Kelsey Local Media Blog
Rumors are swirling about a potential Microsoft acquisition of Tellme Networks. The latest is a Wall Street Journal article (sub. req'd) that reports a possible sale price of US$800 million (here is coverage from TechCrunch if you don't have a…
While I'm spreading rumors about online giants today, I might as well be fair and include others in the fun. The San Jose Mercury News has more on the rumored Google phone. Just as Microsoft would gain ground in mobile…
Greg Sterling wrote an interesting column in the YPA's Local Search Guide, and on his own blog, about the growing importance of video in local search. He gives lots of good examples of local video ad programs either launched or…
Eric Grilly, president of MediaNews Group Interactive and a major driver of the Yahoo! consortium for HotJobs, has left his position to take a new job as head of Philly.com, the Web site for The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Philadelphia…
Google has added a new set of features to its Local Business Center. This is the place you can go to enter information about your business that is then indexed in Google Local. Any business with a physical address, in…
Earlier in the week, I had the chance to catch up with Vehix.com CEO Derek Mattsson, who had some interesting things to say related to Monday's post about Starbucks taking mobile local search into its own hands. Vehix is interested…
Most newspaper Web sites have been focused on driving new audiences, but McClatchy sees a gold mine in its existing print circulation. How many local media outlets have 40 percent penetration in this age of fragmentation? Speaking at the Inland…
With the onslaught of online, fragmentation and new advertiser models, newspapers and other local media could have it tough. But perhaps no one has it tougher than the free shopper publications that are distributed at grocery stores, vending boxes, libraries…
The Kelsey Group's Global Print Yellow Pages, Internet Yellow Pages and Local Search Forecast is out today. The forecast has a five year outlook, comparing 2006 figures with 2011 projections. At a high level, here are some of the key…
New management has taken over at 1-800-SAN-DIEGO, and they're determined to increase awareness in San Diego, boost sales channels, add a text messaging component and expand to other markets, possibly including Orange County, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Portland. 1-800-SAN-DIEGO…
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.
Late on Friday I saw CNET blogger Caroline McCarthy's report on Starbucks' new SMS-based mobile local search app. Like Google SMS and Yahoo! Mobile, any text-enabled mobile device can send a search query to a five-digit number that returns locations…
When you have access to $3 million of VC money, you are going to eventually want to spend some of it. That's what Smalltown, an IYP site with social aspects via reviews, calendars and (now) top 10 lists, is doing.…
Outside.in, the place-blogging site that collects everything that appears on the Web in a geographical context blogs, traditional media, individual contributions has won $900,000 of funding from a number of high-profile investors, including Esther Dyson, Marc Andresson, John…
The Wall Street Journal ran a piece today (sub req.) on a few video ad technologies that are being developed. These are mostly geared toward national advertisers and branding, but there are important implications here for local. In the ongoing…
AT&T's rollout of its U-verse high-speed data, voice and IPTV bundle has served as a reality check to the ongoing discussion of IPTV and bundled services. Today it added two additional markets in Milwaukee and Racine, Wisconsin. AT&T continues its…
My sources got it right and IAC's Citysearch is the company that ended up with Insider Pages. Dinesh Moorjani, Citysearch's new VP of strategy and corporate development, says that Citysearch will incorporate Insider's 600,000 reviews from 30 markets into its…
Google announced it has integrated real-time traffic reports on Google Maps. Yahoo! has had traffic reports since late 2004, and Microsoft rolled out a traffic feature (care of Traffic.com) in the May 2006 relaunch of Windows Live Local. Maps, like…
vFlyer today announced a new line of "widgets" that companies and individuals can use to display products on their Web sites or blogs. Previously, vFlyer's main product was a multimedia-rich "virtual flier" that let anyone create a professional looking classified…
It's really the year of video on the Net, and local video plays a big role in that (and we're talking about more than the big rats that were filmed running amok at the TacoBell/KFC in Greenwich Village). At our…
