Google and Clear Channel Communications will announce a partnership today whereby the search company will sell 5 percent of the radio group's inventory in 100 top U.S. markets. The agreement covers roughly 675 Clear Channel stations. Terms of the deal,…
Google has reached an agreement to buy DoubleClick, a display ad network, for US$3.1 billion in cash. The acquisition moves Google deeper into the critical display and rich media markets, a segment the company has vowed to become a larger…
Google has officially launched its free 411 product. The number, 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411), makes business name and category search accessible from any U.S. telephone. This is a product we originally uncovered in our report Wireless Voice Search: The Multi-Modal Revolution. At…
Microsoft announced today that it has agreed to acquire Tellme, a Mountain View, California-based voice search provider. Yesterday, Microsoft and Tellme briefed The Kelsey Group about the pending acquisition. Neither side would disclose the size of the deal, but we…
Simeon Simeonov has a good post on the mysterious and long rumored Google phone, complete with screen shots. No confirmation about whether this is true or not, but Simeon's blog is a good read.
From Nokia's 4Q earnings call transcript (courtesy of 123Jump.com): "Nokia, the maker of mobile phones, reported profit growth of 19% to EUR 1.27 billion from EUR 1.07 billion a year earlier, exceeding analysts' forecasts. The company shipped 106 million handsets,…
AP reported that Copiepresse, a copyright protection group that represents 17 French and German-language Belgian newspapers, asked Yahoo! to remove links that point to the newspapers' content. At issue is whether a cached page (a copy of content that is…
Nielsen/NetRatings has announced U.S. search share rankings for December 2006. Google Search tops the list with an estimated 3 billion search queries, representing 51 percent of all search queries conducted last month.
The Observer has an interesting story about Hyper-Localism. This idea has several manifestations. In one version a newspaper creates Web content around niche groups like high school football teams or cats in trees and the brave city workers who save…
The European Interactive Advertising Association released portions of a study showing increases for online conversion rates across several categories. The chart below, part of the release, shows the product categories with the fastest growing "conversion rates" from 2005 to 2006.…
Local.com continues to expand into related local search verticals announcing a partnership with Oodle.com. Strategically, the addition of classified verticals to local search platforms has driven incremental consumer usage as users navigate across the two offerings. According to Heath Clarke,…
Bob Smith was the founder of AOL's Digital City, the first nationwide city guide service. Given that ILM is this week in Philadelphia and roughly 10 years have passed since the local Internet city sites started, I thought it would…
Google and Fox Interactive signed a three-year and nine-month agreement worth $900 million, assuming certain traffic levels are achieved. As part of the deal, Google will become the exclusive search and text-based ad partner for Fox Interactive properties including MySpace.…
Taiwan-based Alpha Networks is planning to mass produce a Wi-Fi mobile phone that includes Google Talk functionality. According to Alpha Networks CTO Tim Kang, "In addition to its voice functionality, Alpha Networks' first Google Talk-enabled WiFi phone will also support…
Google will start distributing video clips from MTV Networks shows as a source of content and revenues for its video affiliate partners. The deal includes 100 hours of programming, including "Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County," "SpongeBob SquarePants" and MTV's…
New to the college orientation agenda this year are warnings about the consequences of posting on social networking sites. A few colleges across the country have been telling students that employers are starting to check student profiles. In some instances,…
Intel is in discussions to build a new broadband network with Woosh Wireless in New Zealand. Recently, Intel invested $A37 million in a Sydney-based wireless company called Unwired. Intel's investments in WiMax networks are part of a larger strategic initiative…
Yahoo! and Canaan Partners have invested US$8.6 million in BharatMatrimony, a group of India-based wedding, lifestyle and vertical search sites. This is the first investment in India by both Canaan and Yahoo!. Canaan was an original investor in Match.com in…
Pginas Amarelas SA (Yellow Pages) launched a new tourist guide for Portugal in both Portuguese and English. A total of 220,000 copies have been printed of the complimentary guide and distributed to 1,500 distribution outlets. The guide maintains a tourism-related…
Jonathan Miller informed employees that AOL will eliminate 5,000 of 19,000 positions, or about 25 percent of its workforce. The reductions will take place over the next six months as the company focuses on advertising instead of dial-up subscriptions. A…
