During BIA/Kelsey’s ILM East conference in March, a series of mobile sessions were held in which leaders of the mobile industry were interviewed on stage (see previous post on Foursquare GM Evan Cohen’s keynote). WillowTree Apps CEO Tobias Dengel was…
Sebastien Provencher introduced the EADP audience in Mallorca, Spain, to the concept of conversational commerce. Praized Media's latest product, Needium, mines local Tweets to uncover intent whether it is intentional or unintentional. Provencher offered the example of a series of…
The EADP conference in Mallorca was treated to the insights and good humor of Yellow Pages Group Canada's Matthieu Houle and the company's very funny ad campaign. Mobile, Houle said, gives directories the appeal local advertisers are looking for. His…
Brightroll, an online video network, released its third annual survey of agencies and their buying habits and attitudes. Brightroll reported that online video is included as a component in 27 percent of agency RFPs. Media buyers predict the largest overall spending…
Mentions, reviews, blog comments, tweets, posts and now check-ins. It's enough digital noise to lead local business owners to throw their hands up in despair. As Internet fragmentation accelerates, a host of reputation management providers have carved out an important…
MerchantCircle last week quietly added free Request for Quote services for its large base of 1.6 million local merchants, immediately sending out more than 180,000 quotes. The quotes are based on category and locale. Logistically, consumers who ask for quotes…
Earlier this week, we reported that the Yellow Pages industry suffered a setback as a Seattle District Court judge denied a request for an injunction against Seattle's opt-out ordinance. Yellow Pages publishers responded today by filing a notice of appeal.…
We've written a bunch about Shopkick and its strategy to monetize location-based services and check-ins -- an area where there's still lots of question marks. Its biggest claim to fame is automatic check-ins that make it more mainstream friendly. For…
Yelp expanded its international presence this week with the launch of Yelp Spain. Now the Spanish can read and share reviews about local businesses on a community site in their native language. Though available throughout Spain, Yelp will initially focus its community…
There were lots of announcements made this week at Google's I/O developer conference in San Francisco, but the thing that stood out most for me was the unveiling of the Chromebook. Running on Chrome OS, it represents a computing paradigm…
The opening session of the European Association of Directory Publishers (EADP) conference in Mallorca, Spain was designed to open people's minds about how mobile and social can and should be used to the advantage of directory companies. Jullien Billot of…
