Author: Neal Polachek

Loren Baker posted some information on the search engine competition going on in China. He cited a survey which showed that Baidu.com Inc. had boosted its market share in Beijing by 10.8 percentage points to 52 percent. Google share was…

For the better part of 15 years, TMP was the 900-pound gorilla of the national Yellow Pages market. Some time in the late 1980s with Andy McKelvey at the helm, TMP began an aggressive CMR acquisition roll-up strategy. By the…

As if the landline business hadn€™t suffered enough with wireless carriers taking share for domestic usage and VoIP taking share for international calling, now comes a slew of cheap international long distance calling plans from the cellular operators. Verizon and…

Interesting to read that in a period of time when companies of different shapes and sizes are finding ways to lower prices - Delta Airlines, SBC Internet, Apple iPod, Google search appliance, SF Chronicle classifieds - eBay is going the…

Couple weeks ago I wrote about the perceived clout that eBay had with their sellers when they announced a number of price increases. What's transpired since is even more interesting than eBay's attempt to raise prices. Instead of "bitching and…

Earlier this week a jury awarded $1.6 million to a couple in Oregon that claimed that they found a rather unscrupulous plastic surgeon in their local Yellow Pages. Odd, I thought there was something about "buyer beware" that applied to…

With the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) kicking off tomorrow in Las Vegas, Nevada we are witnessing one more example of the convergence of technology, information and entertainment. With the exit of Comdex from the scene, CES is now the place…

Metro One - the wireless provider that touts flat fees and unlimited calling without the hassle of contracts or service plans - announced it would now be offering unlimited DA calls. For $2.00 per month, Metro One subscribers can have…

Why anyone is paying $61.90 per month for broadband connectivity now that SBC and Yahoo! are offering it at 15 bucks a month is a fine question. I pay my bill to the same company Greg does and I pay…

Today I tripped over an offer from Weather.com for a personalized weather report called weather.com €œgold€. For $19.95, weather.com gold will get you more speed for downloading radar maps, the ability to customize €œyour€ weather page and add your exact…

As blogged by Greg Sterling earlier today, E.W. Scripps, the Cincinnati based media company known by some for its sponsorship of the National Spelling Bee, announced plans to buy online shopping site €" Shopzilla for an estimated $525 million. Scripps…

Yellow Pages Group, the Yellow Pages publisher for all of Canada, is now taking an old concept €" talking Yellow Pages €" into a new era. John Kelsey knows all about the first 3,000 attempts to make talking Yellow Pages…

AOL€™s MapQuest unit announced it was going €œback to the future€ today with plans to publish printed maps and guide books, and AOL announced the formation of MapQuest Publishing business unit. Perry Evans, CEO of LocalMatters, Inc. must be having…

For a long time radio represented a viable way to narrow cast advertising to a targeted audience - country music, rock and roll, classical, etc. - each representing a different set of demographics. Along comes the iPod (and other digital…

In the New York Times today, an article titled No More Same-Old lays out the challenges facing advertisers and advertising agencies in today€™s €œconnected€ and ever changing world. According to Universal-McCann during the last 5 years, only three media categories…

Always one to read just about anything that has Yellow Pages in it, I stumbled upon this article Get More Green from Your Yellow Pages Ad in contractor magazine. Written by a one Adams Hudson, a self-proclaimed marketing consultant, the…

As if newspapers have not had enough bad news in recent months €" declining readership, circulation audits, classified erosion. Now comes another challenge €" this time from Hollywood. A decade ago movie advertising accounted for about 8 percent of national…

The California Department of Parks and Recreation announced that as many as 85 of the state's 278 parks will offer Wi-Fi access this coming summer. Now for $7.95 per day or $19.95 per month, a portion of California's 85 million…