Online/Interactive

As we're putting together the agenda for Drilling Down '06 in San Jose, we really want your input on the panels (and formats) you'd like to see. If you're interested in speaking or have any remarks about what you think…

My wife is having a baby today (our second daughter). So far the naming rights are up to US$10,000 on eBay (bidding ends today). Just kidding! (Sorry eBay.) I'm not kidding about the baby part, however. So I'll be taking…

Quietly, in the shadow of the Windows Live Local launch (say that 10 times fast), Google releases Transit Trip Planner. More from Search Engine Watch and the Official Google Blog. Wasn't December supposed to be a slow month?

The San Jose Mercury News broke this story today about Yahoo! planning to launch a VoIP platform that will allow users to make PC-to-PSTN (landline) calls and receive calls from any telephone line around the world for a fee.Its previous…

SiliconBeat and Battelle both cover "Yahoo! Answers," an interesting new social media/community initiative from Yahoo!. The idea is that I can ask the community any question and, probably, get an answer. Google Answers is a similar service, but it's not…

John Battelle picked up a PaidContent post about Google product VP Jonathan Rosenberg's comments to a conference crowd. Among the statements summarized by PaidContent was one on PPCall: Pay per call: "Interesting model. ... Our general experience has been the…

PPCall provider Ingenio is adding both InfoSpace and, in a more limited deal, 1-800-FREE411 to its distribution network. This means that in addition to those two, the Ingenio network now includes Miva, AOL, AOL Mobile and Interchange's Local.com (with Yahoo!…

Earlier this week John Battelle made reference to a search engine usage survey conducted by investment firm SG Cowen & Co. Today MediaPost (reg. req'd) reports on the same survey: People who have been online seven years or longer are…

I just met with Erik Jorgensen of MSN, and Windows Live Local is going live today/tonight. A number of features make it interesting and different from what's out there, including personalization, ease of use (I can insert a "pushpin" with…

Thanks to John Battelle for pointing to a piece on SiliconValleyWatcher about Bubbler, an application that appears to make building sites (and blogs) pretty simple. The company and its platform are worth watching. Although Yahoo! has introduced free sites for…

I wish I could just list a bunch of company names and that could substitute for thoughtful blog posts about all the companies that I should be writing about and all the interesting and potentially significant things going on (both…

When I interviewed him on Friday, Jim Riesenbach, SVP of AOL's Search & Directional Media group, was not permitted to talk directly about what would be the outcome of the much covered negotiations for a stake in AOL. He turned…

comScore projected that U.S. e-commerce for the holiday season will hit $19.6 billion. The firm also projected a 24 percent increase in U.S. e-commerce vs. 2004 for a full year total of $82.7 billion. Those are big, impressive numbers and…

While we were away at ILM:05, there was an interesting thread on John Battelle's blog regarding MySpace Classifieds. I don't have any insight into classifieds usage there, but casual observation indicates the postings are pretty thin (and one Battelle commenter…

Here's an interesting article on Google's culture (NYTimes.com, reg. req'd). Corporate cultures are sometimes covered in feature articles that don't get as much attention as the news analysis pieces that throw around hard numbers. But culture may be a bigger…

TrueLocal is starting to make its move. After many months of "beta"/under-the-radar status, the site is now getting attention and coverage. Today, Search Engine Watch has a nice write-up (plus one of mapping site Metrobot). Recently, TrueLocal acquired the data…

Niki Scevak, who was a frequently quoted search analyst for Jupiter Research, hasn't been heard from recently. There's a reason: He's been busy launching his own online real estate site. Scevak left Jupiter and has now unveiled (in beta, of…

An article in the WSJ today is reporting: "Verizon Communications Inc. said it plans to shed its phone-directories business, in a deal that could be valued at more than $17 billion ..." The obvious and stated motive is debt reduction.…

Here's another interesting real estate site/mashup, iGenHome -- sort of a marriage between HomePages.com and Trulia. SiliconBeat has a lot more info. Late last week, AOL brough it's mobile search out of beta. Supported by technology from Israeli company Infogin,…

I sincerely wish I had time to send every speaker and attendee at ILM:05 a personal thank you. I was very gratified by all the positive feedback we heard. It was a terrific (if exhausting) event and my hope is…