Kelsey Local Media Blog
Search marketing firm Oneupweb released data showing that four-keyword queries were correlated with the highest conversion rates, compared with shorter and longer strings. Over a roughly six-month period, average conversion rates for paid search ads appearing in response to those…
There was an article today in the NYTimes about click fraud. The piece is pretty balanced: it's happening but the search engines are dealing with it. I think that's the reality in the marketplace; it's there but it's not terribly…
No doubt Google's acquisition of Urchin Software (rumoured by Battelle to be worth $30 million) was in the works for a while, but MSN's AdCenter announcement (with its enhanced analytics) might have given the deal whatchya might call a "nudge."…
According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the Internet as an advertising medium has surpassed radio in the U.K. Ad spending on the Internet in 2004 was 653.3 million pounds, or US$1.2 billion, representing 3.9 percent of total advertsing in the…
Traditional media, including TV, Yellow Pages and newspapers, face a central paradox and challenge that was explored in Lincoln Millstein's keynote at Drilling Down on Local. In a very thoughtful presentation, he advanced a skeptical view of the revenue potential…
Like Yahoo! before it, Google announced a significant increase in Q1 revenues. Profits were US$369.2 million on revenues of US$1.26 billion (vs. revenues of US$651 million in Q1 last year), beating analysts' expectations. Growth appeared to be driven in part…
The conventional wisdom is that there is little or no search-engine loyalty€"Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, Jeeves, InfoSpace/DogPile, Lycos, etc. are €œjust a click away€œ from Google. I hear this argument again and again -- and as a hypothetical matter it's true.…
The latest round of Pew consumer research concludes that most search engine users are still confused about what's paid search and what's not. According to a report issued yesterday, 62% of respondents to Pew's telephone survey were "unaware" of a…
Microsoft formally (and finally) launched its search engine on Monday. What happens now? Of course the market will tighten to some degree. Keynote Systems found that
One of the questions being asked in the wake of the stock hits that Google, Yahoo! and FindWhat took last week is: Can search engine marketing growth be sustained? If the attendence at this year's SES show is any kind…
For years after it was effectively dead, the At Hand URL still allowed access to the front door of a failed experiment. That experiment was an effort to create a nationwide, Internet Yellow Pages network. The idea was a single…
Truth be told, I don't much enjoy watching awards ceremonies, which can be mind-numbingly dull if not done well. The YPA hired entertainer Roy Firestone, who did his best to liven up the evening. He was fine (although his show…
Following in the footsteps of other "small business aggregators," (e.g., Yellow Pages publishers, Web hosts, Newspapers) real estate vertical HomeGain.com has launched a simplified search engine marketing program for local brokers and agents. Dubbed "SearchMaximizer," it will encompass Google, Yahoo!,…
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…
I find it interesting to see how other media portray the Yellow Pages. NewsAdvance.com, a product of The Lynchburg News & Advance, covered the planned introduction of Yellow Book into the Lynchburg area with the confusing headline, €œCompetitors Seeing Yellow.€…
We were alerted via Paid Content that Classified Ventures (CV), owners of Cars.com and recent buyers of HomeGain, have acquired NewCars.com. Unlike HomeGain, which is the No. 2 or 3 real estate site, NewCars.com is not among the top automotive…
Lots has already been written about what a big win Live8 was for AOL and, interestingly, how traditional TV botched the coverage. The timing couldn't have been better for the new AOL portal, which has a huge stake in the…
John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, famously said, "The power to tax is the power to destroy." Congress has thus protected the development of e-commerce from the "destructive" power of taxation, under its power to…
Verizon SuperPages today announced the relaunch of its site. The new site is better integrated and more user friendly than the previous version. SuperPages has been impressive in its willingness to embrace the Internet and performance-based marketing for SMEs in…
I asked Gary Fascilla, Metro Directories CEO, to speak on the Leadership Panel at this year's Directory Driven Commerce conference in September. He accepted enthusiastically in part because of their recent success. Founded in 2001 after working at Valley and…
