Kelsey Local Media Blog
One of the foreseen deficiencies that could hold cable companies back in the battle for bundled services is the lack of wireless service assets. Though they possess short-run advantages in the relative ease in building a voice business (compared with…
The path to self-sustaining revenues for free directory assistance isn't clear yet. But if there is any real money to be made, it is going to come from category search. Unlike name search, users don't have a clear idea who…
EPrize, a Michigan-based promotions fulfillment company that typically works with the likes of Proctor & Gamble and others, is pushing hard to add its games and sweepstakes promotions to small-business Web sites. The "Caffeine" product can get users to register…
The CTIA Wireless confab is under way, and we're expecting a host of product launches and announcements that have implications for mobile local search. A prelude to some of these were given last week at TKG's Drilling Down On Local…
Spot Runner, the high-profile video production house and media buyer for small businesses, is winning some big deals with national players that want to provide solutions for partners and affiliates and also target locally. During his Day 1 keynote at…
Peter Horan, IAC Media and Entertainment's new head from About.com and other companies, says he's a "guy who has to run Web sites for a living and sell stuff," so he takes "a very pragmatic view. Visionaries and consultants aren't…
The big picture guys know the battle of the future isn't just between newspapers or Yellow Pages and Google/Yahoo!. Indeed, as society goes mobile, it is also between the content owners and handset manufacturers. During his Day 2 opening keynote…
Video has taken center stage at Drilling Down on Local '07. Actual local video ads are getting a lot of play on the jumbo-tron screens that flank the stage both between sessions and during some presentations. This has been…
A close second to video in terms of getting "airtime" here at the Drilling Down on Local show, has been (a two-way tie between) social media and mobile. Leading up to the conference, there has been a lot of conversation…
Yahoo! EVP Hilary Schneider, during her opening keynote to Kelsey Local '07, emphasized that the company is really zeroing in on local to play a major role in Yahoo!'s growth plans. Local search's share of overall search within Yahoo! went…
Yellowpages.com unveiled the first screen shots of its IPTV Internet Yellow Pages channel at Local '07 yesterday. The shots show a colorful video service that enables users to select and browse by popular categories, with details of nearby businesses also…
Nick Veronis, managing director of Veronis Suhler Stevenson, says he doesn't see a "dollar for dollar" transfer between incumbent media in the local arena and their Internet offspring, but publishers are in a position to make money online. "The big…
The "little guys" at the local level are generally obscured in both the "organic search" and "paid" rankings of the search engines. A search for "home improvement" in "San Diego," for instance, yields just two local contractors in 10 slots.…
We noted with interest the recent move by Canada's Yellow Pages Group to introduce a companion directory in the Calgary, Alberta, market along with this year's core directory. YPG's decision to introduce a companion book may be related to a…
Skype officially launched version 3.1 earlier this week. As we wrote about a few weeks ago, this includes a new feature that lets users find local businesses. This has clear synergies with its core product and represents an opportunity to…
The America East show the largest regional event in the U.S. newspaper industry took place last week in Hershey, Pennsylvania, with 1,200-plus attendees. I'd sum it up by saying that the attendees' mostly small and medium-sized markets remain…
Getting down to the final wire.... we think the Local '07 program in Santa Clara next Tuesday and Wednesday is looking really good. Piper Jaffray's Safa Rashtchy is the latest big add. Safa will be talking about PJ's new report,…
AOL launched a beta version of its new local search product today. Though MapQuest has served as the de facto centerpiece of its local search functionality, AOL has trailed behind its search and portal competitors in having a dedicated local…
Pegasus News, the social network site based in Dallas, made a deal with Fox4 TV for a mutual content swap that would fill Pegasus' news hole, leverage its features (weather, etc.) and increase awareness about it in the community. At…
A new compact between Monster and Adicio, a classified vendor that previously insisted on newspapers' "independence" from Internet verticals, seems likely to evolve the world of classifieds even faster. The deal was unexpected Monster has recently grabbed the key…
