Online/Interactive

So here's a bit of compulsive behavior from me -- coming out of the baby zone to post. I read this piece tonight on Om Malik's blog and thought it was a very interesting and bold set of predictions about…

I think this has been around since late June, but A9/Amazon is making a formal announcement about A9 Maps. A combination of "Block View" and MapQuest, the site is so far unique in offering street-level photographs of storefronts along with…

According to a press release this a.m. classifieds aggregator Oodle has now grown to 20 U.S. metro areas. It's still a site in search of a business model, but it's obvious value to consumers will probably bring a (perhaps newspaper)…

Google took investors by surprise in announcing that it would sell additional shares expected to generate US$4 billion. GOOG consequently took a bit of a hit. And now many in blogland are buzzing with speculation about what it means and…

SMARTpages has relaunched with a new look and feel, preparing for the eventual merger of the site with RealPages.com under the unified YellowPages.com brand. The new site is a significant improvement over the user experience previously offered. FAST Search &…

Specifically, DCCI is focusing on €œthe ROI data our Call Measurement Services provides to marketer and business owners,€ and how their €œCall Measurement Programs deliver real-time information about high-value customers.€ They have placed the ads next to a YPA print…

I'm trying to get a bunch of things done and only have time for bullets right now: Print growth was sluggish but there was significant Q2 online newspaper revenue growth (28.6% to $500.7 million) vs. one year ago, according to…

I got an opportunity to preview Google's version 2 of its desktop client (GD2) late last week. It's very interesting and, in the few days I've been testing it out, pretty useful. It offers much improved desktop search, indexing an…

According to MediaPost: Google and Yahoo! are attempting to purchase Amsterdam-based Trader Classified Media, which publishes 578 print guides and runs 56 Web sites with classified ads in 22 countries, according to published reports in Reuters and the London Sunday…

After an almost unprecendented frenzy of speculation Google Talk is live. What is it? It's an IM client that has VoIP (good transmission quality). You have to have a gmail account to participate. (This may help drive gmail adoption.) It's…

The €œInternet portal,€ as the Daily Camera calls it, enables users to access customized community news, dished up via RSS feeds, as well as publish their own news. €œYou'll be able to send in news from your clubs and organizations,…

Following the latest wave of job "meta-search" sites (Indeed.com, SimplyHired, etc.), Business.com is launching Work.com after several months in beta. Calling itself a "premium" jobs site, Work.com's twist is that employers pay only for those leads (recruits/applicants) that click through…

I finally caught up with Jeremy Stoppelman, one of the founders of Yelp, a social networking + YP site. The site has had a much lower profile than competitors with very similar models, i.e., InsiderPages and JudysBook . Like those…

Though still in beta, Google last night put Local on the Google.com home page. No longer will users need to go to the somewhat buried Local.Google.com, nor will local results come up irregularly and, from a user point of view,…

I cut out on SES early to head to Denver to observe a focus group conducted by our research partner ConStat, Inc. The point was to find out anecdotal information about consumer behavior, the purchase cycle for both products and…

Toronto-based DCCI has partnered with Ingenio to give online publishers the option to offer local phone numbers to advertisers seeking to adopt Pay per Call. Right now, the option is targeted pretty much exclusively to IYP publishers in North America.…

Lots and lots of stories were written about MSN's promised PPC platform launch. Danny Sullivan's written a comprehensive overview at SEW. The most innovative dimension of the new product (beyond adding a major competitor to the marketplace) is the demographic…

Small business Web host Affinity Internet recently launched a product called €œValueTraffic Deluxe,€ which is an upgraded version of its previously deployed, guaranteed clicks, €œValueTraffic€ product. For a flat monthly fee of US$500, the service delivers a minimum of 250…

Today Vonage, a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) provider, which serves both residential and small business customers, announced it would begin offering Wi-Fi service through an agreement with UTStarcom beginning this Spring. While UTStarcom will provide the portable handset, Vonage…

I'm late to the party, but results from the NextSearchSurvey, an online survey of search engine users about the current state of search and its future direction are available here. The survey was conducted from August, 2004 through November, 2004.…